All information sourced from publishers.
Triage, Claudia Rankine
Two friends meet in an art gallery after decades of silence. The idealism that once bound them together fissured and fractured under the weight of collective and personal griefs. Through their memories of youthful certainty, the antagonism of their conversation and the embers of their enduring kinship, they navigate the wreckage of our world today – the hope, the anger and the exhaustion.
Sunrise, Téa Obreht
In 2024, Nina’s small aircraft crashes into a lake in the Wyoming mountains. Lost, freezing and alone, she stumbles upon Sunrise – an abandoned frontier town that is strangely well-maintained.
In 2003, Sunrise’s golden boy Coll is about to start rehearsals for the town's annual historical reenactment when he is linked with a scandalous incident at a local bar. When an author comes to him with questions about one of Sunrise's most beloved figures, Coll is forced to reassess everything he thought he knew about the city – and himself.
In 1902, town founder, gunslinger and adventure-novel hero Anton Vargas returns to Sunrise and helps with the search for a missing boy. But who really is Vargas? What does he know about the boy’s disappearance? And why has he returned after so many years away?
These three are strangers, separated by time. But Sunrise has secrets which lie in waiting like gunpowder: quiet, until they encounter a spark.
Olenka, Budi Darma, translated from the Indonesian by Tiffany Tsao
In Bloomington, Indiana, Fanton Drummond’s life changes when he encounters Olenka Danton in an elevator. Infatuated at first sight, Fanton begins to see Olenka everywhere, from bus stops and parks to the imagined settings of his mind’s eye. Soon they begin an affair, and Fanton steps deeper into Olenka’s mysterious world. But one day, Olenka vanishes. Fanton’s subsequent search for Olenka becomes an existential journey filled with tragicomic twists and introspective musings on the meaning of life, all through which Fanton realises that he knows little about Olenka, and even less about himself.
The Infinite State, Richard Swan
WHO GIVES YOU LIFE?
PATER AETERNUS.
Katherine Fuller’s husband is dead. As an esteemed member of Pater Aeternus – the governing party of the fascist, galaxy-spanning Decurion Empire – he has left behind an estate of immeasurable wealth. And Katherine is going to inherit it.
WHO GIVES YOU PURPOSE?
PATER AETERNUS.
Life under the Eternal Father is rigidly stratified, surveilled, and controlled – each new day to be endured, not lived. But with Katherine's newfound fortune, she is presented with a rare and dangerous opportunity: purchase a virgin world, and create a better, fairer society.
WHO GIVES YOU JOY?
PATER AETERNUS.
But the Empire cannot allow its wayward daughter to succeed. And as Katherine works in secret, recruiting allies she's not even sure she can trust, she will discover exactly how far Pater Aeternus is willing to go to stop her. Because Katherine is going to create something nobody has seen for many years.
A democracy.
Etna, Paul Yoon
Set in a fictional country in the present day, this is a story told through the eyes of an ex-military dog, Etna. After surviving years of a devastating war, Etna decides one night to leave the men he has fought alongside and return home – to the place where he was taken from when he was young, in the thin but persistent hope that if a home exists for him, it might be there.
Thus begins an exhilarating odyssey told through the eyes of a dog as he traverses across ruined landscapes and fights to survive in a world that proves, even in peacetime, to be just as precarious as in war. Along the way, he encounters other animals and humans who are trying to resume their lives. What makes a life when there is no home to go back to? How do we begin to trust each other again after such devastation?
The House that Eats the Dead, Max Doty
The new house is a fresh start for Claire and her family. It’s a move towards the quiet suburban life she has craved since her turbulent childhood; a step up the corporate ladder for her husband, Tom; and a safe haven for their two children.
Yet, as they unpack their boxes, she senses something is wrong …
Fresh flowers dry up, store-bought eggs are inexplicably hollow and her daughter’s favourite toy disappears. Claire soon confronts a series of impossible truths: the house is hungry. It’s devouring anything that was once alive. And only Claire and Tom, the owners of the house, will remember that this “food” ever existed.
When Claire exploits the house’s power in a moment of weakness, she and the house forge a fragile bond. But as its hunger intensifies and Claire starts to lose control, she fears who else might be drawn to her home – and what sinister appetites they’ll bring.
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