A retelling of the Trojan War era centered on the relationship between a famed Greek warrior and the person who witnesses and loves him. The account compresses mythic events into a personal, emotionally charged narrative that follows their bond through training, war, and the pressures of fame and fate.

A first-person, essayistic account that traces an author's experiences around pregnancy, partnership, and family while weaving in philosophical and theoretical reflections. The work observes intimate domestic moments alongside questions about gender, identity, and what it means to make a family in contemporary life.

Set around a near-future global election system in which small, competitive micro-democracies (centers of political power) and powerful information platforms shape outcomes, the book follows intersecting characters whose loyalties, jobs, and survival link to campaigns, corporate interests, and the flow of data.

Set in a near-future theocratic state, the narrative follows a woman assigned to a mandated reproductive role within tightly policed households.

Penelope tells her side of the Odyssey: a conversational, retrospective account that revisits her marriage, life after Odysseus’s departure, and the aftermath of his return, while a Greek chorus of her twelve maids interrupts with short, varied genres to offer alternate viewpoints and collective voice.

An elderly Congregational minister composes an extended letter to his young son late in life, recounting his own family history, the tensions between pacifism and militant abolitionism in his forebears, and the spiritual convictions that shape his sense of duty and affection.

A journalist-investigator pursues the murky death and legacy of a notorious film director whose work inspired a devoted, secretive subculture.

A 15-year-old math-minded narrator who describes his world through exact observations decides to investigate the mystery of a neighbor's dead dog. The investigatory quest exposes family tensions and forces the narrator to navigate social rules and sources of fear while trying to hold to his own systems of logic.

A nested, epistolary metafiction: an editor-like narrator assembles and annotates a manuscript about a documentary called The Navidson Record, which recounts a family's discovery that their house contains impossible interior spaces.

Set in Nazi-era Germany, the novel follows a young girl who acquires books and navigates life in an adoptive household while war encroaches on daily routines. The narration comes from Death, offering an outside, occasionally amused perspective on civilians, loss, and the act of reading.

Set across decades around an attempted assassination of a major reggae figure, the novel tracks how that act ripples through Kingston and New York over years of changing politics, gangs, and drug economies.

Set on an 18th-century Jamaican sugar plantation, the novel follows Lilith, a young woman born into slavery, as she navigates the violent limits imposed on her body and choices.

Set in a Regency-era social world, the novel follows an adult romantic pairing over a pivotal summer that tests affection, propriety, and personal change.

A Jesuit-led mission makes contact with an alien civilization and returns with consequences that force survivors to reckon with faith, morality, and trauma. The novel frames its central pressure around human responses—religious, ethical, and personal—to an otherworldly meeting and the costs that follow.

Mary Karr recounts her 1960s childhood in a small industrial town in Southeast Texas, centered on a troubled family life and the group of men her father called the Liars' Club.

Set during World War II in England, the novel follows a wounded young soldier convalescing at a military hospital who confronts feelings for men with very different positions and temperaments.

A historical retelling of the early life of Theseus that frames mythic episodes as the development of a young man into political and social adulthood. The narrative traces his movement across Greek communities and into Crete, depicting ritual contests, sea travel, and clashes between differing social systems.

Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist, pursues an unconventional experiment that produces a sapient being assembled from disparate parts. The setup places questions of responsibility, suffering, and consequence at the center: the creator must confront what his act of making another life unleashes on both parties.

A retelling of the early life of Merlin that frames his psychic visions and uncertain parentage within the fractured, post-Roman kingdoms of Britain.

A first-person account of growing up between Chinese folktales and American life, where family history and mythic stories intertwine with recollections of childhood.

A first-volume autobiographical account of Maya Angelou’s early life, following her from early childhood in Stamps, Arkansas, through adolescence and into young motherhood. The narrative traces how encounters with racism, personal trauma, and steady literary influences shape her sense of self and dignity.

Lakewood focuses on a near-future or altered-present community shaped by medical research and its social consequences. The plot pressure arises from ethically fraught experiments and their effects on Black women and community trust.

In a near-future United States where virtual reality and neural implants shape online life, former underground hacker India Carless (Trouble) reunites with her ex-lover to confront someone impersonating her identity in cyberspace.

An exploration of fungi and their roles across ecosystems and human life, surveying fungal biology, ecological relationships, and practical implications.