15 new books to look forward to this week.
These days, we’re hanging by a thin thread, and that thread is Tuesdays: the day new books grace us with their presence.
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Jane Campbell, Cat Brushing
(Grove Press)
“The 13 exquisitely drawn short stories in the collection are woven with wit and bold enlightenment. Each meticulously crafted gem focuses on the lives of aging women who grapple with their shrinking places in the world.”
–Shelf Awareness
Daisy LaFarge, Paul
(Riverhead)
“This quietly transporting novel of opposing forces—masculine and feminine, disgust and attraction, youth and ruin—is nuanced and unsettling.”
–Booklist
Julian Barnes, Elizabeth Finch
(Knopf)
“A novel of ideas … with barely a sentence in it that doesn’t have some nutritional value … I’ll remember Elizabeth Finch when most other characters I’ve met this year have faded.”
–The Times
Jesse Ball, Autoportrait
(Catapult)
“Ball provides an authentic look at what life is really like and offers the reader a way to encounter life outside the parameters that society, and narrative convention, would impose on it.”
–The Star Tribune
Nuar Alsadir, Animal Joy: A Book of Laughter and Resuscitation
(Graywolf Press)
“Alsadir’s quiet wit and depth of knowledge lead to unique insights and profound self-reflection. A sprawling, poetic meditation on humor in all its forms.”
–Kirkus
Olaf Olafsson, Touch
(Ecco)
“The gratifying ending is hopeful. [Touch] adds up to an affecting story about the sway one’s past can hold on the present.”
–Publishers Weekly
Sadie Jones, Amy & Lan
(Harper)
“This is a novel of quiet beauty, vividly evoking the magnitude of childhood loss and the capacity for hope.”
–The Guardian
Natasha Sizlo, All Signs Point to Paris
(Mariner)
“Sizlo’s engaging account of her trip to Paris has all the pleasures of a spirited rom-com, enhanced by her real-life bravery in confronting the doubts and fears she had been hiding from herself.”
–The Washington Post
Anna DeForest, A History of Present Illness
(Little, Brown and Company)
“Brutal and brave, DeForest’s novel is one of the best in the ‘making of a doctor’ genre. And its plucky protagonist, casualty and hero, roars a universal truth, ‘We all hurt.’”
–Booklist
Édouard Louis, tr. Tash Aw, A Woman’s Battles and Transformations
(FSG)
“The richest moments of the book show us personal agency reacting with and against systemic forces … Lurking under the book’s fairy-tale surface is a nuanced account of desire and belonging.”
–The Times Literary Supplement
Bernardo Atxaga, tr. Margaret Jull Costa, Water Over Stones
(Graywolf Press)
“There is indeed a method to the madness and an unexpected payoff that meaningfully reframes the entire book. A quietly remarkable offering from the first name in Basque literature.”
–Kirkus
Hayley Campbell, All the Living and the Dead
(St. Martin’s Press)
“Campbell’s genuine curiosity, careful reporting, and insightful commentary make for an engrossing read. Without sensationalizing or squeamishness, Campbell offers interviews rich in candid insights.”
–Booklist
Sidik Fofana, Stories from the Tenants Downstairs
(Scribner)
“This book shines a light on what millions of Americans are experiencing today: the exhausting, funny, desperate, and hopeful human experience.”
–The Southern Bookseller Review
Moiya McTier, The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy
(Grand Central)
“As with any translation from another tongue, readers may marvel at the role of the translator in creating a book that is both informative and truly inspirational.”
–BookPage
Edward Brooke-Hitching, The Devil’s Atlas
(Chronicle Books)
“In this world of mental exploration, Edward Brooke-Hitching is a delightful and indispensable guide.”
–Literary Review
