ODY New Books Collection

Scale Boy

"Patrice Nganang, the award-winning novelist and international activist, chronicles his youth in Cameroon and his discovery of the textures of his community and the world beyond." -- Provided by publisher

Saoirse

"For fans of Colm Tóibín and Claire Keegan, Saoirse is a propulsive story set in the US and Ireland about one woman and the lies she has told in order to survive In the wilds of Donegal, Ireland, 1999, Saoirse is an artist living an idyllic life. Her handsome partner, Daithí, and two beautiful daughters are regular subjects for her work and are the continual source of her hope and inspiration. Each day, she pours her heart into her family, using her painting and sketching to express her love for them. But Saoirse is not entirely who she says she is. And when her Dublin exhibition wins a prestigious award, the unanticipated recognition that comes with it threatens to expose all she has had to do in order to escape her old life, bringing a decade's worth of buried memories to the surface. At the age of seventeen, Saoirse went on the run from her hometown in Michigan, booking a one-way ticket to Ireland and developing an entangled relationship with a young man along the way. As she leaned into her new identity, she hoped she'd made it to safety once and for all. But she can't outrun her past forever, and now that Saoirse's cherished world is put in peril, facing her painful childhood might prove to be her only salvation. Saoirse is an evocative, suspenseful, and inventive exploration of the intimate relationship between art and life and the lies we tell ourselves in the name of reinvention." -- Provided by publisher

Repetition

"A prize-winning novel by one of the foremost writers of her generation explores the horror and beauty of being sixteen years old."-- Provided by publisher

One of Us

"When Fliss, the eccentric grown daughter of the powerful Fitzmaurice clan, is found dead on a beach in Bali, what seems like a tragic accident stirs more suspicion than closure for those who've traded favors with--and within--her family for decades. There is Ben, Fliss's brother, eager to minimize his sister's passing, since it's suddenly clear he's next in line to be Prime Minister. And Martin-Ben's erstwhile best friend--who is just happy that Fliss's memorial gives him the chance to re-enter the Fitzmaurice orbit, seeking revenge and acceptance. He can't help but notice that Ben's wife, Serena, seems to have discovered in middle age that her privileged existence is more like a gilded cage. Or that Ben and Serena's daughter Cosima has become an environmental activist fighting against everything her parents seem to stand for--a pivot her late aunt would've applauded. Where does Richard Take--Ben's disgraced colleague, determined to make his big comeback, fit in? And circling them all is Andrew Jarvis and his money: Has he been their loyal hero, or the one who has thrown his weight around just to keep them all in check? Delivering incisive commentary on the hypocrisies of the elite, this juicy ensemble drama about old friends and dazzling wealth perfectly captures the uneasy balance between personal ambition and collective responsibility. One of Us is a page-turner with teeth, a mash-up of The Wedding People and Succession--darkly comic and cutting, as well as unexpectedly hopeful." -- Provided by publisher

On Morrison

"Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and one of our most beloved writers, has inspired generations of readers. But her artistic genius is often overshadowed by her monumental public persona, perhaps because, as Namwali Serpell puts it, "she is our only truly canonical black, female writer-and her work is highly complex." In On Morrison, Serpell brings her unique experience as both an award-winning writer and professor who teaches a course on Morrison to illuminate her masterful experiments with literary form. This is Morrison as you've never encountered her before, a journey through her oeuvre-her fiction and criticism, as well as her lesser-known dramatic works and poetry-with contextual guidance, archival discoveries, and original close readings. At once accessible and uncompromisingly rigorous, On Morrison is a primer not only on how to read one of the most significant American authors of all time, but also on how to read great works of literature in general. This dialogue on the page between two black women artist-readers is stylish, edifying, and thrilling in its scope and intelligence." -- Provided by publisher

Nonesuch

"A spellbinding tale about an ambitious young woman who must thwart an occult plot by time-traveling fascists during the chaos of the London Blitz--from "one of our most powerful writers of wayward historical fiction" (The Washington Post). It's the summer of 1939, and the air in London is thick with the tension of impending war. Iris Hawkins, a fiery young financial secretary, has a chance encounter with Geoff, a genius engineer from the new technology of television. What was supposed to be one night of abandon draws her instead into a nightmare of otherworldly pursuit--into a reality where time bends, spirits can be summoned, and history hangs by a thread. Soon there are Nazi planes droning overhead. In a time when death falls randomly from above each night, when the streets are darker than the wildest forest and all the men are away in uniform, the defense of the city is in the hands of its women. But Iris has more to contend with than just the terrors of the Blitz. Over the rooftops of burning London, in the twisted passages between past and present, through the vast night sky and across the tiny screens of early television, a fascist fanatic is travelling with a gun in her hand, and only Iris can stop her from altering the course of history forever. Both a thrilling page-turner and a profound exploration of ambition, love, and the fight against tyranny, Nonesuch is a story that is as enchanting as it is urgent. Packed with twists, tension, and wonder, it is a triumph of storytelling."-- Provided by publisher

