Dear Wags,

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and we’re grateful for our booming community of readers—you’ve made BookWag a publishing force. We’ve prepared another literary feast in your honor. Do be a glutton.

Happy reading,

The BookWag Team

Time of the Child by Niall Williams

Williams (This is Happiness) returns to his invention, the wee Irish village of Faha, in this seasonal offering. It’s Christmas 1962, and Dr Jack Troy—a man both of the town and apart from it—and his spirited daughter Ronnie find themselves caring for a foundling. The infant upends their tidy lives, prodding them to lean on their community and one another in unexpected ways. If that sounds like a Hallmark movie, you’re underestimating the author’s world-building talent. Faha is a place where magic happens, and its Gaelic charm is pretty irresistible.—Christy Mahon

City of Night Birds by Juhea Kim

Here’s what we know about Russian ballet: it’s ruthless, unforgiving, and hell on your feet. Prima ballerina Natalia Leonova’s meteoric rise is shattered by tragedy. Two year later, she returns to St. Petersburg, the city that made and nearly broke her. In the depths of a Baltic winter, she confronts a complicated family, an old love affair, and the enigmatic man offering her a shot at a comeback. Is high art worth all those bruises? Kim’s heroine is battered but unbowed. You’ll root for her. —Nina Sayers