Categorie archieven: Amerikaanse schrijfster

American Novel, Amerikaanse roman, Amerikaanse schrijfster, Beste Romans

American female writers best novels

American female writers best novels. What are the best novels written by female authors from the United States? When was the novel published and what is its content? Which women’s novels from the United States are considered the best?

American female writers best novels

Of course, you can debate at length what the best American novels by female authors are. In fact, every reader will have their own personal preferences. So a top-so list of the best novels by American female authors isn’t entirely useful.

What are the best novels written by female authors from America?

Our editors have chosen to compile an alphabetical overview of American women’s novels that many consider more than worth reading. We will also be adding new, excellent novels by American authors.

Jane Bowles Two Serious Ladies 1943 novel first editionJane Bowles – Two Serious Ladies

1943 novel
Editorial rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Miss Goering, an eccentric, impulsive New York heiress, resides in her house and tries not to be unhappy. Mrs Copperfield, an anxious, dutiful married woman, has a great fear of drowning, of lifts, of intruders in the night. Two serious ladies, nothing is natural for them and anything is possible.

Willa Cather The Song of the Lark review en recensieWilla Cather – The Song of the Lark

1915 novel
Editorial rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Thea Kronberg, a young girl from a small town in Colorado has a great gift – her beautiful singing voice. Her talent takes her to the great opera houses of Europe, and through ambition and hard work, she forges a life as an artist. But if she can never go home again, nor can she leave behind her past.

Save Me the Waltz Zelda Fitzgerald 1932 novel first editionZelda Fitzgerald – Save Me the Waltz

1932 novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
One of the great literary curios of the twentieth century Save Me the Waltz is the first and only novel by the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. During the years when Fitzgerald was working on Tender is the Night, Zelda Fitzgerald was preparing her own story, which strangely parallels the narrative of her husband, throwing a fascinating light on Scott Fitzgerald’s life and work.

Hannah Green I Never Promised You a Rose Garden novel 1964 first editionJoanne Greenberg – I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

1984 novel, published as Hannah Green
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Sixteen-year-old Deborah’s identity is shattering, as she retreats further and further from the ‘normal’ world into her imaginary kingdom of Yr, a fantastical inner refuge both lush and horrifying. Sent to a psychiatric hospital, she must, with the help of a gifted psychiatrist, try to find a way back.

Annie John Jamaica Kincaid novel from 1985 first editionJamaica Kincaid – Annie John

1985 coming of age novel uit 1985 about Antigua
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
An adored only child growing up in Antigua, Annie has until recently lived a peaceful and content life. She is inseparable from her beautiful mother, a powerful and influential presence, who sits at the very centre of the little girl’s existence. Loved and cherished, Annie grows and thrives within her mother’s shadow. When she turns twelve, however, Annie’s life changes, in ways that are often mysterious to her.

Elaine Kraf I Am Clarence reviewElaine Kraf – I Am Clarence

1969 novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
For Clarence’s mother, life revolves around her young son; she takes him to see specialists to find the cause of his blindness and developmental delays, protects him from the cruelty of other children, and loves him tenderly. But she has her own struggles too. Her sanity is precarious and fractured, making caregiving increasingly difficult.

Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird Amerikaanse roman uit 1960Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird

1960 novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Summers for Scout in the Deep South are long and golden. Her story is one of innocence, and growing up. It is also about justice. When Scout’s father Atticus Finch, a lawyer, agrees to defend a black man against an accusation by a white girl, he takes on the prejudice of the whole town.

Bernice L. McFadden Sugar review en recensieBernice L. McFadden –  Sugar

2000 novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
When she arrives in the southern town of Bigelow, it isn’t long before the neighbourhood is alight with gossip and suspicion. Sugar fears her past is catching up with her. Then she meets Pearl, a woman trying to forget her own trauma. As these next-door neighbours become unlikely friends, they wonder if their lives could finally be changing for the better. But small towns have long memories.

Toni Morrison – Beloved

1987 novel about slavery
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Sethe is now miles away from Sweet Home – the farm where she was kept as a slave for many years. Unable to forget the unspeakable horrors that took place there, Sethe is haunted by the violent spectre of her dead child, the daughter who died nameless and whose tombstone is etched with a single word, Beloved.

Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged roman uit 1957Ayn Rand – Atlas Shrugged

1957 novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Opening with the enigmatic question ‘Who is John Galt?’, Atlas Shrugged envisions a world where the ‘men of talent’ – the great innovators, producers and creators – have mysteriously disappeared. With the US economy now faltering, businesswoman Dagny Taggart is struggling to get the transcontinental railroad up and running. For her John Galt is the enemy, but as she will learn, nothing in this situation is quite as it seems.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith 1943 novel first editionBetty Smith – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

1943 Brooklyn novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
The Nolan family are first-generation immigrants to the United States. Originating in Ireland and Austria, their life in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn is poor and deprived, but their sacrifices make it possible for their children to grow up in a land of boundless opportunity. Francie Nolan is the eldest daughter of the family. Alert, imaginative and resourceful, her journey through the first years of a century of profound change is difficult – and transformative…read on >

The Mountain Lion Jean Stafford Novel from 1947 first editionJean Stafford – The Mountain Lion

1947 coming of age novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Ralph and Molly are inseparable siblings: united against the stupidity of daily routines, their prim mother and prissy older sisters, the world of adult authority. One summer, they are sent from their childhood home in suburban Los Angeles to their uncle’s Colorado mountain ranch, where they write, hunt, roam. But this untamed wilderness soon becomes tainted by dark stirrings of sexual desire.

The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein novel from 1925 first editionGertrude Stein – The Making of Americans

1925 novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Gertrude Stein sets out to tell “a history of a family’s progress,” radically reworking the traditional family saga novel to encompass her vision of personality and psychological relationships. As the history progresses over three generations, Stein also meditates on her own writing, on the making of The Making of Americans, and on America.

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocense novel from 1920 first editionEdith Wharton – The Age of Innocence

1920 novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
The return of the beautiful Countess Olenska into the rigidly conventional society of New York sends reverberations throughout the upper reaches of society. Newland Archer, an eligible young man of the establishment is about to announce his engagement to May Welland, a pretty ingénue, when May’s cousin, Countess Olenska, is introduced into their circle. The Countess brings with her an aura of European sophistication and a hint of scandal, having left her husband and claimed her independence.

Edith Wharton The Glimpes of the Moon first edition from 1922Edith Wharton – The Glimpses of the Moon

1922 novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Nick Lansing and Susy Branch are young and attractive, but penniless. Gracefully moving through New York high society, they have the right connections but none of the wealth. When they inconveniently fall in love, Susy devises a plan. They will marry and spend a year flitting across Europe, staying in the homes of their rich friends and living off honeymoon gifts until either one of them meets a better, richer prospect.

Marguerite Young Miss MacIntosh, My Darling review en recensieMarguerite Young – Miss MacIntosh, My Darling

1968 novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
This novel is one of the most ambitious and remarkable literary achievements of our time. It is a picaresque, psychological novel—a novel of the road, a journey or voyage of the human spirit in its search for reality in a world of illusion and nightmare. It is an epic of what might be called the Arabian Nights of American life. Marguerite Young’s method is poetic, imagistic, incantatory; in prose of extraordinary richness she tests the nature of her characters—and the nature of reality.

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Afbeelding bovenzijde: Zelda Fitzgerald in 1922 (Public domain)

American Novel, Amerikaanse roman, Amerikaanse schrijfster

Betty Smith – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Betty Smith A Tree Grows in Brooklyn review and information about the 1943 American novel. In 1943, American author Betty Smith’s novel was published. Here you can read information about the novel’s content, reception, reviews and author.

Betty Smith A Tree Grows in Brooklyn reviews

  • “A profoundly moving novel, and an honest and true one. It cuts right to the heart of life … If you miss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn you will deny yourself a rich experience… It is a poignant and deeply understanding story of childhood and family relationships.” (New York Times)
  • “One of the books of the century.” (New York Public Library)

Betty Smith A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

  • Author: Betty Smith (United States)
  • Book type: 1943 American novel
  • Publisher: Vintage Classics
  • Length: 272 pages
  • Format: paperback / ebook
  • Prize: £ 9.99
  • Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the 1943 novel by Betty Smith

Betty Smith’s debut novel is universally regarded as a modern classic. The sprawling tale of an immigrant family in early 20th-century Brooklyn, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of the great distinctively American novels.