More than Enough

"High school English teacher Polly Goodman can talk about everything and anything with the women in her book club, which is why they've become her closest friends and, along with the support of her veterinarian husband, the bedrock of her life. Her private school students, her fraught relationship with mother, her struggles with IVF--Polly's book club friends have heard it all. But when they give Polly an ancestry test kit as a joke, the results match her with a stranger. Despite it seeming clear that this match is a mistake, Polly cannot help combing through her own family history for answers. Then, when it seems that the book club circle of four will become three, Polly learns how friendships can change your life in the most profound ways."-- Provided by publisher

The Life You Want

"Adam Phillips, the foremost psychoanalytic writer of our time, plays with ideas about the lives we want."-- Provided by publisher

I Give You My Silence

"In his final novel, the Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa returns to his native Peru."-- Provided by publisher

Her Last Breath

"After years of excuses, Tess has finally agreed to go caving with her best friend, Allie. Their lives have diverged sharply since high school--Allie is a self-made travel influencer, while Tess is a shy (and claustrophobic) legal assistant struggling to pay for law school. Maybe Tess is a little jealous of Allie's globe-trotting lifestyle, but who wouldn't be? As Tess and Allie descend into the depths, they realize they're not alone. A stranger who claims to be a fellow caver harasses them. Confident, take-no-shit Allie insults the guy--and he retaliates. Soon, Tess is trapped inside a narrow crawl space hundreds of feet underground, fighting to stay alive. Twenty-four hours later, as a hospitalized Tess recounts her harrowing story of survival, the detective interviewing her shares new and shocking secrets about Allie's true past. Together, they begin to suspect the brutal attack wasn't so random after all. Who was Allie, really? Why did this man target them? And did Tess really leave the danger behind when she escaped the cave?"-- Dust jacket flap

The Golden Boy

"After an involuntary retirement from his high-flying Hollywood career, Stafford Hopkins has retreated to a luxury estate on Maui, along with his wife Agnes, both grimly resigned to life in a paradise where neither feels fully at home. Stafford is ready to retreat into himself, too, when a letter arrives with shocking news. Stafford has been named guardian of four children he didn't know existed: the grandchildren of his late childhood friend, Bobby Shepherd, whose ghost Stafford can no longer ignore. Returning to both the hardscrabble farming town and the dark secret he'd tried to forget for decades, Stafford is forced to confront his past in order to rebuild his future--and to redirect the fates of his family and the four young people suddenly in his care. Slyly funny and deeply moving, The Golden Boy is a captivating debut about love, mercy, and second chances." -- Provided by publisher

A Far-Flung Life

"Remote Western Australia, 1958: here, for generations, the MacBrides have lived on a vast sheep station, Meredith Downs. It is a million acres, an ocean of arid land. On an ordinary day, on a lonely road, under the unending blue sky, patriarch Phil MacBride swerves to avoid a kangaroo. In seconds the lives of the entire MacBride family are shattered. And then, tragedy revisits when a twist of consequences claims the life of one sibling, and leads another to give up everything for the sake of an innocent child. Matt, the youngest MacBride, is plunged into a moral and emotional journey for which there is no map, no guide. The secrets at the heart of this gutting and beautiful story force him to choose between love and duty, sacrifice and happiness."-- Provided by publisher

El Paso

"From New York Times reporter Jazmine Ulloa, a sweeping human history of El Paso, revealing violence, power, and privilege at play in America's most famous border town. El Paso has been called the "Ellis Island" of America's southern border, a mountain pass cum border town cum bifurcated metropolis where past meets future, and disadvantage meets opportunity, or so the promise goes. El Paso is an extraordinary, can't-look-away reported history; it uses deep research and dozens of new interviews to blow away the myth of this place, where Mexico's Juarez and America's El Paso intertwine. It charts the history of El Paso through five families. From the Mexican Revolution and the Mexican Repatriation, to the shifting immigration laws under Reagan and Trump and the violence and bloodshed brought on by the drug war, El Paso captures a place often misunderstood or forgotten by the rest of the country, and the world. El Paso is a brave new work of narrative nonfiction that gives new voice and perspective to history that has long been checked at the border, or told through the lens of white men alone. Ulloa draws upon meticulous research and reporting and stunning historical detail to craft the intimate narratives of an unforgettable cast of characters."-- Provided by publisher

