Longlisted for the 2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize A "rich, ambitious debut novel" ( T he New York Times Book Review ) that reveals the ways in which a Jamaican family forms and fractures over generations, in the tradition of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. *An Entertainment Weekly , Millions , and LitHub Most Anticipated Book of 2020 Pick and Buzz Magazine 's Top New Book of the New Decade* Stanford Solomon's shocking, thirty-year-old secret is about to change the lives of everyone around him. Stanford has done something no one could ever imagine. He is a man who faked his own death and stole the identity of his best friend. Stanford Solomon is actually Abel Paisley. And now, nearing the end of his life, Stanford is about to meet his firstborn daughter, Irene Paisley, a home health aide who has unwittingly shown up for her first day of work to tend to the father she thought was dead. These Ghosts Are Family revolves around the consequences of Abel's decision and tells the story of the Paisley family from colonial Jamaica to present-day Harlem. There is Vera, whose widowhood forced her into the role of a single mother. There are two daughters and a granddaughter who have never known they are related. And there are others, like the houseboy who loved Vera, whpose lives might have taken different courses if not for Abel Paisley's actions. This "rich and layered story" ( Kirkus Reviews ) explores the ways each character wrestles with their ghosts and struggles to forge independent identities outside of the family and their trauma. The result is a "beguiling...vividly drawn, and compelling" ( BookPage , starred review) portrait of a family and individuals caught in the sweep of history, slavery, migration, and the more personal dramas of infidelity, lost love, and regret.

Stephen Aston is getting married again. The only problem is, he's still married to his first wife, even though she is in a care facility for dementia. But he'll take care of that easily, by divorcing her—even if his adult daughters protest. Tully and Rachel Aston look upon Heather as nothing but an interloper. Heather is the same age as Rachel and even younger than Tully. Clearly she's a gold digger and after their father's money. Heather has secrets that she's keeping close, and reasons of her own for wanting to marry Stephen. With their mother unable to speak for herself, Tully and Rachel are determined to get to the truth about their family's secrets, the new wife closing in, and who their father really is. But will getting to the truth unleash the most dangerous impulses...in all of them?

Calvin is the smallest guy in his high school, and a perfect target for Rozelle and her girl gang. His mother is dead, his father is long gone and his only remaining relative, his grandmother, is getting too sick to run her dry cleaning business. The only time Calvin feels in control is when he's working his yo-yo. When he takes up street performing, Rozelle demands a cut and insists on being his manager. To get media attention, she markets him as a yo-yo genius who can predict the future, dubbing him the "Yo-Yo Prophet." Calvin begins to believe his own hype, but as Gran's condition deteriorates, he realizes that it will take more than fame and adulation to keep his family intact.

Ten-year-old Vivien Leigh wants more than anything to understand the adult world. But when two black nuns come to teach at her all-white Catholic elementary school, everything begins to change. Her father leads a "Concerned Citizens" group aiming to replace the new nuns, and her mother's relationship with their black housekeeper deteriorates.

When aspiring stage-manager Rebecca Weir falls for the married director of SenseInSound theatre company, she initiates a love triangle and working collaboration which go on for two decades. Set in Toronto at the start of the 1980s, You'll Know Even Then explores the genesis of what its disciples call 'The Work'. The director, Marlin, has the status of a Guru in SenseInSound, but is he pushing people's limits or abusing his power? Is the 'The Work' a cutting-edge artistic practice, a road to personal healing, or a cult?

A sweeping and turbulent drama about the anxieties of postwar Britain, where one strong and inspirational young woman looks to find her place, no matter the cost.

Sometimes, the truth lies in fiction

It’s hard to be an American girl in 1957. Especially when your dad’s job means you have to move four thousand miles from home. Especially if you’d rather play baseball than wear a dress. Especially if you see your mom fraying a little more from anxiety each day. And especially if being five minutes older means you have to protect your fragile twin brother.

Still, Hedy Delaney loves her family, and she’s trying to make the best of her new life on a U.S. airbase in England. After all, her dad’s a war hero, her mother’s a beauty, and her brother’s a brainiac who writes moving stories about space travel.

Then one tragic day, the unforeseen occurs and all three are ripped away, leaving Hedy alone with countless questions. What really happened on the airbase? What went on behind military closed doors? What were the secrets that could never be told? And how could any of it have led to her family’s destruction?

In her search for the truth, Hedy turns to a story her brother began months before he died. Deciding to finish what her brother started, Hedy begins to piece together what happened to her family. But whether she’s ready for what she’ll discover is another matter entirely.

A sweeping and turbulent family drama, The Wonderful asks whether writing fiction can uncover fact, and if it’s ever better to let the truth remain hidden.

Sometimes, it’s safer not to finish what you’ve started.

Before Edward, Prince of Wales renounced his throne for American divorcee Wallis Simpson, he loved another: Thelma Morgan Furness, sister to the first Gloria Vanderbilt. This is her story.

Steinbeck's novel features Ethan Allen Hawley, formerly of the New England aristocracy but now a humble grocery clerk. Inspiring little but resentment in his wife and daughters, Ethan nevertheless does his utmost to live an honest life. Every man, however, has his breaking point, and Ethan risks his integrity and much more as he embarks on what he hopes will be a path back to wealth and privilege.

In Leaford, Ontario, love and grief combine to awaken an obese woman from her loneliness. When her husband doesn't come home on the eve of their 25th wedding anniversary, Mary Gooch, who has never learned to be self-sufficient, sets out on a remarkable journey of self-discovery.