Adult

On an ordinary summer morning, the world is changed by the appearance of seven mysterious doors that seemingly lead to another world. People are, of course, mesmerized and intrigued: A new dimension filled with beauty and resources beckons them to step into an adventure. But, perhaps inevitably, people soon learn that what looks like paradise may very well be filled with danger. Ayanna and Olivia, two Black midwestern teens --- and twin sisters --- have different ideas of what may lie in the world beyond. But will their personal bond endure such wanton exploration? When one of them goes missing, will the other find solace on her own? And will she uncover the circumstances of what truly happened to her once constant companion and best friend?

Harvard, 1996. Anna is about to graduate when she falls hard for Christoph, a visiting German student. Captivated by his beauty and intelligence, she follows him to Germany, where charming squares and grand facades belie the nation’s recent history and the war’s destruction. Christoph condemns his country’s actions but remains cryptic about the part his own grandfather played. Anna, meanwhile, cannot forget the photos taken by her American GI grandfather at the end of the war, preserved in a scrapbook only she has seen. As Anna travels back and forth to Germany to deepen her relationship with the elusive Christoph, her perspective is powerfully interrupted by chapters that follow both of their grandfathers during the war. Their fragmented stories haunt Anna and her lover two generations later --- and may still tear them apart.

FULFILLMENT tells the story of two half-brothers --- Joel, a successful academic and author, whose marriage is in deep trouble, and his younger sibling, Emmett, paralyzed by indecision and working in a shipping warehouse --- who find themselves at their family home in Kentucky and upend each other’s lives in devastating ways. Between them is Alice, Joel's wife, a wry, passionate young woman whose dream of a small farm feels unattainable, and whose longing for a more authentic life collides with Emmett's hunger for connection and desire to escape a sense of burgeoning failure. As the chemistry between them escalates, the family is plunged into a violent crucible, each character brought to the precipice of immutable catastrophe.

By all appearances, Emily has a perfect life: a townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, two healthy children, and a husband who showers her with attention. But the truth is more complicated: Emily’s marriage is in trouble, her relationship with her parents is fraught, and she is still nursing a heartbreak from long ago. When Emily runs into her high school girlfriend at a cocktail party, that heartbreak comes roaring back. But Gen Hall is no longer the lanky, hungry kid with holes in her shoes who Emily loved in her youth. Instead, she is a famous Olympic athlete with sponsorship deals and a string of high-profile ex-girlfriends. Emily and Gen circle one another cautiously, drawn together by a magnetic attraction and scarred by their shared history.

In 1983, Thomas Mallon was a literature professor at Vassar College. The AIDS epidemic was beginning to surge in New York City, the ever-bustling epicenter of literary culture and gay life. Riding the success of his debut, A BOOK OF ONE’S OWN, he became a fixture within the city’s literary scene, crossing paths with cultural giants and becoming an editor at GQ. He captured it all in his daily journals. But in some ways it was the worst possible time for a gay coming-of-age in the city. One of his lovers succumbed to AIDS, and the illness of others was both a heartbreaking reality and a constant reminder of his own exposure. Tracing his own life day by day, Mallon evokes all that those years encompassed: the hookups, intensifying politics and personal tragedies, as well as his own blossoming success and eventual romantic happiness.

It’s the summer, and Sebastian is in treatment following a breakdown that has left him grappling with his fragile grip on reality and his persistent hunger to connect with the biological mother who abandoned him as a child. His therapist, Martin, is facing challenges of his own, including his adopted daughter’s tenuous relationship with her own biological mother --- a predicament that makes Sebastian’s struggle feel uncannily proximate to her own. Olivia is producing a radio series on catastrophic natural disasters, which itself seems to be running parallel to the events unfolding in her personal life, as her best friend, Lucy, faces a grave diagnosis, and her husband, Francis, pursues his mission of re-wilding the world. Over the course of the next year, their fates collide in outrageous and poignant ways, as each of their destinies is revealed in a marvelous new light.

Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a loner and a maverick scientist who scours the country’s forests and valleys, trying and failing to breed rare snails, while her relatives urge her to settle down. Yeva already dates plenty of men --- not for love, but to fund her work --- entertaining Westerners who come to Ukraine on guided romance tours believing they’ll find docile brides untainted by feminism and modernity. Nastia and her sister, Solomiya, are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator while secretly searching for their missing mother, who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours. Together they embark across hundreds of miles. But their plans come to a screeching halt when Russia invades.

In November 1999, Joan Didion began seeing a psychiatrist because, as she wrote to a friend, her family had had “a rough few years.” She described the sessions in a journal she created for her husband, John Gregory Dunne. For several months, Didion recorded conversations with the psychiatrist in meticulous detail. The initial sessions focused on alcoholism, adoption, depression, anxiety, guilt, and the heartbreaking complexities of her relationship with her daughter, Quintana. The subjects evolved to include her work, which she was finding difficult to maintain for sustained periods. There were discussions about her own childhood and the question of legacy, or, as she put it, “what it’s been worth.” The analysis would continue for more than a decade.

The year is 1908, the height of the Belle Époque, and a brilliant, young French woman named Gabriële, newly graduated from the most elite music school in Europe, meets a volcanic Spanish artist named Francis. Following a whirlwind romance, they marry and fall headlong into a Paris that is experimenting with new forms of living, thinking and creating. Soon after marrying Francis, Gabriële meets Marcel, another young artist. Soon, Francis, Marcel and Gabriële are all involved in a fervent affair that will change the course of art history and redefine the avant-garde. As the Belle Epoque gives way to rebellion and revolution, and the world descends into the devastation of World War I, Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp and Gabriële Buffet revolutionize art and open up new ways of seeing and thinking.

From the time she was young, Suleika Jaouad has kept a journal. She’s used it to mark life's biggest occasions and to weather its most ferocious storms. Journaling has buoyed her through illness, heartbreak and the deepest uncertainty. And she is not alone. For so many people, keeping a journal is an essential tool for navigating both the personal peaks and valleys and the collective challenges of modern life. In THE BOOK OF ALCHEMY, Suleika explores the art of journaling and shares everything she's learned about how this life-altering practice can help us tap into that mystical trait that exists in every human: creativity. She has gathered wisdom from 100 writers, artists and thinkers in the form of essays and writing prompts. Their insights invite us to inhabit a more inspired life.