Recommendations based on "The Discomfort of Evening: WINNER OF THE BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2020"

From internationally bestselling author Benedict Wells, a sweeping novel of love and loss, and of the lives we never get to live“[D]azzling storytelling...The End of Loneliness is both affecting and accomplished -- and eternal.” —John Irving"An exquisitely wrought and utterly absorbing meditation upon life, loss and love." —Ian McEwanJules Moreau’s childhood is shattered after the sudden death of his parents. Enrolled in boarding school where he and his siblings, Marty and Liz, are forced to live apart, the once vivacious and fearless Jules retreats inward, preferring to live within his memories – until he meets Alva, a kindred soul caught in her own grief. Fifteen years pass and the siblings remain strangers to one another, bound by tragedy and struggling to recover the family they once were. Jules, still adrift, is anchored only by his desires to be a writer and to reunite with Alva, who turned her back on their friendship on the precipice of it becoming more. But, just as it seems they can make amends for time wasted, invisible forces – whether fate or chance – intervene.A kaleidoscopic family saga told through the fractured lives of the three Moreau siblings, alongside a faltering, recovering love story, The End of Loneliness is a stunning meditation on the power of our memories, of what can be lost and what can never be let go. With inimitable compassion and luminous, affecting prose, Benedict Wells contends with what it means to find a way through life, while never giving up hope you will find someone to go with you.

“I loved this novel truly, madly, deeply.” ―Nina George, bestselling author of The Book of Dreams and The Little Paris BookshopIn this international bestseller by the award-winning novelist Mariana Leky, a heartwarming story unfolds about a small town, a grandmother whose dreams foretell a coming death, and the young woman forever changed by these losses and her loving, endearingly oddball communityOn a beautiful spring day, a small village wakes up to an omen: Selma has dreamed of an okapi. Someone is about to die.Luisa, Selma’s ten-year-old granddaughter, looks on as the predictable characters of her small world begin acting strangely. Though they claim not to be superstitious, each of her neighbors newly grapples with buried secrets and deferred decisions that have become urgent in the face of death.Luisa’s mother struggles to decide whether to end her marriage. An old family friend, known only as the optician, tries to find the courage to tell Selma he loves her. Only sad Marlies remains unchanged, still moping around her house and cooking terrible food. But when the prophesied death finally comes, the circumstances fall outside anyone’s expectations. The loss forever changes Luisa and shapes her for years to come, as she encounters life’s great questions alongside her devoted friends, young and old.A story about the absurdity of life and death, a bittersweet portrait of small towns and the wider world that beckons beyond, this charmer of a novel is also a thoughtful meditation on the way loss and love shape not just a person but a community. Mariana Leky’s What You Can See from Here is a moving tale of grief, first love, reluctant love, late love, and finding one’s place in the world, even if that place is right where you started.

This bestselling and award-winning novel about a teenage girl in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam speaks powerfully to the realities of grief, heartbreak, and bravery, perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah and Ruta Sepetys.Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, her nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion.On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman's frantic plea to find a person—a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen had been hiding, who has vanished without a trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such dangerous work, but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations that lead her into the heart of the resistance, open her eyes to the horrors of the Nazi war machine, and compel her to take desperate action.Beautifully written, intricately plotted, and meticulously researched, Girl in the Blue Coat is an extraordinary novel about courage, grief, and love in impossible times.

'A beautiful, meticulously researched story that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.' USA Today bestseller, Genevieve Graham A story of loss, hope and redemption against impossible odds...1917. Halifax, Nova Scotia.Nora Crowell wants more than her sister's life as a wife and mother. As WWI rages across the Atlantic, she becomes a lieutenant in the Canadian Army Nursing Corps. But trouble is looming and it won't be long before the truth comes to light.Having lost her beloved husband in the trenches and with no-one else to turn to, Charlotte Campbell now lives with his haughty relations who treat her like the help. It is baby Aileen, the joy and light of her life, who spurs her to dream of a better life.When tragedy strikes in Halifax Harbour, nothing for these two women will ever be the same again. Their paths will cross in the most unexpected way, trailing both heartbreak and joy its wake... Praise for Donna Jones Alward:'A triumphant, unforgettable tale of sacrifice, hope, and second chances ... with a twist that will have readers holding their breath' Renee Ryan, author of The Secret Society of Salzburg'Readers of historical fiction, don't miss this one!' USA Today bestseller, Andie Newton'A winning and memorable tale that boasts a perfectly-judged grasp of historical detail, wonderfully nuanced characters, and a narrative arc that never falters' USA Today bestseller, Jennifer Robson'A fascinating, heartbreaking, and heartwarming story' USA Today bestseller, Glynis Peters'A rare novel that is both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. Prepare to fall in love' Soraya M. Lane, bestselling author'Meticulously researched and full of atmospheric period details that will take your breath away' Julianne MacLean, bestselling author'Alward handles the aftermath of a Canadian tragedy with sensitivity, skill, brilliant writing' Lecia Cornwall, author of That Summer in Berlin

