20 new books to hunker down with this week.
There are two kinds of people in this world: the ones who delight in every snowfall, who run through the banks and make angels as though they cannot feel the cold… and the ones who prefer to be indoor cats all winter long. I fall into the latter category, but thankfully my dog does, too. And since Brooklyn got several inches of snow this weekend, you can find us inside curled up with these new books.
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Toni Morrison, Recitatif
(Knopf)
“…stunning … The author’s experiment pays off brilliantly, forcing the reader to consider racial stereotypes while also providing an indelible story.”
–Publishers Weekly
Olga Tokarczuk, tr. Jennifer Croft, The Books of Jacob
(Riverhead)
“Tokarczuk shows impressive skill in recreating an entire era and world, which ranges from Poland to Smyrna and Vienna. Yet her real genius lies in the cast of characters she has conjured up; dozens, each fully realised, from an emperor downwards.”
–The Sunday Times
Kim Fu, Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century
(Tin House)
“A dozen sly, provocative, fabulous short stories sure to delight and shock. From doll parts to winged ankles to stockpiled gold bars, Fu flaunts an inimitable imagination … Irrefutably fantastic fiction.”
–Booklist
Tessa Hadley, Free Love
(Harper)
“Yet again, she offers insightful and sensitive understanding of the quiet compromises people make to survive in a deeply compromised world.”
–The Guardian
Hugo Hamilton, The Pages
(Knopf)
“A haunting story that provides a welcome reminder of the enduring lives of books.”
–Kirkus
Per Petterson, tr. Don Bartlett, Echoland
(Graywolf)
“[A] compelling mix of fable with the day-to-day account of a working-class boy, just about to turn 12, as he visits his maternal grandparents in Jutland.”
–The Guardian
Jennifer Haigh, Mercy Street
(Ecco)
“Abortion, guns, vigilantism, drug dealing, white supremacy, bitter misogyny and online fetishism all figure in the tableau Haigh expertly details. If this can’t command attention, what can?”
–The New York Times
Daniel Black, Don’t Cry for Me
(Hanover Square Press)
“[Black[ offers insight on Black history and the power of reading, and writes eloquently about the country versus the city … consistently powerful.”
–Publishers Weekly
Olga Ravn, tr. Martin Aitken, The Employees
(New Directions)
“A book that strikes a rare balance between SF philosophy and workaday feeling all while whirling through space.”
–Kirkus
Maeve Higgins, Tell Everyone on This Train I Love Them
(Penguin)
“Intelligent reading filled with candor and sympathy.”
–Kirkus
Lan Samantha Chang, The Family Chao
(W. W. Norton)
“In this timely, trenchant, and thoroughly entertaining book, an immigrant family’s dreams are paid for in blood. For Chang, this marks a triumphant return.”
–Publishers Weekly
Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes
(Doubleday)
“…its specter of mystery is tantalizing and will keep readers captive till the final page. Absorbing and electric.”
–Kirkus
Tracy Borman, Crown & Sceptre
(Atlantic Monthly)
“A superb synthesis of historical analysis, politics, and top-notch royal gossip.”
–Kirkus
Thomas Halliday, Otherlands
(Random House)
“Evolutionary biologist Halliday takes an energizing spin through Earth’s past in his magnificent debut.”
–Publishers Weekly
Jessica P. Pryde, Black Love Matters
(Berkley)
“[A] refreshingly wide variety of perspectives on Black love … Readers will come away with a robust education in Black love and literature.”
–Kirkus
Dan Saladino, Eating to Extinction
(FSG)
“That Saladino is able to simultaneously channel the euphoria of sipping pear cider that smells of ‘damp autumnal forest’ or tasting an inky qizha cake in the West Bank while underscoring the precariousness of these foods makes for a book that is both disturbing and enchanting.”
–The New York Times
Cat Jarman, River Kings
(Pegasus)
“Bioarcheologist Jarman debuts with an eye-opening look at how ancient silk roads linked Vikings to the Far East … Colorful storytelling and lucid explanations of archaeological science make this a vivid testament to the far reach of Scandinavian people and culture.”
–Publishers Weekly
Scott Meslow, From Hollywood With Love
(Dey Street)
“…enthusiastic … A sprightly homage to a popular, seemingly evergreen film genre.”
–Kirkus
Isaac Butler, The Method
(Bloomsbury)
“Butler makes an airtight case for the Method as an artistic revolution on par with other mid-century advances, from improvisation in jazz and stream-of-consciousness in fiction to the flourishes of abstract expressionism in painting … Butler’s book revives the memory of plenty of the Method’s most estimable proponents.”
–The Boston Globe
ed. by Hillary Jordan and Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, Anonymous Sex
(Scribner)
“Jordan (Mudbound) and Tan (Sarong Party Girls) assemble a literary erotica anthology with a coy twist: individual stories aren’t attributed, allowing readers to guess which of the decorated contributors—including Louise Erdrich, Helen Oyeyemi, and Edmund White—wrote what … worthwhile.”
–Publishers Weekly
