Contemporary Fiction

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Far Away from Here

Far Away from Here

Five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, three young Black American Muslims find themselves confronting the losses, choices, and secrets that have shaped their lives. Fatima returns to the city she fled after the murder of her fiancé, reluctantly taking on the care of his dying mother. Tahani, a single mother who has struggled to reconcile her independence with her religious upbringing, longs for a life that leaves room for her own ambitions. Meanwhile, Saif must face his troubled past and the role he played in his cousin’s death. As their lives intertwine once more, all three must reckon with grief, faith, and the possibility of a different future. A tender, thought-provoking novel about community, belonging, and the courage to reclaim your own story.

United States 2025

Dust Settles North

Dust Settles North

Deena Elgenaidi

Set in 2012, in the aftermath of Egypt’s revolution, Dust Settles North follows Hannah and Zain, two Egyptian American siblings whose lives are upended by their mother’s sudden death and their father’s devastating betrayal. Travelling from New York to Cairo to bury their mother, they find themselves confronting not only their grief but also the painful secrets that have shaped their family. Hannah abandons her plans to attend Columbia Law School and stays in Egypt, where she navigates unfamiliar surroundings, complicated romantic relationships, and a growing political consciousness. Meanwhile, Zain remains in the United States, where his self-destructive behaviour threatens his relationships and forces him to question whether he is repeating his father’s mistakes. When the siblings reunite in Cairo, Hannah becomes caught up in the atmosphere of political upheaval surrounding the Arab Spring, while both struggle to reconcile their conservative Muslim upbringing with their evolving beliefs and desires. Tender and introspective, the novel explores grief, faith, cultural identity, and the complicated ties between parents and children. Through Hannah and Zain’s journeys, ElGenaidi examines what it means to belong to two cultures while searching for a sense of home—and whether a fractured family can find a way to heal.

Soyangri Book Kitchen

Soyangri Book Kitchen

After leaving behind the pressures of city life in Seoul, Yoojin unexpectedly opens the Book Kitchen in Soyangri, a peaceful village in the South Korean countryside. Part bookshop, part café and part guesthouse, this welcoming retreat offers visitors a place to rest, enjoy homemade food and rediscover the comfort of books. Over the course of a year, as the seasons change, people arrive at the Book Kitchen during difficult turning points in their lives. Among them are a singer struggling with an identity crisis, a promising lawyer facing a troubling medical diagnosis, and a young musical director whose dreams have been diminished by repeated failures. Through quiet conversations, shared meals and the stories found on the shelves, each visitor begins to reconsider their circumstances and imagine new possibilities. With its gentle atmosphere and interconnected characters, the novel celebrates the restorative power of literature, the kindness of strangers and the importance of finding a place where one can pause, reflect and begin again.

South Korea 2025

A Beautiful Lack of Consequence

A Beautiful Lack of Consequence

Monika Radojevic

A Beautiful Lack of Consequence is a collection of thirty short stories that explore the complexities of contemporary womanhood through a blend of realism, surrealism, dark humor, and feminist commentary. Across its stories, Monika Radojevic depicts women confronting the pressures and expectations imposed on them by society. A woman enters a bar and finds herself completely invisible; a newly married couple faces a disturbing punishment for their childlessness; and a young girl trades her vocal cords for the possibility of freedom. These strange and unsettling scenarios transform familiar experiences of exclusion, fear, and powerlessness into imaginative explorations of resistance. Moving between the everyday and the fantastical, the collection examines how women navigate relationships, social conventions, anger, and the struggle to make their voices heard. Radojevic combines tenderness with biting humor, capturing both the vulnerability and the strength of women pushed to their limits. Her stories ask what happens when those who have been expected to remain silent finally refuse to comply. Dark, inventive, and sharply observed, the collection explores the possibilities of reclaiming agency in a world that continually attempts to define women’s lives.

United Kingdom 2025

What a Time to Be Alive

What a Time to Be Alive

What a Time to Be Alive follows twenty-one-year-old Sickan Hermansson, a young woman who arrives at Stockholm University determined to reinvent herself. After a lonely childhood in a small Swedish town, marked by social exclusion and a lack of meaningful connections, she sees university as an opportunity to experience the things she has missed: friendship, intimacy, love, and the freedom to become someone new. Just as Sickan begins to find her place among a group of friends, she meets Abbe, a charming and confident young man who seems to offer the possibility of romance and belonging. Yet navigating relationships proves more complicated than she imagined, forcing her to confront her insecurities and the compromises she is willing to make to be accepted. With sensitivity and understated humor, Jenny Mustard explores loneliness, class, sexuality, and the pressures of young womanhood. The novel captures the awkwardness and intensity of early adulthood, asking how much of ourselves we are willing to change in the pursuit of love and acceptance.

