Featured Fiction Author

Featured Fiction Author: Junot Díaz

Junot Díaz is the author of Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize and was named Time's #1 Fiction Book of 2007. He is the recipient of a PEN/Malamud Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Born in Santo Domingo, Díaz is a professor at MIT. In This Is How You Lose Her, his newest book, he looks at love and its claims. Below are some of his top book recommendations -- for lovers, dreamers, and others.

Junot Diaz
Book Cover Image. Title: This Is How You Lose Her, Author: Junot Diaz
Book Cover Image. Title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Author: Junot Diaz
Book Cover Image. Title: Drown, Author: Junot Diaz

For lovers

Book Cover Image. Title: Say Her Name, Author: Francisco Goldman

Say Her Name

Francisco Goldman

If there's been a better novel in the last ten years I haven't read it. The bare bones of the plot-a middle age writer named Francisco marries the love of his life-the young pretty preternaturally brilliant Aura-and then tragically loses her during a beach holiday-does this magnificent book no justice. A masterpiece as breathtaking and tender as the love it describes. Buy Now

For high school reunions

Book Cover Image. Title: Night Fisher, Author: R. Kikuo Johnson

Night Fisher

R. Kikuo Johnson

A coming-of-age gem set in Maui about a disaffected straight-A student who decides to follow his former best friend into a desultory spiral of meth, petty crime and other craziness. Beautiful and compelling portrait of restless youth and its consequences. Buy Now

For trips around the world

Book Cover Image. Title: Aerogrammes: And Other Stories, Author: Tania James

Aerogrammes

Tania James

From an Indian wrestler in 1910 England to a marrying ghost who plots a return to flesh, James writes the kind of stories I've always loved, by turns absurd and hilarious but also deeply consequential. James has got range and a phenomenal heart. Not to be missed. Buy Now

For dreamers

Book Cover Image. Title: The Alchemy of Stone, Author: Ekaterina Sedia

The Alchemy of Stone

Ekaterina Sedia

In a steampunk city torn by conflict between Alchemists and the Machinists, between natives and outsiders, Mattie, fragile wind-up automaton, attempts to stop the city's gargoyles from turning to stone and in the process gain from her master the key that will make her free. A dynamite book, weird and original and true, fantasy at its best. Buy Now

For the End of the World

Book Cover Image. Title: The Dog Stars, Author: Peter Heller

The Dog Stars

Peter Heller

A stupendous debut, Heller's voice is both haunted and irresistible. A post-apocalyptic novel with so much emotional truth it reads like a memoir from the future. About a worn-out pilot, his beloved Cessna, his copilot dog and our endless longing for connection -- even in a world undone. Buy Now