22 new books out today!
I’m still processing that it’s now 2024—I just almost wrote “2023” again!—and it can feel a little disorienting to enter a new year for the first few days, if not weeks. But there are reliable things to look forward to, like brand-new books coming out each week, and, after a slowdown in December, we’re back into the swing of things with a slew of exciting new fiction, memoirs, poetry collections, and critical nonfiction to consider.
Below, you’ll find a new collection of short stories from Jill McCorkle, Katherine Min’s much-buzzed posthumous novel The Fetishist, a hallucinatory new novel from Álvaro Enrigue memorably described by one reviewer as “an Aztec West Wing,” and many other intriguing fictions; poetry collections from Yalie Kamara and Mikeas Sánchez, the latter the first woman to publish a book of poems in Zoque and Spanish; new nonfiction tackling music for the deaf, climate change, fatness, the checkered history of the Surrealist movement, and more; and many other intriguing titles.
As 2024 creeps forward, its contours uncertain, I hope you’ll find some comfort in choosing one, or many, of the great new options below!
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Stephen McCauley, You Only Call When You’re in Trouble
(Holt)
“Picture F. Scott Fitzgerald with tongue in cheek and you get the gift of Stephen McCauley’s You Only Call When You’re in Trouble. I loved these deliciously flawed characters and every thought that runs through their heads. As with all things Stephen McCauley, it has the highest of wit and the sharpest of social commentary plus tenderness and much love.”
–Elinor Lipman
Jill McCorkle, Old Crimes: And Other Stories
(Algonquin Books)
“Jill McCorkle has had an extraordinary ear for the music of ordinary life since the beginning of her career, able to work with the voices we know so well to write these stories about they will not tell us, what they would rather not tell us, what they hope to tell us, what too often goes unsaid. And this collection is a new wonder.”
–Alexander Chee
Katherine Min, The Fetishist
(Putnam’s)
“Darkly funny, strangely poignant and sometimes startlingly vicious, The Fetishist is a wonderful novel from an author we lost too soon, and a sweeping yet intimate statement on the impacts of racism and sexism on Asian American women….Captivating, hilariously twisted…simultaneously playful and powerful….This remarkably clever, wickedly incisive little book will keep you hanging on every word and leave you with questions you’ll ponder for days.”
–BookPage
Shoji Morimoto, Rental Person Who Does Nothing: A Memoir
(Hanover Square Press)
“Undeniable poignancy…a narrative that transcends cultural borders….An eccentric, charming book, showing how humans can connect in the strangest of circumstances.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Deborah G. Plant, Of Greed and Glory: In Pursuit of Freedom for All
(Amistad Press)
“If you want to understand the current issues surrounding race, social justice, and inequality, you have to read Deborah Plant’s book, Of Greed and Glory. Deborah understands that the issues surrounding race, unfolding before us now in America, are deeply rooted in the legacy of the African American past. She writes eloquently and beautifully about that past. Of Greed and Glory is a must-read book for socially conscious citizens.”
–Clyde W. Ford
Kate Manne, Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia
(Crown Publishing Group)
“Unshrinking is an incisive polemic that brilliantly dissects fatphobia, the way it encroaches upon our lives, and how ultimately we can, if we are willing, do the challenging work of unlearning damaging ideas about fatness, health, and happiness.”
–Roxane Gay
Yalie Saweda Kamara, Besaydoo: Poems
(Milkweeed Editions)
“Yalie Saweda Kamara’s lucent poetry collection Besaydoo encircles matters of race, heritage, boundaries, and exchanging ‘worry for hope’….Eloquent, proud, and discerning, the poems of Besaydoo preserve the wary splendor of lived experience.”
–Foreword Reviews
Mikeas Sánchez, How to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems (trans. Wendy Call and Shook)
(Milkweed Editions)
“In a fiercely personal yet authoritative voice…Mikeas Sánchez explores the worldview of the Zoque people of southern Mexico…How to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems examines the intersection of Zoque struggles against colonialism and empire, and those of North African immigrants and refugees….Coming from the only woman to ever publish a book of poetry in Zoque and Spanish, this timely, powerful collection pairs the bilingual originals with an English translation for the first time.”
–Latin American Literature Today
Hisham Matar, My Friends
(Random House)
“My Friends is a breathtaking novel, every page a miracle and an affirmation. If there is a language of exile, My Friends is what it sounds like: exquisite and painful, compassionate and unflinching, and, above all, overwhelming in its boundless hope that within exile rests a path toward a different kind of return—one that leads us back to ourselves. Hisham Matar is one of our greatest writers. How lucky we are to be in his midst.”
–Maaza Mengiste
Shubnum Khan, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years
(Viking)
“Haunting and healing, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years, with its shades of The House of Spirits and Rebecca, is one of the best books I’ve read this year…Khan’s gorgeous writing lays bare what it means to love, grieve, haunt and, ultimately, let go.”
