Exclusively from Scribd: Contemporary Fiction

Burchfield’s historical fiction is set in Civil War-era South Carolina. After several family tragedies, Polly takes over her father’s farm (and therefore its slaves). But as she grows more confident in her new role, Polly slowly comes to terms with the harsh reality of what slaves endure. This saga features a full cast of well-developed characters and illustrates that it's never too late to seek redemption.

The line between on-screen drama and off-screen dilemmas begins to blur for Callie Hart when the soap opera she’s starred on for decades is canceled. The subsequent identity crisis for Callie and her family is told with humor and has a heartwarming ending for all the characters entering new phases of their lives.

The only constant in life is change, a mantra that the characters of “Visible Signs” try to come to grips with. A cloistered nun leaves the convent to help the impoverished in her community, but finds 1970s America is, overall, having its own crisis of the soul. Both passion and compassion abound in this affecting novel.

In a desperate attempt to prevent her depression from damaging her children’s lives, Annie Wolff leaves her two kids with her ex-husband to raise. But when he dies a few years later, Annie feels compelled to check on her kids, despite her continuing struggles. “These Numbered Days” is an honest look at living with a continually stigmatized mental illness.

In 1980s Paris, 12-year-old Cléo falls in love with modern jazz before being recruited by Galatée, an exclusive foundation for dance fellowships. But below the surface, Galatée isn’t the reputable organization it appears to be, and the trauma Cléo endures reverberates across decades. “Reeling” explores power, abuse, and shame through the lens of the often-exploitative dance industry.

During the filming of one of TV’s hottest shows, the juiciest drama takes place behind the camera between the two producers in this cutting novel. “I want to write a suspense/noir story about the issue of tension between generations,” Moritsugu told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation about “The Showrunner.” “I find TV to be an interesting field to look at how younger people try to improve their standing in life.”

King’s taut psychological short story about the kidnapping and torture of an innocent young man is at once darkly humorous and utterly chilling. “Finn” is a cutting commentary on the dangerous consequences of toxic masculinity, conspiracy theories, and the glorification of spy games.

The mythos of individualism and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps permeates inspiring American Dream stories. Wozencraft shows how this is a fairy-tale instead of a dream in her affecting novel about a modern mother — an Afghanistan war veteran — who does everything she can to protect her family. Still, the safety net quickly unravels.

The nameless narrator of Yiwei’s novel is a middle-aged Chinese man living in Montreal who’s contemplating what he’s gained and lost through immigration. He meets the titular Celia and Misoka at the ice rink on top of Mount Royal, a chance encounter that feels full of meaning and hope for these three “grains of sand” brought together by the “winds of globalization.” Provocative prose keeps this meandering contemplation highly engaging.

University of California, San Francisco doctor Jacobson puts his extensive knowledge of the city and its LGBTQ+ history to good use in this novel about the start of the AIDs epidemic. This fictionalized account of the crisis centers around three health professionals doing their best to mitigate the tragedy unfolding around them with utmost empathy.

This is a coming-of-age story about Josie, a teenager living with her family of Baptist missionaries in Cali, Colombia. Josie’s parents fight against her desire to explore a lifestyle outside their religion, but Josie soon learns they have secrets of their own. “The Existence of Pity” explores hypocrisy, colonialism, and coming to terms with the mistakes of our parents.

Can healing crystals cure climate change? Of course not. But a last-minute New Age retreat does start to cut through one writer’s cynicism in this rejuvenating short story for anyone weary of the 21st century’s excesses and ills, from three-time National Book Award finalist Groff.

Adelaide lives alone in the Blue Ridge Mountains — a hermit of her own choosing but none the happier for it. She’s on the cusp of taking her life when she discovers two feral children lurking in the woods. Leah’s remarkable debut novel unites fantasy and thriller, exploring the meaning of life (if there is one). “Thieves, Beasts, & Men” will haunt you long after its conclusion.

Our unnamed protagonist is a young, deaf, and misunderstood boy searching for someone to connect with. Then he meets a homemade robot named Bug. This endearing tale of an unlikely friendship includes lighthearted mischief that will bring out the youthful side of any reader.

Lies, deep-seated fears, and tests of loyalty challenge two couples trying to preserve their struggling marriages. “Blaming the Wind” is no romance novel: instead it explores the reality of long-term commitment and staying true through the test of time.

Nina is struggling to reclaim her old life after a mental breakdown. Deja is the only one on her side, but has secrets that threaten them both. Twisty thriller meets relational drama in “Everything She Lost,” with author Harris exploring themes of mental health and the pressure society puts on women, especially mothers.

On the brink of becoming an empty-nester, Deborah Earle has to confront the void in her future and her hidden past. When her daughter believes a man might be more worthwhile than college, things go even more awry. This moving family saga has a surprise ending and reminds readers not to take time with those you love for granted.

A poignant novel of love and grief for fans of Nicholas Sparks. After renowned romance novelist Julien Azoulay’s wife passes away at a young age, he no longer believes in the happy endings that are the signature of his stories. But through a deathbed challenge from his wife to write a letter each year representing her life, Julien starts to love again.

A ragtag group of down-on-their-luck misfits in Kentucky go up against a billionaire who’s used to having everything his way in a horse race. The colt Cactus Jack carries everyone’s hopes and dreams of a better future on his back. You know how the story ends, but it’s still a hell of a good ride.

Three generations of women grapple with the ups and downs of being part of a multicultural, Arab American family in this beautifully written novel. There’s a kindness and generosity to this work that’s so rarely found in other Western literature focusing on Palestinian American characters.

