With “The Hunter,” Tana French returns us to the Irish countryside with a highly anticipated sequel to “The Searcher (2020).” In this crime novel, retired Chicago cop Cal Hooper tries to settle into a peaceful life, repairing furniture with Trey, an outcast teenage girl who lost her brother under mysterious circumstances.
The reappearance of Trey’s long-absent grifter father, followed by a wealthy London backer, disrupts the sleepy town as they lure the locals into a get-rich scheme.
This sets off a chain of events leading the town’s insular inhabitants, suspicious of outsiders, into a web of cons and counter-cons. When someone turns up dead, Cal gets pulled into a murder mystery that threatens his tenuous connections with the rural community, and his carefully cultivated paternal relationship with his young mentee.
For others, past traumas and secrets become complicated motives driving their dubious choices and actions.
Reading the previous novel might deepen the emotional impact of the characters’ story arcs. Still, French’s talent for building a rich atmosphere of tension and crafting suspenseful narratives make this a compelling tale. French adeptly weaves together themes of family, sacrifice, and the blurred line between vengeance and justice.
In “Wandering Stars,” Pulitzer-prize finalist Tommy Orange follows up his critically acclaimed “There There” with a story that is both a prequel and sequel to his breakout debut novel.
The book follows a young 19th-century Native American who survives a massacre, as well as his descendants generations later.
Through the unique voice of Orvil Red Feather, a college student who is another victim of violence, readers gain an unflinching glimpse into the Native American experience and the aftermath of the country’s institutionalized erasure of identity. As encapsulated by a frontier teacher’s agenda to “kill the Indian, save the man.”
It’s a powerful portrayal of a family’s journey beyond the physical and psychological trauma of forced assimilation and loss of culture, language, and heritage.
And, to further survive the shadow of a new legacy of drug and alcohol addictions used to escape difficult realities. As Orvil realizes, it’s not enough to endure, that “Simply lasting was great for a wall, for a fortress, but not for a person.”
With poignant narratives, Orange delves into identity, belonging, and how a family’s search for meaning can move them out of the darkness and toward healing.
In her impressive new novel, “Clear,” Carys Davies sets her tale in the 1900s during the Scottish Clearances, a time of forced evictions of impoverished communities.
The story follows a missionary sent on a mercenary task to remove the last lone inhabitant from a remote Scottish island.
Upon arrival, John, the missionary, is badly injured and Ivar, the island occupant, takes the unconscious man to his home to care for him, unaware of his identity or purpose on the island. As John heals, they strive to communicate through the words of Ivar’s island’s lost language.
After living alone for decades with only his animals as company, Ivar’s humanity reemerges, while John wrestles with the truth of his terrible mission.
Through an unexpected encounter, and despite not speaking a common language, the two forge an unusual bond. But their tender and unexpected connection becomes threatened by the discovery of a hidden gun.
In this wonderful little novel, Davies’ quiet, atmospheric prose movingly depicts the profound loneliness of solitude, as well as the hope-filled joy and potential of human relationships.
Lastly, two more books that tenderly express the strength of human connections were personally recommended to me by friends: last year’s “The Queen of Dirt Island,” by Donal Ryan, and “The End of Loneliness,” by Benedict Wells, translated from German to English in 2018.
The former is a multigenerational story of a family of Irish women, embodied by fierce loyalty. The latter is a family saga of siblings whose lives are shattered by loss, but sustained by their bond.
Both are beautifully rendered stories about searching through life and finding peace through the enduring power of family love.