–Sarah Addison
Álvaro Enrigue, You Dreamed of Empires (trans. Natasha Wimmer)
(Riverhead Books)
“Throughout the book, Enrigue (and in English his excellent translator, Natasha Wimmer) boldly uses modern language to recreate the past….Parts of the novel play like an Aztec West Wing, taking us deep into the political maneuverings of the royal court but blending its particularities with twenty-first-century psychology. It’s a rich approach that achieves a hallucinatory vividness.”
–The Guardians
Matt Hay, Soundtrack of Silence: Love, Loss, and a Playlist for Life
(St. Martin’s Press)
“After learning that his diagnosis with neurofibromatosis would eventually render him completely deaf, Hay leaned into his lifelong love of pop music and resolved to create a playlist of songs he never wants to forget….While Hay doesn’t sugarcoat his circumstances—he unsparingly recounts his lengthy recovery from multiple brain surgeries, for example—his optimism in the face of adversity is stirring. This moving memoir makes magic out of facing the music.”
–Publishers Weekly
Elizabeth Flock, The Furies: Women, Vengeance, and Justice
(Harper)
“Three women pursue justice in this powerful account of what happens when institutions do not protect them. Journalist Flock (The Heart Is a Shifting Sea, 2018) brings the gripping stories of Brittany Smith, Angoori Dahariya, and Cicek Mustafa Zibo to life with vivid detail and in-depth research….Her compelling narrative will resonate with those who seek to live in a more feminist, egalitarian society.”
–Booklist
Mark Polizzoti, Why Surrealism Matters
(Yale University Press)
“Mark Polizzotti makes good on his title and reveals Surrealism as a source of ongoing inspiration and energy. He’s the perfect guide: clear-sighted about Surrealist misogyny and homophobia, but equally clear about its revolutionary potential. A work of commanding integrity.”
–Rosanna Warren
Aube Rey Lescure, River East, River West
(William Morrow)
“River East, River West is a beautifully expansive tale of new beginnings—and the pasts we can’t extricate ourselves from. From Qingdao to Shanghai, readers are invited into a richly layered world teeming with secrets, desires, and unexpected tenderness. Bright human insights shine through unforgettable characters fighting for their autonomy….In this exciting literary debut, Aube Rey Lescure deftly illuminates the difficult choices we make to save ourselves and each other.”
–Thao Thai
Linnea Axelsson, Aednan: An Epic (trans. Saskia Vogel)
(Knopf)
“Aednan is a soul-gripping and enthralling journey into what it feels like to be othered in your own land. Through powerful poetic prose, Axelsson offers us a profound invitation into understanding what it means to be deeply intertwined with nature. It takes raw talent to build deeply fleshed out worlds and deep characters with sparse poetry. Reading Adnan was an immerse privilege, one I indulged in with utmost reverence.”
–Lola Akinmade Åkerström
Jami Attenberg (editor), 1000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round
(S & S / Simon Element)
“This encouraging handbook by novelist Attenberg…offers brief essays aimed at motivating readers to get writing….The highlights of the volume are letters originally written for Attenberg’s Craft Talk newsletter from such writers as Roxane Gay, Min Jin Lee, Emma Straub, and Bryan Washington, who expound on their craft; Carmen Maria Machado, for instance, describes her process of recording voice notes of narrative ideas and later expanding them into stories.”
–Publishers Weekly
Benn Steil, The World That Wasn’t: Henry Wallace and the Fate of the American Century
(Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster)
“One of the strangest characteristics of Cold War historiography is the frequency with which Henry Wallace and hagiography have accompanied one another. ‘If only Wallace, and not Truman, had succeeded FDR, ‘ the argument runs, ‘the Cold War would never have happened.’ No Wallace biographer, until now, has made a serious effort to assess that claim….With The World That Wasn’t, Benn Steil has risen triumphantly to that challenge: his book is equally important for what it tells us about our past, and for what it may imply about our future.”
–John Lewis Gaddis
Kohei Saito, Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto (trans. Brian Bergstrom)
(Astra House)
“Slow Down has an almost magic ability to formulate complex thoughts in clear language, as well as to combine strict conceptual thinking with passionate personal engagement. Saito’s book is not just for anyone interested in ecology or in the problems of today’s global capitalism, it is simply indispensable for those of us who want to SURVIVE—in short, to all of us.”
–Slavoj Zizek
Maria Hummel, Goldenseal
(Counterpoint)
“Goldenseal is a savagely beautiful novel about the dangers and damages of passionate lifelong female friendship, intertwined with a brilliantly wrought elegy for the twentieth century. Hummel is a powerful writer. This book is extraordinary.”
–Kate Christensen
Cynthia Zarin, Inverno
(FSG)
“Zarin’s point, perhaps, is that life-changing love affairs mushroom out beyond the moments spent together. Full of gorgeous descriptions, fascinating characters, and impressive allusions to fairy tales, Robert Redford movies, Girl Scouts, Blondie, and more, Inverno is intellectual, acrobatic, and fascinating.”
–Booklist
