New Books by Past OBOC Authors

After 23 years and 35 different titles, the list of CPL's One Book, One Chicago Selections has become its own mini library of great literature. Moreover, many OBOC authors have continued to create brilliant new works. Check out the following new books from your favorite OBOC authors, each published within the past two years and each well worth its salt.

If you loved last year's OBOC, There There, then don't wait to start the novel's sequel (and also prequel), Wandering Stars. Stretching from the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre to present day, Tommy Orange's new novel follows the descendants of massacre survivor Jude Star, all of whom navigate in their own ways friendships, family, and the long shadow of colonization.     

Twyla’s mom “dances all night.” Roberta’s is sick. These two neglected young girls meet at an orphanage and find their lives forever intertwined. One is Black and the other white, but with a catch: No matter how closely you read, you won’t pin down which girl belongs to which race. Therein lies the rather philosophical premise of Recitatif, the only short story Toni Morrison ever wrote.

Much like her 2006 OBOC selection, Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri's newest collection of stories follows the domestic lives of Indian emigrants. The difference is that Roman Stories takes place in Rome, not New England and--amazingly--was written in Italian, not Lahiri's native languages of English or Bengali. Enjoy the fruits of Lahiri's careful writing and self-translation into English with this poignant meditation on foreignness in everyday life.

On James Baldwin by Colm Tóibín is many things. It's an intro to the historical context around some of James Baldwin's great novels. It's a map to the unexpected throughlines of religiosity and migration connecting Irish and Harlem literature. And it's an intimate analysis of Baldwin's superior craft by a writer who, despite growing up an ocean away and a half-century apart, feels a deeply personal connection to Baldwin's work.