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    27 Of The Most Exciting New Books Of 2015

    Looks like it's going to be another great year for books! *Ranked in no particular order*

    1. Get In Trouble by Kelly Link

    Get In Trouble is Kelly Link's first short story collection for adults in a decade, a collection of nine fantastical, imaginative stories about everything from Ouija boards to astronauts.

    Publication date: Feb. 3

    2. Delicious Foods by James Hannaham

    James Hannaham's Delicious Foods follows 11-year-old Eddie and his mother Darlene after she is lured to and imprisoned on a remote farm by a shady company named Delicious Foods. Shattered by her husband's sudden death, Darlene becomes addicted to drugs and is forced to work in the fields to pay for the steady supply provided to her, all the while desperately seeking to reunite with her son.

    Publication date: March 17

    3. Find Me by Laura van den Berg

    Laura van den Berg's debut novel Find Me is set in an America devastated by an Alzheimer's-like pandemic. Joy is a young woman whose immunity to the disease lands her in a hospital in rural Kansas, where she is studied alongside other survivors until she escapes to search for her mother, who abandoned her as a child.

    Publication date: Feb. 17

    4. God Help the Child by Toni Morrison

    God Help the Child is Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison's 11th novel. A mother-daughter story at heart, God Help the Child examines childhood trauma through the lens of a woman named Bride whose dark skin drove away her light-skinned mother.

    Publication date: April 21

    5. Sweetland by Michael Crummey

    Michael Crummey, author of the critically acclaimed novel Galore, returns with Sweetland, the epic tale of a small island community in Newfoundland struggling against elimination by the mainland government. When the declining town is offered a resettlement package stipulating that all residents must leave, Moses Sweetland, who carries deep ancestral ties to the island, is the only one determined to oppose.

    Publication date: Jan. 19

    6. The Infernal by Mark Doten

    Mark Doten's debut novel The Infernal is a literary take on the "war on terror" exploring what it means to live in a post-9/11 society. Set during the Iraq War, The Infernal introduces a boy found in the Akkad valley with severe burns who is interrogated and tortured over the course of four days.

    Publication date: Feb. 17

    7. A Reunion of Ghosts by Judith Claire Mitchell

    Judith Claire Mitchell's A Reunion of Ghosts tells the story of three middle-aged sisters and the collaborative memoir that will double as their joint suicide note. Dark but comedic, A Reunion of Ghosts is the portrait of four generations of a complicated family and the tragedies that seem to pass on from generation to generation.

    Publication date: March 24

    8. The Harder They Come by T.C. Boyle

    New York Times-best-selling author T.C. Boyle explores the volatile relationships between an aging veteran, his unstable son, and the son's much older lover in The Harder They Come. Opening in modern-day northern California, The Harder They Come follows Adam, the son, as he becomes increasingly mentally unstable.

    Publication date: March 31

    9. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

    The Buried Giant is the first novel in almost a decade from Kazuo Ishiguro, author of Never Let Me Go and the Booker Prize-winning The Remains of the Day. The story of a couple who embarks on a journey to find a son they have not seen in years, The Buried Giant is a rumination on love, memory, war, and revenge.

    Publication date: March 3

    10. The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty by Amanda Filipacchi

    Amanda Filipacchi's The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty is an examination of identity and beauty set in New York City, where a group of artists struggles with the standards set by society. Two women in particular fear their looks will prevent them from finding true love — one is plain-looking, while the other is too beautiful — problems that are only complicated when they discover there may be a murderer in their midst.

    Publication date: Feb. 16

    11. Hall of Small Mammals by Thomas Pierce

    Hall of Small Mammals is a short story collection by Thomas Pierce about fossil-hunters, comedians, hot-air balloon pilots, parents and children, believers and non-believers — people struggling to comprehend the absurdity of modern existence.

    Publication date: Jan. 8

    12. The Only Ones by Carola Dibbell

    Carola Dibbell's The Only Ones introduces a post-pandemic world where a woman immune to the disease, Inez, makes her living as a test subject. When a mother backs out on experimental genetic research, Inez is left responsible for her baby girl, who is a scientific breakthrough, and must protect her from both religious fanatics and the authorities.

    Publication date: March 17

    13. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

    Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life is an epic novel about brotherly love and friendship in the 21st century. The story of four classmates who move to New York after college, A Little Life is an examination of memory, human endurance, and heartbreak.

