Audre Lorde! Elizabeth Strout! Oscar Wilde! 25 books out in paperback this August.
August, astonishingly, is here, and it feels hard to believe that the summer is nearing its end. But so it goes. And with such so-going, you should know what I have to say next: that I come bearing the good news that new books are here. If you missed these in hardcover, or just want the special charm of a paperback edition, this is the list for you, with twenty-five wide-ranging titles in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to consider, all out this month.
You’ll see fiction from acclaimed names, including Joyce Carol Oates, Elizabeth Strout, Kristopher Jansma, Chelsea Bieker, and others, as well as debuts to watch, with stories about everything from butchered women to the Black aviatrix Bessie Coleman to the sufferings of Oscar Wilde’s family. In poetry, we have a celebrated collection from Carl Phillips. And in nonfiction, you’ll find refreshing looks at the lives of Audre Lorde, Nat Turner, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Christopher Isherwood, and the oft-misunderstood NYC neighborhood of the Bronx; the paradigm-shifting discovery of dinosaur fossils; and much, much more.
What riches. Enjoy these excellent new paperback editions!
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Joyce Carol Oates, Butcher
(Vintage)
“Deliciously arch….Oates’s scathing indictment of the physical and psychological treatment of women by the medical establishment makes for compulsive but challenging reading. Unlike the ghastly procedures depicted, Oates’s inventive gothic novel pays off.”
–Publishers Weekly
Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything
(Random House)
“Strout superfans will be thrilled to see the prickly protagonist of the author’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Olive Kitteridge…finally cross paths with the tender heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton and Lucy by the Sea. But if you’ve never cracked the spine of a Strout novel before, don’t sweat it—you’ll feel like a Crosby, Maine, local by the end of the first chapter.”
–Oprah Daily
Fiona McFarlane, Highway Thirteen: Stories
(Picador)
“McFarlane delivers stores that are as complex as they are haunting….A thrilling collection that explores an uncanny restlessness haunting the Australian psyche. Its crystalline prose and keen observations about everyday life open up new ways of thinking about the historical crimes that underpin our collective unsettlement.”
–Monique Rooney
Amy Leach, The Salt of the Universe: Praise, Song, and Improvisations
(Picador)
“Whimsical, frank, funny, shrewd, and ever unpredictable, Leach’s phrasing and concepts continue to surprise, delight, and edify….Playful, celebratory, wise, impertinent, Amy Leach turns her lyricism and wit on a fundamentalist upbringing and the wealth of experiences beyond.”
–Shelf Awareness
James Marcus, Glad to the Brink of Fear: A Portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Princeton University Press)
“[Glad to the Brink of Fear] emphasizes the enduring freshness and abiding relevance of Emerson’s writing….Though many other biographers have covered similar territory, Marcus’ treatment provides a distinct and memorable sense of revelation. A lively, intimate, absorbing account of the sage of Concord.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde
(Picador)
“The strength of Survival is in its carefully rendered portraits of Lorde’s intimate relationships, both romantic and platonic. Gumbs clearly relates how Lorde’s commitment to world-building was not simply an abstract concern left to the domain of literature, but was realized in real-life communion with her chosen family….In every phase, we see Lorde herself as an energetic force that exists beyond the boundary of her body, and, certainly, the span of her life.”
–The Boston Globe
Carl Phillips, Scattered Snows, to the North
(FSG)
“Autumn and winter; aging and death; erotic desire, and our regret if it fades….[Phillips] writes about those simplest, oldest things with a syntax so unpredictable, so elaborate, that they can seem almost new.”
–The New York Times Book Review
Chelsea Bieker, Madwoman
(Back Bay Books)
“[B]rilliant. The rare kind of book that lives in your bones, as riveting as it is intimate. This is emotional suspense at its best, but it’s also a chronicle of modern womanhood, an exploration of what mothers and daughters do to and for each other, and an ode to hope in the aftermath of trauma. Somehow, Bieker delivers all of this in a voice that is fresh, urgent, and darkly comic. A novel hasn’t consumed me like this in a very long time….is on my list of all-time favorites.”
–Ashley Audrain
Kristopher Jansma, Our Narrow Hiding Places
(Ecco)
“Our Narrow Hiding Places is both expansive and intimate, plunging us into Holland’s Hunger Winter through the eyes of an unforgettable young girl determined to survive. Jansma masterfully weaves past and present to show us how trauma swims down bloodlines as do the folktales and stories that remind us of where we come from and who we are. A breathtaking epic that reverberates with hope.”
–Tania James
Kate Atkinson, Death at the Sign of the Rook
(Vintage)
“Harkens back to classic detective fiction…[Brodie’s] sixth adventure [is] open to…[both] Atkinson aficionados…and to newcomers who can enjoy it as both a standalone work and a suitable entry-point to Brodie’s world….Boldly original…. Gripping….Atkinson at her most playful. She impresses with her tightly constructed, satisfyingly complex mystery laced with Agatha Christie references, and with her observations of modern life and human nature.”
–The Boston Globe
Katherine Bucknell, Christopher Isherwood Inside Out
(Picador)
“This absorbing biography burrows deeply into each stage of Isherwood’s continuous intellectual and spiritual evolutions….Isherwood questioned everything in life, ardently examining himself, and Bucknell’s marvelously knowledgeable portrait reveals the full dimensions of his richly contemplative life.”
–Booklist
Jen Soriano, Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing
(Amistad)
“The essays in Nervous crackle and pulse with a beautiful bodily wisdom that animates a sparkling intellect. Jen Soriano tenderly, unflinchingly excavates layers of history and pain—found both in her body and our body politic—and offers all of us tools and materials to build a path toward wholeness. I’m in awe of Jen Soriano and you will be too.”
