Bas Bleu’s readers have particular tastes—tastes that often keep romantic books off the table. But romance exists across all book genres, and even though you might not be seeking affairs of the heart within your thriller, there’s still something pleasing about an apt description of love or a tender moment between two characters you’re rooting for. So, no, these aren’t romance books, but these beautiful Bas Bleu selections contain scenes that will increase your heart rate. Just don’t expect a happy ending!
The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina
Revered by Britain's The Times as a "striking haiku of the human heart," The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World centers around Yui, who lost her mother and daughter to the 2011 tsunami in Japan. The novel delicately expands with the other lives irrevocably changed and intertwined by the Wind Phone: a disconnected phone booth in a garden at the foot of a mountain where people speak to their lost loved ones. You'll never want to let go of the characters in this meticulous, stirring, infinitely beautiful book—and you'll never quite be able to. (RR)
Margreete's Harbor by Eleanor Morse
Suffused with stark pathos, Margreete's Harbor begins with the image of a house burning on the coast, ash swirling in the snow like so many lost memories. Margreete's daughter, Liddie, moves her young family across the country to help care for her mother in what's left of her home. This breathtaking study of the human condition explores thwarted expectations, the truths we assume to be universal, and the interplay between our choices and our principles. Over the course of ten years, the family faces the growing political unrest of the 1960s, an increasingly senile matriarch, and other conflicts typical to familial growth. With special attention to interiority and landscape, this sincere, affecting novel is one I'll never forget. (RR)
Zorrie by Laird Hunt
A luminous literary feat, this short novel offers a profound and graceful snapshot of twentieth-century Midwest America. It is the life story of Zorrie Underwood, an orphan in rural Indiana who drifts west to find work in the Depression, then returns home, marries a farmer, communes with neighbors, and works the land. There are no shocking plot twists here…just a poetic portrait of a resilient woman whom I fell in love with as if she were my own grandmother. (CH)
Magpie by Elizabeth Day
Marisa and Jake seem to have it all: an adorable London flat, a loving marriage, and, soon, a new baby to complete their family. But when they take on Kate as a lodger to offset some of the family-planning bills, their perfect world starts to deteriorate. Is Marisa just hormonal and paranoid, or is Kate out to steal everything Marisa has worked so hard for? As Marisa delves deeper into Kate's identity, the search for the truth becomes increasingly dangerous. A clever domestic thriller with elegance, heart, and a killer twist, Magpie is a true page-turner! (AG)
Madame Bovary of the Suburbs by Sophie Divry and translated by Alison Anderson
There is something distinctly familiar in this, the story of a traditional French wife enduring conventional malaise, and stumbling through unsatisfactory infidelity in the search for normalcy. Articulated through the conflicting lens of memory, with dry wit and occasional salacious verve, this coming-of-age story is a study in feminine discontent. This methodical little novel is furnished with intimate perspective and philosophical curiosities. (RR)
Oh, William! by Elizabeth Strout
This subtly but profoundly dazzling exploration of marriage, love, loneliness, grief, and tenderness from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout well deserves its place on the shortlist for the 2022 Booker Prize. Lucy Barton, the narrator of this fictional memoir, chronicles her past and present relationship with her first husband, William, as she mourns the loss of her second husband. Strout's ability to lay bare the fragile human condition while buoying the reader in a sense of serene safety is a rare gift to behold! (CH)
Beneficence by Meredith Hall
For Doris, the mother in the Senter family, the daily tasks of life in mid-nineteenth-century rural Maine, such as making the bed, are expressions of goodness: the beneficence of life. When tragedy strikes, Doris can't cope, and daughter Dodie, who narrates the story along with her father, assumes much of the responsibilities for daily life. Not only will you reread passages, even whole chapters, relishing Meredith Hall's evocative writing, but you may also stop to wipe tears from your eyes more than once. You will empathize with these good, but imperfect, people as you fly through the pages of this exquisite novel.
(A Reader Review by Nancy L. Agneberg from St. Paul, Minnesota)
The War Librarian by Addison Armstrong
In 1918, Emmaline Balakin takes a leap of faith and follows a letter sent by someone from her past, which places her as a war librarian in a frontline hospital in France—where she secretly distributes banned books. In 1976, midshipman Kathleen Carre, one of the first women to join the United States Naval Academy, finds herself in the midst of danger after unraveling a secret connected to her past. Two valiant generations of women spearhead the perilous dual storyline of this riveting novel, striking down anyone who dares to test them with one of the most powerful forces of all…books! (HH)
The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh
This is a thriller, a romance, and a study on memory and loss, all rolled into one beautiful story. When Leo, who already struggles to reckon with his own identity, discovers that his wife, Emma, has disguised the basic facts of her life, he starts to dig deeper…and what he unearths will change his family forever. A haunting, heartbreaking novel with alternating narratives, this account of concealed love and stitched-together families will keep you on the edge of your seat. (RR)
A Peculiar Combination by Ashley Weaver
A setting in World War II London, a shadowy spy agency, a curious lockpicker, an entertaining love triangle…need I go on? Ellie McDonnell, our heroine and aforementioned lockpicker, gets caught breaking into a safe, but instead of being arrested, she's offered a deal to work for (the handsome) Major Ramsey, to help intercept a treasonous message that's on its way to the Germans. But nothing goes to plan, and Ellie and Major Ramsey, along with a motley crew of small-time criminals, must undergo a series of dangerous operations. (RR)