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Where I’m Coming From by Barbara Brandon-Croft

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Where I’m Coming From: “Brandon-Croft, the first Black woman with a nationally syndicated American comic strip, delivers a spirited career compilation cut through with razor-sharp wit. Debuting in the Detroit Free Press in 1989, Brandon-Croft’s strip featured a cast of opinionated, wisecracking Black women (drawn with varied expressions, hair styles, skin tones, and tones of voice) relaying everyday life and unfiltered social commentary. This trademark sisterhood of talking heads chatted at the nation through 2005, including syndication in Essence and the Baltimore Sun. For example, feminist Lekesia skewers racial bias and sex scandals in the military, quipping: ‘I think this country needs to change its recruitment slogan to Uncle Sam wants you… to behave!’ No topic escapes critique, from education to dating woes to workplace inequality and voting. The unabashed sarcasm and upbeat playfulness are infectious, while the cast are carefully distinguished with a flip of a hand or a pointed gaze. Snappy dialogue competes for space next to twisted, braided, and coiled hair atop the heads that dominate the panels. The humor befits its era, with references newsy to the 1990s, such as reflections on Rodney King and Clarence Thomas, but the underlying themes hold uncanny relevancy to contemporary America. This trenchant volume easily sits alongside works from contemporary heavyweight Black cartoonists such as Aaron McGruder and Ray Billingsley.”

Brutes by Dizz Tate

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Brutes: “Tate’s uneven debut tracks an ensemble cast of teenage girls who long to escape their suffocating hometown of Falls Landing, Fla. After cool older girl Sammy disappears, a group of 13-year-olds who’d obsessed over her wonder what happened. Chapters alternate perspectives, including that of chorus-like entries from the girls’ collective point of view as well as individual narrators such as Isabel, one of the girls’ mothers, who describes the nightmarish landscape defined by toxic lakes, alligators, and hurricanes (‘The light fades and the whole place just looks like something about to die’). Hazel, one of the girls, delivers alarming lines inflected by philosophy: ‘If I’ve learned anything, it’s that even movement becomes another kind of stillness if you force it to last too long.’ While the language has mesmerizing moments, the repetitiveness of the first-person plural passages blunt the impact: ‘We shook our bangled wrists… we didn’t know what it meant… we were in the mood where nothing was going to make us happy.’ As the girls look for Sammy, they also dream about appearing on a talent show and finding fame in Los Angeles. The finale’s murky, and the author leans a bit too much on the missing-girl trope. It’s an often beautiful work, but it’s also exhausting.”

The Black Guy Dies First by Robin R. Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Black Guy Dies First: “‘Unlike ‘The Black Guy,’ Black horror has managed to not only survive, but thrive,’ contend Coleman (Horror Noire), vice president and associate provost for diversity and inclusion at Northwestern University, and journalist Harris in this animated chronicle. The authors examine how Black representation in horror films has changed since the 1960s, beginning in 1968 with the releases of Spider Baby and Night of the Living Dead, the former of which is an early example of the ‘Black guy dies first’ trope. A particularly strong chapter dissects Black horror stereotypes, noting that witch doctors from such films as Child’s Play (1988) ‘have African origins that lead’ to their portrayal as ‘primitive, uncultured savages,’ and that the selflessness typical of the ‘Magical Negro’ (The Stand, The Green Mile) is usually in service of a white protagonist. The authors bring appropriately sharp humor to their examination of contemporary satirical fare inspired by the success of Get Out (2017) and remark that The Forever Purge (2021), in which Black characters struggle to survive ‘against rich White elitists who view them as expendable,’ is ‘like the NFL.’ Coleman and Harris’s encyclopedic knowledge of horror astounds and their critiques yield fresh insights. Horror aficionados will want to take note.”

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Big Swiss: “Beagin (Vacuum in the Dark) delivers a delightfully off-kilter romantic comedy set in a Hudson Valley increasingly transformed by transplants from New York City. The protagonist, Greta, is in her 40s, living in a semi-derelict Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, N.Y., with her beloved dog, Piñón. Greta is working as a transcriptionist for a local sex therapist named Om when she is captivated by the voice of one of Om’s patients, a 30-something married woman whom she nicknames Big Swiss for her height and nationality, who used to live in Brooklyn. At the dog park, Greta and Big Swiss (whose real name is Flavia) meet by chance, and romance between the two blossoms, complicated by the fact that Greta is privy to Big Swiss’s most private inner thoughts. While the interpersonal intrigue is palpable, this is also very much a novel about place, full of alternately snide and affectionate commentary about the rapidly gentrifying town. When encountering another of the therapist’s patients and his wife at a coffee shop, Greta notes, ‘like most people in Hudson, they were better looking than average and dressed like boutique farmers.’ Beagin is a gifted storyteller with a flair for the eccentric and a soft spot for a wayward soul. This unconventional love story has a surplus of appeal from page one.”

Culture: The Story of Us, From Cave Art to K-Pop by Martin Puchner

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Culture: “The circuitous paths by which art, literature, customs, and ideology diffuse through and transform the world are traced in this exhilarating treatise. Harvard English professor Puchner (The Drama of Ideas) spotlights works that crystallize episodes of cultural cross-pollination, including the famous bust, discovered in 1912, of ancient Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, leader of a monotheistic religious movement that influenced early Judaism; a medieval Japanese noblewoman’s diary, which reveals the deep imprint of Chinese poetry and manners on Japanese society; enigmatic Aztec picture-writing books and contemporary Albrech Dürer prints, which exemplify the incipient gulf between books as objets d’art and as commodities; a portrait of Haitian statesman Jean-Baptiste Belley and its link to Parisian salons; and the resonances between British colonialism and post-independence Nigerian literature apparent in Wole Soyinka’s play Death and the King’s Horseman. Along the way, Puchner analyzes the ingenious mechanisms by which culture is stored, transformed, and spread. (By carving his Buddhist ethical precepts onto giant stone monoliths, the ancient Indian philosopher-king Ashoka cannily assured that they would not just persuade his subjects but tempt scholars thousands of years later into deciphering and discussing them.) Elegantly written and full of erudite lore, this vibrant history illuminates the inveterate human yearning for expression.”

Couplets by Maggie Millner

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Couplets: “Copulative pleasures abound in this spectacular debut that cloaks memoir in rhyming couplets and prose poems. The autofictional plot reads like a fairy tale: a woman in Brooklyn leaves her old life with ‘its familiar openwork/ of sex and teaching, kale and NPR// and the boyfriend at the center I revered,’ for a woman, ‘My eye loved// everything it fell upon./ And then one day it fell upon/ a mirror. And he was nowhere/ in the mirror. And she was everywhere.’ Love and lust find uncanny expression under poetic constraints (‘isn’t love itself a type// of rhyme?’). The rhymes are at once delicious—at times gasp-worthy—and yet so expertly deployed that they become ‘a shape that feels more native than imposed.’ ‘Those days, I was something else:// a soft vacuity. A sort of net./ No guilt, no age. No epithet.’ As the perfectly paced narrative unfolds, self-scrutiny about life and writing deepens; love becomes ‘the engine of self-knowledge.’ Exploring the question of how exactly to tell her story, the poet admits: ‘Sometimes when you sat down, alone with your mind, you felt you were performing both parts of an elaborate duet.’ Erudite but never overbearing, this is a remarkable achievement.”

Also out this week: City of Blows by Tim Blake Nelson.

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Black Empire by George S. Schuyler

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Black Empire: “Originally serialized between 1936 and 1938 in a newspaper that served Pittsburgh’s Black community, these two linked novellas from Schuyler (1895–1977) are indispensable reading for anyone interested in early Afrofuturism. In ‘The Black Internationale: Story of Black Genius Against the World,’ journalist Carl Slater reluctantly agrees to serve as secretary to the ruthless Dr. Henry Belsidus, a wealthy Black American nationalist who, by the tale’s end, has violently wrested control of Africa from white imperialists. ‘Black Empire: An Imaginative Story of a Great New Civilization in Modern America’ continues the story with Belsidus and his crew of handpicked specialists defending their takeover of the African continent through cunning espionage and the deployment of technology ripped from the pages of the era’s science fiction magazines. In both tales, Schuyler, a journalist, steeps his progressive criticism of ‘white world supremacy’ in the palatable popular storytelling conventions of the day, creating rip-roaring yarns with sharp satirical points. The result, though undeniably pulpy, is still searing in its indictment of entrenched racism.”

