25 new books coming out today.
It’s mid-April, and, as always, there are some fascinating new titles to add to your list(s)! Here’s a selection of new books out today to consider checking out.
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Anna Metcalfe, Chrysalis
(Random House)
“Unputdownable, ice-cool, and wittily contemporary, Chrysalis announces Anna Metcalfe as a distinctive and daring fresh literary voice. Utterly original and with shades of Ottessa Moshfegh, Patricia Lockwood, Yoko Ogawa, and Alexandra Kleeman, this brilliant portrayal of desire and transcendence had me totally entranced.”
–Sharlene Teo
Maria Hesselager, First Comes Summer (trans. Martin Aitken)
(Riverhead)
“This lucent, poetic, mysterious novel takes us deep into the shrouded past, into an ancient world that is both utterly alien and achingly, recognizably human. First Comes Summer is a miniature masterpiece.”
–Dan Chaon
Benjamin Balint, Bruno Schulz: An Artist, A Murder, and the Hijacking of History
(Norton)
“A well-informed consideration of the life and legacy of the Polish Jewish writer and artist who died during World War II….In this incisive portrait, Balint also delves into the enormous influence of Schulz on Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, and Jonathan Safran Foer, among many others writers. A poignant, passionate revisiting of an important literary and artistic voice.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Elvin James Mensah, Small Joys
(Ballantine Books)
“A largehearted look at the importance of found family, Mensah’s first novel focuses on the lifesaving friendship between a cast-off son…and the easygoing new roommate whose affection becomes a balm. Small Joys dwells in the sometimes-fleeting moments of pleasure and happiness that stave off the iniquities of the world.”
–Electric Literature
Anissa Gray, Life and Other Love Songs
(Berkley Books)
“Life and Other Love Songs is a harsh, sometimes haunting, astonishingly moving, exceptionally complex novel about family and music and hurt and fear and pride and love and loss. Anissa Gray tells this story with such grace, insight and precision that readers will think of these characters long after they close the book. This is what writing should be.”
–LaToya Watkins
Sandeep Jauhar, My Father’s Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer’s
(FSG)
“In this propulsive memoir, [Jauhar] delivers an aching account of ‘the hardest journey [he has] ever taken’ as he witnessed his father, Prem’s, health, personality, and cognition get subsumed by Alzheimer’s….The author’s brutal honesty—about his father’s decline and his own inability to fully reckon with it—is expertly complemented by his medical rigor. Every family who’s ever faced an Alzheimer’s diagnosis will see themselves in this exceptional work.”
–Publishers Weekly
Hanna Halperin, I Could Live Here Forever
(Viking)
“Halperin humanizes the tragedy of drug addiction through Charlie, who is sweet and kind and loving and also irreparably damaged. Wistful, honest, and heartbreaking.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Terry McDonell, Irma: The Education of a Mother’s Son
(Harper)
“A thoughtful, tough and graceful memoir, smooth, surprising and affecting.”
–Joy Williams
Kirthana Ramisetti, Advika and the Hollywood Wives
(Grand Central Publishing)
“Advika and the Hollywood Wives is my favorite kind of page-turner: packed with juice, humor, intrigue, and a complex heroine on a quest to discover what’s real beyond the mirage of all that glitters. Kirthana Ramisetti’s knowledge of celebrity culture shines through in every scene, and I couldn’t help but binge!”
–Dawnie Walton
Joshua Bennett and Jesse McCarthy (editors), Minor Notes: Volume 1
(Penguin)
“The first in a series recovering the out-of-print words of Black poets whose work shaped the 19th and 20th centuries, Minor Notes, Volume 1 draws a bright line between the creations of the past and those of today’s bards. Curated by Joshua Bennett and Jesse McCarthy, while featuring a foreword from former poet laureate Tracy K. Smith, the book centers clear, resonant voices—like that of Angelina Weld Grimké’s, who ruminates joyfully on the beauty of living in a Black body.”
–Essence
Robert Greenfield, True West: Sam Shepard’s Life, Work, and Times
(Crown Publishing)
“Greenfield…delivers a riveting account of the life of playwright and actor Sam Shepard….Few readers will leave being unimpressed with Shepard, or this biography.”
