FIVE TUESDAYS IN WINTER, BY LILY KING

In her debut story collection, King examines human goodness, joy and suffering, and socioeconomic disparity through the lens of her most enduring subject: love. In one story, a 14-year-old girl is hired as a live-in helper for an elderly woman but becomes infatuated with the woman’s married son; in another, a gay man receives an unexpected visit from his homophobic college roommate. “There’s no question that my supreme interest is love—all kinds of love,” King says, “and all the ways that it goes right and awry.” (Grove)