It’s a week after America’s latest, and far from greatest, election, a day that many of us are still processing. I have so much to say, as we all do, and I’ll say it elsewhere soon. But for the moment, let’s do the radical thing of not thinking about it, to the extent that we, especially those of us in the most vulnerable groups, can. I know that it feels weird, if not jarring, to go from the chaos of it all to a simple message of hi, check out these exciting new books!
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But in reality, I do think literature is one of the ways we can keep ourselves going through it all, one of the constants in our compass of the self. And so I hope these twenty-four entries below in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry offer solace, hope, new perspectives, and everything else that books have always so beautifully offered us, in times of tranquility and turmoil alike. There are some truly wonderful ones to consider—and don’t we need a bit of wonder now, amidst everything else?
Be well, Dear Readers, and be safe. I hope you find some much-needed light in this list.
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Tom Newlands, Only Here, Only Now
(Harpervia)
“Only Here, Only Now heralds the arrival of an urgent and unique new voice, as engaging and as startling as Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, Morvern Callar or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, and will surely be hailed as one of the great British debut novels.”
–David Peace
Julian Zabalbeascoa, What We Tried to Bury Grows Here
(Two Dollar Radio)
“In the tradition of such master story tellers as Isaac Babel and Phil Klay, Julian Zabalbeascoa has written a piercing narrative set during the Spanish Civil War. Alive with wonderful characters, moments of dread, bathos and humour, What We Tried to Bury Grows Here illuminates a crucial period of history. This is a timely and absorbing novel.”
–Margot Livesey
Clare Chambers, Shy Creatures
(Mariner Books)
“A beautiful story of unfolding secrets and unforeseen consequences, filled with moments that are somehow restrained and astute and gorgeously written all at the same time.”
–Holly Gramazio
Lili Anolik, Didion and Babitz
(Scribner)
“A revealing investigation of Babitz’s complicated relationship with Joan Didion….[Anolik] provides astute character portraits of both writers, suggesting that though Didion was disciplined and spare where Babitz was sensual and lush, the two shared a single-minded commitment to their artistry. It’s a crackling dual biography of two of L.A.’s brightest literary lights.”
–Publishers Weekly
Carl Rollyson, The Making of Sylvia Plath
(University Press of Mississippi)
“Rollyson takes a deep dive into the intellectual and popular culture of Sylvia Plath’s time to see how she was shaped by cinema, books, and the fashionable ideas of her day. Once more, Rollyson helps to rehabilitate our bad ideas about Plath as a grim, deadly serious writer into a woman who loved movies, fashion, and the world around her, and who wanted to help shape that world, in turn…turn[s] heady subject material into a page-turner, never sacrificing intellectual rigor.”
–Emily Van Duyne
John Berger, Over to You: Letters Between a Father and Son (trans. Yves Berger)
(Pantheon Books)
“Yves [Berger] invites readers into an intimate world of father and son….Whimsical, playful, and ruminative—a testament to the authors’ love of art and each other.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Ishion Hutchinson, Far District: Poems
(FSG)
“Poetry of this quality is never belated and ever auspicious….Everything is alive to Hutchinson. He compares and contrasts what he finds at home in Jamaica with the colonial sense of an island without history….Hutchinson is doing what every major poet does, remaking the tradition in his own image.”
–Booklist
Dorsía Smith Silva, In Inheritance of Drowning
(CavanKerry Press)
“Dorsía Smith Silva’s powerful debut collection…trains a lens on the history and ecology of Puerto Rico and mainland US. In poems of ethical witness, Smith Silva documents the linkages between slavery and present-day police brutality and racism, between recent, devastating hurricanes in the Caribbean and colonialism, past and present….In Inheritance of Drowning looks unflinchingly at violence and iniquity while testifying to Black and Caribbean people’s survival.”
–Shara McCallum
Eliza Clark, She’s Always Hungry: Stories
(Harper Perennial)
“Readers of horror and speculative fiction will thoroughly enjoy this fun collection of short stories….The feminist themes and rich characters of She’s Always Hungry will stick with readers long after they close the book.”
–Booklist
Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, Taiwan Travelogue (trans. Lin King)
(Graywolf)
“Yáng Shuang-zi’s novel, a runaway bestseller in Taiwan, ranges from playful and intimate depictions of the lush countryside of Taiwan to the ordered world of the colonial city. But what at first feels like a simple travelogue is actually an examination of an often-overlooked period of East Asian history and of the human heart….Beginning in a world as solid and stately as Kawabata’s The Makioka Sisters, Taiwan Travelogue deftly takes the reader down a rabbit hole as filled with longing and misunderstanding as Sarah Waters’s The Night Watch.”
–Marie Mutsuki Mockett
Richard Price, Lazarus Man
(FSG)
“Price delivers a remarkable excavation of urban angst in this story of a five-story East Harlem tenement building that collapses….As [Price’s] vivid characters cross paths following the tragedy, they compose a searing snapshot of contemporary Harlem annotated with the author’s precise observations….Price once again proves he’s the bard of New York City street life.”
