Minnesota Fiction

New and recommended fiction by Minnesota authors

Updated October 6, 2025
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Sirens & muses : a novel
Angress, Antonia
Paper Book
Four artists are drawn into a web of rivalry and desire at an elite art school and on the streets of New York in this "gripping, provocative, and supremely entertaining" (BuzzFeed) debut "Captures the ache-inducing quality of art and desire . . . a deeply...
The Book Haters' Book Club
Anthony, Gretchen
Paper Book
"This sparkling novel starts with high energy and unique characters that move from one surprise to another." --Ann Garvin, USA TODAY bestselling author  All it takes is the right book to turn a Book Hater into a Book Lover... That was what Elliot--the beloved...
The crane husband
Barnhill, Kelly Regan
Paper Book
Nebula Award nominee for Best Novella World Fantasy Award nominee for Best Novella "If I had to nominate a worthy successor to Angela Carter, I would nominate Kelly Barnhill. "--Laura Ruby, two-time National Book Award finalist and author of Bone Gap...
The sun collective
Baxter, Charles
Paper Book
*A NEW YORK TIMES 2021 NOTABLE BOOK* A timely and unsettling novel about the people drawn to and unmoored by a local activist group more dangerous than it appears--from the winner of the PEN/Malamud Award and "one of our most gifted writers" (Chicago Tribune).
The Night of the Radishes
Bent?ez, Sandra
Paper Book
From critically acclaimed author Sandra Benitez comes a compelling novel that takes one woman on a journey from Minnesota to Mexico in a search that tests her marriage, uncovers family secrets, and forces her to discover who she truly is. Annie Rush -- a 34-year-old Minnesotan-...
Beguilement
Bujold, Lois McMaster.
Paper Book
"Bujold builds a better fantasy romance with compelling characters and the fascinating clash between their cultures, she a farmer's daughter, he an adventurer on the trail of a deadly demon."--Locus One of the most respected writers in the field of speculative fiction, Lois...
The finders
Burton, Jeffrey B.
Paper Book
Jeffrey B. Burton's The Finders marks the beginning of a fast-paced new mystery series featuring a heroic golden retriever cadaver dog named Vira and her handler, Mason Reid. Mason "Mace" Reid lives on the outskirts of Chicago and specializes in human remains detection....
The sturgeon's heart : a novel
Casey, Amy E.
Paper Book
Three people in the same northern city of Duluth, Minnesota, are vanishing in different ways. Howard Wright finds his skin turning transparent, revealing the bloody workings of musculature beneath. His body becomes otherworldly and insistent, spinning him into visions that echo trauma from...
Eggs in purgatory
Childs, Laura.
Paper Book
INTRODUCING THE CACKLEBERRY CLUB MYSTERY SERIES! The New York Times bestselling author of the Scrapbooking Mysteries and the Tea Shop Mysteries cooks up a delicious series full of friendship, murder, and one spectacular breakfast after another....   ...
Insurrection: A Drake Cody Suspense-Thriller Book 4
Combs, Tom
Paper Book
Emergency physician Drake Cody is on duty at a controversial oil pipeline's opening ceremony when an explosion critically injures a Minnesota senator and others. With the blast, sovereign citizen militia leader Tolman Freid, cruelly wronged by government and corporate injustice, has transformed his...
The sisters of Summit Avenue
Cullen, Lynn
Paper Book
From Lynn Cullen, the bestselling author of Mrs. Poe and Twain's End, comes a powerful novel set in the Midwest during the Great Depression, about two sisters bound together by love, duty, and pain. Ruth has been single-handedly raising four young daughters and...
Bears behaving badly
Davidson, MaryJanice
Paper Book
We're not dating, we've never been dating, we're not going to hook up, no way, absolutely not...oh. Oops. My primary focus has always been taking care of were-babies in the interspecies foster care system. I am unapologetically a fierce mama bear shifter and I am completely united with...
