A writer named Ruth finds a Hello Kitty lunchbox on the beach near her Pacific-Northwest island home that contains artifacts from a young Japanese girl’s life, setting off a meditation on suicide, the reader-writer relationship, and the human experience of time.

Italo Calvino once said, “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.” For author Kevin Smokler, who spent last year re-reading 50 “classics,” the dictum rings true.

Is this real or is this a late-night re-run? Hester Kaplan’s characters navigate past traumas, has-been TV-stars, and small town casinos.

First, try not to think of Diane Williams’ latest short story collection, Vicky Swanky Is a Beauty, as a short story collection. Think of the book as a cabinet of curiosities or Wunderkammer.

Annam Manthiram’s collection of short stories explores what remains for those doomed to a life of dysfunction.

Ana Maria Shua’s grim portrait of woman at a sadistic weight-loss boot camp.

No expats hungry for exoticism here, Joanna Luloff’s debut collection brings the trials and triumphs of Sri Lankans during the civil war to the fore.

Landscape and character connect and crackle in Peter Geye’s second novel, which investigates the wildness both in nature and within ourselves.

Wit, passion, fatal cancer, and true love. Green’s big risks pay off.

With her latest novel, Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein pushes the limits of the YA genre.