Central Places by Delia Cai

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Central Places: “Cai’s uneven debut follows a newly engaged 27-year-old Chinese American woman who brings her white fiancé to her suburban Illinois hometown to meet her difficult mother and ailing father. Audrey, who works in sales for a magazine in New York City, reluctantly takes blue-blooded Ben, a photographer, with her to her hated hometown. Ben pushed for the trip, and he wins immediate approval from Audrey’s hen-pecked father, while Audrey’s stern mother reverts to her old habit of making Audrey feel like a constant disappointment. Ben does his best until a family night out at the Olive Garden, where they run into Audrey’s high school crush Kyle Weber, whom Ben talks down to. Making matters worse, Ben cuts the visit short after landing a plum assignment. Reunited with Kyle, Audrey thinks back on how they understood each other at their majority-white high school, as his mother is Mexican. Cai does a good job showing how Audrey was shaped by her mother’s disapproval, and there are plenty of engaging insights on race and class. On the other hand, the drawn-out passages on Audrey’s rekindled feelings for Kyle, which play a big part in shaping the final act, are a bit wearing. There seem to be two books at play, and one works better than the other.”

Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree (translated by Daisy Rockwell)

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Tomb of Sand: “This alluring, International Booker–winning saga from Shree (The Empty Space) employs magical realism to recount a matriarch’s rebirth in contemporary India. After Ma’s husband dies, she refuses to get out of bed, leaving her oldest son, Bade; his wife, Bahu (also known as ‘Mem Sahib,’ which means white woman living in India); his sons Siddharth and Serious Son; and his feminist sister, Beti, to worry. After receiving a cane covered in colorful butterflies from Overseas Son, Ma holds the cane up and says, ‘I am the Wishing Tree. I am the Kalpataru.’ From there, she gives away most of her possessions and disappears. Later, Ma returns—not to her wealthy son, Bade, but to Beti, and bonds with her old friend Rosie Bua, a hijra who understands the power of the Wishing Tree. The prominent characters’ names are honorifics (‘beti’ means daughter), as in the charactonyms of E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, and Ma goes on to challenge expectations of her role as a mother in her rebirth by pursuing autonomy and enlightenment. The leisurely pacing and drawn-out accounts from the various characters make for a slow burn, but Rockwell does a lovely job preserving the Hindi wordplay in Shree’s kaleidoscopic epic. This is worth signing up for the long haul.”

Maame by Jessica George

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Maame: “In this pitch-perfect debut, George captures the uncertainty, freedom, and anxiety of a London woman’s mid-20s. Narrator Maddie Wright is a people pleaser who earns the nickname Maame (‘the responsible one’) from her family. She has an unsatisfying theater admin job where she is often ‘the only Black person in the room,’ and while her older brother, James, lives his life as he wants and her mother spends most of her time in her homeland of Ghana, Maddie steps up as the main caregiver for her Parkinson’s afflicted father. Between her mother hitting her up for money and her incommunicative father, Maddie searches on Google for career guidance and dating advice, as well as remedies for panic attacks and grief. As her social life further dwindles and she worries she’ll always be a virgin, Maddie begins the ‘slow descent into a dull existence.’ Then her mother finally comes back to take care of Maddie’s father, and Maddie moves into a flat with two roommates who are determined to help her live a larger life, starting with a list of actions to turn her into ‘The New Maddie.’ But just as she’s getting a taste of independence, tragedy strikes at home and at work, and she’s forced to confront the microaggressions she faces in daily life, as well as ask herself how she deserves to be treated. The work’s ample magnetism resides in the savvy portrayal of Maddie as a complicated, sharp, and vulnerable person who is trying to figure out adulthood. Readers will revel in this.”

Daughter in Exile by Bisi Adjapon

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Daughter in Exile: “Adjapon (The Teller of Secrets) chronicles a Ghanaian woman’s wrenching story of migration, disillusionment, and resilience. Lola has an embassy job in Dakar, Senegal, in the late 1990s, and her relationship with American Marine Armand takes on higher stakes when Lola, unexpectedly pregnant, travels to America to give birth so their child will have U.S. citizenship. Soon, though, Armand disavows Lola, leaving her stranded. But the smart and resourceful Lola takes advantage of her diplomatic connections and her education to persist through an exhausting series of setbacks over the next several years, culminating in a 2007 immigration case that will decide her fate. Adjapon’s fast-moving, character-driven narrative illuminates the challenges faced by immigrants; Lola is constantly at risk of exploitation by potential employers, her housing situation is perpetually tenuous, and she struggles to find acceptance. As an immigrant, she feels alienated from African American communities, though she eventually finds something of a community with the members of a Christian church. Her trust, however, only goes so far, and Adjapon pulls off a strikingly frank portrait of a woman worn down by the system (waiting on news of whether she’ll be deported to Ghana, Lola reflects, ‘I welcome either choice. I’m weary of peripheral living’). Adjapon continues to dazzle.”

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The World and All That It Holds by Aleksandar Hemon

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The World and All That It Holds: “Three-time NBCC finalist Hemon (The Lazarus Project) returns with a potent story of love, war, and displacement in the early 20th century. Rafael Pinto, a Bosnian Jew, returns from schooling in Vienna and takes over his recently deceased father’s apothecary in Sarajevo. After Pinto witnesses Franz Ferdinand’s assassination, he’s drafted into the army and falls in love with Osman Karišik, a fellow soldier, Muslim orphan, and prodigious storyteller. Soon, the two are captured by the Russians and imprisoned in Tashkent. There, Pinto is tormented by disease, starvation, and the random executions of inmates, especially after Osman is pulled from their cell. But as the war ends, Osman frees Pinto, and they’re helped in Tashkent by a Jewish doctor and his daughter, Klara. After a period of relative peace and happiness, the two friends’ lives become deeply entwined with Klara’s family. Then Bolsheviks sweep the country, and Pinto flees across central Asia during the early 1920s, making his way toward China while yearning for Osman and grappling with opium addiction. Hemon easily immerses readers in the characters’ various languages, particularly the Sarajevo ‘Spanjol’ dialect, and brings home via vivid daydreams Pinto’s anguish while separated from Osman. Readers will delight in this sweeping epic.”

Your Driver Is Waiting by Priya Guns

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Your Driver Is Waiting: “Guns’ sharp and bonkers debut reimagines Taxi Driver for the Uber era. Damani Krishanthan, 30, drives long hours for RideShare in an unnamed American city, where her low commission rate can’t cover her bills and rent on the apartment she shares with her recently widowed mother (the household has also lost the income of Damani’s father, who died while working a fast-food job). Damani grinds out her gig, fighting exhaustion and keeping weapons close at hand for protection; passes a steady stream of protesters carrying ‘FUCK-this signs’; and hangs out at an abandoned warehouse-cum-night club, the Doo Wop Club, where she commiserates with fellow gig workers. Things seem to brighten after she books a fare with Jolene, a wealthy white activist with whom she develops a whirlwind romance. But when Jolene accompanies Damani to the Doo Wop Club, an argument ensues as Damani challenges Jolene’s abstract anticapitalistic ideas about how to handle predatory companies like RideShare. The third act, featuring Damani sporting a mohawk à la Travis Bickle, leads to a somewhat overheated ending, but there’s plenty of rich commentary on gig work, race, and white privilege. This has plenty of bite.”

The Faraway World by Patricia Engel

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Faraway World: “Colombians and Colombian Americans experience the bittersweet vagaries of class, lies, and love in this engrossing collection from Engel (Infinite Country). In the suspenseful ‘Aida,’ Aida’s 16-year-old twin sister, Salma, disappears from their quiet N.Y.C. suburb, which the detective on the case describes reassuringly as the opposite of ‘some third world country.’ In the gritty ‘Fausto,’ a security guard entices his naive lover, Paz, into being a drug mule. The enthralling ‘The Book of Saints’ alternates perspectives to tell the story of a loveless marriage between a Colombian woman and a man from Manhattan who meets her online and who pays for her breast implants. In ‘Campoamor,’ set in Cuba, a bleak romantic triangle complicates the narrator’s effort to leave the country. In ‘Libelula,’ a Colombian immigrant takes a cleaning job with a wealthy Colombian family and moves into a studio share in Manhattan with another Colombian woman who works as a nanny; by the end, the story blooms into a seductive portrayal of infidelity. Engel’s alluring story lines and empathy for her characters make this a winner.”

The Guest Lecture by Martin Riker

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Guest Lecture: “Riker (Samuel Johnson’s Eternal Return) spins a brilliant and innovative exploration of modern economic history in the form of a late-night waking dream. Abigail, a feminist economist who has recently been denied tenure, lies awake in a hotel room while the rest of her family sleeps. As she battles insomnia and anxiety over the lecture she’s scheduled to give the next day on John Maynard Keynes and utopia, she attempts to practice using a rhetorical strategy in which she assigns segments of her speech to rooms of her house. Keynes then shows up in her imaginary house with a ‘worried grandpa look,’ and proceeds to give her a tour, sprinkling nuggets of his ideas and biographical details, ‘like pixie dust’ in his words, in the various rooms. But Abby drifts away from her lecture and into the terrain of memory, priority, and stresses about her world, as well as the world at large—’You are not entirely powerless. But mostly, yes, you are powerless,’ Abby reminds herself. Distinguishing between Keynes’s ‘two kinds of needs,’ food and shelter versus ‘wants masquerading as needs,’ Abby’s metaphysical wanderings swell to a scorching condemnation of modern life and an empathetic celebration of its meaningful moments. It’s a transporting, clever, and inspired work of fiction.”

