[Manabi]

This month's Kindle First selections are out, they are:

The Girl from Krakow by Alex Rosenberg [Genre: Historical Fiction]

It’s 1935. Rita Feuerstahl comes to the university in Krakow intent on enjoying her freedom. But life has other things in store—marriage, a love affair, a child, all in the shadows of the oncoming war. When the war arrives, Rita is armed with a secret so enormous that it could cost the Allies everything, even as it gives her the will to live. She must find a way both to keep her secret and to survive amid the chaos of Europe at war. Living by her wits among the Germans as their conquests turn to defeat, she seeks a way to prevent the inevitable doom of Nazism from making her one of its last victims. Can her passion and resolve outlast the most powerful evil that Europe has ever seen?

In an epic saga that spans from Paris in the ’30s and Spain’s Civil War to Moscow, Warsaw, and the heart of Nazi Germany, The Girl from Krakow follows one woman’s battle for survival as entire nations are torn apart, never to be the same.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

This mesmerizing fiction debut gives new meaning to the term page-turner. The Girl from Krakow swept me away to another time and place—I could feel it in my bones. Characters spoke to me and demanded to be known. It was a thrilling and heartbreaking glimpse into a world where everyday people were thrust into extraordinary roles they never knew they’d have to play.

Set in World War II Poland, the novel features an unlikely heroine. I felt deeply connected to the young college student Rita Feuerstahl. She, like most young people, is too busy with her studies and romantic life to pay attention to the war brewing in Europe. Smart, beautiful, and willing to take chances, she wants what any twenty-year-old would. But in the storm of war, she is forced to adapt quickly: escaping a German-run labor factory for Jews, using her Aryan looks to obtain a coveted identity card, and finding work as a servant for a high-ranking Nazi official in the occupied territories. Rita ultimately risks everything as she travels deep into the heart of Nazi Germany, carrying secrets that threaten more lives than her own.

At its heart, The Girl from Krakow is a thriller, but it’s also a tale of a young woman who must endure, and even thrive, in a world torn by conflict. It’s a survival story. As an avid fan of the novels Berlin Noir, All the Light We Cannot See, and Sarah’s Key—also set during World War II—I consider this book to be in their fine company. When you are as whip smart as author Alex Rosenberg and as creative as protagonist Rita Feuerstahl, you are bound for greatness. I am thrilled to be even a small part of their debut.

- Danielle Marshall, Editor

The Good Neighbor by A. J. Banner [Genre: Psychological Suspense]

From a phenomenal new voice in suspense fiction comes a book that will forever change the way you look at the people closest to you…

Shadow Cove, Washington, is the kind of town everyone dreams about—quaint streets, lush forests, good neighbors. That’s what Sarah thinks as she settles into life with her new husband, Dr. Johnny McDonald. But all too soon she discovers an undercurrent of deception. And one October evening when Johnny is away, sudden tragedy destroys Sarah’s happiness.

Dazed and stricken with grief, she and Johnny begin to rebuild their shattered lives. As she picks up the pieces of her broken home, Sarah discovers a shocking secret that forces her to doubt everything she thought was true—about her neighbors, her friends, and even her marriage. With each stunning revelation, Sarah must ask herself, Can we ever really know the ones we love?

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

I devour books like Before I Go to Sleep and The Husband’s Secret, fast-paced domestic dramas with an edge of psychological suspense. So I knew I had something special when I read A. J. Banner’s chilling opening lines: I’m drowning. The river’s current is tearing me apart. I’ve kicked off my boots, but my heavy jeans cling to my legs. My chest burns with the need for air. Where is she? I’ve lost sight of her—no, there she is, too close to the falls. Her head bobs to the surface, her pale face upturned. Her lips are blue.

Banner builds a multidimensional story around our heroine, Sarah, a children’s book author whose seemingly perfect life takes a turn after a tragedy forces Sarah to question everything she once believed about her neighbors and her husband. Novels with twists are a dime a dozen, but the crux of Banner’s story is that Sarah isn’t perfect, and really no one around her is either. They are relatable and human. Sarah desperately wants a baby. A child next door desperately needs a family. And her parents and those they call friends harbor their own secrets and desires. Even as I count myself lucky that my own neighbors don’t have so much going on in their lives (that I know of!), I couldn’t wait to turn the pages, both because I knew this story would take turns I wouldn’t see coming, and because the author understands that we are all imperfect, all searching for love and belonging and a safe place to call home.