Time in my pocket
Dewink, Gina
Ebook
"You do not believe me, this I can see. But it does not matter whether you believe or not. It does not matter if you think I am crazy. It does not even matter if you know anything about it...If you can see past yourself, you will just fall into another time." When Liza...
The temps
DeYoung, Andrew
Paper Book
*Named a Best SFF Book of 2022 by Book Riot* They're underemployed. Underpaid. And trying to survive the end of the world while trapped inside an office complex. Who knew temp work could be this dangerous? Jacob Elliot doesn't want a temporary job in the mailroom at Delphi...
The cartographer of no man's land
Duffy, P. S.
Paper Book
In the tradition of Robert Goolrick's A Reliable Wife and Karl Marlantes's Matterhorn, P. S. Duffy's astonishing debut showcases a rare and instinctive talent emerging in midlife. Her novel leaps across the Atlantic, between a father at war and a son coming of age at home without him. ...
The Bohemian flats : a novel
Ellis, Mary Relindes
Paper Book
In The Bohemian Flats, Mary Relindes Ellis's rich, imaginative gift carries us from the bourgeois world of fin de siècle Germany to a vibrant immigrant enclave in the heart of the Midwest and to the killing fields of World War I. Shell shock, as it was called, lands Raimund...
Stars over Clear Lake
Ellsworth, Loretta
Paper Book
Mesmerizing and romantic, Stars Over Clear Lake transports readers to the Surf Ballroom, where musical acts became legends in the 1940s and which holds the key to one woman's deepest secret. Lorraine Kindred's most cherished memories are of the Surf Ballroom, the place...
I cheerfully refuse : a novel
Enger, Leif
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A BARNES & NOBLE BOOK CLUB PICK * A career defining tour-de-force from New York Times bestselling, award-winning and "formidably gifted" (Chicago Tribune) author of Peace Like a River Leif Enger. "A rare, remarkable book to be kept and...
American gospel : a novel
Enger, Lin
Paper Book
Radically personal and quintessentially American, an intimate drama at the heart of an apocalyptic vision   On a small farm beside a lake in Minnesota's north woods an old man is waiting for the Rapture, which God has told him will happen in two weeks, on...
Love medicine : newly revised edition
Erdrich, Louise.
Paper Book
"The beauty of Love Medicine saves us from being completely devastated by its power." -- Toni Morrison Set on a North Dakota Ojibwe reservation, Love Medicine--the first novel from master storyteller and National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich--is an epic story...
The quiet librarian
Eskens, Allen
Paper Book
After the murder of her best friend, a librarian's search for answers leads back to her own dark secrets in this "searing and timely" novel about a woman transformed by war, family, vengeance, and love, from the author of the beloved bestseller The Life We Bury (Kristin Harmel, author...
American magic : a thriller
Fehst, Zach
Paper Book
In this fast-paced, international thriller, chaos erupts after a shadowy figure with ties to an elite and ancient society posts incantations on the dark web that allow people to perform real magic. When an enigmatic message uploaded to the dark web turns out to contain an ancient...
The great Gatsby
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Paper Book
The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald's family and from his lifelong publisher. This edition is the enduring original text, updated with the author's own revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and with a new introduction by National Book...
Chocolate chip cookie murder
Fluke, Joanne
Paper Book
Discover The Delicious Mystery That Started It All! No one cooks up a delectable, suspense-filled mystery quite like Hannah Swensen, Joanne Fluke's dessert-baking, red-haired heroine whose gingersnaps are as tart as her comebacks, and whose penchant for solving crimes--one...
Big in Sweden : a novel
Franson, Sally
Paper Book
"Sally Franson is a world class entertainer. She can finesse a serio-comic moment in a way that leaves you catching your breath. Deft and delicious, this book is a flat out delight machine. A heart opener, a page turner, and a true 'originell!' I laughed out loud, I ugly cried...
