22 new books to keep an eye out for this week.
Some people live for the weekend; others live for Tuesday, when the shelves are flooded with glorious new books.
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Janelle Monáe, The Memory Librarian
(Harper Voyager)
“In five satisfyingly long short stories, singer Monáe and her five collaborators paint a picture of a technocapitalist dystopia ruled by an organization that monitors the memories of its populace … blistering, hopeful, and richly written.”
–Booklist
Tajja Isen, Some of My Best Friends
(Atria)
“…this book shows a bracing willingness to tackle sensitive issues that others often sweep under a rug … Fresh and intelligent critiques of popular North American ideas about race and gender.”
–Booklist
Tove Ditlevsen, tr. Michael Favala Goldman, The Trouble with Happiness
(FSG)
“Quiet and devastating . . . The stories are simple; the characters ordinary and immensely human. Their motivations are mysterious and subtle, and Ditlevsen is acutely sensitive to the way normal life can wear at their hearts.”
–Publishers Weekly
Louisa Lim, Indelible City
(Riverhead)
“Lim’s outstanding history of Hong Kong is an epic must-read … From the first page, the importance of language and the voices of Hong Kongers are central themes.”
–Booklist
Kris Manjapra, Black Ghosts of Empire
(Scribner)
“A worthy contribution to the controversial discussions around how to compensate for crimes past and present.”
–Kirkus
Claire Stanford, Happy for You
(Viking)
“If you enjoyed Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler, read Happy for You by Claire Stanford … [A] snappy addition to the office novel canon.”
–The Washington Post
Adrienne Celt, End of the World House
(Simon & Schuster)
“Exhilarating … This book about love, friendship, and the cruel nature of time is catnip for fans of Groundhog Day and Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind.”
–The Millions
Dana Levin, Now Do You Know Where You Are
(Copper Canyon Press)
“…feels to me like a message from an old friend who’s emerged, dazed, from a punishing bout of writer’s block … Levin freely shares the self-doubts, false starts and dead ends of her return to poetry in this unguarded literary experiment.”
–The New York Times Book Review
Lawrence Jackson, Shelter: A Black Tale of Homeland, Baltimore
(Graywolf Press)
“Writing about bus drivers, the author showcases the brilliant embodiment of geography that will make this book come alive for non-Baltimoreans … countless passages of sparkling prose.”
–Kirkus
Shuang Xuetao, tr. Jeremy Tiang, Rouge Street
(Metropolitan Books)
“Shuang makes his English-language debut with three beautifully spare novellas exploring present day northeast China and the imprints of the past.”
–Publishers Weekly
Nell McShane Wulfhart, The Great Stewardess Rebellion
(Doubleday)
“…offers insightful profiles of two women who successfully led these campaigns against seemingly impossible odds … This is an eye-opening chapter in the history of feminism and women’s rights.”
–Booklist
Donatella Di Pietrantonio, tr. Ann Goldstein, A Sister’s Story
(Europa)
“A lyrical, mesmerising exploration of the bond between sisters forms the basis of this translated novel, A Sister’s Story, by Donatella Di Pietrantonio.”
–Buzz Mag
Ben Shattuck, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau
(Tin House)
“If you have ever been intimidated by hiking memoirs—the ones that feature semi-rugged, scruffily bearded males equally adept at climbing waterfalls and kindling a fire with nary a match in sight—then Six Walks, by turns gently self-ironical and shyly lyrical, is the book for you.”
–The Wall Street Journal
David de Jong, Nazi Billionaires
(Mariner)
“Much of this has been covered by the German press but is not well known to international audiences. De Jong is thorough in his tracing of business and personal relationships and sensitive to the complexities of opportunism and collaboration.”
–Booklist
Julie Doucet, Time Zone J
(Drawn & Quarterly)
“…another intense, electrifying, diary-inspired autobiographical title … her work is unpredictable—rarely are comics viewed so unconventionally.”
–Shelf Awareness
Chloe Caldwell, The Red Zone: A Love Story
(Soft Skull)
“[Caldwell] smartly blends the personal and cultural to confront the ways women’s suffering has been dismissed throughout history … The result gives a vibrant voice to a struggle that many have been taught to quietly shoulder alone. This is an audacious tribute to women everywhere.”
–Publishers Weekly
Paul Fischer, The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures
(Simon & Schuster)
“Though Fischer’s ultimate conclusion about the circumstances behind Le Prince’s death remains speculative, he offers and defends a plausible version of events that draws persuasively on extant historical evidence. A fascinating, informative, skillfully articulated narrative of one of the forgotten figures in cinematic history.”
–Kirkus
Gideon Rachman, The Age of the Strongman
(Other Press)
“Rachman’s book was completed before the Russian invasion of Ukraine; but his analysis is so powerful that it all but predicts Putin’s next move, made inevitable by his own retro-imperialist rhetoric.”
–The Scotsman
D. Nurkse, A Country of Strangers
(Knopf)
“What a joy to have this overview of D. Nurkse’s marvelous poems – he is a master of lyric mode.”
–Ilya Kaminsky
Gary Indiana, Fire Season
(Seven Stories)
“Few writers are as keenly alive to absurdity or write with as sharp a pen as Gary Indiana, whose new essay collection, Fire Season, spans almost forty years of stellar criticism.”
–Harper’s
Joan DeJean, Mutinous Women
(Basic Books)
“By discovering these poor women from the colonial past, Mutinous Women conveys a fascinating history and a reminder that all kinds of people helped to build what became the United States.”
–The Wall Street Journal
Natalie Eve Garrett, The Lonely Stories
(Catapult)
“[A] richly diverse set of writers recall how periods of solitude have impacted their lives … An absorbing, moving, cathartic collection.”
–Kirkus