The Nolan family are first-generation immigrants to the United States. Originating in Ireland and Austria, their life in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn is poor and deprived, but their sacrifices make it possible for their children to grow up in a land of boundless opportunity.

Francie Nolan is the eldest daughter of the family. Alert, imaginative and resourceful, her journey through the first years of a century of profound change is difficult – and transformative. But amid the poverty and suffering among the poor of Brooklyn, there is hope, and the prospect of a brighter future.

Betty Smith was born December 15, 1896 in Brooklyn. New York A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith 1943 novel first editionCity as  Elisabeth Lillian Wehner. She published four novels: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943), Tomorrow Will Be Better (1947), Maggie-Now (1958) and, Joy in the Morning (1963). She also wrote two plays: Jonica Stars (1930) and Becomes A Woman, originally titled Francie Nolan (1931). She died in died of pneumonia in Shelton, Connecticut on January 17, 1972 in Shelton, Connecticut, at the age of 75.

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Zelda Fitzgerald – Save Me the Waltz

Zelda Fitzgerald Save Me the Waltz review and information about the 1932 American novel. In 1932, American author Zelda Fitzgerald’s only novel was published. Here you can read information about the novel’s content, reception, reviews and author.

Zelda Fitzgerald Save Me the Waltz reviews

  • “The only published novel of a brave and talented woman who is remembered for het defeats.” (Matthew Bruccoli)
  • “A strangely evocative novel, episodic in structure, painterly in its description, almost hallucinatory in overall effect.” (The New York Times)

Zelda Fitzgerald Save Me the Waltz

Save Me the Waltz

  • Author: Zelda Fitzgerald (United States)
  • Book type: 1932 American novel
  • Publisher: Vintage Classics
  • Length: 272 pages
  • Format: paperback / ebook
  • Prize: £ 9.99
  • Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the 1932 novel by Zelda Fitzgerald

“We couldn’t go on indefinitely being swept off our feet.”

One of the great literary curios of the twentieth century Save Me the Waltz is the first and only novel by the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. During the years when Fitzgerald was working on Tender is the Night, Zelda Fitzgerald was preparing her own story, which strangely parallels the narrative of her husband, throwing a fascinating light on Scott Fitzgerald’s life and work.

In its own right, it is a vivid and moving story: the confessional of a famous glamour girl of the affluent 1920s and an aspiring ballerina which captures the spirit of an era.

Zelda Fitzgerald was born July 24, 1900,  in Montgomery, Alabama, Save Me the Waltz Zelda Fitzgerald 1932 novel first editionin the United States was an American writer and artist, best known for personifying the carefree ideals of the 1920s flapper and for her tumultuous marriage to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Save Me the Waltz was the only novel she wrote and was published during her lifetime. She died March 10, 1948, at the age of 47 in the Highlight Mental Hospital Asheville, North Carolina during a fire.

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Jane Bowles – Two Serious Ladies

Jane Bowles Two Serious Ladies review and information about the 1943 American novel. In 1943, American author Jane Bowles’ only novel was published. Here you can read information about the novel’s content, reception, reviews and author.

Jane Bowles Two Serious Ladies reviews

  • “My favourite book. I can”t think of a modern novel that seems more likely to become a classic.” (Tennessee Williams)
  • “Jane Bowles”s literary output, small but perfect, puts her on a stylistic planet all her own.” (The New Yorker)
  • “The book I give as a gift. It feels like giving someone an exotic fruit.” (Sheila Heti)
  • “A modernist cult classic.” (Guardian)

Jane Bowles Two Serious Ladies

Two Serious Ladies

  • Author: Jane Bowles (United States)
  • Book type: American novel from 1943
  • Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Essentials
  • Length: 272 pages
  • Format: paperback / ebook
  • Prize: £ 9.99
  • Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the 1943 novel by Jane Bowles

Miss Goering, an eccentric, impulsive New York heiress, resides in her house and tries not to be unhappy.

Mrs Copperfield, an anxious, dutiful married woman, has a great fear of drowning, of lifts, of intruders in the night.

Two serious ladies, nothing is natural for them and anything is possible.

