Some very big names return this spring, alongside bold offerings from a new generation of rising stars.
Top 10
August Blue
Deborah Levy. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, May 23 ($27, ISBN 978-0-374-60204-8)
After a pianist briefly encounters her double while visiting Athens, she sets out to find her on a search that stretches across Europe.
Chain Gang All Stars
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. Pantheon, Apr. 4 ($27, ISBN 978-0-593-31733-4)
Adjei-Brenyah follows up his collection Friday Black with a dystopian account of a U.S. prison system that stages deadly gladiator fights, with freedom promised to the champion.
The Covenant of Water
Abraham Verghese. Grove, May 2 ($32, ISBN 978-0-8021-6217-5)
Physician and novelist Verghese offers a multigenerational epic involving medicine, spirituality, and a Christian Indian family that traces its roots back to the time of Jesus Christ.
Hang the Moon
Jeannette Walls. Scribner, Mar. 28 ($28, ISBN 978-1-5011-1729-9)
A feisty young woman grows up without her mother in early 20th-century Virginia before becoming a bootlegger during prohibition.
I Have Some Questions for You
Rebecca Makkai. Viking, Feb. 21 ($28, ISBN 978-0-593-49014-3)
With this boarding school mystery, which earned a starred review from PW, Makkai delves into a slew of hot-button issues, including racism, sexual politics, and the dead-girl trope of true crime narratives.
The Late Americans
Brandon Taylor. Riverhead, May 23 ($27, ISBN 978-0-593-33233-7)
Taylor moves from Madison, Wis., to Iowa City for a novel of art, sex, and labor featuring a large cast of characters in pursuit of self-determination.
Romantic Comedy
Curtis Sittenfeld. Random House, Apr. 11 ($28, ISBN 978-0-399-59094-8)
A writer for an SNL-esque comedy series, having resigned herself to singledom, wonders if she’ll have a chance with a hunky pop star.
Somebody’s Fool
Richard Russo. Knopf, July 25 ($30, ISBN 978-0-593-31789-1)
Pulitzer winner Russo delivers his third novel set in North Bath, an Upstate New York town reshaped by gentrification 10 years after the death of Donald “Sully” Sullivan, the character immortalized by Paul Newman in the film adaptation of Nobody’s Fool.
The Trackers
Charles Frazier. Ecco, Apr. 11 ($29.99, ISBN 978-0-06-294808-3)
A noirish story of art and theft unfolds in the American West in Frazier’s latest, about a New Deal mural painter who gets roped into tracking down a woman who vanished along with a prized painting.
Y/N
Esther Yi. Astra House, Mar. 21 ($26, ISBN 978-1-66260-153-8)
Yi debuts with a novel of obsession, K-pop, and literary aspirations, as a Korean American woman becomes transfixed by a pop star and follows him from Berlin to Seoul.
Literary Fiction Listings
Akashic
Tell the Rest by Lucy Jane Bledsoe (Mar. 7, $28.95, ISBN 978-1-63614-079-7). As children, a man and a woman escaped together from forced conversion therapy. Now they’re each at a crossroads, with their shared past pulling them toward each other.
Algonquin
Dust Child by Mai Phan Que Nguyen (Mar. 14, $28, ISBN 978-1-64375-275-4). Family secrets fuel this story of two women who worked as bar girls in Saigon during the Vietnam War and an American veteran who returns to Vietnam in the present.
Anchor
Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb (Apr. 18, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-31544-6). The author follows up his The Violin Conspiracy with another story of racial injustice in the classical music world, this time involving the theft of a Black composer’s work.
Archipelago
Eastbound by Maylis De Kerangal, trans. by Jessica Moore (Feb. 7, $18 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-953861-50-4), unfolds on the contemporary Trans-Siberian railroad, where a Russian soldier and a French woman work to escape from the oppression in their lives. The novel earned a starred review from PW.
Ballantine
The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende, trans. by Frances Riddle (June 6, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-59810-8). Allende spins another tale of the past in parallel with the present, as one child flees Austria during Kristallnacht and another runs to the U.S. from danger in 2019 El Salvador.
