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Alan Opts Out

Courtney Maum (Little, Brown)

Readers in search of a zeitgeisty social satire will find just the thing in Maum’s story of late middle-age anxieties, set in an exclusive corner of the already exclusive Greenwich, Conn. It centers on a disenchanted ad exec whose sudden back-to-the-land impulse takes him to the backyard, while his wife strives to gain acceptance into a neighborhood clique. More than a character study, the novel tackles the diminishing returns of consumerism, real estate, and status.

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The Children

Melissa Albert (Morrow)

In this smart and beguiling mix of gothic horror and literary fantasy, the adult children of late YA author Edith Sharpe try to make their way in the shadow of her enduring fame. Guin and Ennis have been estranged since the fire that killed Edith when Guin, the younger of the two, was 11, and the dynamic story builds toward their climactic reunion at Ennis's art exhibition.

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Coyoteland

Vanessa Hua (Flatiron)

Fans of Little Fires Everywhere are sure to dig this explosive suburban drama set in a coveted Berkeley Hills community. The plot is triggered by a clash between newcomers who plan to flip their house and neighbors who are building a new development, a showdown that precipitates a cascading series of conflicts between them and their teen children. Added to the mix are a coyote attack, an out-of-control house party, and a wildfire.

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Dooneen

Keith Ridgway (New Directions)

A writer named Mew is out for a stroll in London when he magically crosses over into Dublin. Mew misses his lover, a man named Mootie, and finds himself caught up in a mysterious leftist revolt. Like the author’s previous novels about porous boundaries, this one is deeply seductive, a formal experiment that’s far from forbidding.

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Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun

Mónica Ojeda, trans. from the Spanish by Sarah Booker (Coffee House)

Summer is music festival season. For those who have aged out of the crowds, noise, and unrelenting sun but harbor fond memories of outdoor bashes gone by, here’s a vivid portrait of a festival that attracts the most dedicated species of concertgoer. The weeklong noise fest takes place at the base of an active volcano in Ecuador, where mask-wearing attendees recruit others to join their “anarcho-primitivist” cult. It’s packed with vicarious thrills and spiritual depth.

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Names Have Been Changed

Yu-Mei Balasingamchow (Tiny Reparations)

A queer woman leaves her native Singapore after committing a petty crime in this addition to the growing shelf of podcast-focused fiction. Ten years later, she’s gotten into more trouble, and now tells her story to subscribers of her podcast from an undisclosed location in the U.S. The addictive and twisty novel also has a great deal of heart, especially in sections where the narrator grapples with how her sexuality has contributed to her rootlessness.

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Nymph

Sofia Montrone (Avid Reader)

In this lush coming-of-age tale, a girl named Leo spends her summers at her family’s agriturismo in northern Italy, a picturesque destination for travelers seeking a taste of what it’s like to work the land. At 18, she’s besotted by a young American woman named Dolores who arrives looking for seasonal work. What follows is an enticing story of first love and self-discovery, complete with beautiful scenery and allusions to ancient myths.

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The Summer Boy

Philippe Besson, trans. from the French by Sam Taylor (Scribner)

Philippe, the 50-something narrator of this autobiographical novel, reflects on the summer he spent with his family on an island off France’s northern coast. He remembers the feeling of his childhood evaporating as he faced adulthood, and the fateful bonds he made with a group of teens there, which culminated in romance with another boy and the disappearance of a third, which he feels responsible for. It’s an evocative tale of the past’s enduring grip.

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The Things We Never Say

Elizabeth Strout (Random House)

Strout’s ability to voice the unsayable is on full display in this story that starts somber and turns uplifting. It’s about an aging man who’s lost his tether to the world and considers ending his life, until he survives a boating accident near his Massachusetts home. The restorative novel packs a lot into its 200 pages, from a complex father-son relationship to a secret in a marriage, and the well-drawn seaside setting features exciting sailing scenes.

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Under the Falls

Richard Russo (Knopf)

In the fine-tuned prologue of this literary thriller, Russo takes readers beyond the idyllic summer retreats of the rustic western Adirondacks to the down-at-heel Stone Mountain, “a place that doesn’t yield many good outcomes.” Returning to town is Tyler Sinclair, now a rock star, whose presence stirs up the bitterness held by those he left behind. Russo evoke a strong sense of place amid the disastrous confrontations and twisty revelations that drive the propulsive plot.

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Villa Coco

Andrew Sean Greer (Doubleday)

The magic of living abroad and the romance of the old world animate Greer’s evocative novel of a young American in Tuscany. Ostensibly there to serve as the archivist for a nonagenarian baronessa, Geoffrey is put to work on all manner of odd jobs and drawn deep into her colorful social life. He also instigates some drama of his own when he begins sleeping with a married man. Readers will find it a lively and transportive tale.

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Whistler

Ann Patchett (Harper)

When Daphne, a 50-something New Yorker, unexpectedly runs into her former stepfather at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the encounter unleashes a flood of childhood memories and a desire to learn the reason for his divorce from her mother. In Patchett’s sublime novel, the truths on offer go beyond what Daphne discovers about her family to include deep insights into the nature of love and its painful limits.

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