The Sea ChildLinda Wilgus. Ballantine, $30 (304p) ISBN 978-0-593-97655-5
In Wilgus’s vibrant debut, a young widow retreats from early-19th-century London to the Cornish coastal village where she was discovered wandering the shore as a little girl and raised by her adoptive parents. After Isabel’s husband, George, dies at the Battle of Trafalgar, she befriends James, his ... Continue reading »
The Burning GroundsAbir Mukherjee. Pegasus Crime, $28.95 (384p) ISBN 978-1-63936-985-0
Mukherjee’s talent for elevating genre tropes suffuses the stellar fifth installment of his 1920s-set Wyndham and Banerjee mystery series (after The Shadows of Men). It’s been three years since British detective Sam Wyndham helped his onetime partner, Indian investigator Surendranath Banerj... Continue reading »
Cyanide ConstellationsSara Tantlinger. Dark Matter, $14.99 trade paper (174p) ISBN 978-1-958598-81-8
The 12 equal parts chilling and exhilarating stories in Tantlinger’s debut collection deliver dread-filled cosmic horror with a richly gothic flavor. The range is wide: there’s eco-horror explicating the consequences of environmental destruction (“As Humans Burn Beneath Us”), a tale of delightfully ... Continue reading »
When There Are No More Stars to CountMaría Martinez, trans. from the Spanish by A. Nathan West. Sourcebooks Casablanca, $17.99 trade paper (416p) ISBN 978-1-4642-2507-9
Martinez (You and Other Natural Disasters) expertly tugs at the heartstrings with this story of love, loss, and second chances. Maya Rivet was raised by her cruel and ambitious grandmother, Olga, whose obsession with ballet drove Maya’s mother away when Maya was a child and, eventually, pus... Continue reading »
Fela: The Music Is the WeaponJibola Fagbamiye and Conor McCreery. Amistad, $48 (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-305879-8
This rousing celebration of Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti (1938–1997)—Afrobeat star, truth-teller, commune leader, and frequent “rascal”—blends brisk biographical storytelling with urgent cultural and political history, gorgeous evocations of the power of music and dance, and bursts of bloody violence both fa... Continue reading »
Lola the InterpreterLyn Hejinian. Wesleyan Univ, $18.95 trade paper (176p) ISBN 978-0-8195-0197-4
The wry and sprawling final offering from the late, great Hejinian (Fall Creek) comprises a book-length prose poem in which the speaker moves through the motions and emotions of the “every day,” engaging with a cast of local characters. By doing so, Hejinian and her narrator explore a centr... Continue reading »
The Long March HomeMarcus 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 »
Languages of Home: Essays on Writing, Hoop, and American Lives 1975–2025John Edgar Wideman. Scribner, $29 (400p) ISBN 978-1-6680-3637-2
Novelist, essayist, and critic Wideman (Slaveroad) delivers a profound, career-spanning collection of essays on literature, sports, and culture. Early entries consist largely of critical analyses of writings by Charles W. Chesnutt, Richard Wright, and W.E.B. Du Bois, with Wideman declaring ... Continue reading »
Weightless: A Doctor’s Guide to GLP-1 Medications, Sustainable Weight Loss, and the Health You DeserveRocio Salas-Whalen. Rodale, $29 (288p) ISBN 978-0-593-98120-7
Endocrinologist Salas-Whalen offers a compassionate and comprehensive guide to losing weight with GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. She walks readers through the process of evaluating GLP-1 medications (short for glucagon-like peptide-1, a hormone that regulates blood sugar le... Continue reading »
Light for the Way: Seeking Simplicity, Connection, and Repair in a Broken WorldEdited by Rose Marie Berger. Broadleaf, $28.99 (336p) ISBN 979-8-88983-541-7
These stimulating essays and interviews from the first 50 years of Sojourners magazine, collected by poetry editor Berger (Who Killed Donte Manning?), seek “sabbath rest, contemplation, solitude, simplicity, and communal resilience” in today’s world. Franciscan priest Richard Rohr ... Continue reading »
How to Have a Thought: A Walk with Charles DarwinNicholas Day, illus. by Hadley Hooper. Holiday House/Porter, $19.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-5850-9
For readers who feel constantly hurried along, Day (Nothing) offers up an anecdote from the life of Charles Darwin (1809–1882) as permission to do something downright rebellious: slow down and let their thoughts wander. Fittingly discursive text describes how Darwin literally walked... Continue reading »
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