For Mrs Copperfield – a trip to Panama, where she abandons her husband for love of a local prostitute. For Miss Goering – a move to a squalid little house on an island and a series of sordid encounters with strangers. Both go to pieces -and both realise this is something they’ve wanted to do for years.

Jane Bowles was born as born Jane Sydney Auer, February 22, 1917 Jane Bowles Two Serious Ladies 1943 novel first editionin New York City. She has long had an underground reputation as one of the truly original writers of this century. She lived in Tangier, Morocco, with her husband, writer Paul Bowles, from 1952 until her death on May 4, 1973 in a clinic in Málaga, Spain at the age of 56. She was primarily a playwright and Two Serious Ladies was her only novel.

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American Novel, Amerikaanse roman, Amerikaanse schrijfster, autobiografische roman

Gish Jen – Bad Bad Girl

Gish Jen Bad Bad Girl review and information of the content of the new novel by the American author of Chinese descent. St. Martin’s Press will publish the new Gish Jen novel, on October 21, 2025. 

Gish Jen Bad Bad Girl review

  • “What an amazing f***ing novel, wild like love and twice as revealing. Gish Jen has written the multigenerational mother-daughter epic of our new century. Bad Bad Girl spans decades, oceans, continents, generations, languages, showing us we can escape almost anything—except the voices of our parents. Intergenerational mother-daughter mayhem of the absolute best smartest vexing most moving kind.” (Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao)
  • “Sharp and compassionate … Some relationships are so complex that truth can’t do them justice.” (Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times)

Gish Jen Bad Bad Girl

Bad Bad Girl

  • Author: Gish Jen (United States)
  • Book type: American novel
  • Publisher: Knopf
  • Released: 21 October 2025
  • Length: 353 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook / audiobook
  • Prize: $ 30.00
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the new novel by Gish Jen

The award-winning author of The Resisters returns with an engrossing, blisteringly funny-sad autobiographical novel tracing a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship.

My mother had died, but still I heard her voice. . .

Gish’s mother, Loo Shu-hsin, is born in 1924 to a wealthy Shanghai family whose girls are expected to restrain themselves. Her beloved nursemaid—far more loving to than her real mother—is torn from her even as she is constantly reprimanded: “Bad bad girl! You don’t know how to talk!” Sent to a modern Catholic school by her progressive father, she receives not only an English name—Agnes—but a first-rate education. To his delight, she excels. But even then he can only sigh, “Too bad. If you were a boy, you could accomplish a lot.” Agnes finds solace in books and, in 1947, announces her intention to pursue a PhD in America. As the Communist revolution looms, she sets sail—never to return.

Lonely and adrift in New York, she begins dating Jen Chao-Pe, an engineering student. They do their best to block out the increasingly dire plight of their families back home and successfully establish a new American life: Marriage! A house in the suburbs! A number one son! By the time Gish is born, though, the news from China is proving inescapable; their marriage is foundering; and Agnes, confronted with a strong-willed, outspoken daughter distinctly reminiscent of herself, is repeating the refrain—“Bad bad girl! You don’t know how to talk!”—as she recapitulates the harshness of her own childhood.

Spanning continents, generations, and cultures, Bad Bad Girl is a novel only Gish Jen could have written: genre-bending, courageous, wise, and as immensely incisive as it is compassionate.

Gish Jen is born August 12, 1955 in Long Island, New York. She is a second-generation Chinese American. Her parents emigrated from China in the 1940s. Bad Bad Girl is het sixth novel. She als published non-fiction. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a recipient of fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute and the Guggenheim Foundation as well as of a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction and of a Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her short work has appeared in the New Yorker and other magazines, and have been chosen for The Best American Short Stories five times, including The Best American Short Stories of the Century. She delivered the William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in American Studies at Harvard University.

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Toni Morrison – Spelen in het duister

Toni Morrison Spelen in het duister recensie en informatie boek over witheid in de literaire verbeelding. Op 14 oktober 2025 verschijnt bij Uitgeverij Letterwerk de Nederlandse vertaling van Playing in the Dark, het non-fictie boek uit 1993 van Toni Morrison. Hier lees je informatie over de inhoud van het boek, de auteur en over de uitgave.

