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The Shadow of War

Jeff Shaara. St. Martin’s, $30 (368p) ISBN 978-1-250-27996-5

Shaara (The Old Lion) dramatizes the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis in his lackluster latest. The story draws on the perspectives of various members of the Kennedy administration; Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and his advisers; and fictional English professor Joseph Russo, a Kennedy supporter living in a pro-Nixon Florida community. As the Kennedy White House grapples with the complex fallout of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, an emboldened Khrushchev begins shipping nuclear weapons to Cuba. Attorney general Robert Kennedy, under the direction of his brother in chief, scrambles to come up with a path forward that won’t lead to mutually assured destruction, and the cabinet weighs a land invasion, a naval blockade, and diplomacy. These Oval Office scenes alternate with ones featuring Khrushchev, who considers potential countermoves and deals with the hardliners in his party who push for a strong response to the U.S. blockade. Meanwhile, the Russo family learns of the threat through television broadcasts and duck-and-cover drills at school. Exposition-heavy dialogue lessens the suspense, and too little attention is paid to the Russos. This pales in comparison to other fictional treatments of earthshaking geopolitical events, such as Robert Harris’s Munich. (May)

Reviewed on 03/22/2024 | Details & Permalink

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Wait

Gabriella Burnham. One World, $27 (272p) ISBN 978-0-593-59650-0

Burnham (It Is Wood, It Is Stone) offers an expressive if diffuse narrative of two first-generation Brazilian American sisters coping with the sudden deportation of their mother. Elise, about to graduate from college in North Carolina, hears from her 18-year-old sister, Sophie, that their mother, Gilda, has disappeared from their home on Nantucket. Elise then ditches her graduation ceremony to be with Sophie. A few days later, Gilda, who was working as a restaurant cook on the island, calls from her hometown in Brazil and explains that she was spied on, detained, and deported by ICE because of a missed court date many years ago, after her work visa expired. Elise returns to her high school job on Nantucket, monitoring endangered species, and Sophie works as a waitress. More trouble arrives after Gilda is served an eviction notice in absentia. Luckily, Sheba, Elise’s rich best friend at college, returns to her family’s summer house on the island and the sisters find refuge in her guesthouse. Burnham ably depicts the instability faced by taxpaying and hardworking immigrants such as Gilda, but loses her way in the gauzy summer chronicle of Elise, Sheba, and Sophie’s endless partying. This lacks the luster of Burnham’s potent debut. Agent: Marya Spence, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (May)

Reviewed on 03/22/2024 | Details & Permalink

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Butcher

Joyce Carol Oates. Knopf, $30 (312p) ISBN 978-0-593-53777-0

Oates (Zero-Sum) delivers a deliciously arch and relentlessly gloomy fictional biography of Dr. Silas Aloysius Weir, a character based on two 19th-century doctors. Weir, known during his time as the “Father of Modern Gyno-Psychiatry,” was also called the “Red-Handed Butcher” for his gruesome experiments on women during his 35-year stint at the New Jersey State Asylum for Female Lunatics in Trenton. The bulk of the novel is presented as a Nabokovian manuscript composed of accounts by Weir’s colleagues, family members, and patients, which have been assembled and annotated by his oldest son, Jonathan. Banished from a Pennsylvania hospital after a failed cranial surgery on an infant, Weir applies his “colossal egotism” to his new patients at the asylum, asserting that “mental illness in females is a consequence of infection, particularly of the female genitals.” To that end, he turns a tablespoon into a speculum and introduces sadistic treatments with misleading names like the “Chair of Tranquility.” The recipient of many of his surgeries is Brigit Kenealy, a young, indentured albino Irish servant who becomes his romantic obsession and assistant. 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. Agent: Warren Frazier, John Hawkins & Assoc. (May)