The Ursulina
Freeman, Brian
Paper Book
In this gripping prequel to his Edgar Award finalist and New York Times bestseller The Deep, Deep Snow, Brian Freeman takes us on Rebecca's dark journey to reveal the truth about the Ursulina ... a journey that ultimately leads to an excruciating choice that will change her life forever. ...
Brotherless night : a novel
Ganeshananthan, V. V.
Paper Book
New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * A courageous young Sri Lankan woman tries to protect her dream of becoming a doctor in this "heartbreaking exploration of a family fractured by civil war" (Brit Bennett, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Half)....
The ski jumpers : a novel
Geye, Peter
Paper Book
Now in paperback: a writer and former ski jumper facing a terminal diagnosis takes one more leap--into a past of soaring flights and broken family bonds A brilliant ski jumper has to be fearless--Jon Bargaard remembers this well. His memories of daring leaps and risks might be the...
The women could fly : a novel
Giddings, Megan
Paper Book
Reminiscent of the works of Margaret Atwood, Shirley Jackson, and Octavia Butler, a biting social commentary from the acclaimed author of Lakewood that speaks to our times--a piercing dystopian novel about the unbreakable bond between a young woman and her mysterious mother, set in a world in...
The Blackout Book Club : a novel
Green, Amy Lynn
Paper Book
"The Blackout Book Club is a fabulous novel that will warm the hearts of readers everywhere. Amy Lynn Green gives us a poignant look at life on the home front during WWII and how comfort and camaraderie can be found in the shared love of books. This will be a wonderful book...
Wolf kill
Griffith, Cary J.
Paper Book
In this outdoors thriller, the investigation of a bizarre wolf attack leads to evidence of murder, conspiracy, and shocking family secrets. A decades-old promise haunts Sam Rivers, but the wildlife biologist refuses to return home--not with his abusive and estranged father still...
Native love jams
Hart, Tashia
Paper Book
Two cooks go foraging and find love in a berry patch.Native Love Jams is a debut work of contemporary romance by Tashia Hart, author of The Good Berry Cookbook: Harvesting and Cooking Wild Rice and Other Wild Foods.As the village of Rainy Bay works out the kinks in their first Indigenous Food Days,...
Stillwater
Helget, Nicole Lea
Paper Book
Clement and Angel are fraternal twinsnbsp;separated at birth; they grow up in the same small, frontier loggingnbsp;town of Stillwater, Minnesota. Clement was left at the orphanage. Angel was adopted by the town's richest couple, but is marked and threatened by her mother's mental illness. They...
A hard ticket home
Housewright, David
Paper Book
The clock is ticking as a former cop tries to find a friend's missing daughter--as everyone he talks to ends up dead.
Black leopard, red wolf
James, Marlon
Paper Book
One of TIME's 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time Winner of the L.A. Times Ray Bradbury Prize Finalist for the 2019 National Book Award The New York Times Bestseller Named a Best Book of 2019 by The Wall Street...
Just for the summer
Jimenez, Abby
Paper Book
Instant #1 New York Times bestseller and a Good Morning America Book Club Pick! This witty, slow-burn rom-com is the "ideal beach read." --Elle Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it's now all over the internet. Every woman he dates...
The Barrens : a novel of love and death in the Canadian Arctic
Johnson, Kurt
Paper Book
Winner of the Minnesota Book Award and a 2022 Great Group Reads Selection "The Barrens grabbed me from the opening pages and never let go."--Michael Punke, author of The Revenant Two young women attending college decide to have a summer...
Lake Wobegon days
Keillor, Garrison.
Paper Book
Garrison Keillor is the consummate storyteller, gifted with the rare ability--both in print and in performance--to hold an audience spellbound with his tales of ordinary people whose lives contain extraordinary moments of humor, tenderness, and grace. This exclusive recording of Garrison Keillor...
The sisters of Sea View
Klassen, Julie
Paper Book
Some guests have come for a holiday, others for hidden reasons of their own . . .When their father's death leaves them impoverished, Sarah Summers and her genteel sisters fear they will be forced to sell the house and separate to earn livelihoods as governesses or companions....