Second Chance Convenience Store

Second Chance Convenience Store

The Second Chance Convenience Store follows Dokgo, a homeless man living near Seoul Station who has lost his memory and struggles to make sense of his past. His life begins to change after he finds and returns a wallet belonging to Mrs Yeom, a retired teacher who owns a small convenience store. Grateful for his honesty, she offers him food and eventually gives him a job at her shop. As Dokgo becomes part of the neighbourhood, his quiet kindness begins to transform the lives of customers and colleagues dealing with loneliness, family conflict, and personal disappointment. Yet his mysterious past continues to cast a shadow over his new beginning. Through the everyday encounters taking place inside the store, Kim explores social isolation, economic insecurity, and the importance of community. The novel celebrates compassion and suggests that small acts of kindness can help people recover their dignity and rebuild their lives.

Nights Are Quiet in Tehran

Nights Are Quiet in Tehran

The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran follows an Iranian family across four decades, exploring revolution, exile, identity, and the lasting effects of political upheaval. The story begins in 1979, when Behzad, a young communist revolutionary, fights for a new political order following the fall of the Shah. He falls in love with Nahid, an equally passionate young woman, but the rise of the Islamic Republic eventually forces them to flee to West Germany. Told through four family members’ perspectives in 1979, 1989, 1999, and 2009, the novel traces their struggles to build a new life while maintaining connections to their homeland. As the children grow up between cultures, questions of belonging, memory, and inherited political convictions become increasingly complex. Their experiences culminate against the backdrop of Iran’s 2009 Green Movement, which brings the family’s past and present into renewed tension. Through its shifting voices and generations, Bazyar explores how political events shape private lives and how the meaning of home changes across generations of migration and exile.

Too Soon

Too Soon follows three generations of Palestinian American women—grandmother Zoya, mother Naya, and granddaughter Arabella—as they navigate love, ambition, exile, and cultural identity across decades. Their family history stretches from their displacement from Jaffa in 1948 to their pursuit of the American Dream and their lives in the New York theatre world. Arabella, a thirty-five-year-old theatre director, faces complicated romantic choices and an opportunity to stage a provocative production in the West Bank, while her mother and grandmother attempt to guide her future and confront secrets from their past. Blending sharp humor with emotional depth, Betty Shamieh explores the lasting effects of displacement, the tensions between tradition and independence, and the struggle to define oneself across generations. The novel celebrates the resilience of women determined to pursue love and freedom on their own terms.

Heart Lamp

Heart Lamp is a collection of twelve short stories portraying the lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Through intimate family dramas, everyday conflicts, and moments of dark humor, Banu Mushtaq explores the effects of patriarchy, religious authority, caste discrimination, and social expectations on women’s lives. Her characters include mothers struggling to protect their children, girls confronting restrictive traditions, and women navigating relationships shaped by unequal power. Written with wit, compassion, and sharp social observation, the stories reveal both the injustices embedded in family and community life and the resilience of those who challenge them. Originally written in Kannada over more than three decades, the collection offers a nuanced portrait of contemporary Indian society. It won the 2025 International Booker Prize in Deepa Bhasthi’s English translation.

Perfection

Vincenzo Latronico

In Perfection, Anna and Tom are a young creative couple living in Berlin, where they enjoy a carefully curated lifestyle of remote work, minimalist interiors, cultural experiences, and seemingly effortless happiness. Surrounded by the aesthetics of contemporary urban life, they appear to have achieved the freedom and fulfillment they desire. Yet beneath their polished routines lies a growing sense of emptiness and dissatisfaction. Through precise, detached prose, Vincenzo Latronico examines the contradictions of digital nomadism, gentrification, consumer culture, and the pursuit of an ideal life shaped by social media. The novel offers a sharp portrait of a generation caught between the desire for authenticity and the pressure to make every aspect of life look perfect.

Tehrangeles

Porochista Khakpour

The Milanis have everything money can buy: a sprawling Los Angeles mansion, a successful frozen-food empire, and four daughters ready for their close-up. When the wealthy Iranian American family lands a reality television deal, each sister sees an opportunity to claim the spotlight. Violet, an aspiring model, longs for love and acceptance; Roxanna, an ambitious influencer, thrives on attention; Mina, a sharp-witted overachiever, guards secrets of her own; and teenage Haylee dreams of becoming a wellness sensation. Their parents, Ali and Homa, have secrets they would rather keep hidden, too. But just as the cameras prepare to roll, political tensions, family revelations, and the COVID-19 pandemic threaten to unravel their carefully curated lives. With biting humour and unexpected tenderness, Tehrangeles satirises celebrity culture, social media, and the pursuit of the American dream while exploring the complicated realities of growing up Iranian American. Beneath the glitter and extravagance lies a story about family, identity, and the difference between being seen and being truly understood.

Hyper

Hyper follows the Kermanj family, whose lives are shaped by migration, political upheaval, and the growing influence of global capitalism. After Rafiq Kermanj, a Kurdish communist activist, is forced to flee Tehran for London with his conservative wife and three children, the family struggles to adapt to life in exile. As the children grow up, each develops a different relationship with money and success. Siver escapes an unhappy marriage in Baghdad and raises her daughter in Dubai, Mohammed pursues a career in London’s financial sector, and Laika becomes immersed in the world of algorithmic trading near Wall Street. Their increasingly disconnected lives reveal how financial ambition can reshape personal relationships and cultural identity. Ismaïl examines the pressures of modern capitalism, the experience of statelessness, and the search for meaning in a world where economic success increasingly defines human worth.