–Angela Garbles
Anthony E. Kaye, Gregory P. Downs, Nat Turner, Black Prophet: A Visionary History
(Picador)
“A masterwork of historical research, thinking, and writing…a remarkable and compelling effort to deepen our understanding of one of America’s most important and enigmatic figures—one that places Nat Turner’s prophetic vision at the center of this story…a must-read for anyone interested in the complex currents of American slavery and the nineteenth century more broadly—a stunning achievement.”
–Steven P. Hahn
Claire Kilroy, Soldier Sailor
(Scribner)
“A bring-you-to-your-knees depiction of motherhood that is at once a descent into despair and an ode to the deepest love imaginable. I want to frame the final pages, revisit them every day as a reminder of why we risk ourselves in the name of devotion. Fearless, exacting, and absolutely hot to the touch, Kilroy’s novel is wise, urgent, and completely unforgettable.”
–Chelsea Bieker
Alejandro Puyana, Freedom Is a Feast
(Back Bay Books)
“In this vivid and arresting novel lives are lived in triage. A man is ‘a sheathed knife,’ and people are ‘bargaining chips’ during the dangerous reign of Hugo Chávez. Stories of humanity and even love shine through brutality, while lives change—or end—in an instant. Citizens are faced with impossible choices in the quest for freedom, and the need to honor their culture. Freedom Is a Feast is a memorable debut, and Puyana is already a master storyteller.”
–Amy Hempel
Jo Hamya, The Hypocrite
(Vintage)
“Excellent….I enjoyed the novel hugely….Like Edward St Aubyn and Anne Enright, Hamya is so good on generational conflict, the friction of family, and the damage done by charming but complacent men. But The Hypocrite is a strikingly original book too. I tore through it, shoulders clenched but full of admiration.”
–David Nicholls
Edward Dolnick, Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party: How An Eccentric Group of Victorians Discovered Prehistoric Creatures and Accidentally Upended the World
(Scribner)
“With wit, warmth, and humor, Edward Dolnick immerses us in one of the most exhilarating times in the history of science: when a motley crew of professors, naturalists, preachers, and bone hunters discovered the existence of dinosaurs. Written like an adventure novel but fashioned with historical rigor, Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party is a gripping story of how we came to understand that the Earth was old and once populated by ancient beasts.”
–Steve Brusatte
Ian Frazier, Paradise Bronx: The Life and Times of New York’s Greatest Borough
(Picador)
“Ancient Rome had its Livy, and now the Bronx has its epic chronicler in Ian Frazier…a compelling chronicle of the Bronx, all the more effective for its clear-eyed take on a subject so often drenched in sentimentality
or distaste.”
–Edward Kosner
Christopher Paul Harris, To Build a Black Future: The Radical Politics of Joy, Pain, and Care
(Princeton University Press)
“To Build a Black Future is a loving and principled exploration of Black living, Black thought, and Black struggle. Everyone from beginners and active students to longtime scholars of Black liberation will find valuable and timely lessons in this book. I look forward to grappling with Harris’s ideas alongside my students and comrades in years to come.”
–Charlene A. Carruthers
Nathan Newman, How to Leave the House
(Penguin Books)
“I tore through, and already can’t wait to read again….If you like stories about messy queer twenty-three-year-olds, and if you also like a twenty-first century take on English village life, and if you also have the Internet, you’re going to need to read this book.”
–Andrea Lawlor
Carole Hopkins, A Pair of Wings
(Holt)
“Bessie Coleman was a pioneering aviatrix who, in the early part of the twentieth century, was forced to travel to France to learn to fly, as no one in the United States would give a Black woman lessons. Her thrilling true story makes for an exciting, inspiring work of fiction in Hopson’s hands. This may be the author’s first novel, but as a professional pilot herself, she takes the tale and soars with it.”
–Leigh Haber
Sarah Seltzer, The Singer Sisters
(Flatiron)
“What a story: artists, sisters, daughters, mothers, rivals, guitars. The Singer Sisters is a totally fresh and original rock & roll saga of a family full of formidable, creative, unforgettable women. Seltzer writes about different music generations with an expert’s eye and a fan’s ear, nailing all the details of how songs become part of our lives, as the singers connect and clash over the years. She makes the whole novel flow like a brilliantly complex but heart-wrenching love song.”
–Rob Sheffield
Anne Applebaum, Autocracy Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World
(Vintage)
“Autocracy, Inc. is a valuable book for many reasons, but the focus on illicit wealth creation and on those in democracies who enable it is especially timely. So is Applebaum’s recommendation that we wage war on autocratic behaviors wherever they occur.”
–The Washington Post
Urs Gasser, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Guardrails: Guiding Human Decisions in the Age of AI
(Princeton University Press)
“An impressively detailed and useful book that is also short, fascinating, and readable….I have never before encountered so much clarity about the full context of governance and how all its components relate to AI.”
–Science
Louis Bayard, The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts
(Algonquin)
“A wonderfully witty and often heartbreaking depiction of the consequences of Oscar Wilde’s scandalous downfall—not for the playwright himself, but rather his wife and two sons.”
—The New York Times
Charlee Dyroff, Loneliness and Company
(Bloomsbury)
“Dyroff’s debut is fun to read, taking place in a world that’s entertaining to ponder: what will our priorities be after the full AI renaissance? Dyroff is beyond imaginative, specifically so in building a world that’s just close enough to present reality. Perfect for fans of Dave Eggers’ The Circle.”
–Booklist
