Against All Odds: 6 Underdog Tales to Inspire You

Welcome to Dogtown, as it’s called by its rich neighbors in Cape Ann. This small, dying town in Massachusetts is the setting for Anita Diamant’s absorbing novel featuring no less than fifteen characters in the early part of the nineteenth century. THE LAST DAYS OF DOGTOWN’s first chapter opens on a wake for one of the last men in Dogtown. It’s here we meet the mostly women who have come to pay their respects to him. Among them is Black Ruth, an African woman who dresses as a man and works as a stonemason; Tammy Younger, thought to be a witch; Cornelius Finson, a freed slave separated from his soulmate by the racist townspeople; and Judy Rhines, the novel’s center and a lonely soul who builds a life for herself against all odds. Each of Dogtown’s inhabitants has suffered some sort of tragedy or endured some sort of setback, and Diamant provides vivid portraits of the residents, connecting their stories for a satisfying read. It’s fiction at its best, offering characters you’ll make life-long connections with.

Family can often be a high-stakes affair. But what happens when a family member returns after more than 40 years of being “missing”? WHAT COULD BE SAVED follows Laura Preston as she seeks to reconnect her family against the most improbable odds. It’s 2019, and Laura is struggling to deal with her mother’s dementia diagnosis. As she continually argues with her sister, Beatrice, about what to do next, Laura receives a mysterious email. It seems that there is a man in Thailand claiming to be her brother Philip. Just as Laura hops a plane to follow up on this man’s claim, readers are transported back to 1972 Bangkok, where the Preston family is residing. There we meet Laura, her parents Robert and Genevieve, and her two siblings, Beatrice...and Philip and learn about that one summer night when Philip vanishes. Bouncing back and forth between modern-day and the 1970s, WHAT COULD BE SAVED unravels a mystery that also provides sharp commentary on race, privilege, and power. Through it all a family, broken by loss and betrayal, seeks to overcome the obstacles and reunite in this page-turning work.

Sometimes survival alone is an outcome against all likelihood. In Sahar Delijani’s powerful debut novel, CHILDREN OF THE JACARANDA TREE, three young people and their family members seek only to survive in post-revolutionary Iran. There’s Neda, whose mother, Azar, is forced to nurse her in the confines of Evin Prison before she’s unexpectedly taken away and never to be seen again. There’s Omid, whose parents are kidnapped by government agents from the family kitchen, leaving him to be raised by his grandparents and aunt. And, finally, there’s Sheida, born in the detention center portion of Evin Prison, who learns years later of her father’s execution and must reckon with that new information to salvage a relationship with her mother. Taking place between 1983 and 2011, the plotlines of these characters illustrate the impact a history of bloodshed has on a country and how the following generation is left to pick up the pieces. Poetic but at times brutally painful, CHILDREN OF THE JACARANDA TREE is a moving tribute to characters that have fought against all odds told by an immensely talented author certain to shine in the years to come.

When you’re desperate enough to turn to your arch-enemy for aid, your back must truly be against the wall. Such is life for Jupiter Smith in THE ABDUCTION OF SMITH AND SMITH. Jupiter, having fought for the Union in the American Civil War, returns to the plantation he once worked on in search of his wife. Instead, what Jupiter finds is his old master at his wit’s end, tormenting those left in his circle. In an act of mercy, Jupiter kills the master and heads west. Little does Jupiter know, the slave master’s son, Confederate soldier Archie Smith, arrives home shortly after his departure. And when Archie finds his father killed, he vows revenge. What follows is a manhunt across the continent—until Archie, now an opium addict, becomes a target of a San Francisco gang, which Jupiter just so happens to work for. Jupiter tries to save Archie, but the failed attempt lands both men shanghaied and aboard a ship engaged in devious activities. The two men must rely on each other to survive, in the most unlikely of alliances, as they seek to return home in one piece. A historical adventure at its best, THE ABDUCTION OF SMITH AND SMITH is a wild ride on the high seas that you’ll devour.

Daniel Magariel’s ONE OF THE BOYS is a haunting portrait of a father’s abuse of his two sons following a custody battle with his ex-wife. Having “won the war” against their mother, the father vows to “be a kid again” as he brings his two sons to a stuffy Albuquerque apartment. There, the children—who have been beaten into an undying loyalty to their father—find their dad has become an addict, eager to sabotage the boys’ lives for his own amusement, and to stunt any chance they have at growing apart from him. In violent late-night scenes, with an eccentric cast of characters coming and going out of their father’s orbit, ONE OF THE BOYS illuminates the fear and anxiety of living in a household of physical and psychological abuse. Readers witness the tragic impact this type of abusive relationship can have on two impressionable children. Through it all, the book’s narrator, the younger son, fights to be compassionate and salvage the shattered pieces of his family. It’s a daring work by an extremely talented writer.

THE EVENING HERO focuses on one man’s journey to achieve the American dream and the secrets that may just upend his life’s work to get there. Dr. Yungman Kwak is an obstetrician in a small Minnesota town and has been for decades. But when the hospital’s holding corporation shuts down, Yungman is forced to leave the job he’s clung to for decades. His son, a “tech-bro” working for the same company seeks to help his father but finds Yungman unwilling to adopt his new ethos. But when a letter arrives for Yungman, threatening to reveal his secrets left behind in Korea, he’s forced to rethink everything. Questioning his life, the American healthcare system, and the American Dream that he’s obsessed over for years, Yungman must reckon with his past to preserve any kind of hope for a future. Toggling between the past and the present, Korea and America, readers learn of Yungman’s roots, his “survival” of the Korean war, and the many scars that war left on him and so many other immigrants. THE EVENING HERO is a sweeping, lyrical novel that offers poignant insights on immigration to the US. Its story and main character elucidate the secrets and risks taken by such groups seeking a new life and how those choices can either make them...or destroy them.