Once upon a story within a story, located off the coast of Italy, was a tiny island named Castellamare. The island was so small, it was often unvisited, and thus its inhabitants thought to rule themselves. The island’s remoteness lent it to power struggles, deeply rooted family drama, and many rumors turned age-old-tales. It is the perfect setting for a great saga.
In 1914 meet Amedeo Esposito. He is 40-years-old and arrives on Castellamare. Seeking a place to call home he becomes the island’s doctor, and so his story begins. Amedeo is a lover of stories – ones of miracles, of adventure, of history passed from teller to listener – and because of his love of stories he records stories, those he is permitted to, in a red notebook, he is rarely without. Page after page Amedeo’s life is written; from meeting and marrying the love of his life, Pina, to the birth of their three children, to building a café and bar business in the house at the edge of night. Like anyone with a life to live, Amedeo dreams, plans, expects, endures disappointment, and feels immense joy. His life’s story is so full it amounts to almost a century’s worth of tales.
Amedeo’s story is a sweeping, four-generation saga – part love story with the island, with the characters you meet, with the house at the edge of night – part tragedy in choosing the right path, in doing the right thing for yourself and those you love. Written compassionately, vividly, and so lyrically, you will be transported to Castellamare and won’t want to leave. Amedeo’s story ensnares your thoughts with possibility. You’ll feel the saw dust under your feet at the bar and hear the wind blow through the town, you’ll mostly likely smell the sea through the house at the edge of night as you read. Amedeo’s family will pull you right into their lives. You’ll recognize the want and hope for a simple life and the complications rerouting your dream caused by the uncontrollable outside world.
House at the Edge of Night is a timeless story; told honestly and easily. Before you know it, you are fully involved in generation after generation of Amedeo’s family and will want to know more. There is no turning back, like with any family, once you are in, you are all in.
Read-alikes:
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Nbue
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrow of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Jocelyn Kaleita, Brookhaven Free Library
The Immortalists by Chloe BenjaminThe Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin is a sweeping family saga set in New York City’s Lower East Side, beginning in 1969. The four Gold children become preoccupied with the idea of death after seeking out a fortune teller who claims to know when each of them will die. These prophecies follow the siblings for the next fifty years. Each chapter focuses on one sibling, as they travel diverse paths and deal with their looming death date. The distinct journeys propel the characters into different paths, such as Simon and Klara who believe in the prophecies and make life choices accordingly, as opposed to Daniel and Varya who do not. Three of the siblings all die on their predicted dates and the novel ends before revealing the fate of the fourth sister.
This is a complex story immersed in Jewish lore and covering decades of American history from the San Francisco Aids crisis in the 1970’s to the ethical questions concerning animal research. The novel is told from a third-person omniscient narrator who presents one character’s point of view in each part of the story. Each character takes a different path as they approach their fate and fulfill their own idea of a meaningful life. Despite their diverse journeys, the siblings shared Jewish upbringing binds them together in a meditation of how family ties can both hurt and heal.
At the heart of this novel is the question, how do we shape our own destinies? Is it fate or choice that determines our future and how can different people interpret the same event in such varied ways? The power of belief is a core theme, and this includes magic, faith, and storytelling. But it is the pull of family that holds the novel together in a mesmerizing saga. I highly recommend this thought-provoking story for a book discussion group.
Read-alikes:
The
Wangs Vs. the World by Jade Chang
Eternal Life
by Dara Horn
The
Children’s Crusade by Ann Packer
Novels by
Donna Tartt or Celeste Ng
Candace Reeder, Northport-East Northport Public Library
America Is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo
Elaine Castillo’s impressive debut tells the story of Geronima (“Hero”) and her extended family, both in their ancestral Philippines homeland and in 1990’s Milpitas, a San Jose suburb inhabited by many immigrant cultures. Once part of a wealthy, socially prominent family, Hero, an aspiring doctor, renounced her old life to become a field doctor for a guerrilla revolutionary group called the National People’s Party. Tortured and held captive for years, Hero is eventually released, disowned by her parents, and travels to America under the care of her aunt and uncle, Pol and Paz. Paz is the quiet heroine of the story, working double nursing shifts to support their large extended family, in Milpitas and in the Philippines. The daughter of Pol and Paz is the third generation of the tale. It is Hero’s contribution to care for Roni, their seven-year-old daughter. Hero grows to love her niece, and to make friends at a community restaurant where she eventually works. There she meets Rosalyn who becomes central to her life.
