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First Fiction 2013: Helene Wecker: Supernatural Love
In Helene Wecker’s The Golem and the Jinni (Harper, April), two supernatural beings, one from the Jewish tradition and one from the Arab tradition, meet in turn-of-the-century New York.
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First Fiction 2013: Elliott Holt: Soviet Spy Story
In 1982, then eight-year-old Elliott Holt closely followed the story of Samantha Smith, the 10-year-old American girl who wrote to Yuri Andropov asking for peace and was invited to make a highly publicized visit to the U.S.S.R. in response.
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First Fiction 2013: Anton DiSclafani: Horses and a Heroine
Sarah McGrath, executive editor of Riverhead Books, who acquired Anton DiSclafani’s debut novel, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls (June) from agent Dorian Karchmar at William Morris Endeavor, promises, “You truly don’t have to be a horse person to fall in love with this book, but there’s no denying the added sense of strength, beauty, and foreboding those animals bring to the story.”
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First Fiction 2013: Eugen Ruge: East Meets West
Eugen Ruge’s debut novel, In Times of Fading Light (Graywolf, June), follows four generations of the same German family for 50 years, from 1952 to 2001, as the Berlin Wall falls in the background.
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First Fiction 2013: Tanis Rideout: Climbing to the Summit
Everest climber George Mallory’s story—his strong love for his wife, Ruth, and his desire to conquer the world’s highest mountain—are the basis for Tanis Rideout's debut novel, Above All Things (Putnam/Amy Einhorn, Feb.).
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First Fiction 2013: Aria Beth Sloss: California Girls Come of Age
Aria Beth Sloss, author of Autobiography of Us (Holt, Feb.), points to a significant milestone: the 50th anniversary of the publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. She notes, “I wish I could say my book celebrates the revolution her book set into motion, but the truth is that it ultimately reflects my frustration with how little has changed.
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First Fiction 2013: NoViolet Bulawayo: A Long Journey
Darling, the 10-year-old protagonist of NoViolet Bulawayo’s debut novel, We Need New Names (Little, Brown/Reagan Arthur, May), is an apt navigator of her native Zimbabwe, where she runs with a crowd of friends and occasionally experiences the impact of the country’s political instability.
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First Fiction 2013: Kent Wascom: A Different View of the Sunshine State
A Different View of the Sunshine State Kent Wascom’s debut novel, The Blood of Heaven (Grove Press, June), is set in West Florida, the area between Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Pensacola, Florida, where the 27-year-old author has lived for most of his life.
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Girl Power: Jacqueline Winspear
On what passes for a cold day in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jacqueline Winspear arrives at a coffee shop clutching a black bag with a bright peacock design.
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Young King: Owen King
Owen King, 35, thinks life is pretty funny.
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Bodies in the Backyard: Jamie Mason
Inspired by the headline “Landscapers Find Skull in Mulch Bed,” Jamie Mason’s debut novel, Three Graves Full (Gallery, Feb. ), follows the misadventures of Jason Getty, a shy widower with a secret buried deep in his backyard.
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War & Peace: Ru Freeman
“All fiction is nonfiction,” declares Ru Freeman.
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Remembering David: A Graphic Tribute: James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook
"It's been difficult at times, emotionally, to continue to revisit a good friend's death and have it in your life all the time," says Marguerite Van Cook, who, with her husband, James Romberger, created the graphic memoir 7 Miles a Second (Fantagraphics), about their friend, the late artist David Wojnarowicz.
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Porsche's Turn: The Santiaga Family Saga Continues: Sister Souljah
Thirteen years ago, Sister Souljah introduced readers to Winter Santiaga and family in her bestselling debut novel, The Coldest Winter Ever (Atria, 1999).
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Off The Boat, But On The Grid: PW Talks With Eddie Huang
Eddie Huang has done a lot in his 30 years. He’s been a lawyer and designed streetwear; he owns a New York City restaurant, BaoHaus, writes a blog, hosts a Web show, and has now written a memoir, Fresh Off the Boat (Spiegel & Grau).
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E.L. James Named PW's Publishing Person of the Year
E.L. James, the author of the Fifty Shades trilogy, has been named Publishers Weekly's Publishing Person of the Year for 2012.
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The Meeting of East and West
“I’ve been a fantasist my whole life,” says Mohsin Hamid, author of the cult novel Moth Smoke (FSG, 2000), a gritty, urban tale of crime, love, and drugs set in Lahore, Pakistan.
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A Lot of Living: Kent Haruf
Almost three decades since his first novel, The Tie That Binds, was published, Kent Haruf says the stories that he writes, invariably set on the high plains of eastern Colorado, have become more mythic than factual, intuitive rather than rational.
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Child is Father to the Monster: Lincoln Child
It was an intriguing series of requests for columnist Douglas Preston, who wrote about history for Natural History, the magazine of the American Museum of Natural History.
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Preston Digitation: Douglas Preston
It was an intriguing opportunity for St. Martin's editor Lincoln Child.