After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about After Sappho: “Schwartz’s brilliant debut novel (after the critical study The Bodies of Others: Drag Dances and Their Afterlives) recreates the lives of feminists in the early 20th century. The collective first-person ‘we’ narrator—a Greek chorus devoted to the female poet Sappho—weaves the stories of writers, painters, and performers who, like Sappho, are attracted to women and are determined to become their authentic selves through art. Many of the threads revolve around Lina Poletti, who thrives in her classical studies in Bologna despite Italian laws restricting the rights of women. She writes poetry and plays about women, and has romances with another writer, Sibilla Aleramo, who’d been forced to marry the rapist who got her pregnant; and the stage actor Eleonora Duse, best known for her portrayal of Nora in A Doll’s House. They, along with expat American writer Natalie Barney, poet Renée Vivien, and painter Romaine Brooks, carve out a place in European society during a time when lesbianism is ignored, not criminalized. Then comes WWI: Brooks and others drive ambulances at the front, Virginia Woolf begins writing about Cassandra, and Poletti writes war poems. At the war’s end, a British parliamentarian accuses an actor of lesbianism in the press, thus placing women’s sexuality under intense public scrutiny. As the chorus narrates, ‘we were plunged back into a history we had barely survived the first time.’ Schwartz’s account of what happens next as the central characters resist oppression speaks volumes on their efforts, and she contributes her own work of art with this irresistible narrative. Schwartz breathes an astonishing sense of life into her timeless characters.”

This Other Eden by Paul Harding

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about This Other Eden: “Pulitzer winner Harding (Tinkers) suffuses deep feeling into this understated yet wrenching story inspired by an isolated mixed-raced community’s forced resettlement in 1912 Maine. Formerly enslaved Benjamin Honey and his Irish-born wife Patience settled Apple Island more than a century earlier. Now, the hardscrabble community includes gender-bending and incestuous siblings Theophilus and Candace Lark and their four, mentally disabled children; a Civil War veteran named Zachary Hand to God Proverbs, who lives in a hollow tree; Irish sisters Iris and Violet McDermott, who raise three orphaned Penobscot children; and the Honeys’ descendants. Christian missionary and retired schoolteacher Matthew Diamond has spent the past five years visiting the island during the summer to teach the community’s children. A deeply prejudiced man, he prays for the strength to overcome his ‘visceral, involuntary repulsion’ to Black people, and is continually shocked at the children’s quick minds as well as Ethan Honey’s talent for drawing. With eugenics on the rise, the state sets in motion a plan to clear the island and Diamond contrives to send Ethan to a colleague in Massachusetts, where he can pass as white and study art. Harding’s close-third narration gives shape and weight to the community members’ complicated feelings about their displacement, while his magisterial prose captures a sense of place (‘the island a granite pebble in the frigid Atlantic shallows’). It’s a remarkable achievement.”

Also out this week: Hanging Out by Sheila Liming and Judas Goat by Gabrielle Bates.

The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Hemon, Guns, Harding, and More appeared first on The Millions.

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Decent People by De’Shawn Charles Winslow

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Decent People: “Winslow (In West Mills) chronicles the aftermath of a triple homicide that rocks a segregated Southern community in his dynamic latest. Residents of mid-1970s West Mills, N.C., become embroiled in the shooting of Black siblings Marian, Marva, and Laz Harmon, after local authorities turn a blind eye. Spearheading the citizen-led investigation is Jo Wright, who moved back to her birthplace after decades in Harlem to retire and marry her childhood sweetheart, Olympus ‘Lymp’ Seymour, the half-brother of the murder victims. Amid speculation of drug deals gone bad, medical malfeasance (Marian was a pediatrician), and other motives, Jo digs into the case, bringing up painful secrets about the town’s history. A bevy of characters offer their personal histories and perspectives on the town’s racial woes, among them Savannah, Marian’s best friend who chose to be with a Black man against her white family’s wishes; and Eunice, who sent her queer teenage son La’Roy to Marian in the misguided hope of having ‘the gay removed.’ There are a trove of surprises along the way to the well-earned resolution, and Winslow entrances readers with strong characters, impeccable prose, and brisk pacing. As a character-driven mystery, it delivers the goods.”

Vintage Contemporaries by Dan Kois

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Vintage Contemporaries: “Kois’s charming if schematic latest (after the memoir How to Be a Family) charts the lives of two off-and-on-again friends from the early 1990s through the mid-aughts. In 1991, Emily, a Midwestern transplant newly entering the literary world as an agent’s assistant, meets another Emily, a hard-partying playwright living in an East Village squat. Punk Emily turns publishing Emily into Em, reasoning that ‘if we were characters in a story… it would be pretty confusing that we were both named Emily.’ More than a decade later, Em—going by Emily again—is a senior editor and a new mother. It’s been eight years since she last saw punk Emily, the latter’s addiction having caused a rupture in their friendship. Punk Emily is sober now, and when publishing Emily wanders into the bar where she works, she hopes they can reconcile. Kois meanders through roughly sketched plot points—the lukewarm comeuppance of Emily’s boss for his indelicate behavior toward the women at the office; a memorial protest at the old squat, now another expensive New York apartment building; the change in pace of life with a two-year-old, rather than a newborn—and resolves the substantial conflict that arises between the Emilys too quickly. With its sharp edges filed into a too-perfect smile, this one lacks bite.”

The 12th Commandment by Daniel Torday

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The 12th Commandment: “The provocative if undercooked latest from National Jewish Book Award winner Torday (The Last Flight of Poxl West) concerns a small enclave of Islamic Jews in Ohio. Zeke Leger works as a magazine editor in New York, but returns to his college town of Mt. Izmir for the funeral of his friend Gram Silver, who died by suicide. There, Leger reunites with lost love Johanna Franklin, who successfully prosecuted Nathan Fritzman, the leader of the Dönme sect, for the murder of his son, Osman. According to Johanna’s case, Osman had violated the 12th commandment of the sect’s religion by sharing its secrets with outsiders, thus providing motive to Fritzman. Dönme members, however, insist that Osman was killed by someone else. Leger smells a story and lingers to work on it, and is granted access to the Dönme, a group of rifle-toting Hasids who freely indulge in cannabis and view Fritzman as a messianic figure. Leger’s less-than-captivating search for his own life’s purpose and meaning overwhelms the question of who really killed Osman, and the author never gets back to Gram, which makes the funeral and Johanna’s connection to the case feel like narrative contrivances. Still, the premise allows for some engaging insights on the potential and perils of faith. The author has a bold vision, but this doesn’t quite hang together.”

Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes, translated by Ann Goldstein

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Forbidden Notebook: “Late Italo-Cuban author de Céspedes (Between Then and Now) spins a fearlessly probing and candid look at marital dynamics and generational divisions, first published in Italy in 1952. Narrator Valeria Cossati views her life, aside from getting married and having children, as ‘rather insignificant,’ until November 1950, when she starts keeping a journal in pursuit of the idea that ‘if we can learn to understand the smallest things that happen every day, then maybe we can learn to truly understand the secret meaning of life.’ She reflects on her family’s financial troubles, which persist despite her job as a secretary, and society’s domestic expectations of her to prioritize being a mother and wife. Her daughter, Mirella, 19, starts staying out late with a man in his 30s, while her son, Riccardo, resentful of his younger sister’s aspirations, courts a mousy, traditional girl. Valeria’s husband, Michele, buoyed briefly by a raise, loses himself in dreams of a career change, as Valeria, frustrated at Michele’s neglect, fantasizes about an affair with her boss, Guido, and glimpses a richer, more passionate world. The diary takes on a life of its own for Valeria; she calls it ‘an evil spirit,’ which de Céspedes (1911–1997) makes palpable. As Valeria writes, she finds herself ‘drawn into acts that I condemn and yet which, like this notebook, I seem unable to do without.’ Goldstein’s translation invigorates a remarkable story, one that remains intensely relevant across time, cultures, and continents.”

Life on Delay: Making Peace with a Stutter by John Hendrickson

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Life on Delay: “Hendrickson, a senior editor at the Atlantic, debuts with a powerful examination of his lifelong stutter. After his 2019 story about Joe Biden’s stuttering went viral, Hendrickson decided to write about his own experiences. His stuttering, which began at a young age, was ‘viewed as something to be fixed, solved, and cured’ and he underwent speech therapy lessons in elementary and middle school, which proved to be mostly futile. Throughout high school, Hendrickson attempted to mask his dysfluency by drinking and getting high: ‘Nearly every decision in my life has been shaped by my struggle to speak,’ he writes. Hendrickson captures the claustrophobic terror that a stutterer feels when he’s unable to express the sound of a letter (‘A bad block can make you feel like you’re going to pass out’), and his interviews with researchers, therapists, fellow stutterers, and parents of children who stutter widen the narrative scope and compassionately uplift a stigmatized community. The author is a thoughtful reporter, and he delivers a visceral understanding of how he compartmentalized his shame. This memoir casts a necessary light on a disability that too often goes unseen.”

