International Students Guide: Adult Fiction

A World War II veteran, Billy Pilgrim, who has later in his stage experiences at will (or unwillingly) all known events of his chronology out of order and sometimes simultaneously. Perhaps traumatized by the bombing of Dresden while he was in prison, Pilgrim walks through all the events and history both as a witness and a participant. Suffered from Post Traumatic, Billy tries to find the meaning of humanity and his existence. Billy's story takes turn when he meets the beauteous and mysterious Montana Wildhack. To some, Pilgrim is hardly what one would call a reliable narrator, and one is left to wonder what memories and trials of his are genuine or fabricated. A metafiction that forces its readers to distinguish what is true and what is not.

Rachel is a divorced woman who would do anything for a drink, and like a lot of folks consumed by a love affair with the bottle, one might call her a victim of circumstances. The train that Rachel rides to London each day takes her past her old neighborhood. From the window of the train, she observes not only her old garden that backs up to the tracks but also the daily activities of another couple who reside down the street from her previous home. In her imagination, she has given the couple names and has created a fairy tale love life for them. Real life, however, cannot live up to her fantasy. Within a blink of the eye, Rachel sees something terrible while she is on the train. Now she is entangled in the investigation, what will she do when she is called to be unreliable? A debut psychological thriller, Paula Hawkins writes a gripping and enthralling story that makes the audience unrest.

After spending four years in the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and works at a lighthouse far from the coast. He decides to take his wife, Isabel, with him. Two people, alone, on an island that is isolated from civilization, Tom and Isabel must overcome many difficulties, including two miscarriages and a stillbirth. Perhaps God decides to spare Isabel's pain by sending her a boat, one that is washed onshore, carrying a dead man and a crying baby. Tom believes that they should report the man and the baby immediately while Isabel thinks it is "God's will" and that they should keep the child. They named the child, Lucy. When Lucy turns two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland, only to realize that their decision of claiming Lucy has some serious consequences. A fine and suspenseful novel, The Light Between Oceans explores desperation, morality, and loss, and considers the damaging way in which we store our secrets.

While visiting the little English country lane of his childhood, our unnamed protagonist reunites with a familiar face who prompts him to think of an old friend, an eleven- year-old girl named Lettie, he hasn't thought about in years. Upon remembering one thing, he remembers everything. The parents of have no idea that the Hempstocks-- Lettie, her mother, and grandmother--who live by a pond at the end of the lane, are really a group of immortals who play at being human. Told in calm, focused prose, this book lead us to explore what it means to have humanity.