–Publishers Weekly
Youngmi Mayer, I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying: A Memoir
(Little Brown)
“Across all of her work, Mayer’s superpower is her ability to tap into the emotional core of whatever she has her sights on—racism, the death of her cat, the contents of her son’s backpack, etc.—and articulate it in such a way that reveals how closely humor lives on the other side….The most complete expression of Mayer’s sensibilities to date arrives in the form of [I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying].”
–Vulture
Paula Byrne, Hardy Women: Mother, Sisters, Wives, Muses
(William Collins)
“A fascinating re-examination of the life of Thomas Hardy through the eyes of the women who profoundly influenced him—his mother, his sisters, girlfriends, wives and muses. Drawing on access to some never-before-seen passages in Hardy’s journals, she shows that it is through these hardy women that we can truly appreciate his much-loved works.”
–The Bookseller
Paul French, Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties, and the Making of Wallis Simpson
(St. Martin’s Press)
“Wallis Simpson’s time in China between 1924 and 1925 has been too long shrouded in rumor and innuendo. Thank God, then, for Paul French, whose magisterial, beautifully written and impeccably researched account of the future Duchess of Windsor’s activities during this period should henceforth be regarded as the definitive account…this is all you need to know about the woman who was never queen.”
–Alexander Larman
Adriana Allegri, The Sunflower House
(St. Martin’s Press)
“The Sunflower House is an emotional and captivating read that peels away the secrets surrounding the Lebensborn program in Germany. Adriana Allegri has written a spectacular debut that will make a splash in the world of WWII historical fiction.”
–Madeline Martin
Sergio de la Pava, Every Arc Bends Its Radian
(Simon & Schuster)
“A mind-bending detective story…[it] reads a bit like if Raymond Chandler and Jules Verne dropped acid together and started contemplating the nature of evil and the future of artificial intelligence. Summarizing any de la Pava novel—where formal hijinks abound and digressions range from The Honeymooners to theoretical physics—in one sentence feels almost obscenely reductive…[and] this is not a writer in search of approval.”
–Publishers Weekly
David Peace, Munichs
(Norton)
“A work of exhaustive research, numinous scope, and scalding intimacy; a remorselessly beautiful, grieving, loving testament to a tragedy; and David Peace’s greatest book yet.”
–Tom Benn
Patchen Barss, The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius
(Basic Books)
“One day in 1965, Roger Penrose is crossing a London street and suddenly his imagination is working in four dimensions. The result is an insight that transforms Einstein’s relativity theorem. Patchen Barss writes lyrically about this scientific quest, but he also explores the frail human side of Penrose’s journey. The result is a page-turner reminiscent of James Gleick’s Genius, the bestselling biography of Richard Feynman. The Impossible Man is a stunning achievement.”
–Kai Bird
Richard Munson, Ingenious: A Biography of Benjamin Franklin, Scientist
(Norton)
“[S]plendid….Munson’s absorbing narrative biography guides us expertly through Franklin’s extraordinary life. Page after page, Ingenious shows how one person with little formal education made an impact that still has relevance today. For readers of history, biography and science (or simply those in search of an outstanding book about Franklin that is not too long), Ingenious is an excellent choice.”
–Roger Bishop
Jerry Brotton, Four Points of the Compass: The Unexpected History of Direction
(Atlantic Monthly Press)
“With a compass to show the way, a professor of English and history undertakes an engaging journey of discovery….Brotton keeps his complex story moving, knitting technical information and anecdotes into a vivid tapestry.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Pirkko Saisio, Lowest Common Denominator (trans. Mia Spangenberg)
(Two Lines Press)
“Lowest Common Denominator paints an Ernaux-esque picture of a fragmented childhood in post-war Finland….Switching back and forth from first to third person, Saisio ingeniously illustrates how the young main character learns to cope with her growing sense of depersonalization and gender dysphoria by narrating her life as it happens. Telling herself the story of herself in a way that Joan Didion would approve of.”
–Laurel Kane
Austin Duffy, Cross
(Melville House)
“There comes a point in a hunger strike, remarks an IRA operative in Cross, when a body begins to smell, ‘on account of the body starting to eat itself’. It’s a deeply resonant image, and a powerful metaphor for what happens in the book’s eponymous Northern Irish border town when the 1994 ceasefire forces it to make a reckoning with its violent past and uncertain future…brings [a] distinctive blend of black humor and moral seriousness to the literature of the Troubles.”
–Carys Davies
Hélène Dorion, Not Even the Sound of a River (trans. Jonathan Kaplansky)
(Book*hug Press)
“The Empress of Ireland’s tragic demise and the lives that have gone with her to the bottom, remain largely unknown. In this richly written book, Hélène Dorion lifts the fog that veiled some of the human stories which the St. Lawrence was only revealing to a few. The book conveys brilliantly the unique allure of this deep river, by exploring the depth of one’s personal history.”
–David Saint-Pierre
James Norbury, The Dog Who Followed the Moon
(William Morrow)
“A beautifully illustrated book….A lovely, moving story about death, loss, loneliness, and recovery. Stories like these help us recognize that while we may feel alone on our journey, we also have friends to help us navigate scary territory.”
–Psychology Today
