not necessarily your typical books about love
Discover unconventional love stories in this curated book list, from Aimee Bender's *An Invisible Sign of My Own* to Gabriel García Márquez's *Love in the Time of Cholera*—fiction and drama that redefine romance beyond the typical.
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An Invisible Sign of My Own
by Aimee Bender
Aimee Bender’s stunning debut collection, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, proved her to be one of the freshest voices in American fiction. Now, in her first novel, she builds on that early promise. Mona Gray was ten when her father contracted a mysterious illness and she became a quitter, abandoning each of her talents just as pleasure became intense. The only thing she can’t stop doing is math: She knocks on wood, adds her steps, and multiplies people in the park against one another. When Mona begins teaching math to second-graders, she finds a ready audience. But the difficult and wonderful facts of life keep intruding. She finds herself drawn to the new science teacher, who has an unnerving way of seeing through her intricately built façade. Bender brilliantly directs her characters, giving them unexpected emotional depth and setting them in a calamitous world, both fancifully surreal and startlingly familiar.
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The Exes
by Pagan Kennedy
A novel on a Boston band made up of ex-boyfriends and girlfriends. It is a publicity stunt by two former lovers, songwriter Lilly and guitarist Hank, so as to give the band originality. As the group becomes famous, old romances are rekindled.
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The Shipping News
by Annie Proulx
Explores a cracked-up American family after their return to the ancestral home in Newfoundland.
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The Real Thing
by Tom Stoppard
A tie-in edition to the upcoming Broadway revival of Tom Stoppard's extraordinary play about love and marriage--the work that has been called "the most moving play" ("The New York Times") he has ever written.