“What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” takes on a whole new meaning when Sin City is your hometown and you can’t escape your past. Three 30-something high school friends reconnect in Las Vegas where they grew up, but their reunion takes an unexpected turn when long buried secrets surface. A touching story of how old friends help give us new perspectives in the vein of Jennifer Weiner and Liane Moriarty.

The author of “Libertie” pens a contemporary short story about pent-up desire during the COVID-19 lockdown. Nessa spends too much time in a crummy New York apartment with roommates she’s sick of, reliving pre-pandemic exploits, and brooding about missing friends and lovers, whatever shot she has for a little kinky sex. She decides to go to an orgy (don’t worry, she wears a mask), and what follows is one wild night of re-evaluating the past, coming to terms with the present, and finding pleasure in unexpected places.

A time-bending, plot-twisting take on who we are destined to be and to love. Or are we meant to defy our fate? Sam Baird can’t remember anything, but slowly starts unraveling clues to reveal she’s caught between time and two versions of her life. But which one does she want to reclaim? In her review of the novel, author Rita Zoey Chin writes, “With the deftness of a magician, Tamar Ossowski masterfully whisks us into a world where the lines between dreaming and waking, between one life and another, dissolve.”

Alma’s life in rural Vermont as a wife and mother of two small children has become almost unbearably heavy, causing her to drive to New York suddenly, in the dark of night. The novel is a moody, reflective look at the effects of capitalism on motherhood, and the lives we think we want.

“Nan is sick of sourdough bread, and Martin is, too. It was a big relief when they admitted this to each other.” Bestselling author Elizabeth Berg takes you inside the home of an aging couple passing the days of the coronavirus pandemic in familiar ways: with a new dog and wine. It’s a touching, comical, and intimate snapshot of our time in lockdown, written while we all processed these unprecedented changes to our daily routines.

Andrew Whittaker’s slothlike tendencies aren’t helping him get his life together as he slides into middle age, and it’s certainly not helping his aspirations as a novelist. Or a landlord, or a literary journal editor, or anything else. When the walls — including his ex-wife, his tenants, and bill collectors — start closing in on him, he tries to save himself, but only mires himself deeper in the mess he’s made. A tragic and darkly funny novel that casts a literary failure in the starring role.

The latest book from author Julie Shigekuni is full of twists and turns in what appears to be the perfect Los Angeles life of her characters, Daidai and Hiroshi. As they navigate their marriage and desire to have a child, Daidai’s burgeoning friendship with her husband Hiroshi’s graduate student turns into a complex, and even dangerous, situation. Shigekuni artfully portrays the intricacies of Japanese American identity and authenticity throughout this psychological thriller.

Fun-loving party girl Lisa, a Korean-born adoptee raised by white parents in America, is looking for a good time, not her birth mother. But when her best friend and fellow transracial adoptee convinces her to travel to Korea on a quest to find her biological parents, Lisa’s up for the adventure. It quickly turns into misadventure in this surreal tale filled with wacky humor, biting irreverence, and wild twists.

Jay moves his hard-drinking, skirt-chasing father in with him while searching for a senior care home that will tolerate dad’s bad behaviors. A hilarious and heartbreaking story about all the ways we can’t help but love each other even when politics, geography, and generation get in the way of understanding. From the author of “Beautiful Ruins.”

Born in Korea and raised by white parents in Long Island, Rowan Kelly has always felt out of place. As a young woman increasingly butting heads with her adoptive mother, Rowan seeks a sense of belonging in the arms of abusive men. A stirring #OwnVoices story exploring transracial adoption and the heart-wrenching, and ultimately redemptive, struggle to find one’s identity.

Desperate to escape her troubled life in the US, Hannah flees to Florence, Italy, seeking solace in art and seductive tales of saints of old. Initially things go splendidly, but when a person from her past shows up, her new happy existence could fall apart as past demons rear their ugly heads. An enthralling exploration of the lengths we’ll go to feed our souls, and the places, art, and history we look to for inspiration.

Set in the tumultuous 1960s, a dispirited and uptight psychologist crosses paths with a mysterious teenage girl. She never appears as the same version of herself, igniting an obsession in the square scientist who finds himself dragged deeper and deeper into the counterculture by his fixation on her various incarnations. Philosophy, quantum physics, and psychedelics swirl together in what CrimeReads calls a “mind-bending experimental thriller.”

After learning that his father committed suicide, aspiring writer Jamie leaves New York to head back to be with his disabled mother and sister in their West Virginia trailer. Once home, he begins to unearth strange clues about his secretive father’s aborted art career, as well as information about his mysterious death. A gripping debut novel.

Blending some of the best war satire of “MASH,” “Catch-22,” and “Three Kings,” Saad Z. Hossain plunges readers into the utter chaos following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, where former economics professor-turned-criminal Dagr and his streetwise miscreant partner Kinza eke out a living as black-marketeers. When they come into the possession of Saddam Hussein’s top torturer, brilliantly gonzo adventures ensue.

Laurie Foos’ recipe for delicious magical realism includes a blend of three mothers and their daughters, an unnamed lakeside town, and moon pies filled with confessions and lies. The women feed these deceptive desserts to a mysterious blue girl, but will she keep their secrets? A delectably surreal modern fairy tale.

Dark humor illuminates this novel about a young woman prone to making questionable decisions who becomes convinced that the new bartender at her Brooklyn haunt is actually Sigmund Freud. As he expertly dispenses mixed drinks paired with psychological insight, the narrator begins to reevaluate her topsy-turvy life. An intoxicating debut.