This fictional story unfolds across three intertwined plots, all connected by the mysterious book A History of Love.

Nicole Krauss masterfully guides us through the lives of her characters, from World War II Poland, to present-day New York, centering on 14-year-old Ama, whose mother is translating the book.

As the the translating progresses, we are drawn into the story behind the book’s elusive author and the lost love that shaped the text.

Las Despedidas

Jacobo Bergareche

This original Spanish novella explores regret, intimacy, and doubt with a depth that would require mastery to translate.

Our main characters, Diego and Claudia, have been married long enough to have a life fully formed together. When Diego meets a lost love during a family holiday in Menorca, the feelings that surface are quiet but immediate.

Diego wraps us in his perspective, as the encounter carries the weight of passing time, questions of what was said, and what could never be. It could pass as a memoir if the author had attached his own name to the main character.

A Short Stay in Hell

Steven L. Peck

Our main character, Soren Johansson, a devoted Mormon, dies as you turn the first page.

After living his life rooted in in religious certainty, he enters hell and begins his existential journey as nothing he believed in appears to be true.

This novella raises more questions than answers rooted in doubt. Its satirical commentary on religion is a mere foundation, built to explore the concept of eternity-beyond faith, doctrine or discomfort.

Violeta’s story spans over a hundred years, and you, the reader, follow it through her narration.

Born in South America in 1920 during the Spanish flu, she enters the world marked by global upheaval. She lives through the aftershocks of the Great War, endures poverty, and learns to build wealth in a time when women owned nothing.

It explores themes of feminism in a time when it had just coined its name, and looks at roles in a way that doesn’t take over the plot but simply happens when experiencing life- just as it does in reality.

Her story is shaped not only by political and social upheaval, but also by the most human feelings of all: love, heartbreak, and loss.

Crudo

Olivia Laing

A short story, written in prose, follows the frantic, spiraling thoughts of Kathy, a woman teetering on the edge of despair.

The narrator, Kathy, moves between themes of politics, love, and social expectations, and through her voice, we are presented with a new approach to storytelling.

Her personal life, and the countless ways these forces create panic for her both individually and as a small speck within the chaos of humanity, is central to the narrative.

You’ll finish it in one sitting, as your mind races to keep up with hers.

The Stranger

Albert Camus

An absolute classic, first published in 1942, that deserves to be re-read across one’s own development and lifetime.

Camus explores the value of time, money and utility, and efficiency through the detached voice of Monsieur Meursault and his experience with death, both his mother’s and a that of a stranger.

This existentialist novel follows society’s reaction to both events, portraying Meursault as cold and unfeeling. In doing so, Camus invites the reader to reflect on the nature of judgment, morality and what it means to live authentically in an absurd world.