    Publication date: March 10

    14. A History of Loneliness by John Boyne

    A History of Loneliness by John Boyne, author of the New York Times-best-selling novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, tells the narrative of Odran Yates, an Irish man who falls into priesthood after a family tragedy during a time when priests are highly respected. But when, 40 years later, the Catholic church comes under great controversy, Odran must confront his demons in the church and in his family and past.

    Publication date: Feb. 3

    15. Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman

    In her collection Almost Famous Women, Megan Mayhew Bergman's stories revisit the fascinating but mostly forgotten lives of brave, talented women in history who achieved a small amount of fame.

    Publication date: Jan. 6

    16. The Sellout by Paul Beatty

    Paul Beatty's The Sellout is a sharp, satirical novel that challenges the foundation of the United States Constitution, urban life, and the civil rights movement. The Sellout follows the isolated childhood of a man born on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court after his father's death.

    Publication date: March 3

    17. The Folded Clock by Heidi Julavits

    In The Folded Clock, Heidi Julavits chronicles her life as a fortysomething woman in diary form, a confessional meditation on time, identity, aging, marriage, and family.

    Publication date: April 7

    18. The Dead Lands by Benjamin Percy

    Benjamin Percy's The Dead Lands is a post-apocalyptic thriller set in a world devastated by both a super flu and nuclear fallout, where only a few humans remain in outposts like the Sanctuary, a community in what used to be St. Louis. When a rider arrives from beyond the Sanctuary's walls reporting of a thriving civilization to the west, a small group secretly sets out to find it and must fight to escape the Sanctuary.

    Publication date: April 14

    19. She Weeps Each Time You’re Born by Quan Barry

    Quan Barry's debut novel She Weeps Each Time You're Born is the story of a young girl born at the peak of the Vietnam War with the gift of hearing the voices of the dead. Through this child, Rabbit, She Weeps Each Time You're Born introduces an intimate vision of one of the most tumultuous periods in Vietnamese history.

    Publication date: Feb. 10

    20. The First Bad Man by Miranda July

    The First Bad Man is the debut novel by Miranda July, author of the best-selling short story collection No One Belongs Here More Than You. In The First Bad Man, Cheryl is an eccentric woman who lives alone, but when her bosses' daughter moves into her house temporarily, she is forced to face reality and unexpectedly finds love.

    Publication date: Jan. 13

    21. Binary Star by Sarah Gerard

    Binary Star by Sarah Gerard is the story of a young woman struggling with anorexia and her long-distance boyfriend, who is an alcoholic. A bold, intense account of love and loneliness, Binary Star is also a commentary on modern culture and our society's fixation with "quick-fix solutions" and pills for all our problems.

    Publication date: Jan. 13

    22. Irritable Hearts by Mac McClelland

    Mac McClelland's Irritable Hearts is a powerful memoir about her experience with PTSD after reporting on the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and her struggle with the love she found while at Port-au-Prince. Irritable Hearts is simultaneously a personal investigation of PTSD and a romance, a rumination on vulnerability and resilience.

    Publication date: Feb. 24

    23. Saint Mazie by Jami Attenberg

    Jami Attenberg's Saint Mazie is set in Jazz Age New York City, where large-hearted Mazie Phillips runs famed movie theater The Venice. When the Great Depression rattles the city, Mazie, whose childhood was marked by poverty, opens her doors to those in need in the Bowery and thus rises to "sainthood."

    Publication date: June 2

    24. The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman

    Sandra Newman's The Country of Ice Cream Star is a dystopian thriller set in the aftermath of a plague that kills those over the age of 20. When 15-year-old Ice Cream Star's brother begins to show symptoms of the disease, she embarks on a dangerous journey for the rumored cure.

    Publication date: Feb. 10

    25. There's Something I Want You to Do by Charles Baxter

    There's Something I Want You To Do is short story master Charles Baxter's first collection in 15 years, a set of 10 inter-related stories examining human nature through the private but familiar lives of Baxter's characters.

    Publication date: Feb. 3

    26. After Birth by Elisa Albert

    Elisa Albert's After Birth is a fierce, provocative examination of childbirth and new motherhood. Though a year has passed, the birth of Walker severely disrupted Ari's life in upstate New York, and only when Mina, a pregnant former cult musician, moves to town does she begin to feel less detached from the world.

    Publication date: Feb. 17

    27. Purity by Jonathan Franzen

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