Tag Archives: Fiction

THE DEATH OF VIVEK OJI by Akwaeke Emezi

Publisher: Riverhead (Penguin Random House)
Publication: August 2020
Book Agent: Jackie Ko/Wylie
Verve Team: NB, AR, DH, MH

What does it mean for a family to lose a child they never really knew? One afternoon, in a town in southeastern Nigeria, a mother opens her front door to discover her son’s body, wrapped in colorful fabric, at her feet. What follows is the tumultuous, heart-wrenching story of one family’s struggle to understand a child whose spirit is both gentle and mysterious. Raised by a distant father and an understanding but overprotective mother, Vivek suffers disorienting blackouts, moments of disconnection between self and surroundings. As adolescence gives way to adulthood, Vivek finds solace in friendships with the warm, boisterous daughters of the Nigerwives, foreign-born women married to Nigerian men. But Vivek’s closest bond is with Osita, the worldly, high-spirited cousin whose teasing confidence masks a guarded private life. As their relationship deepens—and Osita struggles to understand Vivek’s escalating crisis—the mystery gives way to a heartstopping act of violence in a moment of exhilarating freedom.

An instant New York Times bestseller.
Named one of the best books of 2020 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, USA Today, Vanity Fair, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Teen Vogue, Vulture, Lit Hub, and more.
Kirkus starred review.

THE SUITE SPOT by Trish Doller

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin (Macmillan)
Publication: March 2022
Book Agent: Kate Schafer Testerman/KT Literary
Verve Team: NB

Rachel Beck has hit a brick wall. She’s a single mom, still living at home and trying to keep a dying relationship alive. Aside from her daughter, the one bright light in Rachel’s life is her job as the night reservations manager at a luxury hotel in Miami Beach—until the night she is fired for something she didn’t do. On impulse, Rachel inquires about a management position at a brewery hotel on an island in Lake Erie called Kelleys Island. When she’s offered the job, Rachel packs up her daughter and makes the cross country move. What she finds on Kelleys Island is not what she expected. The hotel is barely more than a foundation and studs, and the owner, Andy Bowman, is in over his head. It’s not the job Rachel was promised, but Andy offers her a chance to help build a hotel—and renovate her own life—from the ground up.

Publishers Weekly starred review.

HALF SISTERS by Virginia Franken

Publisher: Lake Union (Amazon)
Publication: June 2022
Book Agent: LP
Verve Team: LP

Ever since the death of her parents, Matilda has lived rent-free in her childhood home with her struggling music executive husband, Joseph. While it isn’t perfect, it’s in a small town perfect for raising a family, around the corner from her best friend Bee, and with their rocky finances, their only option. Matilda’s half-sister, Emily, is entitled to half the house, but no one has seen her in twenty years. When Joseph comes back from a business trip with Emily in tow, Matilda watches in horror as her relationships, job, and possible sanity start to unravel. But it’s when a carefully guarded secret from Matilda’s past finally surfaces, that she’s forced to contend with what happens when everyone around her realizes her carefully constructed life is based off a lie.