20 new books to bite into this week.
New books! The financial bane and emotional buoy of our existence!
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Abdulrazak Gurnah, Afterlives
(Riverhead)
“Riveting and heartbreaking … A compelling novel, one that gathers close all those who were meant to be forgotten, and refuses their erasure.”
–The Guardian
Akil Kumarasamy, Meet Us By the Roaring Sea
(FSG)
“Kumarasamy’s gorgeous prose and quiet meditations on memory will enthrall readers. This ambitious effort has much to offer.”
–Publishers Weekly
Lauren Acampora, The Hundred Waters
(Grove Press)
“Acampora weaves a tale of artistic ambition, climate activism, and the seductive allure of extravagant wealth. Told in the author’s signature lush prose … this is an enchanting pool worth sticking your toe into.”
–Kirkus
Kate Gavino, A Career in Books
(Plume Books)
“A well-told story about friendship and the importance of fighting for your space and for what you want, A Career In Books may especially appeal to those who have led that assistant life, who always read the acknowledgments, and who don’t need to google Binky Urban.”
–AV Club
Ella King, Bad Fruit
(Astra House)
“King expertly weaves a compelling family novel. Layered, variable, and, like spoiled orange juice, sometimes complicatedly bitter.”
–Kirkus
Emma Donoghue, Haven
(Little, Brown)
“This is a miniature created with a muted palette, sombre in aspect but crowded with quietly beautiful details.”
–The Guardian
Michael K. Williams, Scenes From My Life
(Crown)
“He leaves behind the poignant, vivid memoir Scenes From My Life, written with Jon Sternfeld, which will cement Williams’ legacy as a kind, thoughtful man who used his public prominence to give back to his community.”
–BookPage
Rasheed Newson, My Government Means to Kill Me
(Flatiron)
“An episodic narrative about learning to navigate the world, this novel is both hilarious and angry.”
–The Boston Globe
Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, tr. Alison Anderson, All Your Children, Scattered
(Europa)
“Through her formal daring and insight, Mairesse’s writing is densely compact. All Your Children, Scattered is a slim 183 pages. Mairesse’s prose-poetry is sublime enough that a reader may not realize there are only a handful of narrative drops.”
–PopMatters
Robert Freeman Wexler, The Silverberg Business
(Small Beer Press)
“[A]ny book with a guitar-playing sheriff, an ex-con named Slack-Face Jake, and a giant in a bowler hat is worth a spin. A weird but oddly convincing creature feature.”
–Kirkus
LaToya Watkins, Perish
(Tiny Reparations)
“Perish offers a moving look into Black communities, bringing complexity and nuance to this story of intergenerational trauma and the toll it takes on the human spirit.”
–Esquire
Gaia Vince, Nomad Century
(Flatiron)
“A striking manifesto for sweeping change.”
–Kirkus
Joyce Carol Oates, Babysitter
(Knopf)
“Oates’s prose—almost insolently alive, littered with italics and exclamation marks, switching apparently recklessly back and forth through place and time—would seem to break all the rules. The result is nothing less than magical, a piece of work that is light yet dense, frenzied in its detail yet somehow also cool, measured and abstract.”
–The Observer
Patrick Phillips, Song of the Closing Doors
(Knopf)
“These poems are so damn good. Few contemporary poets can write an elegy half as well as Phillips. And nobody does it any better.”
–John Murillo
Brad Snyder, Democratic Justice
(W. W. Norton)
“An exemplary biography of a true public servant, especially refreshing in today’s toxic political climate.”
–Kirkus
Jesse Leon, I’m Not Broken
(Vintage)
“[T]his book is a viscerally moving story of inspiring transformation. A remarkable story of fortitude and personal transformation.”
–Kirkus
Sinclair McKay, Berlin: Life and Death in the City at the Center of the World
(St. Martin’s Press)
“McKay’s sparkling prose and expert mining of archival material results in a memorable study.”
–Publishers Weekly
Jerome Charyn, Big Red
(Liveright)
“The veteran author’s charm and easy sense of irony further lift this surprisingly affecting book. A novel that transcends concept with its human touches.”
–Kirkus
Andrew Sullivan, Out on a Limb: Selected Writing, 1989-2021
(Avid Reader Press)
“He does not write for the purpose of inflicting pain. And even his most passionate arguments are thoughtfully delivered, deeply rooted in his philosophy and faith.”
–The New York Times Book Review
Mathew Lawrence and Adrienne Buller, Owning the Future: Power and Property in an Age of Crisis
(Verso)
“However queasily anxious it makes the political class, the question of who should own what in our economy still hangs in the air, unanswered. This pacy and accessible book unpacks the issues and offers solutions with a welcome dash of imagination and optimism.”
–The Guardian
