The Renovation follows Dilara, a Turkish woman living in self-imposed political exile in a quiet coastal village in Salerno, Italy. Unable to find employment in her field, she has dedicated herself to the care of her aging father, who is suffering from advanced dementia, and at the start of the book is in the process of installing a second bathroom in her apartment to accommodate his needs. After weeks of secretive construction hidden behind tarpaulins, the contractors pack up and leave. Instead of the modern en-suite bathroom Dilara was expecting to return home to, she finds instead a fully functioning, replica Turkish prison cell.

An American Marriage is focused on the marriage of a middle-class Black American couple from Atlanta, Georgia. Roy, a sales representative who has worked his way up from a relatively poor background, and Celestial, an artist who makes dolls from a more wealthy family, are introduced as newlyweds. The novel begins with a fairly domestic focus, with the pair arguing over their respective relationships with their parents and suchlike. Their lives are turned upside down when Roy is arrested and imprisoned for raping a woman in a motel, a crime he plainly did not commit, after only 18 months of marriage.