8 Under-the-Radar Reads That Deserve All the Love

Frances Whiting’s coming-of-age novel WALKING ON TRAMPOLINES is the perfect example of a book you’ll be glad you dedicated your time to. Centered on two young girls, Annabelle Andrews and Tallulah “Lulu” de Longland, this effervescent story follows them on an intimate journey of friendship that spans from the day Lulu meets Annabelle in class all the way to adulthood. Along the way, and as the title suggests, the girls experience the immense joys that come with youth and the rebounding effects of a ruptured friendship. We witness the emotional baggage and heartache that Lulu carries well into adulthood and the hard choice she must make as she hits a crossroads. Reading about such complex, lived-in characters, you won’t be able to stop yourself from handing out WALKING ON TRAMPOLINES recommendations after you turn the last page.

THE SISTERS OF ALAMEDA STREET is the story of Malena Sevilla’s quest to find her mother in the 1960s. It’s only after her father’s suicide that Malena learns that her mom, who she thought was dead, is very much alive. She discovers this in a mysterious letter signed only “A,” describing her mom’s presence in a small town near the Andes Mountains. When Malena ultimately arrives at the origin of the letter, Alameda Street, she meets four unique sisters who all have one thing in common: each of their names begins with “A.” It is then up to Malena to uncover the identity of the letter’s author, which she does by lying about who she is. A fun family saga perfect for any lover of historical fiction, THE SISTERS OF ALAMEDA STREET is a warm, humorous read.

Luiza Sauma’s debut novel, FLESH AND BONE AND WATER, spans the geographies of Rio de Janeiro, the Amazon River, and London, following André Cabral, a Brazilian teenager from a wealthy privileged family. When André loses his mother, he flees to the Amazon jungle to escape the grief only to soon find himself back in Rio isolated from his working father and intimately growing up alongside the family maid’s daughter, Luana. Years later, André, now himself a surgeon like his father, receives a letter from Luana, prying open pain and memories long repressed. Daring, dramatic, and lyrically written, Sauma's vivid depictions of breathtaking landscapes and visceral human emotions make this debut a rare beauty.

Author Matthew Dicks delicately uses the frame of an imaginary character to tackle topics of autism and abduction in his heartwarming novel MEMOIRS OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND. Budo, an “aging” imaginary friend, sees himself as a protector to his imaginer, Max, a kind eight-year-old boy who is diagnosed as on the autism spectrum. While Budo can successfully guide Max through challenging situations like awkward school encounters and standing up to a bully, he’s not prepared when Max’s new teacher, Mrs. Patterson, takes it upon herself to “save” Max. When Max is abruptly abducted by Mrs. Patterson, Budo is left to track him down using only a network of other imaginary friends and the children they’re tied to. This tender novel is charming while also touching on serious emotional issues.

When hunting for a hidden gem, you don’t need to look much further than Paradise, Boston, the setting of Lisa Duffy’s THIS IS HOME. It’s there we meet Quinn Ellis, a woman struggling to get by as her PTSD-suffering husband, John, goes missing. When John's former platoon leader Bent offers her a job as a nanny and a room to stay in, Quinn jumps at the chance to find some solid footing. What she hasn’t considered are the other people who live in the building—including Brent’s daughter, Libby. Libby is put off by this stranger at first, but the most unlikely of friendships form as the two use each other as a welcome antidote to their recent loneliness. Told from both characters’ points of view, THIS IS HOME defines the meaning of family and home, helping us all find a sense of belonging.

No list is complete without a luscious historical fiction novel. Enter SHELL by Kristina Olsson. Set in 1960s Australia, we meet Pearl Keogh, a female journalist willing to put her job on the line in opposition to the country’s involvement in the Vietnam War. No stranger to death herself, Pearl lost her mother at a young age and, unable to handle the responsibility of caring for her two young brothers when her father couldn’t, joined the convent. Years later, riddled with guilt, Pearl tries to track down her brothers in fear that they’ll be drafted in the war. On this mission she meets Axel Lindquist, a Swedish glassmaker commissioned to work on the Sydney Opera House. Axel is similarly burdened with guilt after his father’s suicide and finds Pearl a loving counterpart. Smart and nuanced, SHELL is one book you won’t want to miss.

We again find ourselves in the 1960s in Samuel Park’s THIS BURNS MY HEART, but this time it’s postwar Korea as readers meet Soo-Ja Choi. Daughter to a wealthy factory owner, Soo-Ja is set to marry a man her father insists is her future, despite her strong desire to study for the foreign service. Just when she settles into the idea of marrying, she receives a proposal from a young, outgoing medical student. When tradition triumphs and she goes through with her arranged marriage, Soo-Ja sadly finds the only purpose she has is creating a better life for her only daughter. Through it all, she longs for the man who proposed to her years ago and holds out hope that they may, again, find one another. Emotional and empowering, THIS BURNS MY HEART is under the radar, but probably not for long.

Playwright Kia Corthron’s debut novel, THE CASTLE CROSS THE MAGNET CARTER, follows two pairs of brothers: Randall and B.J., two white rural Alabamians, and Eliot and Dwight, two Black brothers from Maryland. Over the course of the novel, we follow each individual brother as they live drastically different lives with drastically different outcomes. Following them from youth to adulthood, the latter half of the novel finds the four men embroiled in the early civil rights movement. With her theater-trained ear for dialogue and rich character development, Corthron poetically depicts the unique lives that unfold for each man during the second half of the twenty-first century. THE CASTLE CROSS THE MAGNET CARTER is a hidden wonder to behold.