The story is character driven, and stylistically complex, as it moves back and forth in time and in Hero’s worlds. The writing is richly descriptive, filled with Filipino cultural detail, in descriptions of language, food, and garage band music.
Read-alikes:
What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Dear America: Notes from an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas
Suzanne McGuire, Commack Public Library
The Balcony by Jane Delury
“What if our homes could tell the stories of those who lived there before us?”
This debut is comprised of ten short stories connected by a house in Benneville, France. Unfortunately, the manor doesn’t tell any story. The stories are connected by the characters who live or have lived in the manor for over 100 years.
None of the characters seem to love the house or have any feeling for it. They all hate Benneville because it’s such a small town where nothing ever happens, and the stories are depressing, dull, and uninspired. There is nothing new here.
Indeed, if the house could talk, we would’ve gotten some great stories: suicide, Jews hiding from the Gestapo, ex-courtesans, brothers who aren’t really brothers (we never find out if they’re told at Christmas), affairs, etc.
I loved the idea of this book and in the first story, when the woman of the house threw herself off the balcony, I was excited to see how the balcony played into each story. Unfortunately, it never did. There were too many characters to keep track of and I couldn’t remember who was related to whom from another story. Beautiful writing, but slow reading. Not a page turner.
Read-alikes:
The Book of Summer by Michelle Gable
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Peculiar Ground by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
The Life She was Given by Ellen Wiseman
Lori Ludlow, Babylon Public Library
Meadowlands by Elizabeth Jeffrey
Three days after the elaborate silver wedding celebration of Sir George Barsham, MP and his wife Lady Adelaide, Britain declares war with Germany (August 4, 1914).
Over the course of the war, we follow the lives of the Barsham children, twins James and Ned and their sisters Millie and Gina. Both boys are sent to Flanders, James in the Army and Ned as a conscientious objector stretcher bearer. Millie learns how to drive an ambulance and ends up in Flanders as well. Only Gina remains at home and it is through her interactions with the local townsfolk that we see the effects the war has on those on the home front.
The story moves at a quick pace yet it is filled with historical details. The circumstances that each of the characters find themselves dealing with throughout WWI are vividly brought to life. Jeffrey’s characters are fascinating, realistic, and detailed. The children are down to earth, the servants “below the stairs” and estate workers are true to form, and Lady Adelaide is the typical lady of the manor … ‘I didn’t bring you up to do the work of a servant, Georgina,’ she remarked when Ruby had left the room. ‘Have you no respect for your position?’
Settle in with a good strong cuppa and a couple of biscuits for an engaging read.
Read-alikes:
We That Are Left by Clare Clark
For Better, For Worse by Elizabeth Jeffrey
The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson
When Joseph, the son of a Jewish mother and a Muslim father, receives a surprise package from his late father, he leaves Berkeley and goes to Cairo to uncover the history that binds the two sides of his family. He finds he is a descendant of generations of watchmen at the Ben Ezra synagogue in Old Cairo, built at the site where the infant Moses was taken from the Nile. Joseph learns of his ancestor Ali, a Muslim orphan who nearly a thousand years earlier was entrusted as the first watchman of the synagogue and became enchanted by its legendary--perhaps magical--Ezra Scroll.
The story of Joseph's family is entwined with that of the British twin sisters Agnes and Margaret, who in 1897 travel to Cairo from their places at Cambridge on a mission to rescue sacred texts that have begun to disappear from the synagogue.
