New novels waiting for check out

Some lighthearted and some dark, this contrasting mix of new novels showcase titles earning multi-starred reviews. They’re waiting for you on the new title rack. Read them and see how many stars you would award.

Brooklyn: a novel, by Colm Toibin, is set in Brooklyn and Ireland in the early 1950s. Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the years following World War Two. Though skilled at bookkeeping, she cannot find a job in the miserable Irish economy. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn to sponsor Eilis in America, to live and work in a Brooklyn neighborhood “just like Ireland,” she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and charismatic sister behind.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: a novel, by Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction. Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce is an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. It is the summer of 1950, and a series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, the decaying English mansion that Flavia’s family calls home. A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”

The Last Child: a novel, by John Hart, is the story of a young boy’s hunt for his missing sister, and the dark truths he uncovers in his North Carolina hometown. Thirteen year-old Johnny Merrimon had the perfect life: a warm home and loving parents and a twin sister, Alyssa, with whom he shared an irreplaceable bond. He knew nothing of loss, until the day Alyssa vanished from the side of a lonely street. Now, a year later, Johnny finds himself isolated and alone, failed by the people he’d been taught since birth to trust. No one else believes that Alyssa is still alive, but Johnny is certain that she is. Then a second child goes missing. Johnny enlists the help of his last friend and they plunge into the wild, to a forgotten place with a history of violence that goes back more than a hundred years. There, they meet a giant of a man, an escaped convict on his own tragic quest. What they learn from him will shatter every notion Johnny had about the fate of his sister; it will lead them to another far place, to a truth that will test both boys to the limit.

Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn, tells the story of Libby Day who was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered. As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived, and famously testified that her 15-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who've long forgotten her. The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details, proof they hope may free Ben, Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club. And maybe she’ll admit her testimony wasn’t so solid after all.

Sunnyside: a novel, by Glen David Gold, moves with a grand sweep through a nostalgic period of the recent past. With Charlie Chaplin at its center, the novel captures the moment when American capitalism, a world at war, and the public’s fascination with Hollywood all intersect to produce the continuing culture of celebrity. Both lighthearted and profound, Sunnyside is a fascinating novel about dreams, ambition, and the dawn of the modern age.

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