Belladonna

April 13, 2020
Set in the late 1950s, Salam’s arresting U.S. debut centers on the relationship between dazzling, wealthy Isabella Crowley and smart yet socially inept Bridget Ryan. They meet as juniors in a Connecticut Catholic high school, where Isabella, a newcomer, is caught playing a game called Dead Nun. Bridget is infatuated with Isabella, and falsely claims she put Isabella up to it, finding favor as a result. The other girls then pretend to overlook Bridget’s Egyptian, “foreign” mother and perpetually ill sister, Rhona. After Bridget and Isabella are accepted into an exchange program at an Italian academy for their senior year, Bridget’s overwhelming desire to have Isabella to herself momentarily comes true, yet Isabella holds the power even after Bridget kisses her (“a ribbon spun through my body and I stiffened, daring myself not to breathe and give away the rippling feeling”). Bridget returns home shortly after arriving in Italy, though, to be with Rhona, who suffered a heart attack, and the Ryan family is horrified at the doctor’s request to study Rhona’s “mixed heritage.”After Rhona is discharged and Bridget returns to Italy, Bridget disapproves of Isabella’s new friendship with a young nun, with whom she spitefully shares compromising information about Isabella. The tender, exquisite prose brilliantly captures the feelings and fault lines in the girls’ friendship. This is a discerning look at secret infatuation and racial prejudice. (June)Correction: An earlier version of this review incorrectly stated this is the author's first book. It is in fact the author's first book to be published in America.

May 15, 2020
At the end of high school, no one understands Bridget like Isabella. Expectations of society in the late 1950s force Bridget to hide many parts of herself, like her mixed-race identity and her sister's severe eating disorder. With Isabella, she can be herself. Bridget is delighted to discover they'll both be attending a post-grad academy at an Italian convent in the fall. She will get to be Isabella's best friend in a totally new context, free of her former self, free to explore all possibilities of the friendship. Unfortunately, in Italy as at home in the U.S., the girls are surrounded by rich American women like themselves, and Bridget feels obligated to spin more tall tales. Isabella is the only person in Italy who knows Bridget's full truth. Their kinship evolves into something more, but it's clear that Isabella is hiding something herself. Bridget must learn to embrace her identity independent of Isabella, no matter how many lies she'll have to untell. Engrossing and steamy, this is The Price of Salt meets The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)