Set in a poor and crime infested housing estate in Nottingham, England, The Killing Jar* by first-time novelist Nicola Monaghan is a compelling read and recipient of several literary awards.

Young Kerrie-Ann Hill was abandoned (by a drugged-out prostitute mother), abused (by a teacher), coerced into running drugs at nine, and graduated to violent crimes as a sly and ruthless teenager.
Amidst the ugliness were moments of joy like an old neighbor who taught her about butterflies (and the killing jar), caring for her younger brother, and first loves.
Unapologetically realistic and bleak, the portrayal of the drug culture in urban England is spot on, while fiesty Kerrie-Ann as the flawed heroine will earn your respect and sympathy.

Nicola Monaghan grew up at Broxtowe, the same council estate she set The Killing Jar. She is the first person in her family to go to university, and is currently at work on her second novel Starfishin, about a woman working hard to fit into the edgy London lifestyle.

* = Starred Reviews

Interested in African literature (that is, novels by people from Africa about people in Africa)? The following should get you started:

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria)
Xala by Ousmane Sembène (Senegal)
A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o (Kenya)
The House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera (Zimbabwe/Rhodesia)
Butterfly Burning by Yvonne Vera (Zimbabwe)
A Sleepwalking Land by Mia Couto (Mozambique)
The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah (Ghana)
The Famished Road by Ben Okri (Nigeria)

Michael Wallner’s, debut novel April in Paris*, is a thrilling read.
The story begins in the summer of 1943, in German occupied Paris. Roth, a 22 year-old German corporal, fluent in French, is newly assigned to the SS headquarters to translate the confessions of the local Resistance fighters caught and tortured. In the evenings, he takes to wandering the city disguised as “Monsieur Antoine” a Frenchman, and meets up with Chantal, a bookseller's daughter who is connected to the Resistance.
When a bomb at a club kills several high-ranking German officers, Chantal disappears, leaving Roth as suspect in the hands of the SS, and his future very grim.
Realistic and suspenseful, with authentic period details of war-torn Paris, this love story of two decent individuals finding each other in the wrong place and at a difficult time will move you and keep you hoping for a happy ending.

Michael Wallner is an actor and screenwriter. He divides his time between Berlin and the Black Forest. The book is translated from the German by John Cullen.

* = Starred Review

Portrait of an Unknown Woman* by Vanora Bennett, a British journalist trying her hand at fiction for the first time.

Set in Henry VIII’s England, Meg Giggs, the heroine of this historical, is a budding herbalist and a ward of Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas More, the defender of the Catholic faith under threats of the Protestant heretics.

John Clements, a young physician is more than he appears. His courtship and marriage to Meg would be sorely tested by the secrets he keeps. On the other hand, Meg’s loyalty to More will also be called into question when religious and political conflicts roil at court.

“An engrossing, quietly impassioned historical”, no less for the added delicious details of the famous German painter Hans Holbein the Younger, commissioned to paint what will be his famous portraits of More and that of his family. For more information on the paintings and the time period, the author has created a website.

* = Starred Review

This almost slipped by me…

Ice by Vladimir Sorokin came out quietly without much media fanfare.

In this, his first English-language debut, postmodernist (and often controversial) Sorokin gives us a frighteningly engaging page-turner. Critics are calling it “ a gritty dispatch from the front lines of the contemporary world, a gnostic fairy tale, a hard-boiled parable, a New Age parody, a bitingly funny fantasy in the great Russian tradition…”

Blond, blue-eyed contemporary Muscovites are being kidnapped, driven to remote areas and bashed in the chest with hammers made of ice. It appears the victims are being "cracked" by their assailants, who want to free their hearts to "speak”.
Suspense builds with the incrementally telling of the story from the perspectives of three "heart-speakers” and Khram, their spiritual leader who was herself "hammered" by a German S.S. officer in a slave labor camp during WWII.

Ice ”…succeeds brilliantly as both a thriller and a cautionary tale about totalitarianism, bigotry, elitism, and fundamentalism". (Library Journal).

Click here for a NYRB review of Ice, and a biography on Sorokin.

The Scarlet Letter

Today is the anniversary of America's first best seller - The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. A total of 2,500 copies were published and sold out in 10 days. It was the first American novel to reach a large audience. See today's entry in the Writers Almanac with Garrison Keilor for more information about the printing process back in 1850 in the United States.

Finn* by first-time novelist Jon Clinch, is an imaginative reconstruction of the life and death of Finn, Huck's father, "Pap.".

In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck and Jim find Pap Finn's body in a house floating down the Mississippi River, among such oddities as women’s underclothes, a wooden leg and two black cloth masks, and the walls covered with “the ignorantest” kind of scrawling.

Shunned by his father, Adams County Judge James Manchester Finn and his successful brother Will, Finn is a violent, bigoted, ne’r-do well drunk, and often in trouble with the law. He blames his black sheep status on his on-again, off-again relationship with his black mistress, the mother of his pale mulatto child, also named Huck.

Working from a few tantalizing hints in Mark Twain's text, Clinch not only fleshes out the shadowy figure of Huckleberry Finn's father but creates clever and plausible backstories for the likes of Widow Douglas and the Thatcher family, and all the while, following Twain’s lead – allows the Mississippi to play a prominent role in the unfolding tale. Highly recommended.

* = Starred Review

Don't miss a fabulous opportunity to meet Dinaw Mengestu as our Sunday Edition featured speaker on March 11, 2-3:30 p.m. at the Downtown Library.

A nuanced slice of immigrant life, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears* is a beautifully observed debut from Ethiopian émigré Dinaw Mengestu . (Fabulous Fiction Firsts #54).

Sepha Stephanos, fled the Ethiopian Revolution as a teenager, now he owns a neighborhood grocery store in a section of Washington, D.C going through gentrification. Evenings are spent with other African immigrants until he befriends his new neighbors - Judith, a white academic and her 11 year-old biracial daughter, Naomi.

Racial politics, changing demographics in this formerly poor African American neighborhood threatens his barely profitable shop, as well as his tentative romantic aspirations with Judith. This poignant story makes for a “heart-rending and indelible” first novel.

* = Starred Reviews in Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.

The media is definitely interested in this fiction rising star - just check out Jennifer Reese's article in the current issue of Entertainment Weekly and Bob Thompson's piece in the March 1st edition of the Washington Post

Jude Coyne is a jaded rock star. But unlike others who collect vintage cars and McMansions, he is a collector of the bizarre and grotesque: like a stiff and worn hangman’s noose and a snuff movie. He latest prize is a ghost purchased in an auction online and delivered to his doorstep in a black Heart-Shaped Box*. The dogs were the first to go crazy, even before the UPS guy has a chance to unload the box....

Inside, is a man’s suit but before long, its previous owner is everywhere in Joe’s life – swinging a razor blade on a chain.

Joe Hill, the two-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award and the Ray Bradbury Fellowship for short fiction will grab you with this terrifying and relentless supernatural thriller. For Edgar Allen Poe fans. Film rights sold to Warner Brothers. Joe Hill is the pen name for Joe King (son of Stephen).

* = Starred Reviews

You can now find all your favorite Mystery, Sci-Fi, or Fantasy authors all in one place at the Downtown Library. The formally all paperback section is now interfiled with the hardbound books. Romance and Western books are now interfiled in the general fiction area and can be identified by a label on the book spine. We hope you enjoy the ease of browsing these collections.