Matilda is back in her hometown, Washington, D.C., to care for her ailing mother. Desperate for money, she takes a job at her neighborhood bookstore. She can’t make sense of the book business, and then she gets a flaky workmate and a windbag of a public intellectual with a, um, mixed cult following. Susan Coll’s laugh-out-loud Word Salad: A Novel reminds us that, sometimes, things have to fall apart before perfectly coming together. In Alisha Fernandez Miranda’s Someone’s Gotta Give: A Novel, expat and new mom Lucia is barely hanging on. She has a stressful new job as a philanthropic advisor at a posh private bank, her baby is up all night, and her husband is fostering a growing connection to his ex. Can Lucia maintain her new life while keeping her family – and herself – intact? In Carla Vass’ The Rally: A Novel, a young tech entrepreneur is ousted from her start-up after she rejects her co-founder’ advances. Escaping to Europe for a glamorous car rally, there she must contend with betrayal, love, and the excesses of wealth – and beneath the luxury, lavish parties, and buried secrets, an unexpected attraction forces her to reckon with her past. Moderating is Mary Gamarra Whitehead, broadcast journalist and Miami Book Fair Next Page host committee member.

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