Even though the library’s closed, there are an abundance of resources you can still access online, including ebooks and audiobooks. Below, you’ll find recommendations of award-winning and entertaining works of literary fiction, all of which can be accessed as an ebook or audiobook through the library catalog.

All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr (Audiobook)

All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr. Click for catalog link.

A Pulitzer Prize winning book, All The Light We Cannot See follows a French girl and a German boy as they each try to survive WWII. When the Nazis occupy Paris, Marie-Laure and her father flee to Saint-Malo, hoping to find some sort of safety. Werner Pfennig is an orphan living in Germany and has a knack for building and fixing radios. When he’s enlisted by the Nazis to track down the enemy, he finds himself struggling to support the cause. Beautifully written, Doerr weaves the lives of Marie and Werner together with powerful prose and moving imagery.

Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward (Audiobook)

Salvage the Bones, by Jesmyn Ward. Click for catalog link.

Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction, Salvage the Bones tells the story of a rural, working-class family who must survive hurricane Katrina. In the town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, hurricane season can mean destruction. When a hurricane begins to form over the Gulf of Mexico, Esch and her family must prepare for the potential danger while also facing their own personal struggles. Esch’s father is mostly absent and only concerned about the looming hurricane. Esch is pregnant. Her brother Skeetah is trying to sneak food to a litter of puppies, and her other brothers Randall and Junior are trying to find their place in the family. Following the week leading up to Hurricane Katrina, Jesmyn Ward’s award-winning novel is a powerful and revelatory story.

Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders (Ebook)

Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders. Click for catalog link.

A Booker Prize-winning book, Lincoln in the Bardo takes place in February of 1862. The Civil War has just begun, and Abraham Lincoln’s son Willie is deathly ill. When he passes away a mere few days later, he’s buried in a Georgetown cemetery, which Lincoln has reportedly visited several times. From this, Saunders weaves a story with an astounding cast of characters, including Lincoln’s own son, who finds himself in a bardo, or a place of purgatory. There, ghosts and spirits mingle and communicate with one another, ultimately seeking to help both Willie Lincoln and his father find peace. A moving exploration of love, death, and grief, Lincoln in the Bardo is an utterly captivating story.

The Overstory, Richard Powers (Audiobook)

The Overstory, by Richard Powers. Click for catalog link.

Written by an alumnus of the University of Illinois and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, The Overstory is a story about the power of activism and the natural world. Following a cast of characters who each have a special relationship to trees and nature, Powers interweaves their individual stories as they try to fight for the survival of the Redwoods. Their stories show the world beyond ours–a world of beauty, nature, and magnificence.

Women Talking, Miriam Toews (Audiobook) 

Women Talking, by Miriam Toews. Click for catalog link.

When a group of Mennonite women learn that they’ve been drugged and attacked by men from their own community, they come together in an attempt to protect one another and their daughters from further harm. While the men are away, these women meet to make a difficult choice: do they stay in the community, or do they risk the danger of running away?  Women Talking is a story of women reclaiming their power despite the odds being stacked against them.

The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead (Audiobook) 

The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead. Click for catalog link.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction, The Underground Railroad follows the story of a woman named Cora, who learns about the Underground Railroad through a man named Cesar. In Whitehead’s novel, though, the Underground Railroad is an actual railroad, with a network of stations, trains, and tracks. Together Cora and Cesar risk escape, fleeing from state to state trying to avoid a slave catcher named Ridgeway. The Underground Railroad is a powerful narrative about the terrors faced by slaves in the pre-Civil War era, and one woman’s fierce determination to escape bondage.