A “wickedly funny” (Newsweek) collection of ten short stories from Nobel Prize–winning author Alice Munro, “one of the most eloquent and gifted writers of contemporary fiction” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times). “Each of her collections demonstrates such linguistic skill, delicacy of vision, and . . . moral strength and clarity.”—Chicago Tribune   A woman haunted by dreams of her dead mother. An adulterous couple stepping over the line where the initial excitement ends and the pain begins. A widow visiting a Scottish village in search of her husband’s past—and instead discovering unsetting truths about a total stranger.   The miraculously accomplished stories in this collection not only astonish and delight, but also convey the unspoken mysteries at the heart of all human experience. The mastery—the almost numinous ability to say the unsayable—makes Friend of My Youth a genuine literary event.

“I can’t remember the last time a novel made me laugh so hard or feel so much tenderness for its characters.” —Leslie Jamison, author of Splinters“Madeline Cash is a voice like no other.” —Lena Dunham“I’ve read entire books that contain less wit and inventiveness than a single one of Cash’s sentences.” —Eric Puchner, New York Times-bestselling author of Dream State“With a big surge of energy, Lost Lambs splits the nucleus of the American family.” —Tony Tulathimutte, author of RejectionRippling with humor, warmth, and style, Lost Lambs is a new vision of the charms and pitfalls of family dysfunction. The Flynn family is coming undone. Catherine and Bud's open marriage has reached its breaking point as their daughters spiral in their own chaotic orbits: Abigail, the eldest, is dating a man in his twenties nicknamed War Crime Wes; Louise, the middle child, maintains a secret correspondence with an online terrorist; the brilliant youngest, Harper, is being sent to wilderness reform camp due to her insistence that someone—or something—is monitoring the town’s citizens.Casting a shadow across their lives, and their small coastal town, is Paul Alabaster, a billionaire shipping magnate. Rumors of corruption circulate, but no one dares dig too deep. No one except Harper, whose obsession with a mysterious shipping container sends the family hurtling into a criminal conspiracy—one that may just bring them closer together.Irreverent and addictive, pinging between the voices of the Flynn family and those of the panorama of characters around them, Madeline Cash’s Lost Lambs is a debut novel of quick-witted observation and surprising tenderness. With it, Cash has crafted a family saga for the twenty-first century, all held together with crazy glue.

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' story lines intersect?

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER OPTIONED FOR TELEVISION BY BRUNA PAPANDREA, THE PRODUCER OF HBO'S BIG LITTLE LIES "A tour de force of original thought, imagination and promise ... Kline takes full advantage of fiction -- its freedom to create compelling characters who fully illuminate monumental events to make history accessible and forever etched in our minds." -- Houston Chronicle The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train returns with an ambitious, emotionally resonant novel about three women whose lives are bound together in nineteenth-century Australia and the hardships they weather together as they fight for redemption and freedom in a new society. Seduced by her employer's son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in early nineteenth-century London, is discharged when her pregnancy is discovered and sent to the notorious Newgate Prison. After months in the fetid, overcrowded jail, she learns she is sentenced to "the land beyond the seas," Van Diemen's Land, a penal colony in Australia. Though uncertain of what awaits, Evangeline knows one thing: the child she carries will be born on the months-long voyage to this distant land. During the journey on a repurposed slave ship, the Medea, Evangeline strikes up a friendship with Hazel, a girl little older than her former pupils who was sentenced to seven years transport for stealing a silver spoon. Canny where Evangeline is guileless, Hazel--a skilled midwife and herbalist--is soon offering home remedies to both prisoners and sailors in return for a variety of favors. Though Australia has been home to Aboriginal people for more than 50,000 years, the British government in the 1840s considers its fledgling colony uninhabited and unsettled, and views the natives as an unpleasant nuisance. By the time the Medea arrives, many of them have been forcibly relocated, their land seized by white colonists. One of these relocated people is Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe, who has been adopted by the new governor of Van Diemen's Land. In this gorgeous novel, Christina Baker Kline brilliantly recreates the beginnings of a new society in a beautiful and challenging land, telling the story of Australia from a fresh perspective, through the experiences of Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna. While life in Australia is punishing and often brutally unfair, it is also, for some, an opportunity: for redemption, for a new way of life, for unimagined freedom. Told in exquisite detail and incisive prose, The Exiles is a story of grace born from hardship, the unbreakable bonds of female friendships, and the unfettering of legacy.

