18 new books to get excited about this week.
Yeah, it sucks to return to work after a three-day weekend, but on the bright side: there’re only four grueling days ahead, and at least 22 new books coming out today to look forward to.
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Maggie O’Farrell, The Marriage Portrait
(Knopf)
“You may know the history, and you may think you know what’s coming, but don’t be so sure. O’Farrell and Lucrezia, with her ‘crystalline, righteous anger,’ will always be one step ahead of you.”
–The Washington Post
Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, On the Rooftop
(Ecco)
“Sexton’s touching third novel explores how far a mother can impose her dreams on daughters with budding ambitions of their own … A heartfelt tale of family and community.”
–Kirkus
Alice Wong, Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life
(Vintage)
“Through powerful essays, blog posts, interviews, photos and art, Wong offers an intimate and illuminating account of the challenges, joys and frustrations of living in a world not made for people like her.”
–San Francisco Datebook
A.M. Homes, The Unfolding
(Viking)
“Homes is a gifted satirist, a keen observer of bourgeois manners and mores. Here, she nails the psychic particularities of the politically conservative American male.”
–The New York Times Book Review
Betty Gilpin, All the Women in My Brain: And Other Concerns
(Flatiron)
“Gilpin’s written voice makes for an unforgettable read…She spins entirely original patterns of phrasing and combines wickedly clear imagery with novel cultural references to convey unique human experiences—she’ll make any noun a verb, and vice versa.”
–Booklist
Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You
(MCD)
“Superb … If I Survive You stands out, and not only for its characters’ journeys and tender, searching themes; the collection is also a master class in technique.”
–Oprah Daily
Rubén Degollado, The Family Izquierdo
(W. W. Norton)
“Vivid … Degollado convincingly portrays the family’s mix of faith, superstition, and intergenerational volatility, and immerses the reader into a porous blend of English and Spanish. This is a gem.”
–Publishers Weekly
Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, What We Fed to the Manticore
(Tin House)
“Vivid, imaginative, spellbinding … Kolluri’s prose reads like a beautiful song as it soars over the savannah and under the sea.”
–Shelf Awareness
Grant Morrison, Luda
(Del Rey)
“Morrison’s dense and often dazzling sentences brim with Wilde-esque wordplay. For readers willing to go the distance, magic awaits.”
–Publishers Weekly
Amit Chaudhuri, Sojourn
(NYRB)
“[In Sojourn] the elegant suggestiveness of the writing, its intelligence and perceptiveness, keeps one turning the pages.”
–Daily Telegraph
Hemley Boum, tr. Nchanji Njamnsi, Days Come and Go
(Two Lines Press)
“Following as three generations work to leave their painful legacies behind for the sake of their progeny, Days Come & Go is a multigenerational story about lost innocence—and about perseverance.”
–Foreword Reviews
Paul Theroux, The Bad Angel Brothers
(Mariner)
“Theroux plays skillfully on reader sympathies until the bitter end, showing how a man’s beliefs can make him turn to violence. The result is searing and memorable.”
–Publishers Weekly
Reine Arcache Melvin, The Betrayed
(Europa Editions)
“Melvin deftly illustrates that family alliances may be as complicated as political ones.”
–Kirkus
Jill Bialosky, The Deceptions
(Counterpoint)
“Poetry and inspiration, obsession and divinity, all come under Bialosky’s purview in her elegantly constructed fable of trying to create while everything else falls apart.”
–The Millions
William Girdaldi, About Face
(Liveright)
“The story is ridiculous by design, the silly and obvious metaphors coming fast and furious … an apt commentary on America’s obsession with celebrity.”
–Publishers Weekly
Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, Skirts
(St. Martin’s Press)
“An entertaining and insightful look at the evolution of the skirt across the 20th century… Exquisitely detailed and evocatively written, this stylish history casts an underappreciated garment in a rewarding new light.”
–Publishers Weekly
Joe Meno, Book of Extraordinary Tragedies
(Akashic Books)
“As in all his tender and edgy fiction, Meno’s poetic prose is infused with sweet compassion and sharp protest as he marvels over ‘the beautiful failure of all human beings struggling against their own glorious mistakes’ while, somehow, finding a way forward.”
–Booklist
Natasha Marin, Black Powerful
(McSweeney’s)
“Gather these words around you like a prayer, a spell, a circle of protection. Each section of Black Powerful reinforces our magical presence on this Earth.”
–Monica Prince
