Since February is the shortest month of the year, check out these short novels and novellas, all between 100 and 199 pages long.
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The cook
by Maylis de Kerangal This novella follows the coming-of-age of a self-taught chef who endures setbacks in his career, relationships, and mental stability before rediscovering his passions, a journey witnessed by a nameless narrator who might be in love with him. (100 pages) |
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Peach
by Emma Glass Stumbling home after a violent sexual assault, high-school senior Peach is baffled by her parents' seeming inability to comprehend what has happened and is forced to struggle through a nightmarish recovery unaided before resolving to take drastic actions in order to find closure. (101 pages) Available as an e-audiobook in Hoopla. |
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Jack
by Connie Willis During the height of the Blitz in London, the air raid rescue squad operating out of Mrs. Lucy's house is close-knit and ever-watchful. When a new volunteer named Jack shows up, his odd behavior -- not eating, disappearing during the day for a mysterious job -- isn't concerning at first. The sleepless stress of the job is hard on everyone. Soon, Jack is in high demand, due to an almost uncanny talent for finding buried people still alive under the rubble. But how does he do it? As the narrator, another member of the squad also named Jack, begins to investigate, the truth turns out to have a dark, tragic twist. (108 pages) |
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The test
by Sylvain Neuvel Britain, the not-too-distant future. Idir is sitting the British Citizenship Test. He wants his family to belong. Twenty-five questions to determine their fate. Twenty-five chances to impress. When the test takes an unexpected and tragic turn, Idir is handed the power of life and death. How do you value a life when all you have is multiple choice? (108 pages) Available as an e-audiobook in Hoopla. Available as an e-book from BPL in Libby/Overdrive. (How do I borrow e-books from other networks?) |
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Silver in the wood
by Emily Tesh There is a Wild Man who lives in the deep quiet of Greenhollow, and he listens to the wood. Tobias, tethered to the forest, does not dwell on his past life, but he lives a perfectly unremarkable existence with his cottage, his cat, and his dryads. When Greenhollow Hall acquires a handsome, intensely curious new owner in Henry Silver, everything changes. Old secrets better left buried are dug up, and Tobias is forced to reckon with his troubled past. (109 pages) Available as an e-audiobook as a set with its sequel (Drowned Country) in Hoopla. Available as an e-book from C/W Mars in Libby/Overdrive. (How do I borrow e-books from other networks?) |
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The black god's drums
by P. Djèlí Clark Creeper, a scrappy young teen, is done living on the streets of New Orleans. Her sights are set on securing passage aboard Captain Ann-Marie's smuggler airship Midnight Robber, earning the captain's trust using a secret about a kidnapped Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls the Black God's Drums. But Creeper keeps another secret close to her heart: Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, who speaks inside her head and grants her divine powers.. and who has her own priorities. (111 pages) Available as an e-audiobook from Hoopla. Available as an e-book in Libby/Overdrive. If you enjoy this, be sure to check out Clark's newest novella, Ring Shout. |
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The silence : a novel
by Don DeLillo Five people gathered together in a Manhattan apartment in 2022 react to a mysterious, catastrophic event that severs all of modern life’s digital connections in this new novel from the National Book Award-winning author of White Noise. (117 pages) Available as an e-book in Libby/Overdrive. Available as an e-audiobook from BPL in Libby/Overdrive. (How do I borrow e-books from other networks?) |
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The factory witches of Lowell
by C. S. Malerich The mill girls of Lowell, Massachusetts go on strike for fair work, affordable room and board, and a brighter future with the assistance of Hannah, a boardinghouse resident who has a gift for witchcraft. (127 pages) Available as an e-book in Libby/Overdrive. Available as an e-audiobook from BPL in Libby/Overdrive. (How do I borrow e-books from other networks?) |
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The empress of salt and fortune
by Nghi Vo A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully. Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for. (128 pages) Available as an e-audiobook from Hoopla. Available as an e-book in Libby/Overdrive. If you enjoy this, be sure to check out the sequel, When the tiger came down the mountain. |
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The emissary
