A Hero of Our Time harkens back to the tales of Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron, which were popular among Russians in the 1820s and '30s, with their abductions, duels, and sexual intrigues. Lermontov's story, in the character of its protagonist, Pechorin, the quintessential Russian antihero, looks ahead to the following grandeur and passion of Russian literature, which it contributed to making possible in large part.

The novel revolves around Pechorin, a character who contradicts, but complements, Pushkin's Eugene Onegin – he, too, is dandy, but a dark, Byronic one and his life story is tragic and twisted. The storyline of the work is non-linear, which adds to the drama. The novel provides a fascinating description of the lives of Russian officers in the Caucasus, as well as a riveting narrative about Russian noblemen's handling of honor and relationships with women. It is written in a distinct, ageless tone that has stayed with the reader to this day.

Detailed information:
Author: Mikhail Lermontov
Link to read: goodreads.com/book/show/226378.A_Hero_of_Our_Time

Miri believes she has reclaimed her wife after Leah returns from a disastrous deep sea trip. However, it quickly becomes evident that Leah's response was incorrect. Whatever occurred on that ship, whatever they were meant to be investigating before they became stranded on the ocean below, Leah has brought a piece of it with her onto dry ground and into their house.

Having the woman she loves back should mean a return to normalcy, but Miri senses Leah drifting away. Memories of what they used to have — the jokes they told, the movies they watched, all the little things that made Leah hers – only serve to remind Miri of what she stands to lose. Miri realizes that the life they had maybe gone as they live in the same space yet are abruptly separated. "Our Wives Under The Sea" is the critically renowned author of salt slow's debut novel. It's a narrative of falling in love, loss, and sadness, as well as what life is like in the deep, deep water.

Detailed information:
Author: Julia Armfield
Link to read: goodreads.com/book/show/58659343-our-wives-under-the-sea

The Brightwells have sailed from England to establish a new home in Western Australia. Eliza, ten, knows nothing about what awaits them on these shores beyond gleaming pearls and soup-plate-sized shells – the items her father has promised will create their fortune. Charles Brightwell, the bay's most successful pearler ten years later, goes lost from his ship while at sea.

Whispers from the townspeople imply mutiny and murder, but Eliza, confident there is more to the tale, refuses to accept her father is dead, and it falls to her to explore the questions no one else dares to ask. But, in a society rife with corruption, bigotry, and extortion, Eliza quickly discovers that the truth may be more expensive than pearls, and she must determine how much she is ready to pay – and how far she is willing to go.

Detailed information:
Author: Lizzie Pook
Link to read: goodreads.com/book/show/59366230-moonlight-and-the-pearler-s-daughter

A lady is discovered alone, nude, and near-death on the Northumberland moors after a tremendous storm. She has no recollection of who she is or how she arrived. She can, however, recall how to assist a lady in labor and how to correctly treat a wound, and she speaks perfect French. With the odds stacked against her as a destitute single woman, she begins to rebuild her life from the ground up, utilizing her abilities to assist other women in her community. She discovers her happy spot in the world. Until disaster hits and she is forced to flee for her life.

Dr. Borthwick leads a solitary existence in London, working as an accoucheur in the magnificent mansions of high society with his midwife, Mrs. Bates, and volunteering in the Devil's Acre slums with a young widow, Eleanor Johnson. His work reputation is impeccable, and he maintains his personal life equally so, separating himself from any new connections. However, he is harboring a horrible secret from his past that threatens to pour over everything.

Detailed information:
Author: Tricia Cresswell
Link to read: goodreads.com/book/show/58359858-the-midwife

These stories, told in the intimate voices of distinct and fascinating characters of all ages, explore desire and heartbreak, loss and revelation, shocking brutality, and the inevitable pull toward love at all costs. A bookseller's unspoken love for his employee emerges, a neglected teenage boy receives much-needed nurturing from an unlikely pair of college students hired to housesit, a girl's loss of innocence at the hands of her employer's son serves as a catalyst for strength and confidence, and a proud nonagenarian rages helplessly in his granddaughter's hospital room.

These stories are, above all, about King's eternal topic of love. They are romantic, optimistic, brutally raw, and unsparingly honest, and some even veer into the strange. This handpicked collection of short stories showcases Lily King's literary talent, her simple and exquisite style, and her ability for creating memorable and beloved characters. Five Tuesdays in Winter is a thrilling new form for an incredibly accomplished novelist who is at the pinnacle of her career.