Reviewed on 03/22/2024 | Details & Permalink

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Ella

Diane Richards. Amistad, $28 (352p) ISBN 978-0-06-333865-4

Richards, a former background vocalist for Whitney Houston, debuts with an electrifying tale of Ella Fitzgerald in the years before she was discovered on “Amateur Night” at the Apollo Theater in 1934. The story begins in 1932, when 15-year-old Ella and her family struggle to get by during the Great Depression. Her mother, Tempie, carries the burden of supporting the family financially as a laundress in Yonkers. Tempie’s interracial marriage to Ella’s stepfather, Portuguese immigrant Joseph Da Silva, is burdened by his inability to hold down a job and his alcoholism. Meanwhile, Tempie encourages Ella to pursue her dream of becoming a dancer, pinning her own dashed hopes on her daughter. After Tempie dies suddenly from injuries she sustained in an accident years earlier, Ella, who is physically and sexually abused by Joseph, runs to her Aunt Virginia’s home in Harlem. Her quest to make it out of poverty meets one major obstacle after another, and she soon becomes a numbers runner and a lookout girl for a local brothel. Her struggles continue after she’s sent to a racist reformatory school in Upstate New York for truancy, though she finds refuge in singing and eventually manages to escape. Richards’s research brings the sights and sounds of 1930s Harlem to vivid life, and she portrays Fitzgerald’s troubling teen years with care and sensitivity. Readers will be grateful for the chance to feel so deeply acquainted with “The First Lady of Song.” Agents: Regina Brooks, Serendipity Literary; Jeff Kleinman, Folio Literary. (May)

Reviewed on 03/22/2024 | Details & Permalink

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To & Fro

Leah Hager Cohen. Bellevue Literary, $18.99 trade paper (416p) ISBN 978-1-954276-25-3

Cohen (Strangers and Cousins) offers a playful and provocative tête-bêche novel with each half devoted to a different young girl searching for a sense of belonging. The fairy tale–like first entry, “To,” is narrated by wide-eyed Ani, who engages in various “leave-takings” from her home and eventually goes for a long bike ride. Along her journey, she encounters a fussy kitten who becomes her companion and travels with a mysterious ferryman. Readers are then invited to flip the book over to “Fro,” a comparatively more grounded narrative. Annamae lives in Manhattan with her mother and brother Danny. She’s surrounded by loving adults, including her nana, her uncle Hersh (who’s not really an uncle), and her aunt Marni, but, like Ani, she seeks an understanding confidant. In an author’s note, Cohen says she doesn’t favor either narrative as a starting point, and each story reverberates in the other, leaving readers to sense Ani in Annamae’s longing for a friend and Annamae as the target of Ani’s directionless wandering. Cohen’s graceful exercise is worth a spin. Agent: Barney Karpfinger, Karpfinger Agency. (May)

Reviewed on 03/22/2024 | Details & Permalink

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888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers

Abraham Chang. Flatiron, $29.99 (400p) ISBN 978-1-250-91078-3

Chang channels High Fidelity for a lively if underdeveloped story of a first-generation Chinese American reckoning with his heritage and his first potentially serious relationship. It’s 1995 and NYU undergrad Young Wang works at a used record and video store. When his classmate Erena Yasuda comes into the store looking for anime recommendations, he parlays their interaction into a date. Things seem to go well—she opens up about her mixed Japanese and Korean heritage, and they kiss, but then Young flees. It turns out Young’s globe-trotting, lottery-winning uncle once told him everyone has seven great loves in their life, and Young has only loved five girls before he met Erena. What follows is a series of flashbacks to his previous infatuations, which ended either in the friend zone or with Young otherwise heartbroken. Meanwhile, in the present day, Young relentlessly emails Erena for a second date, wondering if his uncle’s theory is right after all. Stylistic flourishes abound; in addition to email transcripts and explanations of pager code, Chang imagines conversations with his favorite film directors including Rob Reiner (“You never did like All in the Family (not really the target demographic), but it’s me—Meathead! I done good, yeah?”). The numerology stuff feels a bit half-baked, but Chang strikes all the right notes in his portrayal of a tender youth. Gen Xers will revel in the nostalgia. Agent: Faye Bender, Book Group. (May)

Reviewed on 03/22/2024 | Details & Permalink

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Shae

Mesha Maren. Algonquin, $28 (224p) ISBN 978-1-64375-566-3

A West Virginia girl descends into opioid addiction after giving birth and breaking up with her trans girlfriend in Maren’s emotionally taut if thematically uneven latest (after Perpetual West). Shae, an introverted 16-year-old, is captivated by the new-to-town Cam, a misfit with piercings and long blond hair who is defiant even while being bullied by classmates. The pair bond over their love of punk rock, and Cam moves in with Shae and her mother. The teens start having sex, and Shae gets pregnant. Shortly before their daughter, Eva, is born, Cam, now the lead singer of a band, appears onstage in Shae’s clothes and comes out as trans. Shae, hearing the news for the first time, is fearful of what Cam’s transition will mean for their relationship. Then, after a botched C-section, her doctor prescribes OxyContin for the pain. Unable to finish school and working as a stripper to score pills and heroin, Shae blames herself as Cam pulls away and thrives at college. Maren beautifully evokes both the natural beauty of Appalachia and Shae’s plaintive longing for Cam, though the characterization of the saintly Cam, who returns to take custody of Eva while still an undergrad, feels a bit flat. Still, Maren continues to show a knack for portraying the complexities and contradictions of an often-misunderstood part of America. Agent: Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency. (May)

