Books from United States

In the final days of the Gold Rush, two Chinese American siblings, Lucy and Sam, find themselves orphaned in a hostile landscape where their very existence challenges the myth of the American West. Carrying their father’s body across a vast, unforgiving terrain, they search for a place to bury him and confront the secrets of their family’s past. Through memories of hunger, displacement, and their parents’ desperate pursuit of belonging, the siblings must decide what it means to inherit a country that refuses to claim them. Lyrical and haunting, C Pam Zhang’s debut reimagines the Western frontier through the eyes of those written out of its history, exploring race, family, survival, and the price of the American dream.

On an ordinary morning in suburban Chicago, a masked gunman storms an Islamic school, forcing principal Afaf Rahman to confront the memories she has spent a lifetime trying to escape. As she guides her students toward safety, her thoughts return to her childhood as the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, her family’s struggles with faith and belonging, and the devastating events that shaped her life. From her father’s growing disillusionment with America to her sister’s rebellion and her own complicated relationship with Islam, Afaf’s story unfolds across decades of love, loss, and searching. Against a backdrop of rising Islamophobia and cultural alienation, The Beauty of Your Face explores what it means to hold on to faith when the world seems determined to turn you into an outsider. Intimate and deeply moving, it is a novel about sisterhood, resilience, and the possibility of finding beauty and belonging in the most unexpected places.

Across generations of Black Muslim life in America, ten interconnected worlds of faith, family, and belonging unfold. A daughter haunted by her father’s ghost struggles to reconcile his legacy with the truth; a mother caring for her disabled son revisits a life-altering experience; and a federal agent spying on a prominent member of the Nation of Islam confronts the contradictions of his own life. Set against the complex social and spiritual landscape of Black Muslim communities, these stories explore the tension between religious conviction and human imperfection, tradition and independence, and the desire to belong and the need to question. With compassion, subtle humour, and remarkable insight, Temple Folk offers an intimate portrait of people navigating the distance between who they believe they should be and who they really are.

Some families carry their history in photographs and stories. Others bury it in silence, leaving the next generation to piece together the fragments. Kiều, a Vietnamese-German journalist living in Berlin, calls herself Kim because it is easier for Europeans to pronounce. She has spent years distancing herself from her Vietnamese heritage, content to live without asking too many questions about her family’s past. But when an unexpected message arrives from her estranged uncle in California announcing that her grandmother is dying, the carefully maintained distance begins to collapse. Travelling to America with her parents, Kiều encounters a family divided by the Vietnam War. Her father supported the communist revolution, while his brother sided with the Americans. Decades of silence have left their competing memories unresolved, and the family reunion brings buried conflicts, painful loyalties, and forgotten stories back to the surface. Moving between generations and continents, Brothers and Ghosts explores how war shapes families long after the fighting ends. Khuê Phạm examines the complicated inheritance of migration: the languages lost, identities reshaped, and histories passed down incompletely. It is a moving story about belonging, memory, and the courage to ask questions that previous generations could not bear to answer.

Set in 1918 Miami, House on Biscayne Bay follows two women whose lives become intertwined within a grand mansion overlooking the water. When Carmen Acosta moves into the luxurious estate with her husband, she hopes to begin a new chapter, but unsettling events and whispers of the house’s dark past soon disturb her dreams. Decades later, another woman becomes connected to the property, uncovering secrets that refuse to remain buried. Through shifting perspectives and atmospheric storytelling, Chanel Cleeton explores ambition, betrayal, marriage, and the hidden histories behind outward appearances. Blending historical fiction with mystery and suspense, the novel reveals how the secrets of a place can shape the lives of generations.

In Happy Land, Dolen Perkins-Valdez uncovers a remarkable chapter of African American history through the story of a family whose identity is deeply rooted in the legacy of a forgotten kingdom. Nikki Berry has been estranged from her grandmother, Mother Rita, for years. When her grandmother unexpectedly summons her to the mountains of western North Carolina, Nikki hopes to understand the family conflict that has separated generations. Instead, she discovers a story that transforms her understanding of her ancestry: her great-great-great-grandmother, Luella, was the queen of the Kingdom of the Happy Land, a real community established by formerly enslaved people after the American Civil War. As Nikki learns more about the kingdom and the lives of those who built it, she discovers how her ancestors created a place of independence and belonging in a society that continued to deny Black Americans equality. But the family’s connection to the land faces a new threat when outside interests seek to take it away. Nikki must confront both the secrets that have shaped her family and the responsibility of protecting its inheritance. Moving between Nikki’s present-day struggles and Luella’s nineteenth-century experiences, Perkins-Valdez weaves together two generations of women whose lives are shaped by the pursuit of freedom, dignity, and self-determination. The novel explores the importance of ancestral memory, the lasting consequences of racial injustice, and the deep connection between land and identity. Inspired by the historical Kingdom of the Happy Land, the novel celebrates the courage of people who dared to imagine a different future and asks what it means to preserve a legacy for generations to come.