The Call of the Tribe by Mario Vargas Llosa, translated by John King

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Call of the Tribe: “Nobel Prize winner Vargas Llosa (Harsh Times) lays out in this pensive survey the seven thinkers who shaped his belief in liberal democracy. An early supporter of the Cuban Revolution and socialism, Vargas Llosa saw how powerful ‘the call of the tribe’ was, but ultimately came to view it as ‘sovereign responsible individuals regress[ing] to being part of a mass submissive to the dictates of a leader.’ Vargas Llosa devotes a chapter to each of the seven authors: Adam Smith, ‘the father of liberalism,’ ‘wrote with elegance and precision’ and ‘was sensitive to good literature’; José Ortega y Gasset ‘would today be as widely known and read as Sartre‘ were he French; Friedrich von Hayek’s work gave ‘liberalism a very clear content and very precise boundaries’; Jean-Francois Revel had a keen ‘ability to see when theory stops expressing life and begins to betray it’; and Isaiah Berlin wrote with ‘discretion and modesty’ as a ‘wily strategy.’ The snapshot biographies of each figure are fascinating (Hayek’s ‘first passion’ was botany and Smith ‘was known for being extraordinarily absentminded’), and cumulatively they amount to an illuminating look at the author’s own political and intellectual trajectory. Vargas Llosa’s fans should check this out.”

The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society by Eleanor Janega

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Once and Future Sex: “This incisive revisionist history tracks ‘societal expectations of women’ from the Middle Ages to today. Blogger and historian Janega (The Middle Ages: A Graphic History) notes that early Christian theologians relied on ancient and scientifically erroneous assumptions to argue against women’s education, sexual agency, and professional equity, and examines how these viewpoints still influence modern schools, churches, and workplaces. Throughout, she documents the gap between the Middle Ages’ virginal ideal of womanhood and women’s actual roles in society, noting that medieval women farmed, brewed alcohol, and ran large estates while taking primary responsibility for homemaking and childcare, or outsourcing those duties to other women. Janega also shows that modern and medieval women faced similar pressure to effortlessly achieve the right body shape (hourglass today; pear-shaped in the Middle Ages) and dress stylishly, and draws on theologian Hildegard of Bingen, poet Christine de Pizan, and other medieval women to offer an alternate perspective on their era. Accessible, informative, and clear-sighted about the insidious workings of misogyny, this is a persuasive call for deconstructing the past to create a more equitable future.”

Black and Female by Tsitsi Dangarembga

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Black and Female: “These incisive, impassioned essays by novelist Dangarembga (Nervous Conditions) confront the lingering effects of imperialism in Zimbabwe. She examines empire, racism, and misogyny through personal stories about growing up in what was then called Rhodesia and contrasts her experiences there with a stint she spent living with a foster family in Dover, England. In ‘Writing While Black and Female,’ Dangarembga remembers learning the power of language from its ability to produce action (‘After adults spoke to each other, things happened: little children were left’), and relates how writing allows her to transcend racial and gender categories by building and affirming an identity independent of them. She examines Zimbabwe’s pre- and post-colonial history of gender inequality, noting that colonial legislation treated adult women as minors and lamenting how as a child, her brother once felt compelled to ally himself with the ‘toxic masculinity’ of their father by offering his belt to beat her with. Calling for ‘mental decolonisation,’ the author argues that Black feminists must play a crucial role in building a more just future because they ‘have experienced the more repressive edge of most demographic categories and not succumbed.’ Dangarembga’s candid reflections and lyrical prose bring urgency to this thought-provoking argument for political and social equality. Readers won’t want to miss this.”

A Guest at the Feast by Colm Tóibín

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about A Guest at the Feast: “Novelist Tóibín (The Magician) gathers 11 essays that showcase his versatility in this erudite collection of previously published material. In ‘Cancer: My Part in Its Downfall,’ Tóibín reflects on his testicular cancer and the trials of chemotherapy: ‘the effect of the drug darkened the mind and filled it with something hard and severe and relentless. It was like pain or a sort of anguish, but those words don’t really cover it.’ ‘A Brush with the Law’ recalls Tóibín’s earlier career as a magazine editor reporting on the Irish Supreme Court, while ‘The Paradoxical Pope’ profiles John Paul II: ‘It is not simply the aura of his office that draws people to him but the mixture of his steely strength and his humanity. Also, he was once an actor, and knows about the theater.’ In ‘The Ferns Report,’ Tóibín poignantly examines an account of sexual abuse that occurred in the diocese where he grew up. The book closes with essays on literature, including pieces on novelists John McGahern and Marilynne Robinson. Of the latter, Tóibín writes, ‘With her wide reading and her well-stocked mind, Robinson is also deeply engaged with matters both philosophical and political’; this collection places him in that same class. Tóibín’s fans will relish these sharp reflections.”

The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Winslow, Kois, Tóibín, and More appeared first on The Millions.

The Half Known Life by Pico Iyer

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Half Known Life: “Essayist Iyer (A Beginner’s Guide to Japan) visits regions of religious import in this immersive and profound survey of earthly paradises. ‘I’d begun to wonder what kind of paradise can ever be found in a world of unceasing conflict—and whether the very search for it might not simply aggravate our differences,’ Iyer writes, detailing his travels to Ethiopia, India, Iran, and Sri Lanka and discussing how people there understand the concept of ‘paradise.’ He begins in Iran, the ‘world’s largest theocracy,’ and visits the Imam Reza shrine, finding in the ‘competing visions of paradise’ that play out there affirmation of Persian poet Rumi’s exhortation to seek a personal heaven within oneself. In Sri Lanka, he visits Adam’s Peak—which Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus claim holds special significance—but remarks that the political violence in the country undercuts its idyllic pretenses and the ‘idea of paradise seemed… to move people to be not kinder but more reckless.’ Meditating on his conversations with his friend the Dalai Lama, Iyer decides to ‘just let life come to me in all its happy confusion and find the holiness in that.’ Iyer remains a cultural critic par excellence, matching penetrating insights with some of the most transportive prose around. This further burnishes Iyer’s reputation as one of the best travel writers out there.”

The Survivalists by Kashana Cauley

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Survivalists: “TV writer Cauley’s well-crafted if schematic debut involves a New York City lawyer’s quest to make partner at her firm and find love. Aretha is a successful Black corporate attorney assigned to squash a bunch of homeowners’ insurance claims following Superstorm Sandy. Meanwhile, after countless failed dates, she meets and falls in love with coffee entrepreneur Aaron, who lives with his business partner, Brittany, in the Brooklyn house they collectively own. But once Aretha moves in, she finds out the household members, who include James, a disgraced former journalist, are stockpiling guns and making other preparations for survival, having been stirred in part by Sandy’s destruction (the business name, Tactical Coffee, ought to have been a red flag). With Aaron out of town sourcing beans, Aretha accompanies James on gun runs, but in her determination to prove her worth, she loses focus at work and starts slipping up. Cauley’s understanding of plot is impeccable and she keeps the tension taut as Aretha gets more involved with the group, but though the author lightly grapples with the politics of gun ownership, the matter is ultimately reduced to cheap thrills (Aretha, for instance, ‘wanted to enjoy the rush of her last trip to make money off guns’), and the characters are written to type. It’s a good story, but it should have gone straight to screenplay.”

Ghost Season by Fatin Abbas

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Ghost Season: “Abbas debuts with an impressive account of five people who work for a humanitarian organization as war threatens their town on the border of North and South Sudan. William Luol, a Nilot, has been hired as a translator for Alex, an American, who’s been sent there to make a map of the area to guide aid efforts. William has a crush on Layla, the organization compound’s nomad cook, whom he worries about when she doesn’t show for work one day and a burned corpse is found upriver. He asks 12-year-old Mustafa, who cleans the compound, to find out where she lives, while Dena, a Sudanese American filmmaker staying for a few months, documents the herdsmen who brought the body to be buried, as rumors fly of renewed clashes with Southern rebels. Layla reappears and things between her and William blossom, while Alex, frustrated by impediments to his mapmaking, fights with Dena. Meanwhile, Mustafa secretly gets involved running guns for the rebels, and all become on edge when militias arrive in town and target Nilotes. With security deteriorating, Alex tries to evacuate, but a weather delay forces him back, and events that follow have heavy consequences for all. Abbas skillfully navigates boundaries between the disparate players and builds a fine drama out of their negotiations and bonds. Readers will be captivated by this immersive novel.”