–Publishers Weekly
Andrew Porter, The Disappeared: Stories
(Knopf)
“These tender, touching stories are about things we hold onto, our anxieties and hopes and dreams, and the things that slip through our fingers—love, youth, the people we used to be. What a beautiful book about the profound mystery of ordinary life.”
–Alix Ohlin
A.B. Yehoshua, The Only Daughter (trans. Stuart Schoffman)(
Harpervia)
“A wise, masterfully understated work by one of Israel’s towering literary figures.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Stephan Talty, Koresh: The True Story of David Koresh and the Tragedy at Waco
(Mariner)
“Stephen Talty is a dogged reporter and a gifted writer, and in his hands, Koresh burns with timely relevance and urgency. Reminiscent of Norman Mailer’s, The Executioner’s Song, Talty brings the life and violent death of David Koresh into a purely American context, with a story that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very end.”
–Gilbert King
Jeff VanderMeer, Veniss Underground (reissue including Balzac’s War)
(Picador)
“A new edition of VanderMeer’s first novel, which set a template for much speculative strangeness to come….A worthy start to an innovative writer’s career.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Sarah Hart, Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature
(Flatiron)
“Compelling….Detailed and amusing….[Once Upon a Prime] allows itself moments of levity and is engaging, permeated with a love of good writing as well as good math. Perhaps that is how it should be read: as a homage to both.”
–New Scientist
Paterson Joseph, The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho
(Henry Holt)
“It’s a tough task for a writer to set themselves, but the care and research shine through in every chapter. This is a tragicomedy of the first order, and not to be missed.”
–The Guardian
Max Wallace, After the Miracle: The Political Crusades of Helen Keller
(Grand Central Publishing)
“There is much more to the life stories of Keller and Sullivan than the limited, if inspirational narrative of the movie, as Wallace’s superb biographical chronicle makes clear.”
–Booklist
Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir
(Atria/One Signal Publishers)
“In this lightning bolt of a debut memoir, Maggie Smith gives us the truth of healing in form as much as story: getting through is no pretty, linear narrative. It’s one chapter forward and five chapters back. You Could Make This Place Beautiful gave me back a part of myself I thought was gone for good: the knowledge that beauty isn’t something out there to find. It’s in us.”
–Megan Stielstra
Molly Prentiss, Old Flame
(Gallery/Scout Press)
“[W]restles with the binaries of art versus motherhood, chosen family versus found family, and social expectation versus authenticity….Prentiss’ prose is energetic and inventive.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Helen Elaine Lee, Pomegranate
(Atria Books)
“Like the pomegranate of the title…filled with unexpected treasures. Lee has created a powerful, beautifully written story of a woman who painfully confronts her past to build her future.”
–Booklist
Johannes Lichtman, Calling Ukraine
(Simon and Schuster/Marysue Rucci Books)
“Johannes Lichtman’s great subject is morally compromised idealism, and he brings to it an electric intelligence and an allergy to ready-made judgments. Calling Ukraine is the funniest tragedy I’ve ever read, or maybe the saddest comedy; it’s also a merciless dissection of American moral vanity.”
–Garth Greenwell
Daniel Wallace, This Isn’t Going to End Well: The True Story of a Man I Thought I Knew
(Algonquin Books)
“A bold and compassionate exploration of male friendship and the devastating impact of suicide.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Jeff Boyd, The Weight
(Simon and Schuster)
“[A] delightful debut… Boyd’s writing is preternaturally wise, and his characters come to life with natural dialogue and brutally honest confrontations. This pulses with the beat of life.”
–Publishers Weekly
Fabio Pusterla, Brief Homage to Pluto and Other Poems (trans. Will Schutt)
(Princeton University Press)
“Pusterla has long been one of the most singular and intriguing poets writing in Italian. I’ve admired his work for decades now, and I’m delighted to have, at last—thanks to translator Will Schutt, a brilliant poet in his own right, who prefaces his resonant versions with a stellar introduction—a volume in English that does justice to Pusterla’s ‘wayfaring’ voice and ‘rift zone’ vision.”
–Geoffrey Brock