In 1856, Lieutenant Henry Aaron Bird, an aging officer in the United States Navy, makes an extraordinary discovery on a remote Pacific island: a young, speechless girl living alone in the aftermath of a shipwreck. Naming her Alice, Bird takes her aboard his ship and eventually brings her to San Francisco, where he presents her to the public as the “Wild Girl of the Pacific.” To the crowds, Alice is a scientific curiosity and a spectacle; to Bird, she is both a responsibility and an opportunity to restore his fading reputation. But Alice is not content to remain an object of fascination or a prisoner of someone else’s ambitions. As she struggles to reclaim control over her life, she must navigate the unfamiliar world of nineteenth-century America, where freedom can prove as elusive as it was on the island. Blending historical fiction, maritime adventure, dark humour, and social satire, Liska explores exploitation, loneliness, and the power of storytelling. The novel asks who has the right to define another person’s identity—and whether true independence is ever entirely within our grasp.

Homeseeking follows Suchi and Haiwen, childhood sweethearts whose lives are transformed by the political upheavals of twentieth-century China. They first meet in Shanghai, where Haiwen’s violin draws Suchi into his world. Their young love is interrupted when Haiwen joins the Nationalist army in 1947, leaving Suchi behind with little explanation. Over the following decades, war, migration, and changing political circumstances carry them through Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States, shaping their lives in different ways. Sixty years later, they unexpectedly encounter one another again in Los Angeles. Chen moves between their perspectives to explore memory, sacrifice, and the meaning of home. The novel examines how historical forces can separate people while emotional attachments continue to endure across distance and time.

Spanning generations and continents, The Strangling Fig explores the lasting impact of grief, family secrets, and inherited trauma on the lives of women in one Muslim family. Hyderabad, 1946: Ashraf is a young girl when her father is murdered on the eve of the Partition of British India. His death transforms her relationship with her mother, leaving Ashraf emotionally isolated and searching for the affection she can no longer find at home. As she grows older, the wounds of her childhood shape her choices in love, marriage, and motherhood, influencing her relationship with her own daughter. California, 2002: Sixteen-year-old Seher feels abandoned by her mother and struggles to find a place for herself. When she begins seeing the ghost of her grandmother, Ashraf, she finds the guidance and emotional connection she has been missing. But as Seher becomes increasingly dependent on this supernatural presence, she discovers that the bond offers comfort at a troubling cost. Moving between India and the United States, Musa weaves together the experiences of women separated by generations but connected by family history and unresolved pain. Blending family drama with elements of magical realism, the novel examines how loss and emotional wounds can be passed from mother to daughter—and whether understanding the past can help break the cycle.

In 1919 New York, Hazel Brister leaves her privileged past behind to rebuild her life on the Lower East Side. When a woman arrives seeking help finding her missing husband, Hazel uncovers a troubling pattern: a group of women have all been abandoned by husbands who have mysteriously vanished. Hoping to uncover the truth and launch her journalism career, Hazel joins forces with these resourceful women—but their investigation reveals dangerous secrets that reach closer to home than she ever imagined. Inspired by true events, this is a story of female solidarity, resilience, and women reclaiming their futures.

In 1800s New York, Eliza Brown is determined to escape her humble beginnings and claim a place among the city’s elite. When she catches the attention of political figure Aaron Burr, she sees an opportunity to secure her future—but her ambitions threaten to expose secrets from her past. More than two centuries later, disgraced architect Abby Dorrance investigates her father’s mysterious death at the historic Morris-Jumel Mansion in Harlem. As she uncovers the house’s hidden history, Abby must choose between protecting her family’s legacy and saving the landmark from destruction. Moving between two eras, this compelling novel follows two ambitious women determined to shape their own destinies against society’s expectations.

In Gilded Age New York, Hetty Robinson refuses to follow society’s expectations of a wealthy young woman. Instead of settling into a conventional marriage, she joins her father’s business and reveals an extraordinary talent for investing. After a devastating betrayal threatens everything she has built, Hetty vows never to depend on anyone again. Determined to forge her own financial empire, she takes on Wall Street’s most powerful men, including J. P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. But behind the notorious nickname “The Witch of Wall Street” lies a more complicated woman: a fiercely independent financier, devoted mother, and shrewd investor whose actions would help save New York City from financial ruin. Inspired by the remarkable life of Hetty Green, this historical novel explores ambition, money, and the price women pay for power.