The river we remember : a novel
Krueger, William Kent
Paper Book
AN EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by a shocking murder, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances in this dazzling novel, an instant New York Times bestseller and "a work of art" (The Denver Post). On Memorial Day...
Patty Jane's House of Curl : a novel
Landvik, Lorna
Paper Book
After Patty Jane's husband leaves her, she and her irrepressible sister, Harriett, open a neighborhood beauty parlor--complete with live harp music and Norwegian baked goods. It's a warmhearted place where good friends share laughter, tears and comfort. A funny, poignant first novel about the bonds...
Swede Hollow
Larsmo, Ola
Paper Book
A riveting family saga immersed in the gritty, dark side of Swedish immigrant life in America in the early twentieth century When Gustaf and Anna Klar and their three children leave Sweden for New York in 1897, they take with them a terrible secret and a longing for a...
Babbitt
Lewis, Sinclair
Paper Book
The masterpiece of Nobel Prize winner Sinclair Lewis A Penguin Classic George F. Babbitt, a conniving, prosperous real estate man from Zenith, Ohio, revels in his popularity, his success, and, especially, in the material rewards they bring. He bullies his wife...
The quarry girls : a thriller
Lourey, Jess
Paper Book
Killers hiding in plain sight. Small-town secrets. A girl who knows too much. From the Amazon Charts bestselling author of Unspeakable Things and Bloodline comes a nerve-twisting novel inspired by a shocking true crime. Minnesota, 1977. For the teens of one close-knit...
After Francesco
Malloy, Brian
Paper Book
"Like Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers, author-activist Malloy's newest novel is a heartrending portrayal of the realities of healing." -Oprah Daily, Best LGBTQ Books of 2021 Acclaimed author Brian Malloy brings insight, humor, and the authenticity of his...
The gimmicks : a novel
McCormick, Chris
Paper Book
"The Gimmicks is a gorgeous epic that astounds with its scope and beauty. With empathy and humor, McCormick unravels the ties between brotherhood and betrayal, love and abandonment, and the fictions we create to live with the pain of the past. This novel will blow you away." --Brit...
To catch a storm : a novel
Mejia, Mindy
Paper Book
A USA TODAY BESTSELLER! In this brand new series from national bestseller Mindy Mejia, a physicist and a psychic reluctantly team up to solve two missing persons cases during an ice storm in Iowa. When her husband's car is found abandoned and on fire--in the...
Minnesota Not So Nice: Eighteen Tales of Bad Behavior
Merritt Deese, Barbara
Paper Book
Minnesota Nice gets shoved offstage when Bad Behavior hogs the spotlight in this gripping, often delightful collection of mystery and crime stories. Eighteen local authors rip away the curtains to our states legendary Niceness to rummage through dusty emotional attics to find, emerging from the...
The emigrants
Moberg, Vilhelm
Paper Book
Considered one of Sweden's greatest 20th-century writers, Vilhelm Moberg created the characters Karl Oskar and Kristina Nilsson to portray the joys and tragedies of daily life for early Swedish immigrants in America. His consistently faithful depiction of these humble people's lives is a major...
And there he kept her
Moehling, Joshua
Paper Book
"A dark and complex mystery that will consume you."--Julie Clark, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight They thought he was a helpless old man. They were wrong. When two teenagers break into a house on a remote lake in search of prescription drugs, what starts as a...
How high we go in the dark : a novel
Nagamatsu, Sequoia
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE * ROXANE GAY'S AUDACIOUS BOOK CLUB PICK * FINALIST FOR THE URSULA K. LE GUIN PRIZE "Moving and thought-provoking . . . offering psychological insights in lyrical prose while seriously exploring speculative conceits." --...