The Deluge by Stephen Markley

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Deluge: “In this brilliant dystopian epic from Markley (Ohio), spanning from 2013 to 2040, a range of characters attempt to avert catastrophic climate change, sometimes at great personal risk, and with varying degrees of success. There’s geologist Tony Pietrus; climate justice activist Kate Morris; Shane Acosta, a sophisticated ecoterrorist; and Ashir al-Hasan, chief of staff for the Senate Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. The plot begins in familiar terrain, with scientists sounding the alarm that time is running out. Speculative elements emerge with the meteoric ascent of Morris, whose organization, A Fierce Blue Fire, has made global warming the sole litmus test for its political support. The charismatic Morris also dreams up investment opportunities to benefit neglected and poverty-stricken regions. Interstitial segments, including a newspaper article written by AI about Shane’s truck bombing of an Ohio power station in 2030, add to the sense of frightening plausibility. Meanwhile, the bureaucratic al-Hasan comments in a memo on the ‘inanity and profiteering that surround the legislative process,’ while Pietrus, whose work on methane clathrates is quietly incorporated into government models, remains divisive and marginalized. Markley makes this anything but didactic; his nuanced characterizations of individuals with different approaches to the existential threat make the perils they encounter feel real as they navigate cover-ups and lies. It’s a disturbing tour de force.”

Small World by Laura Zigman

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Small World: “In Zigman’s entrancing and thorny latest (after Separation Anxiety), two sisters confront the childhood death of their middle sister. After living in Los Angeles for 30 years, Lydia Mellishman moves in with her younger sister, Joyce, in Cambridge, Mass. Both women are divorced and childless, and are hopeful that rooming together will mean they can finally develop a bond. Lydia, however, remains her old bristly self: she’s rude and inconsiderate of Joyce’s feelings, especially after Lydia befriends their new neighbors Sonia and Stan, who disrupt Joyce’s life with the noise of their illegal yoga studio. As the narrative flits between the present and the sisters’ childhood, it becomes clear that their dynamic is fueled by having been neglected as children by their mother, Louise. Despite Joyce’s stutter and Lydia’s dyslexia, Louise directed her attention toward their sister Eleanor, who had cerebral palsy and died from the flu when she was 10. Later, Louise continued focusing on advocacy work for children with special needs. After Joyce’s job as an archivist leads her to someone from Louise’s circle, Lydia shares a secret, and the sisters find an opportunity for reckoning. Zigman does a stellar job of creating well-rounded characters, and a satisfying ending tops off her well-crafted paean to sisterhood. Readers will love this.”

In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about In the Upper Country: “Thomas’s mesmerizing debut explores freedom, family, and the interconnections between white, Black, and Indigenous communities in 1859 Canada. Lensinda Martin, a reporter for the Coloured Canadian newspaper, lives in the Black village of Dunmore, a stop on the Underground Railroad. One day, American bounty hunter Pelham Beall arrives in pursuit of six Kentucky fugitives from slavery who are staying with a farmer named Simeon. After one of them, an elderly woman named Cash, fatally shoots Beall, Simeon asks Lensinda to visit Cash in jail to ensure her explanation is recorded and shared. Cash proposes a bargain with Lensinda: she will tell the story of her life if Lensinda does the same. Though Lensinda, a self-professed ‘woman of little patience,’ is initially irked by the agreement, she’s soon swept up in their exchange and the surprising links between their lives. Thomas amplifies the women’s stories with excerpts from a collection of enslaved people’s narratives obtained by Lensinda, while stories of Cash’s Indigenous husband, John; Black Canadians during the War of 1812; and the American enslaved people who settled Dunmore add to the vivid tapestry. At once intimate and majestic, Thomas’s ambitious work heralds a bright new voice.”

Ghost Music by An Yu

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Ghost Music: “Yu (Braised Pork) mesmerizes with this surreal story of music and mushrooms. Song Yan, 29, a former concert pianist turned piano teacher in Beijing, has recurring dreams of a dark, doorless room where a ghost mushroom speaks to her. Meanwhile, her life is fraying: Yu brilliantly captures the dying throes of Song Yan’s three-year marriage to Bowen, a BMW salesman; her untenable relationship with her mother-in-law; and her long-standing friendship with a supportive hairdresser. Everyone seems to know more about Bowen’s late nights at work and extended trips to Shanghai and Munich than Song Yan does, and they also know life-shattering secrets about Bowen’s past, including that he has a grieving ex-wife and a young son that might explain why he has been unwilling to have a child with Song Yan. Then there is the unsolved mystery of legendary pianist Bai Yu, who disappeared a decade ago, but might be the one who’s anonymously sending Song Yan rare mushrooms. Along the way, Song Yan continues teaching and reflects on her favorite pieces by Chopin, Debussy, and Schubert. As Song Yan relentlessly surges toward independence and away from solitude and loneliness, Yu’s blistering narrative reaches a plaintive end. Readers will be enthralled.”

Also out this week: OK by Michelle McSweeney and Still Pictures by Janet Malcolm.

The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Iyer, Cauley, Malcolm, and More appeared first on The Millions.

Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The Millions keep churning out great books coverage? Then become a member today.

A Heart that Works by Rob Delaney

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about A Heart that Works: “Delaney (Rob Delaney: Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage.), cocreator and costar of the sitcom Catastrophe, recounts the death of his toddler son, Henry, and the aftermath in this heartrending memoir. In 2014, Delaney and his wife, Leah, moved to London for his work; two years later, Henry was born. Toward the end of his first year, Henry underwent an MRI, and a brain surgeon discovered a tumor near his brain stem. Following a successful surgery to remove the tumor, Henry lost the ability to swallow and received a tracheostomy, and health complications kept him in the hospital for 14 months. After Henry finally went home, Delaney writes, he basked in the ‘unalloyed beauty of his personality.’ But it was a short-lived idyll: Henry’s cancer returned, and he died several months later, at home in Leah’s arms. Delaney is reflective (‘It physically pained me to sign the consent forms each time he got chemo’), and his raw emotionality captures the enormity of his loss (‘I was ready to love this boy forever’). Profound, crushing, and wrenching, this account of a father’s love takes the full measure of grief.”

The Sorcerer of Pyongyang by Marcel Theroux                                               

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Sorcerer of Pyongyang: “Theroux (The Secret Books) delivers a humorous yet insightful take on the lives of ordinary North Koreans with the story of a boy whose life is transformed by Dungeons & Dragons. In 1995 Wonsan, North Korea, 11-year-old Cho Jun-su discovers a copy of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, which cracks open a fantastical world for him. Later, while at university in Pyongyang, he develops a romance with the pretty and worldly Su-ok, who goes on to marry Kim Jimi, the supreme leader’s older son. In 2003, Jun-su is arrested and sent to a penal colony for playing D&D, and Su-ok secures his release via Jimi’s connections. Jun-su befriends Jimi (named after Jimi Hendrix), and through their friendship, as well as what he learns from the game, which he calls the ‘House of Possibility,’ Jun-su gains the courage to build a life on his own terms. As Jun-su, Su-ok, and Jimi strive to be more than mere ‘NPCs’ (non-player characters in D&D), they retain a belief in the state’s ideologies. It’s frustrating that Theroux never resolves this underlying tension, though continued references to the game shed light on Jun-su and his friends’ understanding of the world: ‘We are not real, but what we do to each other is real.’ Theroux’s newest entertains and edifies in equal measure.”

A Quiet Life by Ethan Joella

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about A Quiet Life: “Three people navigate different kinds of grief in the sentimental latest from Joella (A Little Hope). Chuck Ayers, a Vietnam veteran and recent widower, dithers over whether to go alone on the annual trip he took with his wife, Cat, from Pennsylvania to Hilton Head, S.C., and replays in his mind a fight he’d had years ago with Cat involving his disapproval of her support for a young aspiring artist. Kirsten Bonato, whose father was murdered as a bystander during an armed robbery, works at an animal rescue and tries to sort out her crush on her boss, who’s going through an acrimonious divorce, and her pleasant, casual dating of a hunky coworker. Ella Burke delivers papers and works tedious shifts at a bridal store, trying to stay busy in hopes she’s ready if her eight-year-old daughter, Riley, who was kidnapped three months earlier by her ex-husband, is ever found. Turns out Kristen is a former student of Cat’s, and Chuck bumps into her while visiting the animal rescue where Kristen works. Later, Chuck impulsively gives Ella his second car after seeing her fall while she delivers his paper. The interconnections feel manufactured, though as the characters make small progress in their efforts to move on from their pain and dilemmas, Joella builds toward a convincing set of resolutions. Readers might feel like they’ve been here before, but it’s comforting nonetheless.”