Toni Morrison Spelen in het duister recensie

  • “Door de Amerikaanse literaire slagader aan te vallen plaatst ze zich, met argumenten, in het centrum van het hedendaagse publieke debat over wat het betekent om authentiek en oorspronkelijk Amerikaans te zijn. Ze herinterpreteert op gedurfde wijze de mogelijkheden van Amerika.” (Chicago Tribune)
  • “Een diepgaande herdefiniëring van de Amerikaanse culturele identiteit.” (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Toni Morrison Spelen in het duister

Spelen in het duister

Witheid in de literaire verbeelding

  • Auteur: Toni Morrison (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: literaire non-fictie
  • Origineel: Playing in the Dark (1993)
  • Uitgever: Letterwerk
  • Reeks: Filosofische Bibliotheek Diotima
  • Verschijnt: 14 november 2025
  • Omvang: 200 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback
  • Prijs: € 24,99
  • Boek bestellen bij: Boekenwereld / Libris

Flaptekst van het boek van Toni Morrison over racisme

Spelen in het duister is een van de weinige non-fictiewerken die Toni Morrison schreef. In dit boek maakt ze een messcherpe analyse van de verborgen, maar cruciale rol die Afro-Amerikanen spelen in de literaire verbeelding van wit Amerika. Ze spreekt over ‘Afrikanisme’: Afrikanen en Afro-Amerikanen vormden de vaak impliciete achtergrond van onvrijheid, waartegen de Amerikaanse idealen van autonomie en zelfredzaamheid konden worden afgezet (door witte schrijvers).

Morrison reflecteert op de impact van raciale aannames op het lezen en interpreteren van literaire werken. Door het ontrafelen van het ‘Afrikanisme’ ontstaat er een fascinerend nieuw perspectief op het werk van canonieke witte Amerikaanse schrijvers zoals E.A. Poe, Herman Melville, Will Cather en Ernest Hemingway.

In Spelen in het duister houdt Morrison ons een spiegel voor. Ze legt haarfijn de subtiele onderstromen van racisme en uitbuiting bloot die de basis vormen van veel Amerikaanse literatuur. Bovendien plaatst ze kritische vraagtekens bij het idee van ‘rasvrije’ literatuur en pleit ze voor de erkenning van de invloedrijke, maar vaak over het hoofd geziene, rol van Afro-Amerikanen hierin.

Geïllustreerd met een nawoord door de inspirerende Sibo Kanobana, levert Spelen in het duister een niet te onderschatten bijdrage aan het hedendaagse debat over racisme in Europa.

Toni Morrison is geboren op 18 februari1931 in Lorain, Ohiao, Verenigde Staten. Ze was een Afro-Amerikaanse schrijfster. In 1993 ontving ze de Nobelprijs voor Literatuur voor haar oeuvre. Een aantal van haar boeken wordt gezien als klassiekers van de Amerikaanse literatuur, waaronder The Bluest Eye, Beloved (dat bekroond werd met de Pulitzerprijs), en Song of Solomon. Door haar unieke stem en onwrikbare toewijding aan het vertellen van de complexe verhalen van Afro-Amerikanen heeft ze een onuitwisbare stempel gedrukt op de wereldliteratuur. Ze overleed op 5 augustus 2019 in The Bronx in New York City en werd 88 jaar oud.

Bijpassende boeken en informatie

American Crime Novel, Amerikaanse roman, Amerikaanse schrijfster

Nic Stone – Boom Town

Nic Stone Boom Town review and information of the content of the new Atlanta Crime novel by the American author. Simon & Shuster will publish the new Nic Stone novel, on October 14, 2025. 

Nic Stone Boom Town  review

Whenever a book review or review of Boom Town, the new novel by Nic Stone appears in the media, we’ll highlight it on this page.

Nic Stone Boom Town

Boom Town

  • Author: Nic Stone (United States)
  • Book type: American novel, crime novel
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster
  • To be released: 14 October 2025
  • Length: 282 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook / audiobook
  • Prize: $ 28.00 / $ 14,99 / $ 23.99
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the new novel by Chris Nic Stone

Nic Stone’s adult thriller debut about two missing erotic dancers from Atlanta’s most notorious gentlemen’s club and the woman committed to finding them.

When Damaris “Charm” Wilburn, a new daytime dancer, is missing for her shift at Boom Town, former headliner Michah “Lyriq” Johanssen suspects something more than a “no call, no show.” As Lyriq’s former headline partner and lover—Felice “Lucky” Carothers—also vanished under similar circumstances, Lyriq decides she’s going to find them.

