René, the town cobbler, has secretly been in love with the widow Anna for years, but hasn’t had the courage to confess his feelings to her. When the war finally comes to the tiny village of Le Case, Anna joins the Resistance but is soon caught and imprisoned in the bishop’s villa. Determined to rescue the woman he loves, René knows he must leave meekness behind to save Anna and defeat the Fascists who have captured Le Case. Based on a true story. 

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Jeong-su goes outside on a smoke break, and that’s the last normal thing that happens in this Korean sci-fi thriller. The titular black orb appears out of nowhere and swallows a random passer-by, then starts chasing Jeong-su. How do you defeat an irrational, bulletproof enemy? Jeong-su doesn’t know, but if he wants to see his parents again, he’s going to have to figure it out. A page-turning absurdity of a read. 

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International Booker-nominated satirist GauZ’ returns with a panoramic journey into the colonization of the African interior. Mourning the recent deaths of his parents, a young white man in nineteenth-century France joins a colonial expedition attempting to establish trading routes on the Ivory Coast and finds himself caught between factions who disagree on everything–except their shared loathing of the British. A century later, a young Black boy born in Amsterdam gives his account of his own voyage to the Ivory Coast, and his upbringing by his father, Comrade Papa. 

This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Hoopla. 

A young woman, Anya, is arrested at a Moscow anti-corruption rally, and, under false charges, sentenced to a ten-day stretch at a special detention center. In a large barren room furnished only with communal bunkbeds, Anya meets her cellmates: five ordinary Russian women arrested on petty charges. They talk about politics, feminism, their families, their sexualities, and how to make the most of prison life. Yet as the waking days stretch listlessly before Anya, soon she is plagued by strange nightmarish visions. 

This title is available for checkout as an eBook on Hoopla and in eAudio on Hoopla. 

Giraud fictionalizes events from her own life in this wistful tale of love and loss. A happily married couple is torn apart by a deadly motorcycle accident. The grieving widow can’t stop thinking about all the little twists and turns of fate that might have saved her husband’s life. As she prepares to sell their home, Giraud’s heroine unpacks the history of her marriage and ponders what might have been. Winner of the 2022 Prix Goncourt. 

Karin doesn’t like to get close to people or think too hard about her own emotions. This makes it difficult to have a good relationship with her daughter, Helene. It’s a surprise to them both when Helene turns to her mother for help in a crisis; it’s an even bigger surprise when Karin agrees to a London vacation, just the two of them. Can this relationship be fixed? Stoltenberg explores the mother-daughter relationship with candor and compassion.