Weatherford’s fresh new translation of this seminal 1953 collection from Mexican writer Rulfo (1917–1986) lays bare the enigmatic potency of its stories about love, poverty, and violence. In “Talpa,” the narrator returns home alone after fulfilling his sick brother’s wish to receive a miracle cure in the eponymous town, despite knowing his brother would never survive the journey. In “The Man,” an unnamed protagonist is following someone, but he is also being followed. Later, the reader learns the protagonist is on the run after massacring a family. As characters trek across vast and arduous desert terrain, it can be hard to distinguish the real from the imaginary, which adds to the book’s power. Rulfo makes effective use of confessional, first-person narrators, whose admissions of wrongdoing are proffered with a shocking nonchalance, as in “La Cuesta de les Comadres,” whose protagonist admits to killing his good friend. Despite the economic prose style, Rulfo doesn’t eschew metaphorical lyricism, as in “Talpa,” where the narrator reflects on being swept up by the crowd descending onto the town (“Never had I felt life to be so leaden and violent as it was while walking among that swarm of people, as if we were a knot of worms writhing under the sun”). This will please Rulfo’s devotees and earn him new ones. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/05/2024 | Details & Permalink

Reeves (Falling Through the New World) spins a dramatic tale of survival at a frigid whaling station in 1937 Norway. Botanist Astrid Handeland accompanies her whaler husband, Tor, on his arctic beluga hunt, hoping to heal the rift between them after the death of their four-year-old son, Birk, who drowned in Oslo’s harbor on Astrid’s watch. As Astrid studies the arctic flora, her depression is exacerbated by the harsh weather conditions and the cramped living quarters she and Tor share with his crew. After Astrid gets unexpectedly but happily pregnant, the couple delays their return home to spend a couple of weeks alone. The situation quickly becomes dire after they fail to reach the rendezvous point with their ship, forcing them to shelter in their cabin through the winter with dangerously low rations and no medical care. Told through alternating viewpoints—Astrid’s in letters to Birk and Tor’s after he discovers those letters 10 years later—the story is packed with revelations about the couple’s efforts to cope with their grief. This emotionally rich historical will keep readers turning the pages. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/05/2024 | Details & Permalink

In Dimberg’s mediocre latest (after Girl in the Rearview Mirror), a conflict involving a wellness guru and her employees turns deadly. Rhoda West, founder of the popular wellness brand Radical, hopes to turn her array of retreats, supplements, and fitness apps into a billion-dollar company. Among her employees are “radigals” Dani Lang, who has loved Radical’s products since she discovered them three years earlier; and Cecelia Cole, whose anonymous Twitter account skewers Rhoda as a capitalist charlatan. When Cecelia publishes an anonymous article accusing Rhoda of verbal abuse and outing her plan to fire Dani because she’s pregnant, it jeopardizes much-needed funding and creates a riff between Cecelia and Dani. Rhoda retaliates by hiring a lawyer to harass Cecelia, and moves forward with a party for potential investors. Though Dimberg offers a nuanced view of her characters’ obsessions with wellness, money, and reputation, the plot goes off the rails after a woman attending the fundraiser falls to her death, and the ending strains credulity. Readers will be hard pressed to go the distance. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/05/2024 | Details & Permalink

Seltzer’s lively if soapy debut follows a Jewish mother and daughter joined by their careers in popular music. The parallel narrative begins in the mid-1960s, when Judie Zingerman and her sister, Sylvia, are a popular folk-rock duo known as the Singer Sisters. The second story line concerns Judie’s daughter, Emma Cantor, an up-and-coming alt-rocker in the mid-1990s who’s trying to land her first record deal. Headstrong Emma has a conflicted relationship with Judie, which only becomes more complicated when a secret from Judie’s past comes to light and threatens to scuttle Emma’s career. The details are revealed later; mainly, the plot functions as a means for Seltzer to explore the importance of songwriting to her characters, as Emma’s discovery of Judie’s never performed songs helps her understand the choices Judie made as a younger woman. Judie has an alluring theory of songwriting: “I prefer when [a song] won’t let you in at first, and you have to knock on the door. But once you go inside, the house is endless.” Throughout, readers are treated to numerous examples of Judie’s and Emma’s perceptive insights on the business (“Becoming a bona fide rock star required.... The look, the presence and yes, the songs”), which almost make up for the schematic plot. Music lovers ought to take note. Agent: Susanna Einstein, Einstein Literary. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 07/05/2024 | Details & Permalink

In this humorous romp from Engling (Visions of Anna), a striving Chicago theater director empties his nest egg and borrows money from friends to stage an avant-garde production of William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. Thirty-year-old Dwayne Finnegan hopes the show will be his breakout, but it proves to be ill-fated from the start. First, Dwayne’s longtime collaborator and coproducer pulls out, after deciding to put his money toward financing a career shift in Los Angeles. Dwayne then turns to two friends, McDonald’s marketing executive Chaz and psychoanalyst Aleister, to raise cash. Added to the mix is eccentric self-appointed managing director Ingrid and a dangerous rehearsal space with many exposed live wires. The play puts a strain on Dwayne’s marriage to Angela, especially after Chaz, who’s married to Angela’s friend, carries on a poorly hidden affair with one of the actors. When the actor playing Lavinia confesses that the play’s rape scene has triggered the trauma of her own rape, Dwayne calls in Aleister for help, a jarring episode Engling fails to set the stage for amid the running gags. He’s better at poking fun at the theater world, as when Ingrid is exposed for plagiarizing another production. This zany send-up has its moments. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 07/05/2024 | Details & Permalink

The uneven latest from Bieker (Godshot) blends psychological thriller tropes with a meditation on motherhood. On the surface, protagonist Clove leads a picture-perfect life: she’s a mother of two, her husband works in finance, and she’s often seen pushing her double stroller around their tony neighborhood in Portland, Ore. Clove’s parents died in a car accident when she was 17, or so she’s told her trusting husband. The truth, she admits to the reader, is that their life is built on a “foundation of lies” she told him on their first date. But when a letter from Clove’s mother arrives from the California women’s prison where she’s serving time for the murder of Clove’s father, Clove’s flawless life threatens to unravel. Scenes from the present day alternate with chapters from Clove’s childhood in Waikiki, Hawaii, where her father would often beat her mother, sometimes to the point that she coughed up blood. Bieker builds suspense by parsing out key bits of information, though some of the twists strain credulity and veer into melodrama. She’s better with the character work, especially in her exploration of how Clove’s childhood trauma causes her to worry she’ll be deemed unfit for parenthood. It’s a mixed bag. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/05/2024 | Details & Permalink

In Swiss writer Koch’s bewitching debut, a woman’s isolated existence is upended by the arrival of a strange being. The unnamed narrator lives alone in the small mountain village where she grew up. One fateful day, she locks eyes with “the visitor” on a train platform. The newcomer is only glancingly described: he has claws, wears a poncho, and his hair juts out “in hedgehog fashion.” She invites him home, and for a while, the two fall into a comfortable domestic rhythm despite not speaking the same language (“One thing I liked about the visitor was that I never knew if he could actually understand me”). Eventually, however, the narrator wonders whether the visitor will ever leave, and questions whether she truly accepts his presence. Told in swirling, disorienting fragments, the narration is sometimes funny (“I’ve never said I’m proud of how wicked I am. And yet I must admit I’ve come to terms with it relatively quickly”), sometimes lightly ominous (“During the night, once the visitor falls into his nightmarish sleep, I will measure the width of his bite”), and consistently sharp. Fans of dreamy and mysterious fiction like Claire-Louise Bennett’s Pond will devour this. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/05/2024 | Details & Permalink

A depressed 29-year-old starts to physically disappear in Vail’s witty and poignant debut. After losing her job as the communications director of a Vancouver marketing firm, Brooklyn moves into her parents’ basement and begins pulling shifts at an artisanal doughnut shop. Then she learns that her best friend, international aid worker Penny Parker, has vanished while working in Syria. As if that weren’t enough, Brooklyn is also back in the orbit of her physically abusive brother; her mom ignores all evidence of her brother’s abuse; and she’s developed a crush on a doughnut shop regular who already has a girlfriend. Before long, Brooklyn feels her heartbeat slowing down and notices that her reflection isn’t showing up in mirrors. Worried that she might be dying, Brooklyn is visited by the ghost of actor Emaleigh Porter, who starred in some of her favorite childhood TV shows. Emaleigh’s wisdom, coupled with Brooklyn’s fitful pursuit of her doughnut shop regular, helps bring her back to life. Vail’s subtle touches of magical realism enrich her insights about the difficulties of young womanhood without overwhelming them. This has charm to spare. Agent: Haley Casey, Creative Media. (May)

Reviewed on 07/05/2024 | Details & Permalink

In an introduction, Spanish filmmaker Almodóvar (Patty Diphusa and Other Writings) describes this dynamic collection, which blends fiction and essays, as a “fragmented autobiography” and a “complement to my cinematographic works.” The best entries have a confessional tone. These include two works of fiction—“The Visit,” about a woman’s encounter with an abusive priest, which formed the spine of his film Bad Education, and “Confessions of a Sex Symbol,” which recounts a migraine experienced by porn star Patty Diphusa, a character who featured in Almodóvar’s previous collection. In the strikingly personal title essay, he observes, “I learned much from my mother, without either of us realizing.” The author’s complex feelings about filmmaking form the basis for the story “Too Many Gender Swaps,” about two lovers, a director and actor, and their mutually parasitic creative partnership. Not everything works here. “The Mirror Ceremony” is a stiff riff on Dracula, and “Joanna, the Beautiful Madwoman,” a “Sleeping Beauty”–esque fable, is a snooze. But there are plenty of insights into Almodóvar’s creative process peppered throughout (“To write, you must refuse yourself to others”). The director’s fans will find much to admire in this potpourri of ideas and images. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 06/28/2024 | Details & Permalink

In Lange’s resonant debut, a woman reflects on how she and her sister struggled to survive on their family’s Illinois farm during the mid-1980s recession. At nine, Bernadette Fareown and her impulsive 11-year-old sister, Joanna, call themselves “junk kids.” Their family’s homestead has seen better days, and the mood is glum, especially after Jo’s attempted suicide following her diagnosis of severe scoliosis. With their parents unable to pay the bills, Bernadette “watched my family fall apart, over and over.” Bankrupt, they flee to a Chicago apartment, where Bernadette pursues her dream of a formal education while Jo’s behavior becomes increasingly reckless. Bernadette’s recounting of the family’s history follows her recent trip to Alaska to see Jo, who is pregnant and has been recently released from a mental hospital. Lange’s lucid story digs deep into the bonds of family and the alliances that are formed and retained across time and despite changing circumstances. Readers will be captivated. Agent: Martha Wydysh, Trident Media Group. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 06/28/2024 | Details & Permalink