The renaissance of Australian writer Garner, who recently won the Baillie Gifford Prize for How to End a Story, continues with this marvelous collection of short fiction. In each poignant entry, a different protagonist grapples with their place in the world. Garner sets a tone of casual cruelty at the start of “Little Helen’s Sunday Afternoon,” when the narrator, a young girl named Helen, arrives for a visit at her uncle Jim’s house just as Jim, a doctor, leaves to attend to “some kid [who] cut his finger off.” While her mother and aunt socialize, Helen encounters her secretive older cousin, Noah, in a dark shed with his friends, and he angrily accuses her of spying. The sparely plotted yet sumptuously detailed “The Life of Art” follows a friendship across many decades, while “Civilisation and Its Discontents” explores the aftermath of an all-encompassing affair. Garner pinpoints the texture of her characters’ missed connections (“The silence was not a silence but a quietness of thinking”), as well as their withering view of the world (“The beautiful are greedy. They suck other people’s eyebeams into their blood cells and feast on them, growing lovelier and more opulent, while puritans like me who starve themselves for the sake of power diminish daily”). These stories ignite new ways of seeing the world. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

A disgraced TV executive and his wife retire to Maui, where their life of leisure is interrupted by news that they’ve been named guardians to a late friend’s four grandchildren, in ghostwriter Finn’s uneven debut. The first third focuses on the couple as they fumble around and bicker in the wake of 58-year-old Stafford Hopkins’s forced retirement (the reasons for his ouster are vaguely explained later). When a letter from a lawyer informs him that he has been named guardian for the four grandchildren of his childhood best friend, Bobby Shepherd, who died in an accident when they were teens and Bobby’s girlfriend was pregnant, he’s flooded with memories. Agnes protests, given that their first run at parenting resulted in a strained relationship with their daughter, and Stafford agrees, but he travels back to his small Canadian hometown to set up a fund for the children. Interspersed with his return are long flashbacks to his upbringing, including his idyllic boyhood with Bobby and their falling-out when they were teens. Finn crafts a convincing depiction of an aging married couple, who feel overwhelmed by the effort it would take “to undo the many years of battering and need that had replaced love,” but the listless plotting and delayed revelations wear thin. This one doesn’t quite hang together. Agent: Hilary McMahon, Westwood Creative Artists. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

A family takes in a stranger who arouses suspicion in this tantalizing tale of Dust Bowl Colorado from Dallas (Tough Luck). The narrator, 15-year-old farmer’s daughter Martha Helen Kessler, describes the harrowing dust storms that have destroyed crops and left her community in ruins. When handsome young drifter Otis Hobbs comes to town, he saves a young local boy from a storm and wins the favor of Martha Helen’s mother. Her father offers him a place to stay and a job on the farm. Then Martha Helen’s best friend Frankie goes missing and is found dead by Otis, who had joined the search party. The townspeople’s idle speculation about Otis’s origins and motives leads to accusations of murder, which the Kesslers dispute. Dallas skillfully peppers her well-crafted plot with red herrings, keeping the reader guessing at the truth about Otis and making the final revelations even more explosive. Along the way, she offers a transportive depiction of the storms, when “the earth is on the move” with a “wall of dust,” the sky turns “purple-black,” and the air thrums with static electricity. Readers who enjoy historical stories with a dash of mystery will race through this. Agent: Danielle Egan-Miller, Browne & Miller. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

The beguiling latest from Brooks-Dalton (The Light Pirate) follows an archaeologist whose obsession with the past lays waste to her present. Ember Agni, 38, hasn’t been on a dig for eight years. Biding her time at a university where she’s “not well-liked” due to her lack of interest in teaching, she’s married to a sweet, responsible builder with whom she has increasingly little in common, and longs to return to the field. After the first act, the reader begins to gather that the novel takes place sometime in the future following a climate disaster called the Crisis, but it’s not until much later that Brooks-Dalton clarifies the setting for Ember’s story line. When Ember learns that an unstable former graduate student she has sent to investigate an area forbidden by the government is on his way home with a mysterious artifact, her hopes rise, and she burns whatever bridges she can to follow in his footsteps. At this point, Brooks-Dalton shifts focus from the low-key drama of academic infighting and a crumbling marriage to startling revelations about Ember’s life and the world she’s living in. The adventure story is cunningly crafted, and Ember is a fascinating character: prickly, ambitious, and obsessive in her search for the truth. It adds up to a captivating mind-bender. Agent: Jennifer Gates, Aevitas Creative Management. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

Boyd (The Weight) excels with this gritty tale of a corrupt cop, a well-meaning high school teacher, and the violence faced by Black teens on Chicago’s South Side. Curtis Thompson is a beat cop who has been promoted to the Drug and Gang Task Force. His brother-in-law, Buddy Mack, teaches high-school English. One of Buddy’s students, Terrence “T-Rock” Latimore, gets killed after he’s suspected of ratting out drug smuggler Rob Jackson to police officers. Curtis, meanwhile, has been taking hush money from a sergeant who’s in league with Rob. After surveilling Rob’s house, Curtis and his partner follow two teens when they leave the building, suspecting them of trafficking. After a botched arrest, the teens flee, and Curtis shoots one in the back. Curtis’s victim turns out to be Rob’s nephew and Buddy’s student, Truth Jackson, a basketball prospect who hopes to escape the life of crime Rob has been preparing him for. Truth survives, and Curtis is forced to take a desk job while Internal Affairs investigates the shooting along with Curtis’s role in the department’s corruption. Boyd’s stark realism and fatalistic view of the characters’ milieu makes the hopeful ending all the more triumphant. This one hits hard. Agent: Warren Frazier, John Hawkins & Assoc. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

