The Grafton Public Library presents…

Notable Books of 2018

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Book	Author	Dewey Number	Description
The Friend	Sigrid Nunez	FIC NUN	Winner of the 2018 National Book Award--both a meditation on loss and a celebration of human-canine devotion.
Washington Black	Esi Edugyan	FIC EDU	High adventure fraught with cliffhanger twists marks this runaway-slave narrative, which leaps, sails, and soars from Caribbean cane fields to the fringes of the frozen Arctic and across a whole ocean.
The Witch Elm	Tana French	FIC FRE	A new Tana French novel broadens her inquiry into the greatest mystery of all: who we are.
The Woman in the Window	A.J. Finn	FIC FIN	A breathless, stunning twist-and-turn plot that cleverly relies on familiar scenarios, most of the Hitchcock kind, and builds the Hitchcock references into his own story.
Sunburn	Laura Lippman	FIC LIP	A noir tale handled with masterly flair.
The Death of Mrs. Westaway	Ruth Ware	FIC WAR	Ware's novels continue to evoke comparison to Agatha Christie; they certainly have that classic flavor despite the contemporary settings.
The Great Alone	Kristin Hannah	FIC HAN	The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love, loss and the fight for survival.
Still Me	Jojo Moyes	FIC MOY	Moyes’s many fans and newcomers alike will be satisfied by the humor, riveting story, and realistic and well-developed characters.
The Outsider	Stephen King	FIC KIN	The master of horror hits a home run, with this mystery of a baseball youth team coach accused of murder
The Overstory	Richard Powers	FIC POW	If the trees of this earth could speak, what would they tell us? "Listen. There’s something you need to hear."
There There	Tommy Orange	FIC ORA	A challenging debut novel centered on a powwow in urban California explores the breadth of modern Native American life
Gone So Long	Andre Dubus III	FIC DUB	Andre Dubus III’s first novel in a decade is a masterpiece of thrilling tension and heartrending empathy.
The Female Persuasion	Meg Wolitzer	FIC WOL	Wolitzer’s book feels almost prescient in its exploration of gender politics, corporate corruption and, ultimately, how much is enough when it comes to personal sacrifice.
Circe	Madeline Miller	FIC MIL	Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world.
An American Marriage	Tayari Jones	FIC JON	With spare and shimmering prose, Jones captures the life-altering losses endured in this unforgettable American marriage.
Asymmetry	Lisa Halliday	FIC HAL	This thrilling novel about a relationship between an ageing writer and a young woman explores the uses of creativity.
Warlight	Michael Ondaatje	FIC OND	Michael Ondaatje’s new novel, “Warlight,” his first in seven years, has the immediate allure of a dark fairy tale
Safe Houses	Dan Fesperman	FIC FES	Prolific spy novelist Fesperman delivers another winner, this one as fiendishly clever as it is richly entertaining.
The Stranger Game	Peter Gadol	FIC GAD	Beautiful, thoughtful meditation on the invisible ties that bind us—even to strangers.
Transcription	Kate Atkinson	FIC ATK	Kate Atkinson is a masterful manipulator of lies. Transcription is a spectacular game of deception, her own perfect plot. It is as twisty and efficient — everything falls into place like the tumblers of a combination lock — as the best of Le Carré.
Kingdom of the Blind	Louise Penny	FIC PEN	Kingdom of the Blind is an ingenious mystery that follows a thoughtful group of beloved characters navigating their way through a fallen world.
The House of Broken Angels	Luis Alberto Urrea	FIC URR	The definitive Mexican-American immigrant story, a sprawling and deeply felt portrait of a Mexican-American family occasioned by the impending loss of its patriarch, from one of the country's most beloved authors.
Lake Success	Gary Shteyngart	FIC SHT	The story of a hedge fund manager’s Greyhound bus journey shines a light on America on the eve of Trump’s victory is hugely entertaining and acute.
Spinning Silver	Naomi Novik	FIC NOK	With a shivery new Rumpelstiltskin story where the princess is the spinner, the author cements her status as one of the great fantasy authors for young adults.
A State of Freedom	Neel Makherjee	FIC MUK	Mukherjee tackles some notoriously difficult themes perfectly: The characters all want better lives, and — to say the least — they're seldom rewarded. It's not exactly a novel that warns readers against striving; rather, it's one that urges us to be careful what we wish for, and to always be prepared for disappointment. Mukherjee also brilliantly details the brutality inherent in the class system, and the violence and despair that are its inevitable results.