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo is a story of the tangled relations that exist between fathers and sons, religion and love in places like Cairo marked by diversity, and the forces of love that try to bring them together.
This story is told simultaneously by three sisters, Lady, Vee, and Delph Alter. They say it is their collective suicide note. Suicide apparently runs in their family (they have a chart), as their great-grandmother, great-grandfather, grandfather, aunt, and mother have all killed themselves (gunshot, overdose of morphine, defenestration, cyanide, and drowning being the respective causes). Having collectively survived one round of cancer, divorce, and being widowed, with the onset of Vee’s second round of cancer, the sisters have decided to poison themselves and go all together.
The sisters’ apartment is crowded with the ghosts of these suicides (not actual ghosts; there’s nothing supernatural about this book). Delph has tattooed on her leg the biblical quote about the sins of the father, although there’s some disagreement about what the sin in question is. The prevalent theory is that they’re all paying for their great-grandfather’s development of mustard gas and Zyklon, but it’s possible that suicide itself is the sin.
And then the ghost walks in (again, not an actual ghost). Will this blast from the past and all the revelations that follow in her wake cause any or all the sisters to reconsider their suicide pact?
This dark, metaphysically heavy book is definitely not for the faint of heart. There’s really nothing cheering in it, although it is escapist in its own way.
Read-alikes:
My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Nix by Nathan Hill
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Castle Deverill stands on land stolen from the O’Leary family and given, along with a title, to Barton Deverill in the 1600s for his loyalty to King Charles II. Maggie O’Leary cursed the family, and every Lord Deverill is doomed to remain between worlds, haunting the castle until an O’Leary returns to live on the land. Kitty Deverill knows this is true, because, like her grandmother, she can see and speak to the ghosts of all the previous Lord Deverills. Kitty was born in 1900 to a cold and unloving mother, and a father who is good-natured but preoccupied with hunting, fishing, and his mistress. She is closest to her grandparents, her cousin Celia, who visits every summer, and especially to Bridie Doyle, daughter of the castle’s cook.
As the girls grow up, Kitty falls in love with local boy Jack O’Leary, becomes involved in the Irish independence movement, and is eventually forced to leave the country she loves for her own safety and join Celia in London. Bridie also falls in love with Jack, and is crushed when she finds out he is in love with her best friend, Kitty. Tragic circumstances force her to leave Ireland as well, and she travels to America, where her fortunes reverse completely and she becomes a woman of means. Secrets, betrayals, affairs, WWI, the Irish independence movement, and assorted tragedies impact the lives of every member of the Deverill family. When Kitty and Bridie return to Ireland years later, their friendship seems like it might never recover and the future of Castle Deverill is uncertain.
This novel is the first in a trilogy and would be a good pick for readers who enjoy Irish fiction, historical fiction, and stories that center on women’s friendships. It is lengthy, but action-packed and moves very quickly. There is a strong sense of place, and the world of Castle Deverill and the nearby town of Ballinakelly is well-developed.
Sue Ketcham, B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library, LIU Post
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas
The story of Joseph's family is entwined with that of the British twin sisters Agnes and Margaret, who in 1897 travel to Cairo from their places at Cambridge on a mission to rescue sacred texts that have begun to disappear from the synagogue.
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo is a story of the tangled relations that exist between fathers and sons, religion and love in places like Cairo marked by diversity, and the forces of love that try to bring them together.
Read-alikes:
The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado
The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas
Grace O'Connor, Retired
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
With its cast of seemingly thousands, Kwan keeps the reader's interest throughout the 500+ pages. The characters are wild, crazy, extravagant, bizarre, fanciful...you get the idea. Crazy Rich Asians is more than a book about how ridiculously rich people sometimes spend their money ridiculously. It offers thousands of gems of history and more than a few surprises. Don't be intimidated by how many characters are in the book, you'll figure out early on which ones are the most important.
