Books from United States — The Book Roads

Makenna Goodman

Alma lives on a rural Vermont homestead, raising her children, tending animals, and managing a household while her husband teaches at a nearby college. But beneath the rhythms of domestic life, she feels increasingly isolated from the creative ambitions and independent identity she has sacrificed. Her fascination with Celeste, a confident ceramicist whose life seems to embody everything Alma lacks, grows into an unsettling obsession. One night, Alma drives away from home, and her memories reveal the tensions that have brought her to this breaking point. Surreal, darkly funny, and psychologically incisive, The Shame explores motherhood, envy, artistic longing, and the quiet desperation of a life that no longer feels like one’s own.

2020

Jaded

Anne Meredith

Summer 1986, at Kelsey College. Professors Sam and Vera Ward have been married for decades, but their relationship follows an unusual arrangement: each academic year, Sam may take one student as a lover, provided the affair ends within twelve months. Their carefully controlled tradition begins to unravel when they choose Jade, a mysterious and fiercely intelligent young woman who has plans of her own. As desire turns into obsession and manipulation, the boundaries between predator and prey begin to collapse. Secrets become weapons, loyalties shift, and the power dynamics that once held the Wards’ marriage together threaten to destroy them all. Seductive, unsettling, and sharply observed, Jaded explores sexual politics, complicity, ambition, and the dangerous games people play to maintain control.

2027