by Tiffany Tsao
Tiffany Tsao's But Won't I Miss Me features a world where income inequality is staggering and motherhood requires a literal relinquishing of self. Vivi, an immigrant to Australia from a minority Chinese community in Indonesia, struggles to find equilibrium after her son, Cloud, is born. Unlike most new mothers, Vivi hasn't been gifted with the "boundless reserves of patience, energy, and emotional intuition" usually granted after childbirth. In this alternate setting, alongside their growing embryos, pregnant
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by Amanda Rizkalla
At once a tender coming-of-age story and a pointed social commentary, Amanda Rizkalla's debut novel, Hungered, examines a family in crisis from the perspective of Sofia, a 12-year-old girl. Sofia, her younger brother, Rafa, and their mother are living in their car after fleeing Sofia's violent father, who has moved his pregnant mistress into the family home. Although she is a nurse, Sofia's mother does not make enough money at her clinic job to provide the deposit she needs for an apartment in addition to
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by Tiffany Hanssen
The titular character of Tiffany Hanssen's crafty debut novel, My Name Was Gerry Sass, is a mild-mannered hit man who stays under the radar in Mystic, Iowa. Gerry launders money through the country music radio station he owns and takes the occasional job.
Otherwise, Gerry lives simply on a farm with his teenage daughter, Early, and has weekly dinners with his best friend, Father Dan Sullivan, a Catholic priest. But Gerry has angered the Chicago mob for whom he works, and they have sent two men to kill him.
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by Byron Graves
Medicine Wheels by William L. Morris Award winner Byron Graves (Rez Ball) is a heartening if painful YA novel about an Ojibwe Lakota teen who finds friendship, skateboarding, and a deep, growing pride in his community and heritage as he weathers rough circumstances.
Fifteen-year-old Bryce has spent two years being bullied and feeling isolated while living on the Green Lake Reservation with his mom "and her jackass boyfriend, Doug." When his mom, who struggles with substance abuse, moves them back to his home
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by Joy McCullough
Children's and teen author Joy McCullough (Basil & Dahlia; Code Red) offers readers the introspective, unguarded Kestrel Takes Flight, a middle-grade novel-in-verse about an 11-year-old girl's escape from her pastor grandfather's abuse.
Kestrel Sinclair is confused and bitter when her mother sneaks them out of her grandfather's San Diego home without warning. She and her mother "don't keep secrets" from each other, but Kestrel's mother covertly took a summer job training Karelian bear dogs (a breed of
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