August 13, 2024, 4:28am
It’s another Tuesday, and I bring tidings of new books to consider! As we weather the start of a month of some extreme weather in America—wildfires on one coast, a hurricane and tropical storm on another—it may just be the right time to focus elsewhere for a bit, if feasible, with something new and fascinating to read. And I have many just such things for you below.
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You’ll find twenty-four new books of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, including new work from Sofia Samatar, Peter Heller, Cynthia Zarin, Kristopher Jansma, Rosamund Young, and many others; a new look at the origins and prophetic beliefs surrounding Nat Turner’s famous rebellion; a trip through the adventures of Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny; a history of teeth; a memoir of musicals, Pakistan, immigration, man boobs, and more; and many other exciting options.
Let those to-be-read piles grow! It’s worth it.
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Peter Heller, Burn
(Knopf)
“A Maine camping trip turns into a fight for survival in this meditative dystopian thriller from Heller….Despite the high stakes, Heller gives the narrative plenty of space to breathe, allowing him to cast a haunting, immersive spell as his heroes traverse the ruined landscape. Painterly descriptions of nature and sparkling philosophical ruminations…elevate the proceedings. The result is a wilderness adventure with real emotional depth.”
–Book Page
Nathan Newman, How to Leave the House
(Viking)
“A bawdy tale of the unseriousness of existence and the impossibility of knowing our neighbors….How to Leave the House is fiction as friction, designed for discomfort. This is a novel of dichotomies that beg to be challenged, with psychological spaces that desperately need transparency but are inherently, tragically closed off to each other.”
–Book Page
Jo Hamya, The Hypocrite
(Pantheon)
“Brilliant. Thrilling and unpredictable, it struck me as a story of misunderstanding and failed connection, told with a dreamy, Sofia Coppola-esque quality. As a portrayal of artistic creation fueled by bitterness, The Hypocrite uncovers an uncomfortable truth: how a piece of art can both unify and alienate.”
–Natasha Brown
Sofia Samatar, Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life
(Soft Skull)
“Opacities is a writer’s notebook that we get to read pre-posthumously, a conversation with the self and the dead, a gesture toward the fantasy of publication without publicity. A book for Rilke’s ‘narrow ledge, ‘ full of intimacy and intensity, comforts and agitations, the haunting desires of artists.”
–Elisa Gabbert
Camille Peri, A Wilder Shore: The Romantic Odyssey of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson
(Viking)
“Camille Peri’s A Wilder Shore is a deeply researched portrait of boundary-breaking bohemians Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson. With astute critical evaluation of the great Scottish writer and his talented American wife’s works, the book takes us around the globe on their truth-is-stranger-than-fiction adventures. A page-turner!”
–Holly George-Warren
Bill Schutt, Bite: An Incisive History of Teeth, from Hagfish to Humans
(Algonquin)
“Who knew hagfish could be so interesting? Bite ranges across millions of years of evolution as Schutt explores the surprising importance of these stony nuggets inhabiting the mouths of animals. His writing is a mélange of science, history, and humor, as delightful to read as it is informative. Including a cast of quirky scientists as well as sharks, narwals and even George Washington, Schutt makes it all very accessible.”
–Darrin Lunde
Zbigniew Herbert, Reconstruction of the Poet: Uncollected Works of Zbigniew Herbert
(Ecco Press)
“Indispensable writing from one of this age’s major poets and moralists. Highly recommended.”
–Library Journal
Brad Walrond, Every Where Alien
(Amistad Press)
“Every Where Alien is a book that asks for interaction and understanding….Brad Walrond defies aesthetic boundaries to write the poems that only he could write, poems that travel time and space for a truth that is sometimes painful and always necessary.”
–Jericho Brown
Cynthia Zarin, Next Day: New and Selected Poems
(Knopf)
“Cynthia Zarin knows that sometimes all that’s needed to raise ordinary speech to poetic richness is a single, right word.”
–Ken Tucker
Kristopher Jansma, Our Narrow Hiding Places
(Ecco Press)
“Blending history on an epic scale with folklore and with the most deeply human realism, Our Narrow Hiding Places is a war story—and a love story—as powerful in its particulars as in its sweep. Jansma sets his sights on…war as a force of inhumanity, the many smaller brutalities that occur in its wake, and the many unrecorded generosities and acts of heroism, too…a magnificent anthem to the magic of survival in all its forms.”
–Clare Beams
Navid Sinaki, Medusa of the Roses
(Grove Press)
“Sinaki’s stunning debut follows two gay lovers struggling to survive in modern-day Tehran. In alternately gritty and sensual prose, Sinaki perfectly captures Anjir’s morbid state of mind and his inability to separate love from pain. The narrative teems with references to Greek mythology, Persian folktales, and Old Hollywood as Sinaki considers the psychological toll that living under an ever-present threat of death can take. This is a must.”
