The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill (2023) Tor.com

As always, Ms. Barnhill delivers a delightfully different perspective on a condition that has been all too common for teenagers having to take care of both parent and sibling.  In this case, her widowed mother brings home the latest in a series of men who need to be fixed.  Only she wonders if even her mother can fix a man who is a crane.  The book is promoted as an adult novel, but it could have been a candidate for the Newbery since the viewpoint character is a fifteen-year-old girl.

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (2015) Grove Press (Pulitzer Prize 2016)

There is no honor among thieves or revolutionaries.  The main character, a captain, a spy for the Viet Cong, is airlifted from Saigon along with the General and his family who provided a home in Saigon and a career.  Having been educated in the U.S., he is considered an invaluable aide to the General.  He even consults on a movie about the war and returns to the U.S. again, as a hero for the lost cause.  At least until it is suspected that the captain has designs on the General’s daughter.  Then he is expected to go back to Viet Nam and die, trying to fight against the communists (his allies).  But things do not work as anyone expects.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (2022) Harper (Pulitzer 2023)

David Copperfield in the Appalachians.  The story even starts with a similar line; “First, I got myself born.”  Only here we are in the current century with the current problems that have affected our society.  Our hero, the title character, lives with his drug addicted mother, until the government decides it would be in his best interest to live in foster care, meaning people who are only interested in the monthly check from the government and the free labor that comes with it.  Things go from bad to worse until he hits the jackpot with the local hero football coach.  But fate won’t by stopped by the cornucopia of temptations and tragedies of the twenty-first century.  And all Demon wants to do is see the ocean.

“Polka Dots and Moonbeams” by Jeffrey Ford (2011) from Stories edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio, Harper Perennial

An infinite loop of noir wherein Dex takes Adeline on a date in his Belvedere to visit a nightclub in the desert with plans afterward to watch the stars fall.  There is a fez capped maître d', a shark toothed professor, guns and murder and promises of a solution.