A floundering romantasy writer attempts to recover his mojo with help from his friends in the zany latest from Bouldrey (Good in Bed). Having spiraled into drug addiction at Summerhein, a crumbling Xanadu-esque mansion, Walace Weiss invites friends and family to join him on a journey of self-discovery and reinvigoration, hoping their presence will help him complete his long-awaited novel, The Sorrow of the Elves. Along for this epic ride are his drug dealer Cal and Cal’s ex-girlfriend, along with an aging porn star, a stripper and her death-obsessed young son, a recovering teen drug addict, and Walace’s reclusive, agoraphobic twin brother, Wolf. Having assembled this ragtag assortment of characters, whom Walace views as “broken toys at the bottom of a cardboard box,” the novel drags on for a while, without much of a plot, until it climaxes with an ecstatic dance party at Summerhein. Along the way, Bouldrey effortlessly shifts focus among all the assorted personalities. Digressive yet gloriously character-driven, this eccentric narrative will keep the reader’s head spinning. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

Sweeney’s latest arresting family drama (after The Nest) tracks the fallout of an affair in 1970s Rochester, N.Y., across two generations. Nina Larkin, mother to Clara and Bridie and wife to Sam, knows something is missing in her marriage. She considers divorce, but worries about the social repercussions, and carries on an affair with neighbor Finn Finnegan, who runs a chain of upscale grocery stores and feels similarly trapped in his marriage. Early one morning, Nina and Finn flee to the Dominican Republic for a quick divorce and marriage, leaving behind shattering notes for their teenage children about their plans. Clara has secretly been dating Finn’s son, Dune, and now Dune blames Nina for blowing up his family and refuses to see Clara, who digs into her grudge against her mother. The story extends to the 1990s, when Dune joins the family business and struggles with alcohol. Meanwhile, Clara refuses to forgive her mother and tells people she’s dead, Sam finally accepts that he’s gay, and Nina and Finn try to live a life back in New York that makes the pain of tearing apart their families worth it. Sweeney excels at exploring how the characters are shaped over time by their complex family dynamics. (As Clara’s new boyfriend puts it: “People change. We change. Sometimes for the better.”) The author’s fans will enjoy this. Agent: Henry Dunow, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

Howarth (Sunburn) captures the rhythms and underlying tensions of an Irish village through the eyes of multiple characters in her alluring sophomore outing. After an unexplained scandal, the details of which come out later, the four orphaned siblings of the O’Leary family leave Kilmarra, resettling in remoter, smaller Ballycrea in 1965. This indigent quartet, said derisively by locals to have arrived via “donkey and trap” (it was a pony), attracts the notice of compassionate Betty Nevan and her husband, Bill, who are childless and have a small farm. Not much happens plot-wise, but Howath builds tension by rotating the short chapters between the first-person narratives of Betty and siblings Tom, Anna, and Jack (the youngest, Peggy, is a toddler). The group encounters curious villagers, from the gossipy Ciara Moore to innocent Liam Hennessey, who has eyes for Anna. As the siblings settle into the community and jockey for their place within the Nevan family, Anna develops a growing affection for Betty, and the novel gradually blooms into a sapphic love story in which each woman’s burgeoning understanding of her own sexuality affects all the characters. An additional layer of suspense comes via the incremental revelation of the reasons behind the siblings’ exodus from Kilmarra. It’s an engrossing chronicle of restlessness and desire. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

In the uneven latest from Lee (Phantom Pain), four women’s infatuation with a Korean singer leads to disaster. The women, led by Ahanna, ambush 21-year-old Yosep, her former student turned pop star, during his nightly drive in Seoul. They hold him captive in her father’s mansion, where Yosep, who is given painkillers by the women, suffers from amnesia. The conspirators include Nami, who fell in love with Yosep after seeing him perform on TV; Heeae, who believes him to be her long-lost son, Yohan, and longs to have him back in her life; and Mihee, who desperately wanted to meet her idol. Complications arise when Ahanna’s nephew, Seongwuk, shows up at the house late one night. Heejoo paints a dark portrait of obsession, but the plot is convoluted, and Lee’s translation feels stilted, as in this depiction of Nami spoon-feeding Yosep: “Watching food going into Yosep’s baby-chick-like mouth satisfies her more than watching a goose’s liver fattening pleases a farmer.” Too often, Hejoo’s novel tests the reader’s patience. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Kovatcheva debuts with the sharp tale of a fraudulent vampire slayer who comes to the aid of an oppressed teen girl in 19th-century Bulgaria. Anka is believed to have cursed her village of Koprivci when she was born and her house burst into flames, killing her parents. Since that night, no child of the village has survived infancy. A man known as the Captain, who once loved her mother, saved Anka from the blaze and became her caretaker. As Anka comes of age, she reminds the Captain of her mother, and he awaits her menstruation, planning to marry her against her will. A parallel narrative follows itinerant vampire hunter Yana, who travels to Koprivci and claims the village in fact owes its misfortunes to a vampire, whom she offers to kill. While she goes about her work, Yana stays in the Captain’s garden cottage, where Anka seeks her out. The pair strike a deal that will provide Anka with her freedom and the charlatan Yana with proof of another job well done. Kovatcheva layers the narrative with colorful folklore, grisly details of Yana’s alleged vampire killings, and the characters’ intense desires, including the Captain’s passion for Anka’s mother and Anka’s hope to flee the village. This clever gothic novel offers readers much to savor. Agent: Stephanie Delman, Trellis Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink