A Word About Awards

LOVE & SUMMER by William Trevor   Nominations: Booker Longlist 2009, Dublin Finalist 2011   Date Read: July 29, 2023   When a stranger rolls into the small town of Rathmoye on his bicycle for the summer, Ellie Dillahan’s life will be forever changed. Ellie is married to Dillahan and considers herself fortunate to be his wife on their small farm. She is content seeing to her husband’s needs, gathering the eggs, managing the accounts and any other tasks that land on her capable shoulders.    Before moving to Rathmoye as Dillahan’s housekeeper, she was raised in a Catholic orphan’s home and had hoped for a chance to live in a normal household. After Dillahan’s wife and child died in a tragic accident, he sent for a housekeeper and Ellie is who he got. After they realized they got along very well, he asked her to marry him. Ellie jumped at the chance and was grateful for the blessings that had recently befallen her. Who needs passion when you have a stable home, a faithful husband and

THE HUMAN STAIN by Philip Roth   Award: PEN/Faulkner Winner 2001   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2002, LA Times Finalist 2000, NY Times Finalist 2000   Date Read: July 29, 2023   Coleman Silk is an unusual character with a very interesting life and, possibly, a more interesting death. Born to poor parents who worked hard to educate their three children, Coleman is the black sheep of the family, insisting on boxing and going his own way in life. When he finally reaches Howard University, an HBC, and feels the sting of overt racism, he knows that is not the life for him.   He has no intentions of following intellectually in his father’s footsteps but Coleman is the most like his father out of all three kids. Of course, with black skin and a Jewish heritage, the futures available to them are not infinite.    After joining the navy and fighting in Vietnam, Coleman attends NYU and seems attracted exclusively to white girls. Because he can easily “pass” he never divulges that he’s black to an

SISTER WOLF by Ann Arensberg   Award: National Book Winner 1981   Date Read: July 23, 2023   Marit is the daughter of Hungarian immigrants, Vladimir and Luba, who were well-off and left her a great inheritance. Marit has never married and allows only a few people close, namely her best friend Lola. With nothing but time and money on her hands, Marit decides to turn the land adjacent to her mansion into a wildlife preserve.   Initially, she has permission to house non-threatening indigenous wildlife that used to live in that area but were hunted off or otherwise removed. What the town does not know is that Marit has arranged to have four wolves on her property, a move she knows will get her into trouble if it were found out.   Next door to her property is a school for the blind and one of their teachers, Gabriel, becomes romantically entangled with Marit. As their relationship progresses, a picture emerges of Marit as incredibly jealous and very much unhinged. She obsesses over Gabriel’

SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE by Claire Keegan   Nominations: Booker Finalist 2022, Dublin Longlist 2023, Rathbones Folio Finalist 2022   Date Read: July 21, 2023   Bill Furlong is a coal & timber merchant, married with five daughters. Yes, five. What makes Furlong remarkable, however, is his ability to look at his life with gratitude – for his wife, his five daughters and having enough to put food on the table.   Having been raised by a single mother who was disowned by her own family for falling pregnant while unmarried, Furlong is especially sensitive to Sarah and how she is being treated. On a delivery to the convent, he find her locked inside the coal shed with no coat or shoes, no food or comfort. He realizes his own mother could have been treated like her had it not been for the kindness and generosity of Mrs. Wilson.   Furlong understands the fundamental truths about humanity: if you treat people well, they will treat you well; people can be good; kindness goes a long way in this

DISOBEDIENCE by Naomi Alderman Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2008, Women’s Prize Longlist 2006 Date Read: July 20, 2023 In Disobedience, Alderman explores how a lesbian can exist in an Orthodox Jewish community. Can a woman be both a lesbian and a Jew? Would God be angry? Would the community? As it turns out, and as is most often the case, God is more forgiving than humankind.   Esti is married to Dovid who is the heir apparent to a small, local synagogue in England. With the Rav elderly and in ill health, the time for Dovid to step up is quickly approaching. Dovid, however, is a quiet man who suffers debilitating headaches (migraines?) and has no desire to lead a congregation. The other impediment is his wife, Esti.   The entire community knows about Esti, particularly her relationship with Ronit. Esti and Ronit were besties in their youth and their friendship wandered into a sexual relationship and both realized that they were gay. Or bisexual at the very least. In such a tight-knit c