–Publishers Weekly
Yoko Ogawa, Mina’s Matchbox
(Pantheon)
“Focusing on characters of an age when the world seems full of wonder and possibility, this engaging bildungsroman explores the friendship and mutual curiosity between two extraordinary young people….Facing complicated themes with deceptively simple language, she pulls off a neat trick here, painting everything in miniature and often in hindsight without losing the immediacy of Tomoko’s experiences. A charming yet guileless exploration of childhood’s ephemeral pleasures and reflexive poignancy.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Rosamund Young, The Wisdom of Sheep: Observations from a Family Farm
(Penguin)
“Evocative….As Young, the author of The Secret Life of Cows, recounts, farming and a love of farm animals are in her blood….Nature and its simple joys reign supreme throughout this charming text. Warmhearted and charming, Young’s essays offer a gentle country antidote to the tumult of contemporary life. A delightful modern-day pastoral.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Anthony E. Kaye, Gregory P. Downs, Nat Turner, Black Prophet: A Visionary History
(FSG)
“A masterwork of historical research, thinking, and writing, Nat Turner, Black Prophet is 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. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the complex currents of American slavery and the nineteenth century more broadly…stunning.”
–Steven Hahn
Carrie Rickey, A Complicated Passion: The Life and Work of Agnès Varda
(Norton)
“A richly documented examination of this visionary filmmaker’s influential career….[P]roviding colorful anecdotes from friends and luminaries in Varda’s orbit…[and] depicting her subject’s trailblazing influence and unique cinematic vision embracing creativity, spontaneity, and willingness to tackle provocative issues through an uncompromising body of work.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Pepetela, The Utopian Generation (trans. David Brookshaw)
(Biblioasis)
“A novel of epic proportions that offers a multidimensional historical view of three crucial decades of modern Angolan history from 1961 to 1991. It is the first novel to offer a sustained, probing, heart-wrenching as well as in-depth critique of the postcolonial national project.”
–Fernando Arenas
Lindsey Drager, The Avian Hourglass
(Dzanc Books)
“The Avian Hourglass is splendidly odd and arresting. Drager establishes her themes of loss and duplication and catastrophe and estrangement and connection and sends them orbiting perfectly around each other, round after round, in an orrery of grieving and wonder.”
–Kevin Brockmeier
Fiona McFarlane, Highway Thirteen: Stories
(FSG)
“This Möbius strip of linked stories bends and twists the crime genre until it is barely recognizable….The result is a riveting study of human nature.”
–Geraldine Brooks
Theodore H. Schwartz, Gray Matters: A Biography of Brain Surgery
(Dutton)
“Blending personal experiences from the operating room with neuroscience’s historical roots and contemporary examples, Dr. Theodore H. Schwartz gives readers a captivating glimpse into the high-stakes, emotionally charged world of brain surgery. A riveting read that unveils the humanity, history, and science behind the scalpel.”
–Dana Suskind
Komail Aijazuddin, Manboobs: A Memoir of Musicals, Visas, Hope, and Cake
(Abrams)
“Komail Aijazuddin dares us to go beneath the surface of his life as a queer man coming of age pre- and post-9/11 in Pakistan, Canada, and the United States….Aijazuddin has given us a globetrotting bildungsroman for the twenty-first century filled with danger, wit, harrowing escapes, and, yes, musicals. Manboobs proudly assumes its place on the shelf beside Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime and the works of Christopher Isherwood.”
–Greg Marshall
Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy
(Harper)
“Shameless makes clear why Brian Tyler Cohen is a rising star of the Left. In his distinctive, accessible style, he exposes the Big Lie of the Republican brand, which was built on the embrace of supposed family values, fiscal responsibility and respect for the constitution, when in reality the party has been steeped in ideas that are quite the opposite, and which undermine American democracy.”
–Joy Reid
Caro de Roberis, The Palace of Eros
(Atria/Primero Sueno Press)
“De Robertis’ prose is as sharp and beautiful as ever. Their meditations on gender, desire, and freedom soar off the page. The author’s retelling provides a space to dream of a world where those ‘born perfect yet outside the rules’ of their time may find ways to step out of the shadows and into the light. A vulnerable, sensual, and joyous journey about living and loving in one’s truth.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Snowden Wright, The Queen City Detective Agency
(William Morrow)
“The Queen City Detective Agency is a remarkable work of Southern noir….A disgruntled PI and a plot as wildly complicated as the history of the American South itself combine in this spectacular, darkly funny mystery.”
–Shelf Awareness
Andrey Kurkov, Jimi Hendrix Live in LVIV
(Harpervia)
“The escapades of Andrey Kurkov’s loveable eccentrics provide a frame for an intriguing portrait of Lviv in the 2000s, a melancholy [Ukrainian] borderland city that finds itself recalling a troubled past as it sits on the cusp of an uncertain future.”
–Jury of the International Booker Prize