Winterland by Rae Meadows

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Winterland: “Spanning two decades, this brooding mystery/bildungsroman from Meadows (I Will Send Rain) begins in Norilsk, Siberia, in 1973, with eight-year-old Anya Petrova’s acceptance into the Soviet gymnastics program. Anya’s father, pyrometallurgist Yuri, is relieved; now that the Motherland considers his daughter an asset, they will take care of her—something he’s felt increasingly unfit to do since his wife, Katerina, vanished three years earlier. Anya dreams of defying gravity, like Olympian Olga Korbut, and secretly hopes that if she makes the 1980 Moscow Olympics team, her mother will see her on television and come home. Katerina’s disillusionment with the Communist Party likely got her in trouble, but it’s also possible the former Bolshoi ballerina simply ran away to dance. Sections from the perspective of the Petrovas’ elderly neighbor, Vera Kuznetsova, detail her own decade in the gulag, as well as conversations Vera had with Katerina that contextualize her disappearance. Though Katerina isn’t the book’s focus, her absence looms large, informing Yuri and Anya’s every action. Meadows paints a poignant portrait of life behind the Iron Curtain, palpably conveying her vividly rendered characters’ deprivation, longing, and self-sacrifice. Fans of Megan Abbott’s You Will Know Me should take note.”

Also out this week: All the Broken Places by John Boyne and Triptychs by Sandra Simonds

The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Delaney, Theroux, Simonds, and More appeared first on The Millions.

Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new release titles from Meg Howrey, Johanne Lykke Holm, Billy Collins, and more—that are publishing this week.

Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The Millions keep churning out great books coverage? Then become a member today.

They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about They’re Going to Love You: “Howrey (The Wanderers) delivers a poignant family story of alienation, regret, and desire. Carlisle Martin, 43, a Los Angeles choreographer, has learned that her father, Robert, whom she hasn’t seen for 19 years, is dying. As the daughter of two professional ballet dancers, Carlisle was a natural talent, and was especially driven to impress the astute Robert and his effusive partner, James, a ballet teacher. Growing up, she visited Robert and James two weeks a year (from her home in Ohio with her mother), relishing in the magic of their decadent Greenwich Village home. She especially craved James’s stories and strived to be closer to the pair. As she narrates in a flashback of her life at 24: ‘My father, I love, and James I sort of want to be. Maybe I mean: have?’ But then she did something Robert won’t forgive her for (the details of which don’t come out till much later), and went on to build a career without the help of her family. Now, she learns she might inherit Robert and James’s house, according to the terms of her grandfather’s trust, causing a painful flood of memories and tension with the couple, whom she assumes want her to give the house to James. The fraught scenes provoke staggering bursts of emotion, such as a flashback to Carlisle at 12 returning from New York to Ohio and realizing she doesn’t feel like she belongs with her mother’s new family. Howrey expertly builds tension, leading the reader to feel alongside Carlisle both the draw of ballet and her anxiety about her reunion with her father. It’s a breathtaking performance.”

Strega by Johanne Lykke Holm

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Strega: “Translator Holm’s stylish and spellbinding gothic debut follows a group of nine young women who arrive for seasonal work at the Olympic Hotel near the remote Alpine village of Strega. The hotel, once a playground for the rich, now sits empty, and the women spend their days cleaning and preparing for guests who never arrive. Punchy, rhythmic sentences capture the mixture of boredom and anticipation that permeates their work. Amid the routine, the narrator, Rafa, develops a bond with Alba, but their idyll is broken when a festival brings a raucous party of guests to the hotel. That night, after one of the women performs a dance routine for the guests, she disappears. A subsequent search yields nothing but her dress, which Alba finds. Holm has a sure hand in conveying the atmosphere of dread that ensues and colors Rafa and Alba’s relationship as the women resume their routine and summer winds to a close. Rafa’s narration, meanwhile, crystallizes into an unsettling reckoning with her vulnerability in which she contemplates how ‘a girl’s life could at any point be turned into a crime scene.’ Readers won’t be able to turn away from this gorgeous and captivating work.”

The Wintering Place by Kevin McCarthy

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Wintering Place: “McCarthy follows up Wolves of Eden with another tough tale of the Dakota Territory, one as bloody and visceral as a Sam Peckinpah film. It’s 1867 and Irish immigrants Thomas Sugrue and his younger brother, Michael, are mired in a brutal struggle for survival. Both have fled a murder charge in their home country and served with Union forces in the American Civil War. Tom and his lover Sara—who is half French, half Indigenous, and whom Tom recently liberated from abusive captors by more killings—have just rescued Michael from a near-scalping and sure death following a Sioux onslaught at their fort. Over the next few months, a series of events cast the three in sharp relief against a treacherous environment that is as unforgiving as it is lawless: a deadly encounter with a pair of cutthroat fur trappers, a tense dispute with two Crow braves over rights to a pair of elk carcasses, and a final violent reckoning of unresolved grudges from the past at a frontier trading post. McCarthy effectively alternates chapters cobbled from a journal kept by Michael with stark omniscient accounts, thus combining an intimate tone with an unflinching appraisal of the territory’s harsh terms of engagement. This is a solid entry in the revisionist western fiction canon.”

I Am the Light of This World by Michael Parker

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about I Am the Light of This World: “Parker (Prairie Fever) traces in this frank if uneven outing the harrowing journey of an east Texas man who attempts to build a new life after serving a 40-year prison sentence. One night in 1973 Smyrna, Tex., 17-year-old Earl Boudreaux attends a wild, druggy party. The night turns hazy: there’s an orgy Earl scarcely remembers, and a drug dealer tries to rape Tina, the woman Earl’s in love with, then murders her. In short order, Earl, whose car is coated with Tina’s blood, is arrested and convicted for murder. Upon his release in 2018, Earl receives a large sum of money bequeathed by his lawyer which enables him to make a fresh start in Cliffside, Ore., where, after staying in a motel and struggling to lead a normal life, he finds a place to live and a new set of friends, all the while concealing his history until another fateful mistake brings his past to light. While the author aptly conveys Earl’s quotidian challenges post-incarceration, the book is marred by thinly developed characters, particularly in the first half covering Earl’s teen years. It’s not bad, but other authors have done much more with stories of false convictions.”

Also out this week: Musical Tables by Billy Collins.

The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Howrey, Johanne Lykke Holm, Collins, and More appeared first on The Millions.

Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The Millions keep churning out great books coverage? Then become a member today.

The Magic Kingdom by Russell Banks

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Magic Kingdom: “Banks’s heartbreaking latest (after Foregone) delves into the history of a Shaker community in Florida through one man’s tragic story. In a metafictional frame, Banks describes finding in a public library a trove of reel-to-reel tapes, on which Harley Mann recounts his years as a teenager growing up in the remote New Bethany Shaker colony. What follows are Banks’s transcriptions of the recordings, which Harley made in 1971 when he was 81. After Harley’s father dies, Harley and his family move from their faltering utopian socialist community to New Bethany, and though he doesn’t immediately buy into the Shaker beliefs, he accepts the mentorship of John Bennett, the Shaker elder who sponsored them. However, when Harley develops an obsession with Sadie Pratt, whom he believes is playing him romantically against John, the stage is set for a devastating reckoning that undermines the colony’s survival. Looking back, Harley reflects bitterly on the acquisition of the community’s land by Walt Disney and the theme park’s discriminatory labor policies, which ran counter to the Shakers’ philosophy of inclusiveness. Though Harley’s tale is deeply personal, Banks artfully presents it on a larger scale, showing how it fits in a centuries-long pattern of settlers who came to Florida seeking a better life only to find, in Harley’s words, ‘It’s where you go when your prospects elsewhere have ended, and you’ve not yet settled into despair.’ Banks’s penetrating dissection of the American dream and its frequently unfulfilled promises is consistently profound. This is his best work in some time.”

Now Is Not The Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Now Is Not The Time to Panic: “Wilson (Nothing to See Here) spins a delightful story of two aspiring artists in small-town Tennessee. It’s 1996 when Frankie Bulger, an outcast who dreams of becoming a writer, meets Zeke, also 16, who is new to town. Together they make a poster with the cryptic line ‘The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us.’ Thrilled at their creation, Frankie and Zeke make hundreds of copies of it on a photocopier stolen by Frankie’s triplet brothers, then post them around town. Copycats begin doing the same, and before long, local and national newspapers report on the panic caused by the posters, fashion brands reproduce the slogan on T-shirts, and tourists arrive in droves. Frankie and Zeke keep their involvement a secret until 22 years later, when a journalist finds out Frankie’s role. Confronted with the possibility of her secret coming out, Frankie goes on a quest to come clean with her family and reconnect with old friends. Wilson ably captures Frankie and her peers’ adolescent confusion and the creative power of like-minded teens, and his coming-of-age story is ripe with wisdom about what art means in the modern age. It adds up to a surprisingly touching time capsule of youth in the ’90s.”

