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Elizabeth Strout, author of My Name Is Lucy Barton

Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters. Knitting this powerful narrative together is the brilliant storytelling voice of Lucy herself: keenly observant, deeply human, and truly unforgettable.

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The Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2016

THE SELLOUT by Paul Beatty has been awarded the 2016 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. The 54-year-old New York resident, born in Los Angeles, is the first American author to win the prize in its 48-year history. US authors became eligible in 2014. THE SELLOUT is a searing satire on race relations in contemporary America. It is described by The New York Times as a "metaphorical multicultural pot almost too hot to touch," while the Wall Street Journal called it a "Swiftian satire of the highest order. Like someone shouting fire in a crowded theatre, Mr. Beatty has whispered 'Racism' in a postracial world."

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Week of October 10, 2016

Paperback releases for the week of October 10th include THE LAST MIDWIFE by Sandra Dallas, which tells a story of family, community, and the secrets that can destroy and unite them; Elizabeth Strout's MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON, in which a simple hospital visit becomes a portal to the tender relationship between mother and daughter; HEART OF GLASS, Wendy Lawless' follow-up memoir to CHANEL BONFIRE, the darkly funny story of a girl without a roadmap for life who leaves her disastrous past to find herself in the gritty heart of 1980s New York City; and RAZZLE DAZZLE, Michael Riedel's account of the rise, fall and redemption of Broadway --- its stars, its biggest shows, its producers, and all the drama, intrigue and power plays that happened behind the scenes.

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