When they break up, their lives diverge temporarily-until Teresa begins to reappear at the most inopportune times. Trust by Domenico Starnone (translated by Jhumpa Lahiri): Lovers Pietro and Teresa are trying to save their doomed relationship when they decide to do something impulsive: share the most shameful secret of their lives. Rumaan Alam says, вЂњBut the brilliance of James Han MattsonвЂ™s novel is in deploying the haunted house as a metaphor for our nation, where the true scare is a cultural reckoning with whiteness itself.вЂќ (Carolyn) MattsonвЂ™s second novel follows the survivors as they come to terms with how they are partially responsible for the tragedy. Reprieve by James Han Mattson: Four contestants competing for a cash prize enter the final cell of Quigley House, a full-contact haunted escape room-but only three exit. ItвЂ™s startlingly original, hilarious and harrowing by turns, finally transcendent.вЂќ A piece by Vaye Watkins, with the same memorable title, is available to read on Granta. Jenny Offill writes, вЂњThereвЂ™s some kind of genius sorcery in this novel. In it, a writer suffering from postpartum depression leaves her husband and baby to do a speaking engagement in Reno, only to end up deep in the Mojave Desert where she grew up. I Love You but IвЂ™ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins: Vaye Watkins, author of Gold Fame Citrus, and the beloved story collection Battleborn, now brings us her second novel, which, clearly, has the most badass title of all time. About the incandescent collection, Colson Whitehead writes: вЂњвЂњA badass debut by any measure-nimble, knowing, and electrifying.вЂќ (Carolyn) In another story, a single mother attempts to buy a home before the apocalypse happens. In the titular novella, set in the near future, a Black descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings is driven from her home by violent white supremacists. My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson: In her debut collection, Johnson explores a world (and country) ever on the brink and the people who choose to survive no matter the cost. The novel is the first in a planned trilogy, with the Middlemarchian title вЂњA Key to All Mythologies,вЂќ that will span three generations of the Hildebrandt clan. Here, he returns to his literary roots in the story of a troubled family, the Hildebrandts, fractured by the cultural upheaval of the early 1970s. Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen: Whether heвЂ™s insulting Oprah or posing self-importantly as вЂњThe Great American NovelistвЂќ on the cover of Time, Franzen has a singular talent for arousing public contempt.

Heart of darkness book review