Fair Winds

Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel’s “stunning latest,” per our starred review, sails onto our hardcover fiction list at #2. “Brilliantly combining imagery from science fiction and the current pandemic, Mandel grounds her rich metaphysical speculation in small, beautifully observed human moments”; the resulting novel, our review said, “should not be missed.” First-week print unit sales suggest that the reading public agrees.

Ocean’s 10

Debuting at #4 on our hardcover nonfiction list, Time Is a Mother is Ocean Vuong’s first poetry collection since 2016’s acclaimed Night Sky with Exit Wounds. Our starred review called the new work a “powerful follow-up,” explaining that it “does more than demonstrate poetic growth: it deepens and extends an overarching project with 27 new poems that reckon with loss and impermanence.” In between the two collections, Vuong’s epistolary novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous pubbed in 2019 and introduced the writer to an even wider audience. With just one week of sales, Time Is a Mother is the 10th-bestselling poetry book of the year so far.

Revisit the Goon Squad

Jennifer Egan lands at #3 on our hardcover fiction list with The Candy House, “an electrifying and shape-shifting story,” our starred review said, “that one-ups its Pulitzer-winning predecessor,” 2010’s A Visit from the Goon Squad. Characters from that book appear in the new one, which, despite a premise that may strike some as dystopian, Egan sees as optimistic. “The fate of the characters from Goon Squad—they didn’t turn out so bad,” she told PW in a prepub interview. “There’s a terror of where we are going, but I ended up writing a book that reminded me of how ingenious humans are.”

NEW & NOTABLE

Nowhere for Very Long
Brianna Madia
#6 Hardcover Nonfiction
“Travel writer Madia recounts the highs and lows of life on the road in her quietly moving debut,” per our review. Her “insights drill deep, as does her knack for carving beauty out of pain. Armchair adventurers will be inspired by this spirited story.”

Memphis
Tara M. Stringfellow
#16 Hardcover Fiction
“Stringfellow’s vibrant debut celebrates the resilience of women over multiple generations in a Black Memphis family, as well as the city that is central to their lives,” our review said of the April Read with Jenna pick. The author romanticizes Memphis, our review continued, “even as she lays bare its history of racism and violence.” Ultimately, “This satisfies like a bowl of butter pecan.”