The things they carried
O'Brien, Tim
Paper Book
Depicting the men of Alpha Company, The Things They Carried opened our eyes to the nature of war in a way we will never forget. It is a life-changing meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. In the decades since its publication it has never failed to...
Evidence of V: A Novel in Fragments, Facts, and Fictions
O'Connor, Sheila
Ebook
Four weekends and a funeral : a novel
Palmer, Ellie
Paper Book
The right guy at the dead wrong time. When thirty-year-old post-double-mastectomy BRCA 1 carrier and reluctant thrill-seeker Alison Mullally arrives at her ex-boyfriend Sam's funeral to find that no one knows he dumped her, she agrees to play the grieving girlfriend for the sake of the family and...
The ninth metal
Percy, Benjamin
Paper Book
"[In THE NINTH METAL] debris from a comet drops a fabulously valuable new metal on Northfall, MN., turning it into a bloody, brawling boomtown. Great characters, fine writing, totally engrossing." --Stephen King "Take one part dystopia, one part sci-fi, two...
Laura's shadow
Pittman, Allison
Paper Book
Family Secrets Spill One Conversation at a Time   Visit historic American landmarks through the Doors to the Past series. History and today collide in stories full of mystery, intrigue, faith, and romance. De Smet,...
Brood : a novel
Polzin, Jackie
Paper Book
An exquisite new literary voice--wryly funny, nakedly honest, beautifully observational, in the vein of Jenny Offill and Elizabeth Strout--depicts one woman's attempt to keep her four chickens alive while reflecting on a recent loss.   "Full of nuance and humor and strangeness......
A council of dolls : a novel
Power, Susan
Paper Book
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD The long-awaited, profoundly moving, and unforgettable new novel from PEN Award-winning Native American author Mona Susan Power, spanning three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women from the 19th century to the present day. ...
Where they last saw her : a novel
Rendon, Marcie R.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * From the award-winning author of the Cash Blackbear series comes a compelling mystery of a Native American woman who learns of the disappearance of one of her own and decides enough is enough. "Rendon shows how harm done to a marginalized community can...
Giants in the earth : a saga of the prairie
Rølvaag, O. E.
Paper Book
"The fullest, finest, and most powerful novel that has been written about pioneer life in America."--The Nation O. E. Rolvaag's classic novel of a family of Norwegian settlers in the Great Plains--a vivid and intimate portrait of the nineteenth-century immigrant experience and the...
Rules of prey
Sandford, John
Paper Book
#1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford's "haunting, unforgettable, ice-blooded thriller"* that introduced Lucas Davenport...   The killer was mad but brilliant.   He left notes with every woman he killed. Rules of murder: Never have a...
The listening house
Seeley, Mabel
Paper Book
After losing her copywriting job, young Gwynne Dacres moves into the seedy and boarding house run by Mrs. Garr. A chain of chilling events leads to the gruesome discovery of a mutilated body in the basement kitchen, dead of unknown circumstances. Was it an accident or murder? Under the red-black...
Romantic comedy : a novel
Sittenfeld, Curtis
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * A comedy writer thinks she's sworn off love, until a dreamy pop star flips the script on all her assumptions--a "smart, sophisticated, and fun" (Oprah Daily) novel from the author of Eligible, Rodham, and Prep....
Small town girl
Spencer, LaVyrle.
Paper Book
The glass magician
Stevermer, Caroline
Paper Book
Reminiscent of The Golem and the Jinni, The Glass Magician by Caroline Stevermer is a magical and romantic tale set in New York's Gilded Age. New York 1905--The Vanderbilts. The Astors. The Morgans. They are the cream of society--and they own the nation on the...
Reeling : a novel
Stonich, Sarah
Paper Book
RayAnne's next adventure takes our intrepid heroine, haunted by her beloved grandmother's death, to New Zealand to film a new season of her all-women fishing talk show What stage of grief is it when your grandmother's ghost keeps popping up on your electronic devices? Denial?...
