SUSPENSE AND ALTERED WORLDS
STALINGRAD
Vasily Grossman,
trans. Robert
Chandler, Elizabeth
Chandler
A prequel to his Russian
classic Life and Fate,
Grossman’s story fur-
ther illuminates the Nazi
march on Stalingrad.
CHINA DREAM
Ma Jian, trans.
Flora Drew
In 2012, Chinese
President Xi Jinping
proclaimed his vision
of a “China Dream.”
Here, the dissident
author presents us
with a satirical “China
Nightmare.”
THE MEMORY
POLICE
Yoko Ogawa, trans.
Stephen Snyder
The decorated
Japanese novelist offers
a haunting dystopia
about a society where
objects and memories
are stolen by a terrifying
police force.
THE CAPITAL
Robert Menasse,
trans. Jamie Bulloch
The German writer
blends murder mystery,
workplace farce and
action thriller as he
follows disparate
characters struggling
to find their place in a
Europe in transition.
IT WOULD
BE NIGHT IN
CARACAS
Karina Sainz Borgo,
trans. Elizabeth
Bryer
The Venezuelan
journalist depicts a
woman grieving a loss
in the capital city as it
is ravaged by political
clashes.
LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION
THE WATER
DANCER
Ta-Nehisi Coates
In Coates’ debut
novel, Hiram Walker
breaks free of bond-
age and works for
the Underground
Railroad in the
fight for freedom—
sometimes employ-
ing superheroic skills.
THE
STARLESS SEA
Erin Morgenstern
The author of The
Night Circus plays
with fables and fairy
tales as her protago-
nist, a grad student,
chases answers
about a strange child-
hood incident into
magical new worlds.
RECURSION
Blake Crouch
False memories
wreak havoc in
Crouch’s alternate
universe, where
people are driven to
make catastrophic
decisions after
remembering
experiences they’ve
never had.
QUICHOTTE
Salman Rushdie
A reimagining of
Cervantes’ classic,
Quichotte follows a
traveling salesman
who believes he must
marry a TV star. But
wait—his is just a
story within the story
of the middling crime
novelist writing him.
NINTH HOUSE
Leigh Bardugo
A Yale student who
can see ghosts is
recruited to report
on the university’s
secret societies.
YA star Bardugo’s
adult debut tackles
real-world issues
like campus sexual
assault.
AN ORCHESTRA
OF MINORITIES
Chigozie Obioma
A Nigerian chicken
farmer falls for a
woman after saving
her life, but her family
doesn’t approve. The
man’s omniscient
inner spirit narrates
his odyssey in search
of betterment.
THE OLD DRIFT
Namwali Serpell
Serpell traces a
family in what is now
Zambia through gen-
erations, from colo-
nial confrontations
and independence to
an otherworldly future
where people pos-
sess smartphone-
like hands.
INLAND
Téa Obreht
In this fantastical
western, an Arizona
woman searches for
her missing husband
and sons—and
water—while a camel
trainer tries to stay
alive even as the
dead keep trying to
talk to him.
107
THE FARM
Joanne Ramos
Paid surrogates live
under lock and key
at a “gestational
retreat”—unable to
access their lives
outside. There are
no easy villains in
Ramos’ layered story
exploring race, class
and immigration.
AMERICAN SPY
Lauren Wilkinson
A pick for President
Obama’s summer
reading list, American
Spy reinvigorates
the genre, following
a black woman in
the FBI tasked with
helping to remove the
communist President
of Burkina Faso.
BUNNY
Mona Awad
Awad’s memorably
morbid novel depicts
the trials of a misfit
M.F.A. student as she
gets welcomed into a
detestable clique of
classmates she calls
the Bunnies. Soon,
quite literally, heads
explode.
THE CHAIN
Adrian McKinty
How far would you
go for your kids?
Rachel is forced to
test herself when she
receives a terrifying
call: her daughter
has been abducted,
and she must snatch
another child in order
to get her back.
OPPOSITE PAGE: KIM BUBELLO FOR TIME; THIS PAGE: MCKINTY: ALAMY; GETTY IMAGES (3)
FICTION
