Set around 1959 and the Congo's decolonization era, the novel follows an American missionary household transplanted into a rural African village.

Set in the early 1950s, the novel follows a developing romantic relationship between two women whose attraction collides with social expectations and practical responsibilities.

A mother narrates her struggle with fear and suspicion about her child and her own capacity to parent, with rising suspicion and consequences that test family bonds. The setup focuses on maternal doubt and the social and personal fallout of mistrust within a family unit.

A first-person account by a British journalist in 1950s Vietnam focuses on his entanglement with an earnest young American and a Vietnamese woman, set against the collapse of French colonial rule and the rise of early U.S. involvement.

Sarah Crowe moves from Atlanta to an old rural Rhode Island house and finds an unfinished manuscript left by a former tenant — a parapsychologist fixated on an ancient oak on the property.

A first-person account by an English butler who undertakes a road trip and uses the journey to recall years of service at a great house. The narrator reconstructs past events and relationships while confronting what his lifelong commitment to duty has cost him.

A father and his young son travel over months through a devastated landscape after an unspecified cataclysm. Their trek focuses on survival: finding food and shelter, avoiding hostile encounters, and preserving the child's safety and moral education amid widespread collapse.

A small group becomes trapped amid ruins on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula and must improvise to stay alive against a hostile, escalating threat. The book stages survival under tightening physical and social constraints, asking how far people will go when environment and fear close in.

Set at a small, elite liberal-arts college, the novel follows a tight group of Classics students whose scholarly intensity and social isolation lead to a violent rupture.