A restrained literary novel tracing the life and career of William Stoner, an English professor who discovers a devotion to literature and then navigates classroom politics, a troubled marriage, and a consequential affair.

A young woman in the early 1950s experiences an increasingly severe depression while navigating academic opportunity, social expectations, and the pressures of adulthood. The novel presents her interior perspective as she struggles with identity, career choices, and the medical responses to her mental illness.

A man with intellectual disability undergoes an experimental medical procedure intended to raise his intelligence, and the narrative records the aftermath through dated personal entries.

An anonymous group of neighborhood boys recall and try to explain the lives and deaths of five Lisbon sisters in a 1970s Midwestern suburb. The account pieces together small scenes, neighborhood detail, and collective memory to track how ordinary suburban rhythms intersect with profound loss.

A young girl grows up isolated in the North Carolina marshes, learning to survive and understand the natural world while cut off from the nearby town. Decades-spanning timelines converge when a local man's death prompts an investigation that intersects with the girl's life and reputation.