As the action moves toward a breathtaking climax at the river’s edge, with two lives in danger, this story of survival and renewal, of hidden and dark obsessions, will have you wondering just how well you know the people closest to you.

- Tara Parsons, Editor

About That Fling by Tawna Fenske [Genre: Romance]

As the top PR person for the Belmont Health System, bright, beautiful Jenna McArthur knows how to spin bad news and make it sound good. But when her adorable Aunt Gertie—a secret romance writer—urges Jenna to embrace her wild side, Jenna tumbles into bed with Adam Thomas, a guy she’s just met, for a fun and fantastic one-night stand. Too bad Adam is the one guy who’s totally off-limits. There aren’t enough clever words in the world to spin the story in a way that won’t wreck Jenna’s closest friendship or destroy her job.

With the irresistible Adam always around her at work, wearing an aura of temptation like a fabulous cologne, Jenna has to hold tight to her senses to avoid falling for him. Will he take her to the heights of pleasure again—or will their attraction destroy everything she’s worked for?

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

I am a huge fan of funny storytellers. If an author can make me giggle so hard in a public place that I snort, I won’t be embarrassed. Why? Because it’s a compliment to the writer, and in fact, I feel bad for those who aren’t in on the joke. Author Tawna Fenske gets it. She gets that readers want to be pulled into a novel so completely that they guffaw in coffee shops, blush on subways, and grin like they’ve won the lottery.

What took me to the next level in About That Fling is that it not only made me laugh from the opening scene but also—between the characters’ steamy kisses—caused some tears and sniffles. Jenna and Adam, the heroine and hero, start their acquaintance as a fun one-nighter with the hope of more, but when they unexpectedly meet in their professional lives a few days later, a real relationship looks impossible. Even though I have never faced the exact same challenges they do, that didn’t stop me from relating to their failures, victories, relationships, hopes, and dreams.

They say that to write a good book, you should stick to what you know. If that’s true, then it’d be easy to think that Tawna’s life must be pure comedic gold. But is that ever really the case? The fact is that Tawna’s creative genius allows her to write about life and love in a way that lets me know that, yes, someone has been where I’ve been, found the humor in it, and made it through to the other side—and is happier for it.

- Irene Billings, Editor

The Hundred-Year Flood by Matthew Salesses [Genre: Literary Fiction]

In the shadow of a looming flood that comes every one hundred years, Tee tries to convince himself that living in a new place will mean a new identity and a chance to shed the parallels between him and his adopted father. This beautiful and dreamlike story follows Tee, a twenty-two-year-old Korean-American, as he escapes to Prague in the wake of his uncle’s suicide and the aftermath of 9/11. His life intertwines with Pavel, a painter famous for revolution; Katka, his equally alluring wife; and Pavel's partner—a giant of a man with an American name. As the flood slowly makes its way into the old city, Tee contemplates his own place in life as both mixed and adopted and as an American in a strange land full of heroes, myths, and ghosts. In the tradition of Native Speaker and The Family Fang, the Good Men Project’s Matthew Salesses weaves together the tangled threads of identity, love, growing up, and relationships in his stunning first novel, The Hundred-Year Flood.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

Matthew Salesses’s dreamlike debut is haunting and magical, roaming in and out of time and place. The Hundred-Year Flood transported me from Boston to Prague to a hospital to being underwater. I saw myself touching the statue of a saint for good luck and waiting for a flood that comes only once every hundred years. I grappled with Prague’s myths, ghosts, heroes. This is one of those books that I thought I was reading just for the wonderful story itself, until I stepped back and realized that throughout the narrative, the author has unfailingly and beautifully woven together the threads of identity.

We follow the protagonist, twenty-two-year-old Tee, as he navigates the bonds of personhood. The bond of living in two cities. The bond of being seen as American and foreign at the same time. The bond of being both white and Asian. The bond of individuality and of becoming your father. The bonds of love and lust and loyalty. While Tee tries hard to convince himself that living in a new place will forge a new identity, Salesses masterfully lays down the heart of the novel: that the imprint of family is permanent and never washes away.

I was overcome by the ease and the absolutely breathtaking way with which Salesses navigates the waters of self and home. Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist and An Untamed State, calls the novel “epic and devastating and full of natural majesty,” and I couldn’t agree more.