Reviewed on 03/22/2024 | Details & Permalink

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Skin & Bones

Renée Watson. Little, Brown, $30 (416p) ISBN 978-0-316-57088-6

YA author Watson (Piecing Me Together) makes her adult debut with a heartfelt if heavy-handed exploration of a Black woman’s reckoning with her identity and self-image. Lena, a pastor’s daughter about to turn 40, is engaged to youth minister Malcolm. She’s also a mother to seven-year-old Aaliyah, whom she had with her ex-boyfriend Bryan. Others tell her she’s beautiful, but she struggles to accept herself as a fat person. She finds fulfillment in organizing a series of historical exhibits and lectures about the history of her Black neighborhood, which was built decades earlier in the wake of a disastrous flood and is now encroached upon by gentrification. After she learns Malcolm had lied about remaining celibate while they took a break from dating, she calls off the wedding and reconnects with Bryan. She and her Black women friends face constant microaggressions from thin white people about their race and weight, and she’s determined to equip Aaliyah with the tools to navigate a world that marginalizes women who look like them. Though the lessons Lena imparts to Aaliyah can make the novel feel like an after school special, Watson widens the story’s scope with lyrical prose: “We are the splinter festering in the heart of this city, not easily removed.” Readers will be glad to know Watson’s defiant and loving protagonist. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary. (May)

Reviewed on 03/22/2024 | Details & Permalink

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Every Time We Say Goodbye

Natalie Jenner. St. Martin’s, $29 (336p) ISBN 978-1-250-28518-8

Jenner picks up where Bloomsbury Girls left off as protagonist Vivien Lowry pivots from bookselling to a new career as a playwright in 1950s London. The opening night of her second play feels “like a dream,” but harsh reviews cut its run short. When Vivien’s famed socialite friend Peggy Guggenheim helps her score a script-editing gig in Rome, she jumps at the chance to work on When All Else Fails, the story of an Italian police officer falling in love with an American singer on tour. Also preoccupying Vivien is the question of how her former fiancé, David, died, since she recently learned of his last-known whereabouts as a POW in Italy during WWII. In Rome, she embarks on an affair with producer John Lassiter, who is estranged from his Italian movie star wife. To make matters even more complicated, the Vatican shuts down production on the movie, partially due to its disagreement with the portrayal in another film from the studio of the Vatican’s policy of neutrality during the war. Jenner provides an insightful view into Italy’s postwar reckoning, and she imbues the novel’s many celebrity cameos—including actresses Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida—with authentic flair. Jenner’s fans will love this. (May)

Reviewed on 03/22/2024 | Details & Permalink

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Reunion

Elise Juska. Harper, $27.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-06-334676-5

In the appealing latest from Juska (after If We Had Known), three friends attend their 25th college reunion in Maine during the Covid-19 pandemic. Hope Richardson, now an overwhelmed stay-at-home mom with two children and a husband who is “deeply around, yet deeply absent,” can’t wait for a weekend away from her Philadelphia suburb. Her friends Adam Dalton and Polly Gesauldi are less convinced. Adam, late to marriage and now a father to five-year-old twin boys in New Hampshire, is concerned about leaving them with his wife, whose anxiety has worsened during quarantine. Single mother Polly is a cash-strapped and “exploited” adjunct professor in New York City and only agrees to attend the reunion when her 18-year-old son, Jacob, who’s had trouble dealing with the social isolation of lockdown, asks to tag along to spend the weekend with a friend whose family has a summer house near the campus. Hijinks ensue as the Natty Light flows freely, and long-held secrets work their way to the surface. When Jacob goes missing from his friend’s house and leaves behind a cryptic Instagram message, Hope, Adam, and Polly band together to find him. While some of the plot turns are predictable, the characters are well drawn, and Juska does an especially good job of portraying how her cast navigates a new normal. It’s a diverting twist on the Big Chill formula. Agent: Katherine Fausset, Curtis Brown, Ltd. (May)

Reviewed on 03/22/2024 | Details & Permalink

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