Berkley
Life and Other Love Songs by Anissa Gray (Apr. 11, $27, ISBN 978-1-984802-46-0). A Black man disappears on his 37th birthday. In the decades after, his wife and daughter try to make sense of what happened and who he was.
Atria/Bestler
The Sweet Spot by Amy Poeppel (Feb. 14, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-982176-46-4). After Melinda’s husband of 30 years leaves her for a younger woman, Melinda ends up taking care of their new baby in Greenwich Village with two new friends of hers.
Bloomsbury
Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery (July 11, $26, ISBN 978-1-63557-431-9). Irish writer Flattery departs from contemporary short fiction for her debut novel, set in Andy Warhol’s Factory in 1960s New York City, where a 17-year-old girl helps the artist with a gossipy writing project.
Catapult
Brother & Sister Enter the Forest by Richard Mirabella (Mar. 14, $27, ISBN 978-1-64622-117-2). Two siblings reunite decades after the brother, Justin, disappeared following a violent incident involving a homophobic bully and Justin’s lover.
Coffee House
A Cowardly Woman No More by Ellen Cooney (Apr. 4, $16.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-56689-671-9). The middle-aged protagonist referenced in the title harnesses newfound courage after her company passes her over for a promotion in this fabulist story set at a magical restaurant.
Dial
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (Mar. 28, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-24373-2). College basketball player William finds a surrogate family via his new girlfriend, Julia, whose three sisters all take to him. Revelations about William’s troubled past cause allegiances to shift in Julia’s family.
Ecco
Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein (Feb. 7, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-321338-8) unfurls a drama of two families from different social classes in 1940s Trinidad, who are drawn together after a boy’s disappearance.
The Librarianist by Patrick DeWitt (July 4, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-308512-1) delves into the rich and colorful past of a retired librarian in Portland, Ore., who slowly shares his story with the residents of the senior center where he volunteers.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey (Mar. 21, $28, ISBN 978-0-374-60617-6). Framed as the biography of an artist published by the woman’s widow, Lacey’s epic also imagines an alternate history in which the Southern Territory seceded from the U.S. after WWII.
Gone to the Wolves by John Wray (May 2, $28, ISBN 978-0-374-60333-5). Two Florida metalheads travel to northern Europe to search for a friend who’s fallen sway to an extreme scene, the kind where Satanic messages can be heard on records played forward, as opposed to backwards.
Feminist Press
Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu, trans. by Tiffany Tsao (June 6, $16.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-952177-05-7). The queer Indonesian writer’s debut collection follows characters through situations in which they chase elusive desires or attempt to restore some semblance of happiness.
Flatiron
Homestead by Melinda Moustakis (Feb. 28, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-250-84555-9). A romance forged in 1956 Anchorage leads to marriage and big dreams for homesteading in the Alaskan territory in the debut novel from National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree Moustakis.
Grove Atlantic/Gay
And Then He Sang a Lullaby by Ani Kayode Somtochukwu (June 6, $27, ISBN 978-0-8021-6075-1). Activist Somtochukwu’s debut marks the launch of Roxane Gay’s eponymous imprint, with a story of illicit love between two men in Nigeria.
Grand Central
What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jimenez (Mar. 7, $28, ISBN 978-1-5387-2596-2) blends a family drama with a road story, as a Staten Island woman believes she recognizes her missing sister on a reality TV show, then rallies their family to track her down.
Graywolf
Shy by Max Porter (May 2, $25, ISBN 978-1-64445-229-5) follows a troubled teenage boy who breaks out of a rehab home and wanders around at night while dealing with the voices in his head.
Harper
Evil Eye by Etaf Rum (Mar. 28, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-298790-7). A Palestinian American woman leaves her strict Brooklyn family for the suburbs and a career teaching art. But after a conflict with a racist colleague, she begins to reckon with the life she left behind.
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes (Feb. 7, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-325839-6). The post-Circe field of feminist revisions of ancient myths continues to expand, this time with Medusa, whose origin story begins with Poseidon’s assault on her.
Harpervia
The Brightest Star by Gail Tsukiyama (June 13, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-321375-3) draws inspiration from the life of Anna May Wong, the film actor who attempted to blaze a trail for Asian American representation in Hollywood.
