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In Laura van den Berg’s latest novel, “State of Paradise,” a woman returns to her Florida hometown and finds it plagued by cults, missing-persons cases, and floods. Below, van den Berg recommends six other books about homecomings.
‘Hangman’ by Maya Binyam (2023)
A man returns to sub-Saharan Africa from America after decades away. Binyam’s inventive debut dispenses with names, and the death of the narrator’s seatmate during the flight, at once shocking and deadpan, sets the tone for the defamiliarization that awaits. Buy it here.
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‘No One Is Talking About This’ by Patricia Lockwood (2021)
An unnamed social media star must return home after her sister’s pregnancy takes a devastating turn. The novel begins in the banal absurdity of social media — called “the portal” here — but lands in a place of deep feeling. The book is a wonderful companion to Lockwood’s 2017 memoir, “Priestdaddy.” Buy it here.
‘Pedro Páramo’ by Juan Rulfo (1955)
After making a promise to his mother on her deathbed, a man travels to the town of Comala, in western Mexico, with the intent to meet his father, Pedro Páramo, for the first time. Instead, the son discovers a literal ghost town. Buy it here.
‘Our Share of Night’ by Mariana Enríquez (2022)
This epic novel is bookended by two homecomings, only home happens to be an occult stronghold tucked away in the Argentinian countryside. On each return, two of the central characters, a father and his son, must confront their powers, their wounds, and their fates. Buy it here.
‘Sharp Objects’ by Gillian Flynn (2006)
A young Chicago journalist who is haunted by the mysterious death of her sister many years earlier is assigned to return to her hometown of Wind Gap, Mo., to investigate a murder. The truths that she uncovers blow up her own understanding of her past. Buy it here.
‘Earthlings’ by Sayaka Murata (2018)
As children, the narrator and her cousin, during a yearly visit to a family mountain house, construct a private world in which they are extraterrestrials. Years later, the narrator and her cousin return to the mountain house and attempt to live outside society. The results are shocking. Buy it here.
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