Samantha Schweblin! Lydia Davis! Angela Flournoy! 21 new books out today.
As summer gives way to fall—cooler nights, busier days—there are more opportunities to be present, to be deliberate, to be enmeshed in the dailiness of one’s life. All of which means… more time for books! And we have a great haul this week, as ever, including debut novels by Sam Sussman and Angela Flournoy, a memoir about deafness and voice by Rachel Kolb, and a history of the constitution by none other than Jill Lepore. There’s a primer on the long history of conflict between Israel and Palestine, a new guide to birding, and a creative memoir by Lydia Davis. The three going to the top of my list: Sam Sussman, Angela Flournoy, and Kate Zambreno.
Happy Tuesday, and enjoy the new bounty!
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Kate Zambreno, Animal Stories
(Transit)
“Zambreno’s lucid writing and relentless inquisitiveness shine.”
—Publishers Weekly
Samanta Schweblin, trans. by Megan McDowell, Good and Evil and Other Stories
(Knopf)
“No one writes like Samanta Schweblin. Her narratives are sui generis—wonderfully unpredictable and invitingly strange.”
—Lorrie Moore
Sam Sussman, Boy From the North Country
(Penguin Press)
“A debut novel of rare power, a page-turning story of a son learning to return to his mother’s transformative love. Tragic and redemptive, poetic and provocative, this novel held me breathless at every turn. Sussman is a writer of many gifts.”
—Maria Semple
Fatemeh Jamalpour and Nilo Tabrizy, For the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran’s Women-Led Uprising
(Pantheon)
“In a project undertaken at great personal risk, the authors’ compiled historical context, frank personal reflection, and conscientious recordkeeping constitute a critically important ‘first rough draft’ of a significant moment being ignored in real time … Personally driven, historically necessary, and politically salient.”
—Kirkus
John T. Edge, House of Smoke: A Southerner Goes Searching for Home
(Crown)
“John T. Edge refuses to allow himself or the reader the comfort of spectacle here. He does that Mississippi work and creates a lush, self-reflexive Southern monument that will last forever.”
—Kiese Laymon
Robin Allison Davis, Surviving Paris: A Memoir of Healing in the City of Light
(Amistad)
“[Davis] has persisted, determined to survive and thrive in a place she has grown to love. A frank chronicle of pain and hard-won recovery.”
—Kirkus
Rachel Kolb, Articulate: A Deaf Memoir of Voice
(Ecco)
“Accessible, fascinating, and heartfelt, this thorough examination of contemporary Deafness moves and edifies in equal measure. It’s required reading.”
—Publishers Weekly
Angela Flournoy, The Wilderness
(Mariner)
“Angela Flournoy is singular in how she renders the complicated solidarity that exists between friends. In The Wilderness, there is deep tenderness, room for the grayer areas of experience, for contradiction, ambivalence and the right to be lost.”
—Raven Leilani
Jane Eisner, Carole King: She Made the Earth Move
(Yale University Press)
“A robust celebration of a legendary musician.”
—Publishers Weekly
Ali McNamara, Right Place, Right Time
(Bloomsbury)
“An intriguing, luminous romance.”
—Woman’s Weekly
Elie Honig, When You Come at the King: Inside DOJ’s Pursuit of the President, from Nixon to Trump
(Harper)
“A fascinating, fast-paced insider’s account of the trials and tribulations of the nation’s highest-stakes cases from Watergate to today. In this riveting, deeply reported book, Honig offers unique historical insight and a timely and important look at the future of presidential accountability.”
—Anderson Cooper
Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, Tomorrow is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine
(FSG)
“Beautifully written . . . [Agha and Malley are] two people who have genuinely distinct perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and who have been in the room … A great book.”
—Chris Hayes
Jacinda Townsend, Trigger Warning
(Graywolf)
“A prescient and powerful work that pushes us towards a deeper understanding of ourselves—it’s a fantastic read.”
—S.A. Cosby,
Katharina Volckmer, Calls May Be Recorded
(Two Dollar Radio)
“This book is filled with brilliant dialogue, unexpected turns, some very dirty talk with sudden bursts of hilarity, and then fierce sadness. It exudes dark energy. It is highly original. It gives pleasure on every page.”
—Colm Tóibín
Anne Sebba, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival
(St. Martin’s Press)
“A vivid account of the experiences of the 40 or so women who briefly came together to make the music that saved their lives. Running through this fine book is Sebba’s empathy for the impossible moral choices presented to these young women.”
—The Guardian
Adam Nicolson, Bird School: A Beginner in the Wood
(FSG)
“Elegant and involving. Like one of the nests Nicolson finds on his property, it’s been deftly assembled.”
—The Observer
Mark Ronson, Night People: How to Be a DJ in ’90s New York City
(Grand Central)
“A wondrous snapshot of a bygone New York.”
—Publishers Weekly
Mary Roach, Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy
(W. W. Norton)
“We are all replaceable to some degree or another…with the exception of Mary Roach. There is no one and nothing like her—singular, bizarre, dedicated, passionate, fascinating. Her writing traffics at the unusual intersection of science, storytelling, and humor.”
—Jason Alexander
Anika Fajardo, The Many Mothers of Dolores Moore
(Gallery Books)
“Anika Fajardo’s charming and poignant new book is a map of loss, motherhood, and magic that welcomes the reader home. There are tender revelations, vivid details and funny moments throughout.”
—Chantal Acavedo
Jill Lepore, We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution
(Liveright)
“The noted historian advances the cause of an aggressively, and progressively, malleable set of rules for government … With the Constitution under daily threat, Lepore’s outstanding book makes for urgent reading.”
—Kirkus
Lydia Davis, Into the Weeds
(Yale University Press)
“Intimate revelations, delicately conveyed.”
—Kirkus