In this follow-up to the riveting international bestseller No Child of Mine, author Susan Lewis delivers an emotionally complex novel—perfect for readers of Jodi Picoult—of reinvention, reconnection, and the deepest love that can bind two people together.Charlotte Nicholls can hardly believe it, but it seems she’s landed in paradise. Living in a cottage in a shady cove on the beautiful Bay of Islands, surrounded by the splendor of New Zealand, Charlotte revels in her new life. She and her nearly four-year-old daughter, Chloe, have started over, with the help of Charlotte’s birth mother, Anna, who has recently reentered Charlotte’s life after a twenty-six-year absence. Little Chloe is thriving in her new home, and despite lingering effects from a terrible trauma Chloe has suffered, Charlotte is hopeful that love will pull her through. And though their relationship is tentative, Charlotte and Anna are slowly rebuilding their trust after nearly a lifetime apart.   But the horrors of the past—both recent and long buried—are never far from Charlotte’s mind. And then their idyll is suddenly shattered, as a series of events is set in motion that Charlotte can neither control nor comprehend. It will take all of Charlotte’s strength to keep her little family together, in the face of a world that will do everything it can to tear them apart.Praise for Don’t Let Me Go  “An emotionally complex novel.”—USA Today“Unputdownable . . . a compelling blend of family dynamics, courtroom drama, and love story.”—Booklist“You know you’re in the hands of a master storyteller when you can’t bear the tension. Susan Lewis drops you into a nightmare where the best interests of a child collide with the law designed to protect her. The endearing little girl at the center of this poignant and gripping tale, as well as the brave protagonist, will win your heart.”—Diane Chamberlain, internationally bestselling author of The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes“A gripping tale that pulls you in from the first chapter to the end, Don’t Let Me Go is a read that will remind you just how precious children are.”—Romance Reviews TodayLook for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more.

Marisa de los Santos returns to the world of her beloved, bestselling novels Love Walked In and Belong to Me in an enthralling tale of sisterhood, sacrifice, and the enduring power of love. "Bring me the Northern Lights." Cornelia Brown is reeling from a terrifying act of violence when she gets word that her mother has been badly injured in an accident. Cornelia returns to Virginia, to the house she grew up in, and in the weeks that follow, she watches her mother Ellie struggle to recover, fluctuating between her usual crisp, can-do clarity and periods of delirium during which she seems haunted by a devastating loss from her past. In grief-stricken tones, Ellie begs Cornelia to bring her the Northern Lights, and despite her confusion at this mysterious plea, Cornelia vows to do so: "She was my mother and she wanted the Northern Lights; I was her daughter and would have given her anything, anything." With the help of her prickly sister, Ollie, Cornelia embarks on a mission to piece together the lost years of their mother's life: people, places, and events spanning Ellie's late teens through her mid-twenties. Cornelia and Ollie's quest takes them to unexpected places and into the worlds of strangers whose lives Ellie touched and irrevocably changed. As the sisters uncover truths about their mother's life--some beautiful, some ugly, some tragic--Cornelia herself begins to heal, to forgive herself, and to find her way back home. Alternating between two timelines--Cornelia's story in the present, and that of the young Eleanor Campbell in the 1960s--Watch Us Shine explores the complicated bonds between sisters, the impossible demands of motherhood, and the power of human love to save us again and again.