MOLLY FOX’S BIRTHDAY by Deirdre Madden   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2010, Women’s Prize Finalist 2009   Date Read: July 18, 2023   Molly Fox’s Birthday is a unique novel in that the entire work is a reminiscence about the past and the present of our unnamed main character’s best friend, Molly. Unnamed has done a house swap with her best friend, moving in to Molly’s Ireland house and Molly has moved into her London house. What makes these particular women remarkable is that Molly is a famous actress on the stage and Unnamed is a revered playwright.   Molly and Unnamed have known each other since Unnamed was in university. She had seen Molly in a play and was bewitched by her talent. Having known from a young age she wanted to be a playwright, she hope to someday write a play that Molly could perform in. Indeed, this is what came to pass and from that moment on, they both played a key role in each other’s lives.   Although a lot of the reminiscences occur in the past, this novel doesn’

AMERICA IS NOT THE HEART by Elaine Castillo   Nominations: Aspen Words Longlist 2019, Center For Fiction Longlist 2018   Date Read: July 15, 2023   Hero, an unlikely name for a woman broken by her past, finds herself in Milpitas starting life over as an undocumented immigrant from the Philippines. She spent 10 years in the Philippines as a doctor to insurgents fighting for freedom from their oppressive government. Now in Milpitas, living with her aunt and uncle, Hero works in a restaurant.   The beauty of America Is Not The Heart is the cultural references and rituals that are unfamiliar to those not of Filipino ancestry. The customs, language, food and connection are texturally rich and filling. How extended family is considered family is heart-warming and makes me jealous that I don’t have those same kind of extended connections. I’m also jealous that we don’t have the same kind of rituals to pass the many holidays and celebrations of life.   I also appreciated Castillo’s exploration

DEAR MISS METROPOLITAN by Carolyn Ferrell   Nominations: PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2022, PEN/Hemingway Finalist 2022   Date Read: July 10, 2023   Incredibly evocative of the real-life story of the Cleveland kidnappings, Ferrell explores the world that is created among three girls whose lives are stolen for 10 years. Gwin and Fern both come from challenging homes but find refuge, solidarity and family in each other through the tragic circumstances they find themselves in.   Gwin and Fern are held captive for 10 very long years in which they are tortured, kept in chains, starved and raped. Their entire lives are to serve Boss Man (aka Nestor), who looms over every aspect of their lives. After an unknowable amount of time, a third girl, Jesenia, is added to the house and she eventually has Boss Man’s baby.    The novel shifts between each girl’s life before the kidnapping and their lives after, as they attempt to recover from such lengthy and unimaginable trauma. Fern’s mother is a nurse and

MIRROR, SHOULDER, SIGNAL by Dorthe Nors   Nominations: Booker Finalist 2017, Dublin Longlist 2019   Date Read: July 7, 2023   This short novella is a sweet exploration of the intricacies of trying to change your life when you get older. The older you get, the harder it is to change. Sonja has moved to Copenhagen, is learning to drive, is trying to reconnect with her sister. The family farm was sold and there is really nothing for her to return to from her upbringing. So why can she not let the memories of her idyllic early life go?   The driving school portions of this novel are really bizarre to me. How hard is it really to learn to drive? Maybe there’s a big difference between learning as a teen and learning in your early 40s that makes you less confident. Either way, it really isn’t that difficult. I know she’s learning on a manual but my god, push in clutch and shift. Not rocket science. And yet, as Sonja moves on to her second instructor, she begins to realize she will never drive

ANITA & ME by Meera Syal   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 1998, Women’s Prize Longlist 1997   Date Read: July 5, 2023   This coming of age novel set in a small English country village named Tottingham, explores the difficulties of growing up as a racial minority. Not only does Meena have all the challenges of growing up in general, but she also stands out as a girl whose family is from India. Although she was born in England and speaks with all the slang expected of a girl her age, she wants more than anything to just fit in.   Meena has a wicked streak so when she pairs up with Anita, a truly wicked girl, the rebellious streak in Meena becomes even more pronounced. They shoplift, steal charity, lie, bully local kids and generally act superior to everyone around them. Anita’s friendship, though, is always clearly conditional and superficial. The one thing Meena has going for her that Anita does not is that her family genuinely loves and cares about her.   Anita, and her younger siste