Mischa Berlinski. Liveright, $27.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1-324-09520-0
In the sharp-witted and weighty latest from Berlinski (Fieldwork), #MeToo allegations roil an off-off-Broadway Shakespeare company, prompting a 50-something actor to reevaluate her life. Mona Zahid is already grappling with the difficult new role of Cleopatra and what it says about her care... Continue reading »
Asia Mackay. Bantam, $30 (352p) ISBN 978-0-593-87558-2
Artist Hazel Matthews and wealthy heir Nathaniel Foxton “Fox” Cabot, the married protagonists of Mackay’s wildly entertaining latest (after The Nursery), have spent the last few years traveling across Europe, murdering men who prey on women. Their exploits have earned them the Interpol nick... Continue reading »
Hache Pueyo. Tordotcom, $24.99 (128p) ISBN 978-1-250-37663-3
Stylish, unnerving, and highly original, Pueyo’s debut novella (after the collection A Study in Ugliness) is a delightful genre mash-up combining gothic horror with monster romance. As one of the many servants of Capricious House, Dália spends her days taking care of the property and its mi... Continue reading »
Lorraine Heath. Avon, $9.99 mass market (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-338445-3
Heath’s riveting and deeply sensual fifth Scandalous Gentleman of St. James romance (after Gentlemen Prefer Heiresses) takes the series to new heights. After a railway accident in Victorian England results in a brain injury, Viscount Langdon secludes himself at his family’s remote island re... Continue reading »
Sarah Airriess and Apsley Cherry-Garrard. Iron Circus, $20 (236p) ISBN 978-1-63899-137-3
Disney animator Airriess (The Princess and the Frog), an associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute, debuts with a standout graphic adaptation of Antarctic explorer Cherry-Garrard’s account of his 1910–1913 expedition to the South Pole. This terrific first volume in a four-part series ... Continue reading »
Farnoosh Fathi. New York Review Books, $16 trade paper (128p) ISBN 978-1-68137-859-6
The fantastical and strange second collection from Fathi (Great Guns) evokes André Breton’s surrealism and the linguistic playfulness of Gertrude Stein in lines such as “Now each wave curtsies, the bather has anal/ and a suit of medieval holes for the dolphin’s spurs” and the “bride slip ‘n... 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 »
Dorian Lynskey. Pantheon, $32 (512p) ISBN 978-0-593-31709-9
This sweeping cultural history from journalist Lynskey (The Ministry of Truth) chronicles how films, novels, and other media have imagined the apocalypse from ancient times through the present. He explains that cultures across the world held a cyclical understanding of time until ancient Pe... Continue reading »
Michael Mina. Voracious, $40 (288p) ISBN 978-0-316-42978-8
Restaurateur Mina (Michael Mina: The Cookbook) presents an exciting celebration of his Egyptian heritage. Traditional dishes—including ta’ameya (fried fava bean patties), ma’amoul (date-filled cookies), and koshari (lentils, chickpeas, pasta, and rice served together in a tomato sauce with ... Continue reading »
Catherine Nixey. Mariner, $32.50 (384p) ISBN 978-0-358-65291-5
In the early days of Christianity, there were many different versions of Christ, according to this scintillating history from journalist Nixey (The Darkening Age). Studying texts that emerged in the centuries after Jesus’s death, Nixey dissects ancient Greco-Roman writings that depict Chris... Continue reading »
Maria van Lieshout. First Second, $25.99 (256p) ISBN 978-1-250-86981-4; $17.99 paper ISBN 978-1-250-86982-1
Young girls are united through the decades in this touching and tender graphic novel exploration of grief, family, and the vital importance of artistic expression, told by van Lieshout (the Big Kid Power series) through intertwining stories set in Amsterdam between 2011 and the Nazi occupation of th... Continue reading »