by Yoko Tawada In Japan, which has cut itself off from the world after suffering a massive, irreparable disaster, Yoshiro cares for his grandson, Mumei, a strangely wonderful boy and ancient soul whom he believes is a beacon of hope for the world in this time of darkness.(138 pages) Available as an e-book from OCLN in Libby/Overdrive. Available as an e-audiobook from BPL in Libby/Overdrive. (How do I borrow e-books from other networks?) |
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Article 353
by Tanguy Viel This atmospheric noir novel retraces the steps that led to a murder off the coast of Brittany, probing the relationship between law and justice. In a depressed town on France's northern coast, a man named Martial Kermeur has been arrested for the murder of real estate developer Antoine Lazenec after throwing him overboard. Called before a judge, Kermeur goes back to the beginning to explain what brought him to this desperate point. In this subtle, enthralling novel, Tanguy Viel examines not only the psychology of a crime, but also the larger social ills that may offer its justification. (146 pages) |
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All systems red
by Martha Wells A murderous android discovers itself in this tense science fiction adventure that interrogates the roots of consciousness through artificial intelligence. In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn't a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied 'droid -- a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as "Murderbot." Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth. (152 pages) Available as an e-audiobook from Hoopla. Available as an e-book in Libby/Overdrive. |
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The white book
by Kang Han A lyrical exploration of personal grief, conveyed through the prism of the color white, finds a nameless writer grappling with a haunting family tragedy involving the death of her older sister in infancy. (157 pages) Available as an e-book in Libby/Overdrive. Available as an e-audiobook from C/W Mars in Libby/Overdrive. (How do I borrow e-books from other networks?) |
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Phoresis
by Greg Egan As the conditions necessary to sustain life on Tvíbura grow erratic, the populace attempts two monumental undertakings that will span generations: rejuvenating the ecosphere and building a literal bridge to Tvíbura's uninhabited twin planet, Tvíburi. (163 pages) |
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Ormeshadow
by Priya Sharma A dark fantasy set in the rural past of the United Kingdom finds a young man stranded on a hated ancient farm where he bonds with the land amid local lore about a vengeful sleeping dragon. (169 pages) Available as an e-book from BPL in Libby/Overdrive. (How do I borrow e-books from other networks?) |
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The starlet and the spy : a novel
by Chi-min Yi During a 1954 USO tour to a Korea still struggling to return to normalcy, a Korean war survivor is assigned as translator for Marilyn Monroe and develops a deep kinship with the star. (173 pages) Available as an e-audiobook from Hoopla. Available as an e-book from Hoopla. Available as an e-book from Sails in Libby/Overdrive. (How do I borrow e-books from other networks?) |
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The ocean at the end of the lane
by Neil Gaiman It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and menace unleashed -- within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. His only defense is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang. (181 pages) Available as an e-audiobook from Hoopla. Available as an e-audiobook in Libby/Overdrive. Available as an e-book in Libby/Overdrive. |
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The last tsar's dragons
by Jane Yolen The reckless Tsar uses his dragons against his enemies while the royal court fills with conspiracies and bureaucrats fight for power in this fanciful retelling of the Russian October Revolution by a popular mother and son writing team. (190 pages) Available as an e-book from Hoopla. Available as an e-book from CLAMS in Libby/Overdrive. (How do I borrow e-books from other networks?) |
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Death and the Singing Birds
by Amy Myers 1926, Kent. Chef Nell Drury is busy with preparations for Lady Ansley's luncheon to welcome Wychbourne Court's new neighbours, Sir Gilbert and Lady Saddler. The couple's arrival has led to much rumour and intrigue swirling around the village, particularly with regards to the mysterious Lady Saddler. Sir Gilbert belongs to a new artistic movement, the Artistes de Cler, and is organizing a summer festival in the grounds of Spitalfrith Manor, where the Clerries will gather to reveal their Africa-inspired paintings. The whole village is invited and buzzing with excitement. But at the festival itself, Nell witnesses some strange and disturbing events, and when a terrible discovery is made the following day, she is horrified to learn that Lord Ansley's valet has been arrested. Can Nell clear his name while also confronting a face from the past? (199 pages) |