Saturday night at the Lakeside Supper club : a novel
Stradal, J. Ryan
Paper Book
"Stradal serves up another saga of food and family, hurt and healing, pitched between cliff-hanger moments. . . that make the pages fly." --People From the New York Times bestselling author J. Ryan Stradal, a story of a couple from two very different restaurant families...
Ruby & Roland : a novel
Sullivan, Faith
Paper Book
From the author of Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse and The Cape Ann comes a new tale of resilient womanhood in Harvester, Minnesota. Growing up in early twentieth-century Illinois, Ruby Drake is a happy child. But one winter's night, her beloved parents perish in an accident--and suddenly Ruby...
Deep into the Dark--A Mystery The Detective Margaret Nolan Series Series, Book 1
Tracy, P. J.
Ebook
"Tracy seems to have found her literary sweet spot." --Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review New York Times bestseller P. J. Tracy returns with Deep into the Dark, a procedural series set in LA and featuring up-and-coming LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan...
Little : a novel
Treuer, David
Paper Book
Back in print, with a new introduction, the memorable debut by the author of The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee The grave we dug for my brother Little remained empty even after we filled it back in. And nobody was going to admit it. So begins Little<...
French braid
Tyler, Anne
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Spool of Blue Thread--a funny, joyful, brilliantly perceptive journey deep into one Baltimore family's foibles, from a boyfriend with a red Chevy in the 1950s up to a longed-for reunion with a grandchild...
Ink blood sister scribe : a novel
Törzs, Emma
Paper Book
NAMED A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR & ONE OF THE BEST FANTASY NOVELS OF THE YEAR  "Astonishing and pristine, the kind of debut I love to be devastated by, already so assured and sophisticated that it's difficult to imagine where the author can go from here. . . ....
The debutante's code
Vetsch, Erica
Paper Book
Jane Austen meets Sherlock Holmes in this new Regency mystery series Newly returned from finishing school, Lady Juliette Thorndike is ready to debut in London society. Due to her years away, she hasn't spent much time with her parents, and sees them only as the flighty, dilettante couple...
Sharks in the time of saviors
Washburn, Kawai Strong
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2020 PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD FOR DEBUT NOVEL. One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2020. A finalist for the 2020 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. Named one of the Best Books of 2020 by the New York Times (#30), the Guardian, the Boston Globe, Oprah<...
A gravestone made of wheat : stories
Weaver, Will.
Paper Book
A dozen stories deal with a heartbroken widower, hunters, farmers and truck drivers living in Minnesota.
The haunting of Brynn Wilder : a novel
Webb, Wendy
Paper Book
From the #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author of Daughters of the Lake comes an enthralling spellbinder of love, death, and a woman on the edge. After a devastating loss, Brynn Wilder escapes to Wharton, a tourist town on Lake Superior, to reset. Checking into a quaint...
Home or away
West, Kathleen
Paper Book
"A gloriously entertaining plunge into the ultra-competitive world of youth sports and the lengths we go to for the kids and game we love."--New York Times bestselling author KJ Dell'Antonia Two friends, one Olympic dream, and the choice that stood in the way. ...
The seed keeper : a novel
Wilson, Diane
Paper Book
A 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Big Reads Selection Winner of the Minnesota Book Award A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakhóta family's struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters...
The secret lives of dentists : a novel
Winter, W. A.
Paper Book
Violent, carnal, and profane. Not how you'd expect pretty, peaceful Minneapolis to be portrayed during Eisenhower's somnambulant 1950s. But the City of Lakes was also the 'anti-Semitism capital of America. ' Sexual predators, pornographers, and backstreet Romeos were on the prowl, and ill-tempered...
Till the wheels fall off
Zellar, Brad
Paper Book
From roller rinks and record players to coin-operated condom dispensers and small-town mobsters, Till the Wheels Fall Off is a novel about an unconventional childhood among the pleasures and privations of the pre-digital era. It's the late 1980s, and Matthew Carnap is...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.