The Fifth Season

Another new author to me, N. K. Jemison is referred to as a "speculative fiction" writer of short stories and novels, many of which have received literary nominations and awards. The Fifth Season, the first part of her "Broken Earth" series,  won The 2016 Hugo Award. One of the common themes of her writing is oppression and this book is no exception. People oppressing others because they are different and mostly because they are afraid, should certainly resonate in our current political climate. This description of The Fifth Season's precipitating events, from Jemison's own website, sums it up more succinctly than I could.
"Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries."
Essun goes in search of her missing daughter, trying to navigate a broken world, and a rapidly deteriorating social order where her kind--the Orogenes--are trained and used, or killed, but above all, feared.
There's a great review by Naomi Novik (see my post on her novel, Uprooted) in the New York Times. Also good reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and NPR.