Literary fiction to read with your book club

I’m sure this book will make at least a few “Best of the Year” lists. It follows Natalie Heller Mills, who is really good at being a trendy “traditional wife” influencer. From the farmhouse (with some help behind the scenes) to raising her six children, Natalie is a natural at getting ready for the camera. But then one morning, everything changes. Well, technically, her kids and husband are there, but something isn’t right about them. Then there’s his house, which has gone from charmingly rustic to now having no electricity. Either someone is playing some big trick on him, or he has actually been transported to the mid-1800s, where he has to haul wood and work until he bleeds. Whatever the truth, one thing is clear: he has to get out. -Erica Ezefedi

Aguda’s latest novel comes on the heels of a National Book Award nomination Ghostroots. It, like the story collection, takes place in modern Nigeria, where reality points to another world. Yosoye is a young woman with a promising future ahead of her—she is starting an internship at an architectural firm in Lagos. But soon after arriving in the big city, she becomes pregnant, and, being alone, she wants a child. Then the deaths begin: As new land is developed, pregnant women start dying from water. And Yosoye, herself newly pregnant, can’t help but focus on the dying women and what they mean to her. -Erica Ezefedi

Rohit is a professor who is suffering heartache after falling in unrequited love with his friend Dhruv. You know what they say about getting over people, so he begins a series of short-term relationships with men – until he meets the attractive Sion, who he begins to fall for. But political tensions run high in India, and when Sayan joins a student-led movement, Rohit must decide where his loyalties lie. -Danica Ellis

Rare is a novel that is both very smart and very funny. Rare is still the writer who can write a middle-age novel that includes a mystery, a hilarious misunderstanding, a globetrotting caper, a sweet romance, and jokes about moral philosophy. Maria Semple can do it all with equal efficiency. There’s not a single false note in this widely recommended novel that’s guaranteed to delight literary types and general readers alike. go gentle It’s a party in book form, secretly filled with knowledge, intelligence and women who have to be handled very well. -Rebecca joins Shinskey

Sapphic Gothic novels are having a moment, and I’m here for it. I can’t resist the combination of bleak longing and a growing sense of doom. At Brierley School for Girls in 1928, something horrific was spreading, rotting flesh and curdled milk. Then the body count starts increasing. Emily is convinced that the death of her attractive classmate Violet was not natural, and she intends to prove it. She teams up with rival Evelyn to try to contact Violet from beyond the veil. Through Evelyn, Violet warns that the danger has just begun. It promises “adolescent repression, queer desire, and the everyday horrors of aging.” -Danica Ellis