NCW Libraries

It's early 2000 on New York City's Upper East Side, and the alienation of Moshfegh's unnamed young protagonist from others is nearly complete when she initiates her yearlong siesta, during which time she experiences limited personal interactions. Her parents have died; her relationships with her bulimic best friend Reva, an ex-boyfriend, and her drug-pushing psychiatrist are unwholesome. As her pill-popping intensifies, so does her isolation and determination...

Set in the mid-twentieth century and told with beauty and tenderness, Robert Seethaler's A Whole Life is a story of man's relationship with an ancient landscape, of the value of solitude, of the arrival of the modern world, and above all, of the moments, great and small, that make us who we are.

"A celebration of the joy and comfort to be found in alone time and the joy and comfort that a friend can bring"--

When solitary gosling Gus has his adventures lead him to a nest, he finds three small eggs that could possibly hold his perfect companions inside.

A bird named Only likes his quiet time and alone time, but he does not want to be lonely.

"A marvelous new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Lowland and Interpreter of Maladies--her first in nearly a decade. Exuberance and dread, attachment and estrangement: in this novel, Jhumpa Lahiri stretches her themes to the limit. The woman at the center wavers between stasis and movement, between the need to belong and the refusal to form lasting ties. The city she calls home, an engaging backdrop to her days, acts as a confidant:...

"A taut, psychological mind-bender from the bestselling author of I'm Thinking of Ending Things. We don't get visitors. Not out here. We never have. In Iain Reid's second haunting, philosophical puzzle of a novel, set in the near-future, Junior and Henrietta live a comfortable, solitary life on their farm, far from the city lights, but in close quarters with each other. One day, a stranger from the city arrives with alarming news: Junior has been...

The Donovan legacy continues in these two classic tales of love and magic! Charmed Anastasia Donovan has sworn off romance. After a past boyfriend refused to accept Ana's gift of witchcraft, Ana decided she would move on and start fresh. So when Ana befriends her new next-door neighbor--six-year-old Jessie--she doesn't plan on falling for Jessie's protective single father, Boone Sawyer. Boone and Ana have an undeniable connection and their relationship...

In Collective Gravities, something magical is always just beneath the surface--the zombie apocalypse happens, but the world stays relatively the same; a woman begins to feel the earth moving beneath her feet. In this fantastical, genre-bending collection, Chloe N. Clark launches readers from Iowa, to outer space, and back again. Lyrical, funny, and full of transcendent beauty, Collective Gravities is a cause for celebration: an astronomically gifted...

Bear likes playing piano for all the other animals, but they keep asking him for more, and Bear has trouble setting boundaries and expressing that he needs time for himself until he finds sympathetic Zebra.