Crucible

"Already the gateway for illegal Canadian liquor during Prohibition, the Motor City becomes a crucible for American class conflict during the Great Depression, with an army of laid off Ford workers drifting into the ranks of the burgeoning union movement -- Henry Ford's worst nightmare. To keep the hundreds of thousands still employed by him in thrall, the man who was formerly 'America's favorite tycoon' recruits black laborers migrating from the deep South to serve as 'strike insurance', and gives Harry Bennett, pugnacious as he is diminutive, free reign over the legion of barroom brawlers and ex-cons who make up the company's 'Security Department'. The Model T mogul has also bought a sizable chunk of Brazil's Amazonian rainforest, vowing to grow his own rubber for tires, but stubbornly refusing to include a botanist in his troop of would-be jungle tamers. As a series of biological plagues descend on the Fordlandia plantation, the racial melting pot he has created in Detroit begins to boil over, and not even the Sage of Dearborn can control the forces that have been unleashed. The novel's cast -- Ford workers black and white and their families, young radicals, cynical newsmen, gangsters, Brazilian rubber tappers, cameos from boxer Joe Louis and muralist Diego Rivera -- create the tapestry of differing points of view that John Sayles has become famous for, the events portrayed fundamental to the country we live in today." -- Book jacket

The Complex

"A brilliant, sweeping, tour de force moving between America and modern India, following the illicit liaisons, real estate dramas, political ambitions, and mortal betrayals of one prominent Delhi family." -- Provided by publisher

Chosen Land

"In the United States today, there is no faith more dominant than Christianity. In Chosen Land, historian Matthew Avery Sutton chronicles Christians' five-hundred-year endeavor to turn North America into their version of the kingdom of God, revealing the fruitful and dynamic entanglement between the history of America and the history of American Christianity. In the centuries after Christianity first arrived on American shores, colonizers and colonized from New England to Spanish California practiced many varieties of the faith. After the founding of the United States, the nation's lack of a state religion forced new and evolving strains of Christianity to battle for potential adherents, as they still do to this day. As American Christianity has bent, fractured, and adapted to changing times, Christian belief has shaped everything from the promise of Manifest Destiny to Ronald Reagan's approach to the Cold War, the rise of the Southern Lost Cause narrative to the triumphs of the civil rights movement. A landmark work of narrative synthesis tracing the faith's major figures and currents, Chosen Land confirms the unique place that American Christianity, always both steadfast and precarious, occupies at the center of our shared history."-- Dust jacket flap

Brawler

"Read alone, each story in Lauren Groff's electric collection is an individual triumph-bold, agile, and packed with power. Read together, they hum in exhilarating resonance. Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region-from New England to Florida to California-these nine stories reflect and expand upon a shared theme: the ceaseless battle between humans' dark and light angels. 'In every human there is both an animal and a god wrestling unto death,' one character tells us. Among those we see caught in this match are a young woman suddenly responsible for her disabled sibling, a hot-tempered high school swimmer in need of an adult, a mother blinded by the loss of her family, and a banking scion endowed with a different kind of inheritance. Motivated by love, impeded by the double edges of other people's good intentions, they try to do the right thing for as long as they can. Anchored by profound insight into human nature, Brawler reveals the repeated turning points between love and fear, compassion and violence, reason and instinct, altruism and what it takes to survive." -- Front jacket flap

The Banker Who Made America

"If you haven't followed the money, chances are you don't know the real story of America and its revolution. Nothing gives a clearer insight into this history than the life of early America's dominant merchant trader, first bank president, and first central banker, Thomas Willing. In this book, Richard Vague shows how Willing bankrolled--and in the process helped save--the Revolution and then fundamentally shaped the financial architecture of the young Republic."-- Front jacket flap

The AI Illusion

"Discover the truth behind AI's most dangerous myth: that machines can truly create. In The AI Illusion: Why Machines Aren't Creative, Luc Julia, co-creator of Siri and Chief Scientific Officer for the Renault Group, dismantles the hype surrounding generative AI by revealing what these technologies can actually do (as of today) versus what their promoters claim. Drawing on over 35 years' experience in the tech industry, Julia exposes the fundamental truth that generative AI doesn't create - it recombines existing data in response to prompts, producing impressive but ultimately derivative outputs that lack genuine creativity and understanding. This essential guide takes readers on a comprehensive journey through AI's past, present, and future, systematically debunking seven pervasive myths that shape public perception of artificial intelligence. Julia examines the technical limitations, societal implications, and environmental costs of generative AI while providing practical insights into how these tools function and where they're headed." -- Publisher's website

So Old, so Young

"Six Friends. Five Parties. Twenty Years... How did we get So Old, So Young? From Grant Ginder, the bestselling author of The People We Hate at the Wedding, comes a novel of impending millennial middle age that is part love story, part tragic comedy. Five parties over the course of two decades bring six college friends together, exploring the ways we can run from and cling to our friends in love, life, and death. For Marco and Mia, Sasha and Theo, Richie and Adam, the one constant in life after college together has been change. New jobs. New cities. New spouses. New children. Through it all, one thing they thought would always stay the same is their friendship. But time has a way of breaking even the strongest bonds and testing what we thought we knew. From East Village apartment parties and disastrous destination weddings to fortieth birthdays and suburban backyard barbecues, Grant Ginder's resonant, funny, and deeply moving novel is a story about the growing pains of the millennial generation, and a celebration of how love can shift, stumble, and grow into something bigger than we ever could have imagined."-- Provided by publisher