Read-alikes:
The Windfall by Diksha Basu
The Garden Party by Grace Mazur
What We Were Promised by Lucy Tan
Family Trust by Kathy Wang
Kathy Carter, Riverhead Free Library
A Reunion of Ghosts by Judith Claire Mitchell
The sisters’ apartment is crowded with the ghosts of these suicides (not actual ghosts; there’s nothing supernatural about this book). Delph has tattooed on her leg the biblical quote about the sins of the father, although there’s some disagreement about what the sin in question is. The prevalent theory is that they’re all paying for their great-grandfather’s development of mustard gas and Zyklon, but it’s possible that suicide itself is the sin.
And then the ghost walks in (again, not an actual ghost). Will this blast from the past and all the revelations that follow in her wake cause any or all the sisters to reconsider their suicide pact?
This dark, metaphysically heavy book is definitely not for the faint of heart. There’s really nothing cheering in it, although it is escapist in its own way.
Read-alikes:
My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Nix by Nathan Hill
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Mara Zonderman, Westhampton Free Library
The Girl in the Castle by Santa Montefiore
As the girls grow up, Kitty falls in love with local boy Jack O’Leary, becomes involved in the Irish independence movement, and is eventually forced to leave the country she loves for her own safety and join Celia in London. Bridie also falls in love with Jack, and is crushed when she finds out he is in love with her best friend, Kitty. Tragic circumstances force her to leave Ireland as well, and she travels to America, where her fortunes reverse completely and she becomes a woman of means. Secrets, betrayals, affairs, WWI, the Irish independence movement, and assorted tragedies impact the lives of every member of the Deverill family. When Kitty and Bridie return to Ireland years later, their friendship seems like it might never recover and the future of Castle Deverill is uncertain.
This novel is the first in a trilogy and would be a good pick for readers who enjoy Irish fiction, historical fiction, and stories that center on women’s friendships. It is lengthy, but action-packed and moves very quickly. There is a strong sense of place, and the world of Castle Deverill and the nearby town of Ballinakelly is well-developed.
Deverill Chronicles:
The Girl in the Castle
The Daughters of Ireland
The Secret of the Irish Castle
Read-alikes:
Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict
Cavendon Hall by Barbara Taylor Bradford
The Girls of Ennismore by Patricia Falvey
The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
Norah Gillman, Cold Spring Harbor Library
The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan
A good race horse is the product of a strong genetic heritage. Might the same hold true for people? Are we simply the result of a genetic pool, or do we have the free will to determine our own destiny?
We follow the evolution of three main characters—Henry Forge, his daughter Henrietta, and Allmon Shaughnessy, a bi-racial groom—from their familial roots to the present day. Treatises on everything from American history to domestic abuse to slavery and, eventually, horse racing are interjected as a reflection of the hierarchy of society. The Sport of Kings (to quote one review) “is no more about horseracing than Moby Dick is about whale hunting.”
For generations, Henry’s family has always been in the agricultural business. But Henry has a different idea. He’s wants to raise thoroughbred horses. Henry’s daughter, a victim of sexual abuse, also rebels—by hiring a young black ex-convict to work on the farm then having a torrid affair with him. Allmon Shaughnessy comes from a broken, inter-racial family, lives in the grips of poverty, resorts to a life of crime, and spends time in jail. All three hang their hopes and dreams on a promising filly named Hellsmouth. The ways that each of these characters deals with the consequences and limitations into which they were born demonstrates that we all have more in common than we may realize.
This vast and complex novel, shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, is not a quick read. It can actually feel overwhelming. Morgan incorporates classic literature, mythology, and much more in extensive “interludes” throughout. Her writing style is reminiscent of classic writers such as Melville, Faulkner, and Shakespeare. Readers will be rewarded if they persevere. What starts out as a straightforward family saga evolves into an all-encompassing epic. There are many points of discussion for a book group if the readers are willing to commit to this sweeping novel.