We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about We All Want Impossible Things: “Newman’s moving adult debut (after the kids’ guide What Can I Say?) explores a lifelong friendship between two women, one of whom is dying. Set primarily in a hospice where Edi is dying of ovarian cancer, the story shifts between past and present to show the depth of Edi’s lifelong bond with Ash—the childhood missteps, the joys, the Bowie concerts, and their ‘absolute dependability’ for each other, as Ash puts it. When Edi receives her terminal prognosis, Ash becomes her primary bedside companion. But this isn’t just a harrowing depiction of the heartbreak and indignity of Edi’s decline, it’s also about Ash, who stumbles through her disintegrating marriage, contends with her daughter’s refusal to go to school, and takes a series of lovers. Ash also details the moments—at turns hilarious and sad—that make up her friendship, calling Edi’s memories a ‘back-up hard drive’ for her own. Here and throughout, Newman does a wonderful job channeling Ash’s sense of impending loss. Ash also keeps up a steady stream of wickedly wry observations, such as her description of a group of children who visit Edi’s bedside to play their recorders, ‘stand[ing] in a nervous semicircle, clutching their terrible instruments.’ Newman breathes ample life into this exquisite story of death and dying.”

Flight by Lynn Steger Strong

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Flight: “Three siblings gather with their spouses and children for a fraught Christmas in Strong’s delicate latest (after Want). Martin, the eldest, is a disgraced college professor married to ruthless lawyer Tess. Henry is an artist married to artist turned social worker Alice. Kate, the youngest, is a stay-at-home mom married to the useless Josh, who has recently come to the end of a once considerable inheritance. Everyone gathers at Henry and Alice’s house in upstate New York; it’s their first Christmas together since their mother, Helen, died eight months earlier. Tensions rise: Kate wants to live in Helen’s house in Florida until her kids are off to college, but she needs her brothers to agree. Henry and Alice can’t have kids; the other two families are knee-deep in child-rearing, and, meanwhile, Alice is inappropriately attached to a child named Maddie, one of her clients. A disappearance midway through amplifies the plot, but the theme of grief takes center stage, as Helen’s memory permeates the gathering. Strong is adept as characterizing this loss in all its manifestations, and in rendering the challenges inherent in three families trying to celebrate together; upon arrival, Tess ‘wishes this visit were over.’ Of course, the drama and fully formed characters make readers feel otherwise. Once again, Strong demonstrates her talents for perception and nuance.”

Participation by Anna Moschovakis

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Participation: “Novelist, poet, and translator Moschovakis (Eleanor, or, The Rejection of the Progress of Love) delivers a brilliant and prescient story of an intellectual woman’s engagement with two book clubs amid climate catastrophe and political strife. As E, founder of the now-defunct group Anti-Love, theorizes about her own desires, she experiences dueling erotic impulses toward S, whose full name and gender are unknown to E, and who belongs to another group, Love, which has transitioned from IRL to virtual meetings; and a man she nicknames ‘the capitalist,’ whom she knows through one of her jobs. The two clubs’ binary names highlight E’s ambivalence about love and partnerships; she reflects on the Love group’s choice of a text about Aristophanes’s view that each person spends their life searching for their other half. Meanwhile, news alerts of marching white supremacists and extreme weather events flash on E’s computer screen, which she describes as a ‘stack of small explosions, almost registering, then, compulsively, swiped away.’ Often, E breaks the fourth wall, anticipating and toying with the reader’s expectations (‘I love it when you try to guess. Sometimes it’s exactly what I need’). Throughout, Moschovakis brings her fierce intelligence to bear in the structurally surprising and impeccably executed narrative. This is formal innovation at its finest.”

The Age of Goodbyes by Li Zi Shu (translated by YZ Chin)

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Age of Goodbyes: “Li makes a beguiling metafictional English-language debut with a kaleidoscope of stories about and perspectives on Malaysian life over the past 50 years. The novel begins on page 513, a reference to post-election celebrations on May 13, 1969, that led to a wave of political and racial violence. In the aftermath, 20-something movie theater employee Du Li An marries mafioso Steely Bo, becomes a stepmother to his children, and opens a popular coffee shop. However, Du Li An is revealed to be a character in a novel titled The Age of Goodbyes by Shaozi, the pen name of a writer also named Du Li An. This novel is being read in the present day by an unnamed teenager who lives in a cheap hotel with his uncle and mourns his mother’s recent death, and whom Li addresses in second-person narration. This ‘you’ also reads evaluations of Shaozi’s work by a critic called ‘The Fourth Person,’ published in the 2000s. As Li zigs back and forth between the multiple Du Li Ans, the ‘you’ character, and The Fourth Person, a semblance of truth becomes increasingly elusive, making for a frustrating though provocative endeavor. It’s a singular outing, though also a forbiddingly esoteric one.”

A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East by László Krasznahorkai (translated by Ottilie Mulzet)

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East: “The hermetic latest from Krasznahorkai (Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming) finds the author in a meditative mode. From a vantage point undefined in time or space, the grandson of the legendary Prince Genji arrives at an ancient monastery in Kyoto and sets about exploring its grounds. The reader is made privy to its walls and relics, the artifacts of the buddhas and bodhisattvas tended by its monks, every brick in its antique craftsmanship enumerated in Krasznahorkai’s breathless prose. Silk scrolls, tomes compiled by venerated scholars, and a treatise called The Infinite Mistake by Sir Wilford Stanley Gilmore (one of the author’s recurring characters) are all of equal interest to Prince Genji’s grandson as he makes his way toward the center of the temple, until his history, and that of countless dynasties that have come before, blur together. The narrative is entirely bereft of action, with Krasznahorkai dwelling for its duration on the secrets of the monastery, which, though captivating, add up more to exercise than story. Still, it’s a virtuosic performance by a master.”

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Dr. No by Percival Everett

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Dr. No: “The immensely enjoyable latest from Booker-shortlisted Everett (The Trees) sends up spy movie tropes while commenting on racism in the U.S. The narrator is Wala Kitu, a Black mathematics professor researching the substance of ‘nothing,’ which yields endless clever riffs (in his search for nothing, he has ‘nothing to show for it’). Kitu is recruited by John Sill, a Black billionaire and aspiring supervillain hoping to use the power of ‘nothing’ to terrify the nation, all in retaliation for the murder of his parents by a white police chief. Intrigued by the possibilities of furthering his research, Kitu joins Sill and is whisked to a Miami lair to begin plotting the attack on Fort Knox, which Sill claims contains no gold, just a powerful ‘nothing.’ Along for the ride is Kitu’s sheltered white colleague, topologist Eigen Vector, whom Sill drugs into becoming his arm candy. As Kitu learns more about Sill’s plan and witnesses his ruthlessness, he tries to escape and save Eigen. Another Sill associate, Gloria, a Black woman with an ‘enormous afro’ who also seems to be under Sill’s spell, tells Kitu her brother was shot for ‘standing around being Black.’ Throughout, Everett boldly makes a farce out of real-world nightmares, and the rapid-fire pacing leaves readers little time to blink. Satire doesn’t get much sharper or funnier than this.”

Toad by Katherine Dunn

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Toad: “Dunn (1945–2016) leaves readers a throwback to the 1960s counterculture scene in this pungent precursor to her 1989 National Book Award finalist Geek Love. Sally Gunnar, middle-aged and living alone with her goldfish, reminisces about her student days spent on the periphery of the cool kid scene at a small liberal arts college in the northwest. She relives moments steeped in magic mushroom dust and unwashed bodies with her friend Sam, who rarely goes to class and never follows the rules. She looks with disgust, not on his filthy student digs or the horsemeat he serves, but on his circle of friends as they party and pose. She is filled with rage at their inauthenticity and the way they seem to themselves not exist unless someone is looking—except Sam. And then Carlotta appears. She and Sam move to a farm, then to Montana, and eventually tragedy strikes. Sally goes through a string of lovers, slits her wrists, and breaks the law with a violent act, all in an attempt at some kind of self-realization. The story has moments of hilarity, its raw prose fresh with unpretty evocations of stale rooms and bad poetry. It amounts to a sobering look at the reality of what one’s glory days actually entailed, shot through with the unmistakable undertow of pain and self-loathing.”

The Islands by Dionne Irving

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Islands: “The characters in Irving’s penetrating collection (after the novel Quint), many of whom are Jamaican Canadians, navigate the persistent hurdles of their family relationships as they attempt to build new lives while reckoning with the past. In ‘Waking Life,’ Jamaican Canadian travel writer Po meets her Jamaican British mother, Janice, for the first time since early childhood, and her mother’s uncompromising independence fuels Po’s hope of keeping alive her own fragile romantic relationship. In ‘Canal,’ a Jamaican Panamanian Canadian woman, Pilar, travels to Panama from Canada to settle her childhood maid’s affairs, realizing only as an adult that it was her maid’s history as a Holocaust survivor that shaped the fierce protection she gave Pilar during the 1965 riots that led to her family’s emigration. ‘It is hard to be the last one left,’ Pilar thinks. Throughout, and in lucid prose, Irving depicts her characters’ chilly shocks over unexpected gaps in intimacy with their loved ones as they work to fit into non-immigrant Black spaces, making for stories that are both class-conscious and richly atmospheric. Irving’s inviting combination of subjects and style heralds a welcome new voice.”

