Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison’s spellbinding new novel is a Faulknerian symphony of passion and hatred, power and perversity, color and class that spans three generations of black women in a fading beach town.

In life, Bill Cosey enjoyed the affections of many women, who would do almost anything to gain his favor. In death his hold on them may be even stronger. Wife, daughter, granddaughter, employee, mistress: As Morrison’s protagonists stake their furious claim on Cosey’s memory and estate, using everything from intrigue to outright violence, she creates a work that is shrewd, funny, erotic, and heartwrenching.

Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened.

Hailed as “one of the most thrilling writers at work today” (Huffington Post), Diana Evans reaches new heights with her searing depiction of two couples struggling through a year of marital crisis. In a crooked house in South London, Melissa feels increasingly that she’s defined solely by motherhood, while Michael mourns the former thrill of their romance. In the suburbs, Stephanie’s aspirations for bliss on the commuter belt, coupled with her white middle-class upbringing, compound Damian’s itch for a bigger life catalyzed by the death of his activist father.

he women of the family are loud in their criticism of Temi’s intentions but, in their quiet moments, they reflect on their own imperfect journeys, especially how their bodies and their looks have shaped their lives. Forgotten scandals and family secrets are suddenly laid bare. Is Tèmi really the crazy one?

As family members begin to arrive, Joy’s mother goes upstairs to take a nap. But when her grandchildren go to wake her, they find her unresponsive and immediately call an ambulance. Amidst the chaos, Auntie Nancy refuses to accept that her sister has died. Trailing the ambulance, Auntie Nancy has a divine encounter―a brown cow appears and God tells her that her sister will rise again on Easter Sunday like Jesus Christ. The zealous Auntie Nancy invites her pastor, her white garment spiritualist, the Nigerian community in Ontario and the local journalists.

Helon Habila’s vivid, exciting, and heart-wrenching debut opens a window onto a world in some ways familiar-with its sensuously depicted streets, student life, and vibrant local characters-yet ruled by one of the world’s most corrupt and oppressive regimes, a scandal that ultimately drives Lomba to take a risk in the name of something greater than himself. Habila captures the energy, sensitivity, despair, and stubborn hope of a new African generation with a combination of gritty realism and poetic beauty.