Detailed information:
Author: Lily King
Link to read: goodreads.com/book/show/57812401-five-tuesdays-in-winter

When a writer called Satya joins a prominent artists' retreat, he discovers that the outside world's demands aren't going away: the US president rages online, a frightening virus envelops the planet, and the twenty-four-hour news cycle adds fuel to every fire. These Orwellian interruptions begin to form the basis of his new work, Enemies of the People, which is about the falsehoods they tell themselves and each other. Satya searches his life for instances in which truth bends toward the imagined and disinformation is misconstrued as actuality.

Amitava Kumar's A Time Outside This Time captures the feverish political moments with a precisely observant intelligence and an eye for the uncanny as Satya sifts through newspaper clippings, the President's tweets, childhood memories from India, and moments as an immigrant, a husband, father, and teacher. This shattering novel, a remarkable reflection on living in a post-truth period, conveys the sensation on all the minds, of how difficult it might feel to recall or fathom, a world other than this one.

Detailed information:
Author: Amitava Kumar
Link to read: goodreads.com/book/show/56637952-a-time-outside-this-time

Edie is simply trying to get by. She's screwing up her dead-end admin job in her all-white office, sleeping with all the wrong men, and failing at the only thing that mattered to her, painting. No one seems to mind that she has no idea what she's doing with her life other than seeking her next hook-up. Then she meets Eric, a white middle-aged archivist with a suburban family that includes a wife who has accepted to open marriage and an adopted black daughter who doesn't have a single person in her life who can instruct her how to fix her hair.

As if negotiating the constantly shifting environment of sexual and racial politics as a young black woman wasn't difficult enough, Edie finds herself tumbling headfirst into Eric's house and family with nowhere else to go. Luster by Raven Leilani is a cruelly humorous debut on what it means to be young now. It is razor-sharp, provocatively page-turning, and shockingly sweet.

Detailed information:
Author: Raven Leilani
Link to read: goodreads.com/book/show/51541496-luster

Something joyous and evil is roaming about within Lia's body, learning about her life from the inside out. A shape-changer. A tourist went wrong. It's making its way along the banks of her canals. It's getting worse. When Lia's world is turned upside down by a shocking diagnosis, the lines between her past and present begin to blur.

Deeply hidden secrets are reawakened. As the voice prowling within Lia takes control of her story, and the landscape around her becomes indistinguishable from the one within, Lia and her family are forced to confront some of the most difficult questions of all: how can they move on from the events that have shaped, when the bodies contain everything? And what does it mean to die with grace when you just aren't ready to let go?

Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies is a coming-of-age narrative set near the conclusion of a life. Maddie Mortimer's breathtaking debut is a symphonic voyage through one woman's body: a wild and poetic celebration of desire, forgiveness, and the darkness within all.

Detailed information:
Author: Maddie Mortimer
Link to read: goodreads.com/book/show/55538102-maps-of-our-spectacular-bodies

Danielle Evans is well-known for her razor-sharp voice and piercing insights into complicated human connections. Evans's The Office of Historical Corrections focuses on specific events and connections in her characters' lives, allowing them to speak to bigger concerns of race, culture, and history.

In the film 'Boys Go to Jupiter', a white college student attempts to reinvent herself when a photo of her wearing a Confederate flag bikini goes viral. A photographer is forced to confront her personal losses while attending an old friend's unexpectedly emotional wedding in 'Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain'. In the title novella, a Black scholar from Washington, DC gets lured into a complicated historical mystery that transcends centuries and jeopardizes her career, love life, and closest friendship.

Detailed information:
Author: Danielle Evans
Link to read: goodreads.com/book/show/51777605-the-office-of-historical-corrections

Inequality has a long and horrible history. And it's far from over. The War of the Poor is a short, crisp, and heartbreaking novel that relates the narrative of a horrible incident in history that is less well known than accounts of earlier popular uprisings, but one that ought to be told. The Protestant Reformation confronts the wealthy and privileged in sixteenth-century Europe.

There is a violent struggle that ensues. Out of the midst of this turbulence emerges Thomas Müntzer, a complicated and divisive character who aligned with neither Martin Luther nor the Roman Catholic Church. Müntzer spoke directly to the impoverished, pushing them to question why a God who appeared to love the poor seemed to be on the side of the affluent.

Detailed information:
Author: Eric Vuillard
Link to read: goodreads.com/book/show/54765614-the-war-of-the-poor