In this gorgeous, arresting, and profoundly vivid new novel, Danticat once again tells a story that feels as mysterious and magical as a folk tale and as effective and devastating as a newsreel. Claire Limyè Lanmè (“Claire of the Sea Light”) is turning seven, and yet her birthday has always been marked by both death and renewal. Claire’s mother died in childbirth, and she has been raised by her fisherman father in a shack near the sea. The book begins there—in the shack, on the morning of her birthday—before winding back to tell the story of every previous birthday, and who lived, and died, each year. For some time, Claire’s father has considered giving her to a wealthy businesswoman who lost her own daughter, and the heartbreaking question of Claire’s fate adds to the novel’s suspense, as both the past, and this single day, unfold. In the meantime, Danticat (Krik? Krak!) paints a stunning portrait of this small Haitian town, in which the equally impossible choices of life and death play out every day. Agent: Nicole Aragi, Nicole Aragi Agency. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

Sometimes warmhearted, sometimes shockingly offensive, and much of the rest of the time very funny, Ammaniti’s (I’m Not Scared) new novel is like a rich, delicious stew with a few pieces of spoiled meat included for good measure. Saverio Moneta is a Satanist whose sect, the Wilde Beasts of Abbadon, is in trouble after shrinking to just four members, including the plump Roberto Morsillo (nicknamed “Murder”) and “Zombie,” who has digestive problems. Silvia, the fourth member, joins up after escaping from being buried alive by the group. Saverio’s solution to their diminishing numbers is to concoct an ambitious plan involving Larita, a singer who recently had a religious conversion. Meanwhile, Fabrizio Ciba, a popular author, is having trouble writing the great novel he knows he’s capable of. When he and the Beasts meet at one of the most lavish parties modern Rome has ever seen, any number of things can happen—and they do. This book pulls off a rare feat: an action-packed but well-paced satire populated with characters rather than caricatures. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

The hero of Smith’s latest venture into poeticized genre fiction is Cot Sims, a Miami gangster with a fondness for Virgil’s Georgics who returns to Key West to visit his estranged mother. Hoping to help her out of financial difficulties, Cot makes the fatal misstep of stealing precious emeralds from his ruthless boss, Albertson. His recklessness unleashes a torrent of reprisals that send him—along with his mother, brother, and married sometimes-lover, Marcella—on a desperate flight for survival. Dodging bullets and outwitting assassins, Cot struggles with his tempestuous love life and family relationships, all while fighting off a sense of existential homelessness. A poet as well as a novelist, Smith (Three Delays) writes in a curious blend of registers that has the narrative drive of an airplane read and the mystical resonance of verse, juxtaposing lyrical musings on memory and evocative descriptions of the Florida landscape with obligatory twists and betrayals. While the cartoonish violence sometimes seems at odds with the novel’s metaphysical depths, Smith nonetheless deserves credit for demonstrating that clichéd grindhouse plots are not incompatible with ravishing sentences. The result is a haunting and starkly grim fantasia on love, mourning, and the alienation inflicted by time. Agent: P.J. Mark, Janklow & Nesbit Associates. (July)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

In this shallow first novel about celebrity culture, Maxwell Lerner is a newly minted entertainment journalist for KNOW magazine. He lives with his childhood sweetheart, Samantha Kotter, an actress. But one day in 1994, Max reads in the newspaper that Sam, working at the Concord Theatre Festival, has fallen in love with her leading man, Johnny Mars, an ’80s action hero Max worshipped as a boy, sending Max into a tailspin. He tries to date, but doesn’t find anyone to take the place of Sam, who insists that she and Max become “pals.” As the ’90s become the aughts, Max nurses Sam through all sorts of crises in her marriage to Mars and makes a name for himself in the celebrity-interview game. But will Max end up with a true Hollywood ending? Svetkey’s tale is half romance and half roman à clef (he spent years as a celebrity interviewer for Entertainment Weekly), and reading about the celebrity scene of yesteryear is as rewarding as an old issue of EW. Max, sadly, is a little too callow to make us care whether he finds happiness, with or without his beloved Sam. Agent: Betsy Lerner, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

In Turgeon’s mash-up of “Rapunzel” and “Snow White,” the longhaired maiden isn’t quite so fair and innocent as in the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. After a few hours of passion with the prince from the nearby kingdom in her bedroom tower, Rapunzel finds that she’s pregnant with his child. The only problem? The prince is engaged to another. The witch Mathena, determined to prevent her adopted daughter from becoming a mistress to the most powerful man in the land, casts a spell to keep the prince from finding Rapunzel again. Seven years later, when his wife dies under questionable circumstances, the prince, now king, finds Rapunzel and makes her his new queen. But his legitimate daughter, the beautiful Snow White—along with the rest of the kingdom—is weary of a witch’s daughter assuming the throne. And not without good reason. For, when Rapunzel learns from her magic mirror that she’s no longer the fairest of them all—that, in fact, Snow White is “a thousand times more fair”—she turns downright ugly. Turgeon (The Next Full Moon) imaginatively combines murder, revenge, sex, magic, and other genre tropes into a dark and twisted fairy tale. Agent: Elaine Markson, Markson Thoma. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

The most striking aspect of Swiss author Walser’s stories is how modern they seem, both in form and content, given that they were written nearly 100 years ago. Most are very short, fitting comfortably into the flash fiction genre, though distinct in their directness and lack of irony. The writer/narrator, who emerges as the main character in every story, even when he is writing about something else, feels very young; energy and the joys of discovery and sharing passionate views runs through every piece. The book is divided into three parts, each offering subtle structural differences (yet the three sections are similar in tone and content). As assembled by Searls, the first part, “Fritz Kocher’s Essays,” is from Walser’s first published collection; it strings together short reflections on the natural world and intellectual riffs on subjects like “Poverty,” “Politeness,” and “The Fatherland.” An introduction to this section from the fictional publisher explains that the author, young Fritz, died soon after leaving school. The second part includes dozens of stand-alone stories (“Greifen Lake,” from 1898, was Walser’s first published work; “A Model Student” was one of Walser’s last), more wide-ranging but similarly buoyant, describing a mountain, an adventure on a train, a loutish local scoundrel, etc. “Hans,” the single long story that comprises the third part, originally published in 1919 in Lake Country, reads like a looser version of the other sections. Hans’s odyssey resembles a pleasant ramble, and Walser provides joie de vivre in small, ingenuous doses. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

World War II is nearly always a draw for readers, and Tolsma’s tale, based on events in her family’s past, adds an appealing note of authenticity. Set in Holland in early 1945, Cornelia de Vries is tired of war, of loss, of terror. But when her brother Johan Kooistra brings home a wounded Dutch Resistance fighter, Cornelia must work through her fear. She wants to guard her heart, but Gerrit Laninga, whose bravery inspires her, begins to awaken feelings she thought were as dead as her husband, who was killed on the night of their ill-timed wedding, when the Ger-mans invaded the Netherlands. But can Cornelia conquer her misgivings to do her part for the Resistance? Tolsma does a good job recreating the Netherlands during WWII and placing her readers in the midst of the turmoil, danger, and bravery that filled those last days before the end of the war. Agent: Tamela Hancock Murray, Steve Laube Agency. (Aug. 6)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

Hodgson (Two Brides Too Many) continues the stories of Anna Goben and Caroline Milburn, first introduced in The Quilted Heart e-book novellas. Anna, her mother, and grandfather continue to grieve for the loss of Anna’s brother, killed in the Civil War. Hoping a new environment will revive their spirits, the trio make plans to join the Boones Lick Company wagon train headed to California. Caroline, a war widow, wants a fresh start as well, but first she must overcome trail master Garrett Cowlishaw’s objections to a single woman attempting the arduous journey. Among the Boone Lick trail hands are Caleb Reger, a man trying to outrun his past; Boney Hughes, Anna’s brother’s best friend and the man she jilted at the altar; and Isaac, a former slave adjusting to life as a free man. The rustic setting of the trail lends itself to drama, while the sheer number of unattached men and women allows for ample doses of romance and rejection. A bonus for lovers of light historical fiction. Agent: Janet Kobobel Grant, Books & Such Literary Agency. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

In this novel, written in verse, each brief chapter introduces a different character, living in a different era, sometimes in a different city. The effect is mesmerizing, as both the cadence of the couplets and the connections that link the characters become more established and familiar. Rakoff (Half-Empty), a frequent This American Life contributor and winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, who died in the summer of 2012, combines his wit and his gravity for an unexpected blend of uncomfortable rhymes that build into recognizable stories. In one of the most intriguing chapters, Helen is a secretary seduced by her boss and then transferred once she needs an abortion: “She asked if he’d ever again say Hello,/ Fedora’d and coated and ready to go/ He took a step backward as if sensing danger/ And fixed her with eyes of a cold-blooded stranger.” Astounding, too, is how effectively an entire century is captured in these slices of daily life—how each era both defines and inspires those within its grasp. Agent: Irene Skolnick, Irene Skolnick Literary Agency. (July)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

In this clever and campy send-up of 1960s pulp, Nolan (Bobby Blanchard, Lesbian Gym Teacher) tells the tale of one Maxie Mainwaring, a Bay City (clearly San Francisco) heiress whose wealthy family cuts off her allowance after she’s caught kissing Elaine Ellman in the bathroom at the 1964 Daughters of the American Pioneers Spring Tea. In the ensuing fallout, the feckless heroine—who has never had to support herself, although she has held a part-time job as an assistant to a gossip columnist—is forced to seek employment, first as a recreational aide, then as an assistant at Polish, an upscale magazine. Along the way, Maxie gets caught up in a Scandinavian mob scheme, finds her mother in a compromising position, falls for an attractive butch named Lon, and dodges a murder attempt. Maxie—and Nolan—charm the pants off everyone in this original and engaging romp. (July)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink