A Thousand Splendid Suns

The Heart's Invisible Furies John Boyne

A man born to an unmarried mother in 1945 Ireland grows up in a country that has no place for him -- and returns every seven years to discover how much has and hasn't changed.

The Color Purple Alice Walker

Celie writes letters she cannot send to a God she is not sure is listening -- and slowly, through those letters, she finds her voice and her life.

I'll Give You the Sun Jandy Nelson

Twin artists tell their story in split timelines -- one in words, one in art -- as a family secret threatens to tear them apart.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz

A Dominican-American nerd from New Jersey searches for love under a family curse that has followed them from Trujillo's regime to the suburbs.

Commonwealth Ann Patchett

A single impulsive kiss at a christening party sets two families on a collision course across fifty years -- and one summer together as blended children shapes all of them forever.