A heartwrenching and shocking work of historical fiction, Faysal Khartash’s "Roundabout of Death" focuses on the human cost of Syria’s civil war. Set in the coffee shops, apartments, and street corners of Aleppo and Raqqa, the... Read More

Barrett Swanson’s eloquent book "Lost in Summerland" combines personal essays, journalism, and travelogues into a memorable collection. The book opens with “Notes from a Last Man,” which at first seems to be an essay about spending... Read More

Sari Fordham grew up in the Seventh Day Adventist Church as the child of missionaries; her poetic memoir "Wait for God to Notice" is about her childhood experiences in Uganda, during Idi Amin’s 1970s reign of terror. The second child... Read More

Though love often blooms in adversity, an arranged marriage, class differences, and a sudden devastating accident all act as impediments to intimacy in Rebecca Anderson’s sweet clean romance novel, "Isabelle and Alexander". Isabelle... Read More

The lives of two women become intertwined across generations in Ellen Prentiss Campbell’s historical novel "Frieda’s Song". In 1935, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, a Jewish psychoanalyst, leaves Nazi Germany for the United States, where she... Read More

Meatballs, free jazz, and subway singers? This is a fine romance. A fanciful courtship flourishes between two artistic loners in "David and Ameena", whose leads deal with connections, synchronicity, and cultural differences. David and... Read More

The two story lines of Ames Sheldon’s historical novel "Lemons in the Garden of Love" focus on important eras for women’s rights. In 1977, Cassie, who just married traditional Martin, is living in Minnesota and searching for a... Read More

Through the interlocking stories of "Pleasantview", Celeste Mohammed creates a microcosm of a Trinidad rarely seen by tourists. Sunil, an escaped prisoner; Consuela, the prostitute he loves; Mr. Jagroop, Consuela’s influential client;... Read More