Conor Kerr

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Washington

Set loose a herd of bison in downtown Edmonton: what could go wrong? Métis cousins Isidore "Ezzy" Desjarlais and Grey Ginther have beef with their world. With the latest racist policy rolling out. With whatever new pipeline plowing through traditional territory. With the way a treaty (aka, the army) forced the Papaschase Cree off their home on the prairie. And, on the other hand, with how Grey's friends think if they all just went back to the Rez or the settlement, life would be so much better--pretty, like an Instagram ad. Then there's the warming planet. And their future, which they seem to be screwing up quite well on their own. Being alive can't be all cribbage, Lucky Lager, and swiping the occasional catalytic converter. One night, the cousins hatch a plan to capture a herd of bison from a nearby national park and release them in downtown Edmonton. They want to be seen, be heard, and to disrupt the settler routines of the city, yet they have no idea what awaits them or the fateful consequences their actions have. Balancing wit and sorrow in a work of satire, social commentary, and whip-smart storytelling, Prairie Edge follows Ezzy and Grey's inspired misadventures as their zealous ideas about bringing about real change do indeed elicit change, just in unexpected and sometimes disastrous ways. Conor Kerr imagines a web of Métis relationships strained by dislocation, poverty, violence, and cultural drift, but he also laces the ties that bind Ezzy and Grey--and forever bind the Métis to the land--to explore the radical possibility that a couple of inspired miscreants might actually have the power to make a difference.

Prairie Edge

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Neel Mukherjee

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

A Novel

An ingenious, devastating, explosive novel about the ramifications of choice from "one of the most original and talented authors working today" (NPR).

Choice

1ae7ff63-0c95-45fe-b588-db8f716a54e5-0

Margaret Atwood

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 To 2021

In this brilliant selection of essays, the award-winning, best-selling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments offers her funny, erudite, endlessly curious, and uncannily prescient take on everything from whether or not The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopia to the importance of how to define granola--and seeks answers to Burning Questions such as...

* Why do people everywhere, in all cultures, tell stories? Including thoughts on the writing of The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments, Oryx & Crake, and her other beloved works.
* How much of yourself can you give away without evaporating?
* How can we live on our planet?
* Is it true? And is it fair?
* What do zombies have to do with authoritarianism?

In more than fifty pieces, Atwood aims her prodigious intellect and impish humor at the world, and reports back to us on what she finds. This roller-coaster period brought the end of history, a financial crash, the rise of Trump, and a pandemic. From when to dispense advice to the young (answer: only when asked) to Atwood's views on the climate crisis, we have no better guide to the many and varied mysteries of our universe.

Burning Questions

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Scholastique Mukasonga

Mark Polizzotti

Shortlisted for the Cercador Prize in 2024  recognizing works of literature in translation as selected by a committee of independent booksellers based across the United States.



Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

A sharp and playful critique of colonialism from the leading voice of French-Rwandan literature, animated by memories, archival specters, and powerful women “In sentences of great beauty and restraint, Mukasonga rescues a million souls from the collective noun ‘genocide,’ returning them to us as individual human beings.” — Zadie Smith In a 4-part narrative brimming with historical asides, alluring anecdotes, and murky questions left in the margins of colonial records, Sister Deborah heralds “a life that is more alive” as it explores the tensions and myths of Rwanda’s past. When time-worn ancestral remedies fail to heal young Ikirezi’s maladies, she’s rushed to the Rwandan hillsides. From her termite perch under the coral tree, health blooms under Sister Deborah’s hands. Women bear their breasts to the rising sun as men under thatched roofs stand, “stunned and impotent before this female fury.” Now grown, Ikirezi unearths the truth of Sister Deborah’s passage from America to 1930s Rwanda and the mystery surrounding her sudden departure. In colonial records, Sister Deborah is a “pathogen,” an “incident.” Who is the keeper of truth, Ikirezi impels us to ask, Who stands at the threshold of memory? Did we dance? Did she heal? Did we look to the sky with wonder? Ikirezi writes on, pulling Sister Deborah out from the archive, inscribing her with breath. A beautiful novel that works in the slippages of history, Sister Deborah at its core is a story of what happens when women — black women and girls — seek the truth by any means.

Sister Deborah

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Kaveh Akbar

UK Cover. Shortlisted for the National Book Award 2024 for the fiction category. 

A most anticipated book of 2024 for Time, Nylon, Oprah, Marie Claire and CNN One of Sarah Jessica Parker's Books of the Year 'I will carry this story, and the people in it, with me for the rest of my life' - John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars 'Smart, dazzling, different . . . This book is thrilling. It's like watching the novel itself be reinvented' - Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake 'This book vibrates with love of life, beauty and language. I'm in awe...' - Natalie Portman Cyrus Shams is lost. Ever since his mother's plane was senselessly shot down over the Persian Gulf when he was just a baby, Cyrus has been grappling with her death. Now, newly sober, he is set to learn the truth of her life. When an encounter with a dying artist leads Cyrus towards the mysteries of his past - an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as an Angel of Death, a haunting work of art by an exiled painter - he finds himself once again caught up in the story of his mother, who may not have been who or what she seemed. As Cyrus searches for meaning in the scattered clues of his life, a final revelation transforms everything he thought he knew. Electrifying, funny, wholly original, and profound, Martyr! heralds the arrival of a blazing and essential new voice in contemporary fiction. * Martyr! was an instant New York Times bestseller w/c 27/1/24

Martyr!

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Fiston Mwanza Mujila

Roland Glasser

Following the international success of his debut novel Tram 83, Fiston Mwanza Mujila is back with his highly anticipated second novel, which follows a remarkable series of characters during the Mobutu regime. The Democratic Republic of Congo, otherwise known as Congo-Kinshasa or DRCongo, has had a series of names since its founding. The name of Zaire best corresponds to the experience of the novel's characters. The years of Mobutu's regime were filled with utopias, dreams, fantasies and other uncontrolled desires for social redemption, the quest for easy enrichment and the desecration of places of power. Among these events: Zairians' immigration to Angola during the civil war boycotting the borders inherited from colonization, as if the country did not have its own diamonds, and the occupation of public places by children from outside. The author creates the atmosphere of the time through a roundup of characters: the diviner Tshiamuena, also known as Madonna of the Cafunfo mines, prides herself of being God with whoever is willing to listen to her. Franz Baumgartner, an apprentice writer originally from Austria and rumba lover, goes around the bars in search of material for his novel. Sanza, Le Blanc and other street children share information to the intelligence services when they are not living off begging and robbery. Djibril, taxi driver, only lives for reggae music. As soon as night falls, each character dances and plays his own role in a country mined by dictatorship.

The Villain's Dance

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“Leslie Garrett was a writer of wit, intelligence, and tremendous talent who overcame long odds to produce an acclaimed body of work. Poet and scholar Calvin Hernton called his novel, The Beasts, “Enthralling, magical, painful, delicate, subtle… a masterpiece.” 

Les became acquainted with Alan Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, James Jones, James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni and, of course, Knoxville’s own Cormac McCarthy.

Both had just won awards for their first novel when they met in Europe. Cormac would later serve as best man at Les’s wedding, and they would keep in touch all the years. 

Leslie Garrett passed away in 1993, publishing only 2 novels, one of them this novel. 
Published by Charles Scribner’s Sons-New York on 1966

The Beasts 

Carys Davies

A stunning, exquisite novel from an award-winning writer about a minister dispatched to a remote island off of Scotland to “clear” the last remaining inhabitant, who has no intention of leaving—an unforgettable tale of resilience, change, and hope. John, an impoverished Scottish minister, has accepted a job evicting the lone remaining occupant of an island north of Scotland—Ivar, who has been living alone for decades, with only the animals and the sea for company. Though his wife, Mary, has serious misgivings about the errand, he decides to go anyway, setting in motion a chain of events that neither he nor Mary could have predicted. Shortly after John reaches the island, he falls down a cliff and is found, unconscious and badly injured, by Ivar who takes him home and tends to his wounds. The two men do not speak a common language, but as John builds a dictionary of Ivar’s world, they learn to communicate and, as Ivar sees himself for the first time in decades reflected through the eyes of another person, they build a fragile, unusual connection. Unfolding in the 1840s in the final stages of the infamous Scottish Clearances—which saw whole communities of the rural poor driven off the land in a relentless program of forced evictions—this singular, beautiful, deeply surprising novel explores the differences and connections between us, the way history shapes our deepest convictions, and how the human spirit can survive despite all odds. Moving and unpredictable, sensitive and spellbinding, Clear is a profound and pleasurable read.

Clear

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Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

This was a withdrawn hardback copy from the library. Early publication. See photos for more information on classification of “good” quality ranking. 

The Life of Martha Ballard Based O

Martha Ballard was a midwife and medical practitioner. Her diary recounts the sensational events of her neighborhood--whether it be the ex-minister's wife charging a local judge with rape or the mass murder of a family--and catches the small movements that characterized life and death in an 18th-century town. Illustrated.

A Midwife's Tale

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Claire Messud

Longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize and the 2024 Giller Prize.  UK cover.

Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024

This Strange Eventful History

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Colin. Barrett

**One of the Observer's Debut Novels of 2024** A small-town feud. A madcap kidnapping. A wild weekend to change everybody's lives... 'Strange and beautiful... A book to live inside' SALLY ROONEY, author of Normal People 'A gift of true storytelling... Barrett's talent burns up the page' ANNE ENRIGHT, author of The Wren, The Wren 'A wonder... A tale for the ages' JON MCGREGOR, author of Reservoir 13 As Ballina prepares for its biggest weekend of the year, the simmering feud between small-time drug-dealer, Cillian English, and County Mayo's enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, spills over into violence and an ugly ultimatum. When the reclusive Dev answers his door on Friday night he finds Doll - Cillian's teenage brother - in the clutches of Gabe and Sketch. Jostled by his nefarious cousins and goaded by his dead mother's dog, Dev is drawn headlong into the Ferdias' revenge fantasy. Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old Nicky can't shake the feeling something bad has happened to her boyfriend Doll. Hungover, reeling from a fractious Friday night and plagued by ghosts of her own, Nicky sets out on a feverish mission to save Doll, even as she questions her future in Ballina.

Wild Houses

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Jokha Alharthi

Marilyn Booth

An extraordinary novel from a Man Booker International Prize-winning author that follows one young Omani woman as she builds a life for herself in Britain and reflects on the relationships that have made her from a "remarkable" writer who has "constructed her own novelistic form" (James Wood, The New Yorker).

From Man Booker International Prize-winning author Jokha Alharthi, Bitter Orange Tree is a profound exploration of social status, wealth, desire, and female agency. It presents a mosaic portrait of one young woman's attempt to understand the roots she has grown from, and to envisage an adulthood in which her own power and happiness might find the freedom necessary to bear fruit and flourish.
 
Zuhour, an Omani student at a British university, is caught between the past and the present. As she attempts to form friendships and assimilate in Britain, she can't help but ruminate on the relationships that have been central to her life. Most prominent is her strong emotional bond with Bint Amir, a woman she always thought of as her grandmother, who passed away just after Zuhour left the Arabian Peninsula.
 
As the historical narrative of Bint Amir's challenged circumstances unfurls in captivating fragments, so too does Zuhour's isolated and unfulfilled present, one narrative segueing into another as time slips and dreams mingle with memories.

Bitter Orange Tree

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Tiya Miles

The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft an extraordinary testament to people who are left out of the archives. “Deeply layered and insightful . . . [a] bold reflection on American history, African American resilience, and the human capacity for love and perseverance in the face of soul-crushing madness.”—The Washington Post “A history told with brilliance and tenderness and fearlessness.”—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States KIRKUS PRIZE FINALIST • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis, the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag with a few precious items as a token of love and to try to ensure Ashley’s survival. Soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley’s granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the bag in spare yet haunting language—including Rose’s wish that “It be filled with my Love always.” Ruth’s sewn words, the reason we remember Ashley’s sack today, evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love passed down through generations. Now, in this illuminating, deeply moving book inspired by Rose’s gift to Ashley, historian Tiya Miles carefully unearths these women’s faint presence in archival records to follow the paths of their lives—and the lives of so many women like them—to write a singular and revelatory history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States. The search to uncover this history is part of the story itself. For where the historical record falls short of capturing Rose’s, Ashley’s, and Ruth’s full lives, Miles turns to objects and to art as equally important sources, assembling a chorus of women’s and families’ stories and critiquing the scant archives that for decades have overlooked so many. The contents of Ashley’s sack—a tattered dress, handfuls of pecans, a braid of hair, “my Love always”—are eloquent evidence of the lives these women lived. As she follows Ashley’s journey, Miles metaphorically unpacks the bag, deepening its emotional resonance and exploring the meanings and significance of everything it contained. All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and of love passed down through generations of women against steep odds. It honors the creativity and fierce resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties even when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today.

All That She Carried

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Frank McCourt

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

A Memoir

The author recounts his childhood in Depression-era Brooklyn as the child of Irish immigrants who decide to return to worse poverty in Ireland when his infant sister dies

Valerie Kulpit

@valerie906934

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Followers

Conor Kerr

Prairie Edge

Neel Mukherjee

Choice

Margaret Atwood

Burning Questions

Scholastique Mukasonga; Mark Polizzotti

Sister Deborah

Kaveh Akbar

Martyr!

Fiston Mwanza Mujila; Roland Glasser

The Villain's Dance

Leslie Garrett

The Beasts

Carys Davies

Clear

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

A Midwife's Tale

Claire Messud

This Strange Eventful History

Colin. Barrett

Wild Houses

Jokha Alharthi; Marilyn Booth

Bitter Orange Tree

Tiya Miles

All That She Carried

Frank McCourt

Angela's Ashes

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Conor Kerr

Prairie Edge

Neel Mukherjee

Choice

Margaret Atwood

Burning Questions

Scholastique Mukasonga; Mark Polizzotti

Sister Deborah

Kaveh Akbar

Martyr!

Fiston Mwanza Mujila; Roland Glasser

The Villain's Dance

Leslie Garrett

The Beasts

Carys Davies

Clear

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

A Midwife's Tale

Claire Messud

This Strange Eventful History

Colin. Barrett

Wild Houses

Jokha Alharthi; Marilyn Booth

Bitter Orange Tree

Tiya Miles

All That She Carried

Frank McCourt

Angela's Ashes

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