Back to the 2020 Holiday Gift Guide
To save her job, Yona goes on one of the "vacations" that her company offers and discovers the real cost of what she's been selling. My favorite novel of the year, Yun Ko-eun puts a spotlight on the disaster tourism phenomenon and its irreversible consequences.
Since moving to rural Japan, Asa spends her long summer days waiting for her husband to come home from work. In his absence she naps, cleans, cooks, and listens to the cicadas. Succumbing to restlessness, she decides to explore the town and is faced with an assortment of surreal goings-on. A wonderfully bizarre tale of the insanity of daily life, The Hole is both unbelievable and relatable.
To save her cousin, Noemi must fight against a haunted house, a patriarch deeply entrenched in eugenics, and a blood-soaked family legend. This supernatural horror brings attention to the often-overlooked European influence in Mexico and its damaging effect.
Janet is sad, and she's not really interested in being happy. To appease her family, who are very interested in her happiness, Janet signs up to take an experimental pill that will give her the holiday pep she lacks. Lucie Britsch gives readers an honest take on depression, familial expectations, and the burden of a Christmas spirit.
A superhero story that turns the meaning of "hero" upside down. Epic, funny and a little gross (in a fun way). This is not your kid's superhero novel.
Percy wakes in the middle of the night to the thought that she will kill her husband in her sleep. So, she stops sleeping. She finds out she is pregnant and keeps it a secret. Then, one morning, she receives an exhibition catalogue in the mail, and she recognizes herself in every photograph. The Exhibition of Persephone Q is an odd yet deeply compelling story about memory, secrets, and personal histories.
On a walk in the woods, Vesta finds a note that lands her in the center of a dangerous mystery. Moshfegh's latest novel delivers her well-loved dark and puzzling storytelling while putting every aspect of narrative into question.
Mara, a former interpreter, starts a job as a security guard in a local museum with one goal: to be silent for a year. As events at the museum require her involvement, her goal is reimagined into something disruptive. Include Me Out is an extremely unique story about the power of silence, passivity, and redemption.
Majella doesn't like gossip, or the news, or most other people. If it were up to her, she would have an uneventful life spending her days working at the chipper and her nights watching TV. Unfortunately for her, her life becomes the center of small-town gossip and she is forced to face everything she hates. Michelle Gallen's glimpse into small town Ireland is so quietly powerful that you'll never want it to end.