Alice Hoffman’s new novel The Invisible Hour examines love, heartbreak, self-discovery, and the enduring magic of books.

When Mia Jacob discovers The Scarlet Letter, written almost 200 years earlier, it seems to tell the story of her mother, Ivy, and their life inside the Community, an oppressive cult in western Massachusetts where contact with the outside world is forbidden, and books are considered evil. How could Nathaniel Hawthorne have so perfectly captured the pain and loss that Mia carries inside her? As Mia begins to abandon the rules that have governed her life, she realizes that reading has the power to transport her to other worlds and that love is stronger than any chains that bind.

Hoffman is the author of more than 30 works of fiction, including the Practical Magic series, the Oprah’s Book Club selection Here on Earth, and The Dovekeepers, lauded by Toni Morrison as "a major contribution to twenty-first century literature."

Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow Colson Whitehead returns with Crook Manifesto, the second novel in his Harlem Trilogy. A darkly funny tale of a city under siege, as well as a searching portrait of the meaning of family, Whitehead’s kaleidoscopic depiction of Harlem summons 1970s New York in all its seedy glory.

Whitehead is the author of numerous novels, including two Pulitzer Prize winners, The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad, which also won the National Book Award.

This event does not include a book signing; however, all copies of Crook Manifesto purchased as part of a book bundle will be pre-signed by the author.

From Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, the New York Times bestselling authors of The Personal Librarian, comes The First Ladies, a novel about the extraordinary partnership between civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, an unlikely friendship that changed the world.

The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, activist and educator Mary McLeod Bethune refuses to back down as white supremacists attempt to thwart her work. Eleanor Roosevelt, awestruck by Mary’s work, is eager to make her acquaintance. Initially drawn together because of their shared belief in women’s rights and the power of education, Mary and Eleanor develop a deep and enduring friendship that helps form the foundation for the modern civil rights movement.

Benedict is a lawyer with more than a decade of experience as a litigator. She is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of numerous books, including The Only Woman in the Room and Carnegie’s Maid.

Murray is an acclaimed author with more than one million books in print. She has written more than 20 novels, including Stand Your Ground, an NAACP Image Award Winner for Outstanding Fiction and a Library Journal Best Book of the Year.

Tess Gunty's National Book Award -winning novel The Rabbit Hutch features residents of a low-cost housing complex attempting to build a life while the city decays around them: an online obituary writer, a mysterious young mother, a resident with a vendetta against vermin, and an uncommon young woman cohabiting with other teenagers who have aged out of the foster care system. Collectively they search for meaning in a world that seems determined to wear them down.

Gunty will be in conversation with Ben Fountain.

Author Peace Adzo Medie’s latest novel, Nightbloom, examines the unbreakable power of female friendship. After two inseparable young friends in Ghana become estranged, only a crisis can bring them back together and reconnect their bond. A riveting depiction of life, class, and family in Ghana, Nightbloom is above all a powerful depiction of the strength of female bonds in the face of societies that would silence them.

Medie’s debut novel, His Only Wife, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a New York Times Notable Book of 2020, and a Time magazine Must-Read Book of 2020. It was also a Reese’s Book Club pick. Medie has won numerous awards for her scholarship and has held several fellowships, including the Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellowship.