The smart one and the pretty one

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Suzanne Goodwin

Catherine and Sara share the same father—and that is all they share. Catherine, a reserved English aristocrat, grew up at her family's country estate in the years before the First World War. Sara, a passionate red-headed beauty, lived with her selfish socialite mother in a marble palace on the French Riviera. Catherine is a confirmed virgin; Sara made love to a stranger to celebrate the Armistice. Within the rapidly-changing world of between-the-wars England, the two strong personalities clash in a struggle to control the international auction-house founded by their father. It's a time of new freedoms for women - in enterprise and in sexuality. But sex doesn't guarantee romantic involvement, and a "financially wise" marriage can bring both profit and loss. Readers of Suzanne Goodwin's earlier novels Cousins and Sisters will welcome Daughters with the knowledge that they're in the hands of a master storyteller with a special insight on the modern woman's heart.

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Lionel Shriver

When her massively overweight brother, a once slim, hip New York Jazz pianist, comes for a visit, Pandora is forced to choose between her exercise fanatic husband and her brother, who desperately needs her support in losing weight.

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Noley Reid

It's the summer of 1982 in Blacksburg, Virginia--seven years after the suspicious death of a son and sibling--and the Sobel family is hungry. Francie dresses in tennis skirts and ankle socks and weighs her grams of allotted carrots and iceberg lettuce. Her semi-estranged husband Tate prefers a packed fridge and hidden doughnuts. Daughters Enid, ten, and Vivvy, almost thirteen, are subtler versions of their parents, measuring their summer vacation by meals had or meals skipped. But at summer's end, secrets both old and new emerge and Francie disappears, leaving the family teetering on the brink. Told from alternating points of view by the four living Sobels, Pretend We Are Lovely is a sharp and darkly funny story of forgiveness, family secrets, and the losses we inherit. At its core is the ever-complicated and deeply-devoted bond of sisterhood as the girls, left mostly to their own devices, must navigate their way through middle school, find comfort in each other, and learn the difference between food and nourishment.

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Lin Oliver

When Daniel learns to control his shrinking, Pablo, his tiny twin, writes a list of fun things they can do, including riding in a model rocket near the La Brea Tar Pits, which teaches the brothers the importance of sticking together.