Adult

Nessa Garvey’s sister, Deena, vanished without a trace in Philadelphia in 2004. In all that time, Nessa has never once doubted what her instincts told her: her sister’s ex-husband has gotten away with an unspeakable crime. Nessa’s niece, Ruby, is raised by her father, the man Nessa suspects, in rural Vermont on the shores of Lake Champlain. Ruby learns how to hunt, how the plants and trees grow, how to avoid making her father angry. The one question she longs to ask is the one she knows she cannot voice: What really happened to her mother? Over 14 years and 400 miles apart, these two women slowly begin to unearth the family history of insidious power and control that has shaped them both in such different ways. But can they reach each other in time?

Early in the Great War, Britain’s munitions factories struggled to produce the weapons their troops desperately needed in their fight against the Central Powers. Facing a shortage of civilian men, factory owners appealed to women to step up and help their nation build bombs. “Be the Girl Behind the Man Behind the Gun” declared the recruitment posters, and thousands of young women responded to the call. The jobs were grueling --- 12-hour shifts, six days a week --- and dangerous. Yet for many “munitionettes,” as they were fondly known, war work was also meaningful and exciting. In CANARY GIRLS, Jennifer Chiaverini sheds light on the munitionettes and their contributions to the war effort through both their essential work and play.

Tatum hasn’t seen her daughter, Adrienne, in years, not since Tatum’s husband --- the pastor in their small California town --- all but disowned her. When she finally gathers the courage to secretly reconnect with Adrienne, Tatum is thrilled she is even willing to talk to her. But then Adrienne disappears. Tatum tries desperately to get the police or her husband to take her daughter’s disappearance seriously, but no one will listen, until a mysterious man shows up claiming to be Adrienne’s fiancé. It’s a relief to finally have someone who believes her, someone who’s trying as hard as she is to find out where Adrienne is. But can she trust that this stranger is who he says he is? And can she find her daughter before it’s too late?

TOMB SWEEPING probes the loyalties we hold: to relatives, to strangers and to ourselves. In stories set across the US and Asia, Alexandra Chang immerses us in the lives of immigrant families, grocery store employees, expecting parents and guileless lab assistants. A woman known only to her neighbors as “the Asian recycling lady” collects bottles from the streets she calls home. A young college grad ponders the void left from a broken friendship. An unfulfilled housewife in Shanghai finds a secret outlet for her ambitions in an undercover gambling den. Two strangers become something more through the bond of mistaken identity. These characters, adeptly attuned to the mystery of living, invite us to consider if it is possible for anyone to entirely do right by another.

When Roisin and Joe join their friends for a weekend at a country house, it’s a triple celebration --- a birthday, an engagement, and the launch of Joe’s shiny new TV show. But as the weekend unfolds, tensions come to light in the group, and Roisin begins to question her own relationship. And as they watch the first episode of Joe’s drama, she realizes that the private things she told him are right there on the screen. With her friend group in chaos and her messy love life on display for the whole world to see, Roisin returns home to avoid the unwanted attention and help run her family’s pub. But drama still follows, in the form of her dysfunctional family. Yet the most unexpected twist of all is an old friend, who is suddenly there for Roisin in ways she never knew she needed.

On the second to last day of summer school in 1984, Calvin and Jason Schott hijack a school bus carrying 19 students, an unthinkable act of violence that devastates the community of Brookwood. Thirty years later, Brenda and Emily Mashburn --- twin sisters and survivors of the ordeal --- are forced to relive the kidnapping as they film a documentary about the event in an attempt to thwart Calvin's looming parole hearing. Meanwhile, Jason fights for his brother's release, hoping that a reunited family can finally bring peace to their elderly mother and ease the guilt he feels over his role in the kidnapping. The result is a feud between the two families, with neither side willing to back down.

1926, Hyde Park, New York. Born to modest means but befriended by the wealthy, aspiring dress designer Pandora Carmichael has been surrounded by privilege yet never at home in it. That hasn’t stopped her from dreaming --- of a romance in a rarified world that could also give her the status and resources to start a business of her own. When she’s introduced to a charismatic Princeton student, Pandora’s future begins to fall into place. Marriage provides Pandora with a devoted husband, comfortable love, and the prominence and affluence to open a boutique. It’s a fantasy realized, until scandal and tragedy upend Pandora’s life and she flees Hyde Park with a heart-wrenching secret. As the Depression looms, Pandora must rethink everything she’s ever wanted.

With an ex-husband relocated across the country, her father bouncing back after the loss of his beloved wife, and her daughter, Xandra, thriving at boarding school, Nina Morgan Clarke is stepping into her dream job as a trifecta: a first-generation, Black female head of the storied Royal-Hawkins School. To mark the moment, Nina and her best friend, Marisol, take a long-overdue girls’ trip to celebrate the second half of Nina’s life --- which is shaping up to be the best part of her life. As Nina’s school year gets underway, all seems to be progressing as planned. Before long, wunder-hire Jared Jones relentlessly pushes Nina to her ethical limits. Soon after, dutiful Xandra accuses one of her teachers of misconduct. And most alarming, the repercussions of her trip with Marisol force Nina into a life-altering choice.

Kathleen Deane’s husband, Tom, tells her he's no longer happy with his life and their marriage. With Tom off finding himself, Kathleen starts to think about what she wants. And her thoughts lead her to a small beach community on the east coast, a town called Whitbey that has always looked lovely in the Christmas letters her childhood friend Josie sends every year. It turns out, though, that life in Whitbey is nothing like Josie’s letters. Worst of all is the Sugar Cube, the monstrosity masquerading as a holiday home that Kathleen’s absentee neighbors are building next door to her quaint (read: tiny) cottage. As Kathleen gets more and more involved in the fight against the Sugar Cube and town politics overall, she realizes that Whitbey may not be a fairy tale, but it just might be exactly what she needs.

Beatriz Williams’ novels inhabit a category all their own: nuanced yet propulsive, innovative yet addictive, packed with human truth and told in an incomparable narrative voice that evokes a stunning sense of period while still feeling new and immediate. Now the beloved author returns with another remarkable summer novel. In these gorgeous sun-washed pages, Williams sets THE BEACH AT SUMMERLY in the exclusive New England summer enclave readers first discovered in THE SUMMER WIVES and fills it with new love, old rivalries and the Cold War intrigue of the 1960s.