Dinaw Mengestu. Knopf, $28 (272p) ISBN 978-0-385-35000-6
In the beautiful latest from Mengestu (All Our Names), a journalist pieces together the mysteries of his early life in the wake of his biological father’s death. The story takes place over three days after Mamush travels from Paris to the Ethiopian community outside Washington, D.C., where ... Continue reading »
Rob Hart. Putnam, $28 (320p) ISBN 978-0-593717-39-4
A legendary assassin joins a support group of murderers hoping to cure themselves of their addiction to violence in Hart’s nail-biting latest (after The Paradox Hotel). Mark, who works under the moniker the Pale Horse, has kept his murderous impulses in check for months, but his progress is... Continue reading »
Donyae Coles. Amistad, $28 (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-322809-2
Coles astounds in her atmospheric gothic debut set in Victorian England. Orabella has never been expected to amount to much due to her lower-class background and biracial (half-Black, half-white) identity. When her white uncle, who took her in after her parents’ deaths, accrues a massive gambling de... Continue reading »
India Holton. Berkley, $19 trade paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-593-54728-1
Putting a tongue-in-cheek twist on the enemies-to-lovers trope, Holton (The Secret Service of Tea and Treason) opens the Love’s Academic series on a gloriously madcap intellectual adventure tinged with a hint of whimsical fantasy. In 1890s England, socially awkward bluestocking Beth Pickeri... Continue reading »
Maria Sweeney. Street Noise, $20.99 trade paper (160p) ISBN 978-1-951491-26-0
Cartoonist Sweeney debuts with a candid portrait of life with a disability, drawn in delicate brushstrokes and natural colors. Born in Moldova in 1994, Sweeney showed early signs of Bruck syndrome, which causes fragile bones and joint contractures. After her birth parents place her in an orphanage, ... Continue reading »
Philip Metres. Copper Canyon, $22 trade paper (144p) ISBN 978-1-55659-669-8
The powerful sixth book from Metres (Shrapnel Maps), who is of Lebanese descent, confronts the trials of the present moment—including forced migration, climate change, and nationalism—through his family’s migration story. Metres wields poetic forms (among them odes, sonnets, and prayers) to... Continue reading »
Marcus Brotherton and Tosca Lee. Revell, $26.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-8007-4275-1
In this tour de force from Brotherton (A Bright and Blinding Sun) and Lee (A Single Light), four friends’ lives change irrevocably when America becomes embroiled in WWII. In 1930s Mobile, Ala., preacher’s son Jimmy Propfield shares an idyllic upbringing with childhood sweetheart Cl... Continue reading »
Genevieve Guenther. Oxford Univ, $29.99 (272p) ISBN 978-0-19-764223-8
Climate scientists, advocates, and journalists have unwittingly absorbed propagandistic definitions and narratives that subtly shape the news narrative in favor of fossil fuels, argues climate activist Guenther (Magical Imaginations) in this revelatory study. Hoping to clear the air, she un... Continue reading »
Salma Hage. Phaidon, $39.95 (272p) ISBN 978-1-83866-764-1
Hage (The Lebanese Kitchen) extols the vegetarian bounty of the Levant in this appealing collection. The region is known for its vegetable sharing plates, but Hage goes well beyond mezze. A brunch chapter includes muffin-style buns—made with a batter that incorporates cooked, soaked, and gr... Continue reading »
Eliza Griswold. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $30 (352p) ISBN 978-0-374-60168-3
Pulitzer winner Griswold (Amity and Prosperity) delivers a riveting chronicle of the fracturing of a progressive Christian church during a period of social and political turmoil. In 1996, “hippie church planters” Rod and Gwen White founded the Circle of Hope church in Philadelphia as an alt... Continue reading »
Mo Yan, adapted by Guan Xiaoxiao, trans. from the Chinese by Ying-Hwa Hu, illus. by Zhu Chengliang. Simon & Schuster, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-66593-062-8
At seven years old, a child goes for the first time to collect satintail grass with their grandfather, Yeye, in this picture book debut from Nobel laureate Mo Yan, adapted from a short story of the same name. A low mist hangs over the quiet journey as the pair make the long trek to a familiar meadow... Continue reading »