Delving deeper into Charm and Lucky’s disappearances, Lyriq uncovers a tangled web of deceit, privilege, and power. The line between friend and foe blurs, forcing Lyriq to confront the question: Is finding for these women worth the threat to her own life?

This tantalizing thriller will take you on a heart-pounding and page turning journey through the peaks and valleys of Atlanta’s underworld.

Nic Stone born July 10, 1985 in Atlanta, Georgia, is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin. A Spelman College graduate, Nic lives in Atlanta with her family. Boom Town is her first adult novel.

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Sarah Crouch – The Briars

Sarah Crouch The Briars review and information of novel and literary thriller. Atria Books will publish the novel by Sarah Crouch, on January 13, 2026. Here you can read information about the content of the book, the author and the publication.

Sarah Crouch The Briars reviews

  • “One of my favourite reads of the year, The Briars is a show stopping, accomplished mystery that both captivated and intrigued me in equal measure – I couldn’t put it down. From the very first page, Sarah Crouch draws you into the beautifully realised setting of Lake Lumin in the Pacific Northwest with lush, lyrical descriptions that left me both longing to visit and deeply chilled. With nuanced, likeable characters, Crouch weaves a complex plot and tightens the tension until breaking point as murder haunts the lake and the past returns to shadow the present. A complex, thrilling page turner that will stay with you long after you finish reading.” (Sarah Pearse, Author of The Sanatorium)
  • “Sarah Crouch’s delicate and tantalizing prose in The Briars builds the scaffolding for an emotionally charged mystery as a troubled game warden probes for answers in the wilds of the lush Pacific Northwest — and in the vagaries of the treacherous landscape within. With complicated twists that build to a satisfying surprise, The Briars delivers a powerful emotional experience readers won’t be able to shake long after they put the book down. One of the best books I’ve read this year.” (Julie Carrick Dalton, author of The Last Beekeeper)

Sarah Crouch The Briars

The Briars

  • Author: Sarah Crouch (United States)
  • Book type: literary thriller
  • Publisher: Atria Books
  • To be released: January 13, 2026
  • Length: 320 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook / audiobook
  • Prize: $ 29.00 / $ 14.99 / $25.99
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the crime novel of Sarah Crouch

A lush and atmospheric novel of suspense following a young woman whose job as a game warden puts her in the path of a murderer in a small town eager to protect its own.

Desperate to escape a relationship gone bad, Annie Heston flees north to accept a job as a game warden in Lake Lumin, a picturesque town in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.

A cougar has been spotted in the area, and as Annie warns the community of the threat, she quickly discovers that not everyone in the tight-knit town is welcoming of outsiders, except for Daniel Barela, a reclusive carpenter who lives in the shadow of the mountain. They form an instant bond, though Annie soon comes to realize there is more to his past than meets the eye.

When the body of a young woman is found in the briars that border Daniel’s property, the peace Annie has found in Lake Lumin shatters. As she assists the local sheriff with the investigation, Annie must rely on her wilderness training and intuition to find a murderer hiding in plain sight.

Urgent and emotionally complex, The Briars is a captivating literary thriller that marries an exploration of human nature with a plot as thorny and twisted as the brambles for which it is named.

Sarah Crouch is born August 22, 1989 in Hockinson, Washington. She is the author of Middletide and The Briars, literary thrillers set in the Pacific Northwest, where she was raised. She is also known for her accolades in the world of athletics as a professional marathon runner.

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Shannon Bowring – In a Distant Valley

Shannon Bowring In a Distant Valley review, recensie en informatie roman over Maine in de winter van de Amerikaanse schrijfster. Op 8 oktober 2025 verschijnt bij Europa Editions de roman van Shannon Bowring, de uit de Verenigde Staten afkomstige schrijfster. Er is geen Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verkrijgbaar.

