10 Notable Fiction Books Coming Out in February

Almost a year after their mysterious disappearance and presumed deaths, three high school students suddenly reappear in their small, coastal town and the one person, their former music teacher, who seems to know what happened has forbidden them to say anything. A fantastical tale from Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link that promises to take readers on a magical journey as the group contend with tense family dynamics and supernatural occurences.

This historical fiction novel is an enthralling account of George Orwell's transformative years in colonial Burma as an officer of the British Empire. Theroux imagines the life-changing encounters and socio-political conflicts that turned Orwell into the beloved anti-colonial writer that we know him as today.

In 1990, a child is found dead on a London estate and the tight-knit neighborhood suspects a secretive, family of Irish immigrants of being behind it. At the center of this story is a collection of ordinary human beings like the ambitious, scandal-hungry reporter on the precipice of a big career break and the young, new mother burden by the failures and disappointments of her past.

Greta, an underpaid grad student who may be falling in love with a girl she met at a party, and her brother Valdin, who won't admit that's he's still heartbroken over his ex-boyfriend leaving him, navigate their chaotic and eccentic multi-racial family as well as their own complicated, romantic entanglements.

Tommy Orange returns with a loose sequel to his book There There, a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize. This historical fiction novel begins in 1864 with the Sand Creek Massacre when a young survivor is brought to the the Carlisle Indian Industrial School to be stripped of his Native heritage. With lyrical writing and sweeping jumps through time, Wandering Stars is, as Kirkus Reviews describes it, "a searing study of the consequences of a genocide."

A wondorously strange and dark short story collection that adds a folkloric twist to familiar themes of love and longing.

Set in the pre-Civil War French Quarters of New Orleans, a young enslaved girl named Ady stumbles upon an undercover spy network of other Black women who are determined to free themselves from slavery. A coming-of-age story meets gripping historical thriller.

In 1965, when a young nursing student leaves her sheltered life behind to join the Army Nurses Corp after her brother is sent to fight in Vietnam, she is exposed to the traumatic nature of war. But the return home proves to be just as tumultous and fraught for her as well as her veteran friends.

New York Times bestselling author of The Night Tiger returns with an epic, mythical story about foxes and folklore, murders and mysteries. Set in Manchuria during the early 1900s, Bao and Snow are on separate missions yet their paths keep intertwining. One is a detective determined to uncover the truth behind a woman's mysterious murder while the other is hunting the shifty photographer who she believed killed her young daughter.

A sweeping debut historical novel that blends myth with spirituality to unpack what it truly means to be free. Set in 1830s Arkansas, a conjure woman establishes a magical, safe haven near St. Louis for all the enslaved people she rescued across the state. But when her memories and magic start to falter, the existence of their town is called into question.