Girl at War by Sara Novic

A 10-year-old named Ana is living in the Croatian city of Zagreb, in 1991, when civil war blows apart her life and her family. Novic beautifully, heartbreakingly shows how conflict affects people in ways that are both dramatic and mundanely tiny.

Outline by Rachel Cusk

A middle-aged English writer travels to Athens to teach and describes her encounters with various people. Cusk’s descriptions are scathingly smart, blunt, and transfixing.

The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy

This memoir by the acclaimed New Yorker magazine journalist chronicles a devastating miscarriage and the breakup of her marriage. Levy is insightful and honest about how thin the line is between having it all and losing it all.

Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy

When two women and their families go on a luxurious cruise in Central America, the children and parents are separated, and there’s evidence of a kidnapping. Meloy is a wise and meticulous writer, and this is a novel that’s both suspenseful and intelligent.

Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capo Crucet

This is one of the novels I recommend most frequently. Lizet leaves her working class home in a Cuban-American enclave of Miami to attend an elite college in the Northeast, and her experiences there are eye-opening, funny, disturbing, poignant, and wholly believable.