What to read this week: New books by Olga Tokarczuk, Bart van Es and Vanessa Hua

FLIGHTS, by Olga Tokarczuk. Winner of the Man Booker International Prize, this novel translated from Polish by Jennifer Croft has been likened to works by W.G. Sebald and Milan Kundera but is unlike anything you've ever read. Comprised of fragmentary, disconnected stories — including an account of Chopin's heart being returned to Poland — "Flights" is a graceful and philosophic meditation on travel. (Riverhead, $26)

THE CUT OUT GIRL: A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found, by Bart van Es. During World War II, the author's Dutch family took in a young Jewish girl named Lientje, handed over for protection by her own parents. After the war, the family fell out of contact with Lientje, but van Es — who grew up on stories of her — tracked the now-elderly woman down in Amsterdam. A Holocaust tale with echoes of Anne Frank. (Penguin Press, $28)

A RIVER OF STARS, by Vanessa Hua. This debut novel pulls back the curtain on the phenomenon of Chinese "maternity hotels" in the United States — where pregnant Chinese women await the births of their babies on U.S. soil. Scarlett Chen is a factory worker sent to Los Angeles by her boss after she becomes pregnant by him, but she takes matters into her own hands, fleeing to San Francisco's Chinatown with a teen companion. (Ballantine, $27)