Check out these novels before their movie adaptations hit theaters this year:
The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman – Documents the true story of Warsaw Zoo keepers and resistance activists Jan and Antonina Zabinski, who in the aftermath of Germany’s invasion of Poland saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish citizens by smuggling them into empty cages and their home villa.
Movie release date: March 31, 2017
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Daniel Bruhl, Johan Heldenbergh
Wonder by R.J. Palacio – Born with a facial deformity that initially prevented his attendance at public school, Auggie Pullman enters the fifth grade at Beecher Prep and struggles with the dynamics of being both new and different, in a sparsely written tale about acceptance and self-esteem.
Movie release date: April 7, 2017
Starring: Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, Jacob Tremblay
The Circle by Dave Eggers – Hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful Internet company, Mae Holland begins to question her luck as life beyond her job grows distant, a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, and her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public.
Movie release date: April 28, 2017
Starring: Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, Karen Gillan
The Dinner by Herman Koch – Meeting for dinner, two couples move from small talk to the shared challenge of their teenage sons’ act of violence that has triggered a police investigation and revealed the extent to which each family will go to protect those they love.
Movie release date: May 5, 2017
Starring: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan
Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey – Two mischievous kids hypnotize their mean school principal and turn him into their comic book creation, the kind-hearted and elastic-banded Captain Underpants.
Movie release date: June 2, 2017
Starring: Kevin Hart, Nick Kroll, Kristen Schaal
The Dark Tower by Stephen King – Gunslinger Roland Deschain roams an Old West-like landscape in search of the dark tower, in the hopes that reaching it will preserve his dying world.
Movie release date: July 28, 2017
Starring: Katheryn Winnick, Matthew McConaughey, Idris Elba
Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall & Denver Moore – The co-author relates how he was held under plantation-style slavery until he fled in the 1960s and suffered homelessness for an additional 18 years before the wife of the other co-author, an art dealer accustomed to privilege, intervened.
Movie release date: October 20, 2017
Starring: Renee Zellweger, Jon Voigt, Djimon Hounsou
Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews – Drafted against her will to serve the regime of Vladimir Putin as an intelligence seductress, Dominika Egorova is assigned to operate against first-tour CIA officer Nathaniel Nash, with whom she engages in a charged effort of deception and tradecraft before a forbidden attraction threatens their careers and the security of America’s most valuable mole in Moscow.
Movie release date: November 10, 2017
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Jeremy Irons
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie – While en route from Syria to Paris the Orient Express is stopped dead in its tracks by a snowdrift and a wealthy American is brutally stabbed to death in his private compartment. Fortunately, the brilliant Belgian inspector Hercule Poirot is also on board.
Movie release date: November 22, 2017
Starring: Daisy Ridley, Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz