General fiction - Contemporary - Christchurch City Libraries
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The realities and moralities of modern life explored by the best writers of our generation – exploring themes of society, the environment. Follow characters as they struggle to remain decent in the face of life's pressures. Contemporary Fiction is a broad genre that continues to shift and change in step with the modern world. You’ll find multiple major award winners within this list and stories that will stay with you for a lifetime. A Christchurch City Libraries list.
Opening in the recent past, Bix Bouton, a wildly successful tech billionaire is restless for a new innovative idea. After learning about a project to download memories, Bix develops “own your unconscious,” a technology that allows the user…
Have miserable, insufferable people ever been so hilarious and entertaining? Halle Butler's follow-up to The New Me is a searing take on directionless millennial life, as Moddie, a thirty-something city-dweller who has just broken up with…
Kaveh Akbar has released several books of poetry, and "Matryr!" is his first novel, a stunning tale of grief and self-discovery. Cyrus is Iranian-American poet living in Indiana, recently orphaned and newly obsessed with martyrs. When he…
Jonathan Franzen meets "Succession" in this acerbic, satirical family saga. 40 years after businessman Carl Fletcher was kidnapped for ransom and returned after suffering physical and psychological abuse, Carl, his wife and their three…
Prepare to be sucked in by the absolutely endearing title character in Honey: an 82-year-old woman who grew up in New Jersey as the daughter of a notorious mobster, but after coming of age, set off for Los Angeles to work at a high-end…
Brutal and devastating, this is a difficult read but will truly reward those who can handle it. Dylan grew up in suburban New York and suffered three years of sex trafficking by a man who promised to marry him. Years later, a new law…
Sunday lives a carefully ordered life of routine and etiquette, along with her headstrong daughter Dolly, on the cusp of leaving home. When Vita and Rollo, a glamorous couple from London, move in next door, the two families become…
A sharp and raunchy homage to '50s lesbian pulp fiction, this centres on Astrid, a mid-list author who, after being "lightly" cancelled, finds herself drawn into the distracting orbit of two very different women. When she is offered the…
An intimate, visceral and compulsive portrait of marriage that will have you on edge for its entirety. Jane is an aspiring young writer when she meets John, a man who seems to want the same things she does: a happy, successful, creative…
A tough read that is nonetheless wholly compelling, Service follows the trial of a celebrity chef who has been accused of rape by several waitresses at his restaurant in Dublin. The story is split between three narrators: Hannah, a former…
Carmen and Grace are inseparable, more like sisters than cousins, relying only on each other throughout their childhood in The Bronx. As they approach adulthood, they're taken under the wing of Doña Durka, the matriarchal leader of an…
This niche little novella is only about 150 pages, but packs one hell of a punch. Based on interviews Scanlan conducted with a family acquaintance, the story comprises a series of vignettes detailing one woman's life training racehorses.…
when an unexpected dagnosis that blows apart the simplicity and balance of one womans life and family, she begins a journey through her past and the people who influenced her and became a part of her. Moving, thought provoking and narated…
This family drama centers around five half-siblings who all share the same absent father. None of them have much in common with each other, and have all lived very separate lives until one unexpected situation brings them all together to…
An unnamed narrator moves between nameless European cities, visiting exhibitions and thinking about artists in this evocative and thought-provoking novel from Rachel Cusk. Broken into four parts that come together in an unnerving and…
London 2019. As the city swelters in the hottest June on record, four old acquaintances find themselves at a summer solstice party, one that will change their lives forever. Heartfelt, sexually charged, and disarmingly comic, this will…
Ranita is three years sober, and almost finished her four-year sentence for opiate possession. With her release looming, she's determined to stay clean and regain custody of her two children, all while atoning for the missteps that led to…