Read-alikes:
Applehouse Supreme by Emeliye Akdjali
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Some Luck by Jane Smiley
Deborah Formosa, Northport-East Northport Public Library
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
At
Franny’s christening, Bert Cousins, who is married to Teresa and has 3 kids
with one on the way, is introduced to Franny’s mother Beverly Keating and is
instantly in love, or lust as some people might think. After sharing a kiss,
the two go their separate ways eventually marrying over a decade later leading
to a lot of hurt feelings and resentful kids. Beverly and her husband Fix have
two daughters, Franny and her older sister Caroline. Once Beverly marries Bert,
she takes the girls and moves from California, where Fix is, to Virginia, where
Bert grew up. Neither girl wants to move since they both love and side with
their dad, but they don’t have a choice. On the other side, Bert’s ex-wife
Teresa decides to stay in California with their four children: Cal, Holly,
Jeanette, and Albie. Every summer the Cousins kids visit their dad in Virginia
and find themselves thoroughly ignored and on their own. When tragedy strikes
one summer, secrets are kept and lives are changed. This one event changes
everyone for better and worse and each character flounders or flourishes in his
or her own way.
The book
is told back and forth in time starting with the meeting of Bert and Beverly
then moving to the present with Franny visiting her dad who is dying of cancer.
The reader learns about the past from Fix’s stories and flashbacks as well as
through the eyes of the now grown children. Most of the story focuses on Franny
and how lost she was for many years. Commonwealth becomes a book within the
book as Franny tells her life story to an author she admires who then uses it
to write a best-selling novel called Commonwealth.
The novel is about family,
both the one you’re born into and the one you make. It’s about connections to
people, blood related or not, and how one small thing can change the direction
of your life. It’s about how divorce and absentee parents can affect their kids’
lives and how not all kids are the same and thus need different treatment.
Patchett’s writing is solid but the story meanders in spots. The reader mostly
learns about Franny with small sections given to the other kids, but no one is
completely fleshed out. The secret of what happened that one summer in Virginia
shaped everyone’s life, but it takes a long time for the reader to find out
what happened and because of some misdirection, the actuality of it is a bit
disappointing. Commonwealth would be a good read for a book group as there’s a
lot to discuss and is best suited for readers looking for a book with weight
that doesn’t always have a happy ending but does show the ups and downs of a
family.
Read-alikes:
The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
Three Junes by Julia Glass
Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
Azuree Agnello, West Babylon Public Library
We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas
This story chronicles the family saga of Eileen Tumulty, born in 1941 to Irish immigrant parents in Woodside, Queens. Growing up in a house fueled by alcohol, failed ambition, and loss, Eileen dreams of a calmer life. She marries scientist Ed Leary who seems different in every way from all the men she grew up around, however she quickly discovers that her desire to achieve the American dream is not something that Ed necessarily shares. As Eileen continues to prosper in her career, she encourages Ed to want more for himself, more money, a better job, a nicer place to live, a bigger yard, etc. which he does not appear to view as important as she does. This ultimately brings conflict throughout their relationship, especially as it seems part of a deeper psychological issue with Ed. As their son Connell grows up, Eileen strives to give him more than she and Ed ever had, all this while everyone tries to hold onto what they think their ideal life should be like. The story continues to follow their complicated lives through good times and dark times as they deal with financial issues, struggles to find their own identities, and growing up in a changing world.
While this story mainly focused on Eileen and how she handled life, it did touch a lot on Connell and how he interpreted things growing up in a dysfunctional household. It had great character development as you see how Eileen felt about her parents and their actions and how they shaped her growing up and becoming a wife and mother. The story touched on many issues including the ever-changing culture and ethnicities within New York City, as well as the pressure of fitting in with different socioeconomic groups. This would appeal to readers familiar with growing up after WWII.
Read-alikes:
Ashes of Fiery Weather by Kathleen Donohoe
Within Arm's Reach by Ann Napolotano
Golden Age by Jane Smiley
Jessica Brown, Patchogue-Medford Library