Shannon Bowring In a Distant Valley review en recensie

  • “Bowring brilliantly evokes people’s inner lives through small, illuminating moments.” (Kirkus Reviews)
  • “Bowring concludes her heartwarming trilogy chronicling small-town life in northern Maine on a strong note…[her] compassionate, unflinchingly detailed portrayals of her characters’ inner lives provide depth and nuance. A vibrant, hope-filled story of the redemptive possibilities of second chances.” (Booklist)

Shannon Bowring In a Distant Valley

In a Distant Valley

  • Auteur: Shannon Bowring (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: Amerikaanse roman, Maine roman
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Europa Editions
  • Verschijnt: 8 oktober 2025
  • Omvang: 336 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 18,00 / $ 12,99
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol

Flaptekst van de roman over Maine in de winter van Shannon Bowring

Both a love letter and a window into the rural places that have shaped many, In a Distant Valley sets the stage for a final act to play out across a deep winter in snowy Maine.

For a while, Rose Douglas believed life had given her a break. She was enjoying a steady job at the local clinic in Dalton; her two young boys, Adam and Brandon, were doing well in school; and their little family had found an easy friendship with widower Nate Theroux and his daughter, Sophie. The possibility of something deeper even hung between her and Nate—until the day Tommy Merchant, her ex and the father of her sons, showed up without warning on her doorstep. While Rose knows all too well his erratic and abusive nature, he swears he’s clean, and ready to turn over a new leaf.

Tommy isn’t the only one who’s found his way back to the town that defined him. Lost after a disastrous stint living down south with her father, Angela Muse has returned home to Dalton. There she runs into Greg Fortin, the friend who once saved her life when they were children and finally starts to believe there may be someone who understands her in a world that offers more questions than answers.

But secrets are the lifeblood of a small town, and everyone in Dalton soon finds themselves part of a chain of events hurtling towards outcomes beyond their control, where more than one future will be decided. Brimming with compassion and heart.

Shannon Bowring has been nominated for a Pushcart and a Best of the Net, and was recently selected in Best Small Fictions. She holds an MFA from University of Southern Maine Stonecoast and currently resides in Maine. The Road to Dalton was her first novel, followed by When the Forest Meets the River. In a Distant Valley is her third novel.

Bijpassende boeken

American Novel, Amerikaanse roman, Amerikaanse schrijfster, coming-of-age roman, Debuutroman

Portia Elan – Homebound

Portia Elan Homebound review and information of the content of the coming-of-age novel by the American author. Chatto & Windus will publish the Portia Elan debut novel, on May 7, 2026. Here you can read information about the content of the book, the author and the publication.

Portia Elan Homebound reviews

  • “A joy – at once a gripping mystery that confidently spans centuries, and a hauntingly beautiful exploration of what makes us human…. it kept me up all night!” (Madeline Miller)
  • “Homebound is the most original and arresting novel I’ve read in a very long time. Elan has created a century-spanning epic that’s also an utterly intimate story of love, loss, and found family. What a joy; what a marvel.” (Anna North)

Portia Elan Homebound

Homebound

  • Author: Portia Elan (United States)
  • Book type: American debut novel, coming-of-age novel
  • Publisher: Chatto & Windus
  • To be released: 7 May 2026
  • Length: 320 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook / audiobook
  • Prize: £16.99 / £ 8.99 / £ 14.00
  • Order book from: Amazon

Blurb of the novel by Portia Elan

Six hundred years. Five interlocking lives. One computer game. And the many paths that can lead us home.

  • 1983: a grieving teenager can’t wait to leave home.
  • 2083: a scientist makes a radical discovery about the human spirit.
  • 2586: a pirate captain navigates the perils of a flooded world.
  • Meanwhile: an astronaut is on a rescue mission in deep space.

It’s 1983 and Becks can’t wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. In the meantime, she has work to do: her uncle, the only person who understood her, has left her a half-finished game to complete.

What Becks is coding will outlast her by centuries and shape the lives of a scientist, an astronaut and a desperate sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. It will connect these four pioneering women across time, vast oceans and far-distant planets and introduce them to a remarkable robot destined to gather together this disparate crew and bring them home.

Homebound is a coming out and coming-of-age story, a wild and precarious sea adventure, a space odyssey. As it slips through time, loss, creativity, found family, it journeys deep into humanity’s future and capacity for love.

Portia Elan studied history at Stanford University and earned an MFA from the University of Victoria before returning to California, where she has worked as a waitress, bookseller, teacher and public librarian. She was a 2016 Lambda Literary Fellow and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife and an abundance of cats. Homebound is her first novel.

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