Small Game by Blair Braverman

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Small Game: “Braverman’s spellbinding debut follows a cast of five as they film an ill-fated survival-reality series called Civilization. Mara works as an instructor at a survival-style camping school, which comes easily to her after having been raised by prepper parents. She joins Civilization hoping the prize money will improve her life. Her fellow cast members, all handpicked by the show’s producers for their archetypal value, include gorgeous, inexperienced Ashley, who wants to be famous; validation-seeking Eagle Scout Kyle; gruff carpenter Bullfrog, who hopes his estranged daughter will see him on TV; and James, who books it soon after filming begins at the show’s unidentified wilderness location. Clashes with insecure Kyle ensue, though Mara doesn’t anticipate falling for Ashley, whose sweet demeanor has a dark side. Mara also surreptitiously accepts food from Tom, a crew member who takes a shine to her. Braverman does a good job demonstrating how Mara’s expertise is constantly undermined by touchy would-be survivalists both on and off the show, and how the cast members’ relationships change once things get real and the crew mysteriously disappears. With danger setting in, the author keeps up a terrific sense of suspense about whether the crew’s abandonment is intentional. Like the best TV, readers won’t want this to end.”

My Pinup by Hilton Als

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about My Pinup: “Pulitzer winner Als (White Girls) brings serpentine prose and acerbic wit to this slim, two-part take on Prince, desire, and loss. Als fashions Prince as the avatar of his own lovers, as well as Als’s many changing selves (‘I saw his difference. It was like yours, Prince. Was I in love with him or with you when I met you backstage in St. Louis or saw you in Texas?’), and these strands of sexuality mingle with confusion and injustices, among them Prince and other Black artists’ forfeiture of their own work to their record labels. Meanwhile, Als examines how poet and cultural critic Dorothy Parker haunted Prince as the subject of his 1987 song, and by extension Als as he tries to understand Parker’s role in Prince’s life and his own; she could be the lover that they both seek, or the self that they portray to others. Als also recounts watching Prince pander to white audiences and producers and then return to a more recognizable version of himself with his 2004 album Musicology. Don’t be fooled by the page count, Als conjures entire worlds between these covers. Readers are sure to find pleasure and pain in this bite-size delight.”

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The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Passenger: “McCarthy returns 16 years after his Pulitzer-winning The Road with a rich story of an underachieving salvage diver in 1980 New Orleans, the first in a two-volume work. Bobby Western, son of a nuclear physicist who worked on the atomic bomb, is tasked with investigating a private plane crash in the Gulf. The plane’s crew is dead, the black box is missing, and one passenger is unaccounted for. Soon, agents of the U.S. government begin to harass Western and his coworker, then this colleague turns up dead. This thriller narrative is intertwined with the story of Western’s sister, Alicia, a mathematical genius who had schizophrenia and died by suicide. In flashbacks of Alicia’s hallucinations, vaudevillian characters perform for her—most notably, a character named the Thalidomide Kid. Alicia and the Kid engage in numerous conversations about arcane philosophy, theology, and physics—staples of the philosopher-tramps, vagabonds, and sociopaths of McCarthy’s canon, though their presence doesn’t feel quite as thematically grounded as they do in his masterworks. Still, he dazzles with his descriptions of a beautifully broken New Orleans: ‘The rich moss and cellar smell of the city thick on the night air. A cold and skullcolored moon…. At times the city seemed older than Nineveh.’ The book’s many pleasures will leave readers aching for the final installment.”

Ghost Town by Kevin Chen (translated by Darryl Sterk)

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Ghost Town: “Chen (Three Ways to Get Rid of Allergies) offers a haunting if overstuffed drama of a Taiwanese family’s efforts to rise out of poverty. After Keith Chen arrives back in Yongjing, having spent a decade in prison in Germany for killing his lover, T, he reunites with his older sisters Beverly, Betty, and Belinda during the monthlong annual Ghost Festival, in which residents leave out offerings for the dead. Each sibling, as well as supporting characters, takes desperate measures to improve their lives. Beverly, the eldest, gets pregnant by the gambler Little Gao. Betty runs errands for the owners of the Tomorrow Bookstore before it gets shut down by the police for selling banned books. Belinda has an abusive husband and, in one poignant episode, visits Keith in prison. These strands, along with flashbacks of Keith’s relationship with T in Berlin, have a sort of stuttered pacing, but Chen does a great job creating atmosphere. A hot bowl of soup ‘smell[s] like a snake, silently slithering around your ankle, up your leg, around your waist,’ and termites ‘nibbl[e] with fervid desperation.’ Eventually, Chen gets into the nightmarish details around T’s killing, but it takes too long to bring everything together. Though vivid, this ambitious novel is a bit too unwieldy.”

Entry Level by Wendy Wimmer

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Entry Level: “Wimmer’s innovative and darkly humorous debut collection employs emergency situations and fantastical elements as the protagonists struggle to make a living with low-paying jobs. ‘Passeridae’ follows a group of crew members aboard a cruise ship as they take cover from terrorists in a laundry closet, where they reflect on the debauchery of their guests and reference the movie Titanic while joking about their low likelihood of survival. ‘INGOB’ involves a search in Door County, Wis., for the missing county snowplow driver, nicknamed ‘Chief.’ Mabel, the narrator, wonders if Chief’s disappearance is connected to a mysterious stranger who recently appeared at the rec center, where Mabel runs the bingo table. She describes the sound of his voice as ‘rustling leaves or maybe a rusted chain dropping to the floor,’ which caused her to fumble the cards, and Chief came to her aid by ordering the man to leave. In ‘Strange Magic,’ the employees of a skating rink discover that if they skate counterclockwise around the rink, they will reverse their aging. When Mary Ellen, who had a mastectomy, discovers her breast has regrown, the narrator’s understated reaction perfectly sums up the mood of Wimmer’s characters: ‘We had confirmation that something weird was happening.’ Throughout, Wimmer makes the most of strange situations.”

Heretic by Jeanna Kadlec

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Heretic: “A woman reckons with the religious trauma of her upbringing and embarks on a process of self-discovery in this searing debut. Growing up in the late 1990s rural Midwest in a family devoted to the evangelical church, Kadlec led a life defined by faith, from playing the part of pious daughter to marrying the pastor’s son in 2011 and accepting the role of dutiful wife. Entering a marriage ‘intrinsically tied’ to faith soon proved dysfunctional, even abusive, as Kadlec began to see how inextricable the lies and the indoctrination of her faith were to her understanding of the world: ‘to question how worthlessness, shame, and control were supposed to sit side by side with a belief in unconditional love would have been to question the foundation on which I had built my entire life.’ When the unreconciled trauma of her past—including years of volatile manipulation and a physical assault by a gang of boys in her youth group—fomented a radical revelation, followed by a fraught divorce, Kadlec set out to reclaim her selfhood, her sexuality, and to relearn to love and trust, eventually meeting her girlfriend, a fellow ex-evangelical. As she recounts her disentanglement from religion, Kadlec weaves a deeply personal narrative with excoriating criticism to unpack the ways in which religious belief is sewn into the fabric of American society. The result provides a poignant story of being born again in a secular world.”

The White Mosque by Sofia Samatar

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The White Mosque: “Sci-fi writer Samatar (The Winged Histories) strays from her imagined worlds to excavate a very real past in this fascinating look at her religious heritage. In the summer of 2016, the author—a descendant of Swiss-German Mennonites and Somali Muslims—traveled to Khiva, Uzbekistan, in a reconstruction of an 1880s pilgrimage wherein Mennonite minister Claas Epp Jr. led his followers from Russia into Central Asia, predicting that Christ would soon return. Over two weeks, Samatar, with a group of other Mennonites, traversed great distances and histories before arriving at their destination, Ak Metchet, a Mennonite church built to resemble a white mosque. What Samatar discovered within the walled garden of Ak Metchet was the story of a small but strong Christian community whose culture, traditions, and stories outlived their 50 years residing in the predominantly Muslim area. In evocative prose, Samatar captures the Odyssean sojourn and awakens the stories of the past—painting in harrowing detail the unspeakable horrors that befell the first settlers—while reckoning with her own identity, an ‘electrical storm’ created by two religions perceived ‘as violently opposed… [yet] amplifying one another in a sizzling sibling rivalry.’ Emerging from this is a vivid mosaic that interrogates the spirit of the faithful while celebrating the beauty of storytelling. This riveting meditation on the ‘great tides of history’ yields a wondrous take on the ways the past and present intertwine.”

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