- Vivian Lee, Editor

City of Echoes (Detective Matt Jones Book 1) by Robert Ellis [Genre: Mystery]

On Detective Matt Jones’s first night working Homicide in LA, he’s called to investigate a particularly violent murder case: a man has been gunned down in a parking lot off Hollywood Boulevard, his bullet-riddled body immediately pegged as the work of a serial robber who has been haunting the Strip for months. Driven by the grisliness of the killing, Jones and his hot-tempered partner, Denny Cabrera, jump headfirst into the investigation. But as Jones uncovers evidence that links the crime to a brutal, ritualized murder that occurred eighteen months prior, he begins to suspect that there’s more going on beneath the surface. When Jones discovers shocking, deep-seated corruption; a high-level cover-up; and his own personal ties to the rising body count, he’s no longer sure he can trust anyone, even himself.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

Like a gunshot echoing through the canyons above LA, this unsettling mystery reverberates with misdirection, distortion, and voices from the past.

Rookie LAPD detective Matt Jones gets thrown into the deep end on his first day working Homicide, and from there, the novel’s title becomes especially apt. Choices and actions resound through the story, with different implications as time goes on. Matt witnesses the return of a copycat killer—unless it’s the original, circling back again. The echoes catch up to Matt as well: he feels alone in the world, but people from his past keep coming back to haunt him.

Author Robert Ellis orchestrates an array of muted facts and half-heard stories, creating an unnerving composition. His incomparable main character, Matt, is left to filter out the truth from the noise, his allies from his enemies. His situation reminded me of a harsh wake-up call I had about a friend of mine many years ago. I had seen hints of her selfishness, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt—until I got burned. It doesn’t always feel good to have your instincts about people confirmed. Matt learns this lesson more than once in City of Echoes. In fact, choosing the right people to trust quickly becomes a matter of life and death. He struggles, and he doesn’t always make the right choice at the right time, but those shortcomings only made me sympathize with him more. I had faith in Matt even when things got dark—and echoes of his story will be ringing through me for a long time to come.

- Kjersti Egerdahl, Editor

Young Babylon by Lu Nei, Poppy Toland [Genre: Modern Fiction]

Knowing nothing more than the working-class life he is born into, headstrong Lu Xiaolu reluctantly starts down the path he is expected to follow. At age nineteen in 1990s China, he feels pressure to follow suit with those around him and takes a job at the town’s saccharin factory. Slowly, he adjusts to the bureaucratic factory routine, making the best of the situation by bonding with coworkers, flirting with girls, and refusing to give in completely to the expectations of those around him.

As Lu Xiaolu finds his way, a startling portrait of an economically expanding China comes into view; the propaganda of a common goal gives way to a bottom-line system that he sees as indifferent to individual happiness. But thanks to the relationships he develops, Lu Xiaolu decides to fight for the life he wants.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

From the opening chapter of this funny, philosophical coming-of-age story (insightfully titled “Pessimists Have Nowhere to Go”), I decided to accept protagonist Lu Xiaolu’s interpretation of ambition. As a thirty-year-old midlevel factory worker, Xiaolu has not technically achieved greatness. But his mind is alive, and his experience of everyday life is enriched by all he has ever seen, read, or imagined. For him, ambition is inspiration, lust for life, and attention to detail; it’s awareness of the little things, the shared spirit that can be found between tasks over the hum of factory equipment, the universal thread that connects people through time and place.

Author Lu Nei is an unlikely prophet: this book has been adapted into a major motion picture in China and has been critically acclaimed as “China’s Catcher in the Rye,” but his origins as a writer were not so lofty. Born and raised in an industrial city in eastern China, he worked many jobs before finding success as a novelist, including a stint at the saccharin factory that inspired this semiautobiographical novel. From a young age his gift for words drew attention, but his teachers’ encouragement to work in the propaganda department hit him, as it does his character Lu Xiaolu, “right in the Achilles heel.” So instead he worked a regular job and followed the path set before him, but always found time to explore his creativity.

The ambition that drives Lu Nei to write is innate, and it’s personal. His story is poetically simple in its honesty: by elevating one man’s journey through life, Lu Nei illustrates our universal potential to come into our own with eyes and heart open to the world.

- Gabriella Page-Fort, Editor