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Tom Perrotta recommends
Last House (2024)Jessica Shattuck"An ambitious historical epic that doubles as an intimate family saga. This is a wide-ranging novel to savor."The Truth About Horses (2023)Christy Cashman and Christy Cashnman
"The Truth About Horses is a fast-moving, emotionally compelling story about friendship, courage, and healing. Christy Cashman knows a lot about girls and horses, and also about loneliness and grief, and she writes with admirable honesty and insight." Little Monsters (2023)Adrienne Brodeur"Little Monsters is an elegant and ambitious novel, a family saga deeply rooted in the landscape of Cape Cod. Adrienne Brodeur writes about complicated, sometimes difficult people and the natural world they inhabit with lyrical precision and deep emotional intelligence." Pomegranate (2023)Helen Elaine Lee"Pomegranate feels like something new: a humane, closely observed account of a Black woman'a recovering addict, a mother who's lost custody of her children - emerging from prison, working to stay clean, reconnect with her family, and come to terms with her complicated past. This moving and panoramic novel starts off as a character study and evolves into a big-hearted story of redemption." American Mermaid (2023)Julia Langbein"American Mermaid is shapeshifting novel composed of wildly divergent elements - a biting Hollywood satire, a magical realist book-within-a-book, and a moody meditation on identity and selling out. It probably shouldn't work, but it succeeds brilliantly, thanks to Julia Langbein's tonal control and wicked sense of humor. This is a a debut novel of unusual ambition and scope." The Survivalists (2023)Kashana Cauley"The Survivalists is an edgy, darkly funny look at a group of gun-running doomsday preppers hiding in plain sight in the middle of hipster Brooklyn. Kashana Cauley follows her protagonist--a Black corporate lawyer--down a rabbit hole of paranoia and alienation. In the process, Cauley reveals some surprising truths about race, work, friendship, and love." Small World (2023)Laura Zigman"Like all of Laura Zigman's books, Small World is wryly funny and sharply observed. But this moving story of two adult sisters reconnecting in midlife also tackles some weighty subjects--family secrets, disability, abandonment--with unusual grace and sensitivity." The Blue Window (2023)Suzanne Berne"The Blue Window is a probing, deeply absorbing examination of personal and family secrets, and the sneaky ways that trauma can reverberate through multiple generations. Suzanne Berne is an elegant, psychologically astute novelist whose insights are illuminated by sly flashes of humor." Sleepwalk (2022)Dan Chaon"Sleepwalk is an addictive dystopian picaresque, by turns darkly funny, deeply harrowing, and surprisingly poignant. Dan Chaon's vision of our future will give you chills of dread and recognition." Lioness (2022)Mark Powell"Lioness is a darkly compelling portrait of an artist who evolves into a homegrown ecoterrorist. Mark Powell's brooding, twisty novel is packed with a distinctively American, highly explosive mixture of religion, art, sexual obsession, mental illness, and environmental menace." The Days of Afrekete (2021)Asali Solomon"The Days of Afrekete is one of the most enjoyable novels I've read in a long time. Asali Solomon is a wickedly astute observer of the human condition, alert to all our weaknesses and absurdities, as well as our occasional moments of transcendence. The clarity of her vision is sometimes unsettling, but it's always revelatory." Morningside Heights (2021)Joshua Henkin"What does it really mean: in sickness and in health, till death do us part? Morningside Heights knows the answer. In this tender, wise, and unflinching novel, Joshua Henkin traces the bittersweet arc of a lifelong love, with all its joy and pain." Milk Fed (2021)Melissa Broder"Smart, funny, sexy, and hard to put down. In this fast-moving, deeply compelling novel, Melissa Broder combines an unexpected (and very hot) love story with a sharp-edged examination of body image, religion, and cultural identity." Mother Daughter Widow Wife (2020)Robin Wasserman"Mother Daughter Widow Wife is suspenseful, keenly intelligent, and thoroughly engrossing. Robin Wasserman’s novel explores the complexities of memory and identity with unflinching clarity and deep compassion." Friends and Strangers (2020)J Courtney Sullivan"Friends and Strangers is a smart and deeply compelling exploration of female friendship and the complicated politics of motherhood and childcare. J. Courtney Sullivan is a shrewd and sympathetic observer of our current cultural moment, with an unerring eye for the way that the unspoken realities of money and class can affect even our most intimate relationships." Trust Exercise (2019)Susan Choi"Trust Exercise is a brilliant and challenging novel, an uncanny evocation of the not-so-distant past that turns into a meditation on the slipperiness of memory and the ethics of storytelling. Susan Choi is a masterful novelist, who understands exactly where we are right now and how we got here." Visible Empire (2018)Hannah Pittard"Visible Empire starts out as an examination of a mass tragedy and slowly morphs into something more intimate and revelatory. Hannah Pittard’s novel is a deeply resonant portrait of individuals—and a city—in the throes of grief, and on the cusp of momentous change." My Ex-Life (2018)Stephen McCauley"My Ex-Life is a pleasure of the deepest sort?it’s a wise, ruefully funny, and ultimately touching exploration of mid-life melancholy and unexpected second chances. Stephen McCauley is a wonderful writer, and this may be his best book yet." An American Marriage (2018)Tayari Jones"An American Marriage asks hard questions about injustice and betrayal, and answers them with a heartbreaking and genuinely suspenseful love story in which nobody's wrong and everybody's wounded. Tayari Jones has written a complex and important novel about people trapped in a tragic situation, struggling to reconcile their responsibilities and desires." Lake Success (2018)Gary Shteyngart"Lake Success takes us on an unforgettable road trip through an America that's ominously divided, wildly diverse, and weirdly familiar. Gary Shteyngart writes about money and marriage with brutal honesty, virtuoso wit, and stubborn compassion for his deeply flawed but still somehow lovable characters." The Italian Teacher (2018)Tom Rachman"The Italian Teacher is a marvel - an entertaining, heartbreaking novel about art, family, loyalty, and authenticity. Tom Rachman is an enormously talented writer - this book is alive, from the first page to the last." Edgar and Lucy (2017)Victor Lodato"A quirky coming-of-age novel that deepens into something dark and strange without losing its heart or its sense of wonder." Pretend I'm Dead (2015)Jen Beagin"How can you resist a love story in which the object of desire is named Mr. Disgusting? Like Denis Johnson, Jen Beagin is able to find humanity and wonder (and yes, love) in some of the most forlorn and hopeless corners of our world." Best Staged Plans (2011)Claire Cook"Claire Cook's characters aren't rich or glamorous--they're physically imperfect, emotionally insecure, and deeply familiar." The Romantics (2008)Galt Niederhoffer"The Romantics is a smart, edgy novel that is wickedly insightful about class and privilege, amusingly cynical about love and friendship, and thoroughly entertaining throughout. Galt Niederhoffer is an elegant prose stylist and a shrewd social observer." Death of a Circus (2006)Chandra Prasad"Puts a fresh spin on the timeworn myths of the big top. Chandra Prasad's Death of a Circus is narrated with Dickensian verve, a keen eye for historical detail, and lots of heart." Rattled (2006)Debra Galant"Debra Galant does for the McMansions of New Jersey what Carl Hiaasen did for the swamps of Florida." Maneater (2003)Gigi Levangie"Maneater is the rare satire that manages to be both scathingly funny and affectionate toward its targets. Gigi Levangie's gloriously ditzy L.A. party girls make the women of Sex and the City seem like a bunch of stuffy New York intellectuals." Anthologies containing stories by Tom Perrotta
Lit Riffs (2007)Writers 'Cover' Songs They Loveedited by
Matthew Miele
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(b.1961)