Hogarth
Greek Lessons by Han Kang, trans. by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won (Apr. 18, $26, ISBN 978-0-593-59527-5). Kang (The Vegetarian) returns with a study of intimacy between a woman who can no longer speak, and her Greek language teacher, who’s losing his sight.
Holt
Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin (Mar. 21, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-250-86346-1) tells the story of three teen siblings who flee from Vietnam after the fall of Saigon and wind up raising themselves in the U.K.
Hub City
The Say So by Julia Franks (June 6, $28, ISBN 979-8-88574-007-4) involves parallel stories of two women who unexpectedly get pregnant in North Carolina, one before and one after Roe v. Wade.
Kensington
An American Beauty by Shana Abé (Apr. 25, $16.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4967-3942-1). A Virginia woman’s affair with a Gilded Age railroad baron leads to her success in business, as well as a rocky road toward acceptance in New York City’s high society.
Knopf
I Am Homeless if This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore (June 20, $27, ISBN 978-0-307-59414-3). With a ghost story spanning three centuries, Moore’s first novel since A Gate at the Stairs explores questions about the line between life and death.
A Spell of Good Things by Ayobami Adebayo (Feb. 7, $28, ISBN 978-0-525-65764-4). Two young people from disparate backgrounds in Nigeria come together after a violent incident.
Little, Brown
A Brief History of Living Forever by Jaroslav Kalfar (Mar. 28, $28, ISBN 978-0-316-46318-8) follows up Kalfar’s science fiction novel Spaceman of Bohemia with a dystopian tale involving a Czech family reuniting in the U.S. in 2030.
MCD
Empty Theatre: A Novel: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty... by Jac Jemc (Feb. 21, $28, ISBN 978-0-374-27792-5). Two monarchs take contrasting approaches to leadership in this historical satire.
Morrow
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (May 16, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-325083-3). Fantasy writer Kuang makes her literary debut with a story of cultural appropriation on the part of a bestselling author who publishes under a pseudonym.
New Directions
Battle Songs by Daša Drndic´, trans. by Celia Hawkesworth (Feb. 7, $19.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8112-3478-8). The latest in translation from the late Croatian author follows a Yugoslav refugee who tries to build a new life in 1990s Toronto.
New York Review Books
Lies and Sorcery by Elsa Morante, trans. by Jenny McPhee (July 25, $22.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-68137-684-4). The first unabridged English translation of Morante’s first novel, originally published in Italy in 1948, charts three generations of women in a Sicilian family.
Norton
Iron Curtain: A Love Story by Vesna Goldsworthy (Feb. 14, $28.95, ISBN 978-1-324-02172-8) follows a privileged woman living on the east side of the Iron Curtain in the 1980s as she heads for London, excited for a life of freedom with her new boyfriend. Instead, she arrives to squalor and discord.
One World
Dances by Nicole Cuffy (May 16, $27, ISBN 978-0-593-49815-6). After a Black ballerina gets a triumphant promotion in the New York City Ballet, she faces unresolved family issues, including a brother who disappeared many years earlier.
Pantheon
The Ascent: A House Can Have Many Secrets by Stefan Hertmans, trans. by David McKay (Mar. 7, $29, ISBN 978-0-593-31646-7). Hertmans blends autofiction with obsessive fabrication with the story of a house he once owned in Ghent, where it turns out the previous owners had ties to Nazi atrocities.
Penguin Press
The Dog of the North by Elizabeth McKenzie (Mar. 14, $27, ISBN 978-0-593-30069-5). A California woman moves in with her kooky grandmother after her marriage falls apart, encountering intrigue and drama as she reckons with her strange family.
Putnam
Loyalty by Lisa Scottoline (Mar. 28, $28, ISBN 978-0-525-53980-3). A boy’s kidnapping is at the center of this look at the Mafia’s early days in Sicily.
Random House
The Guest by Emma Cline (May 9, $28, ISBN 978-0-8129-9862-7) runs on a Cheever-esque premise, in which a young woman wanders from one house to another in a wealthy part of Long Island over several days, gaining her welcome under an assumed identity.
Riverhead
The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel (Apr. 18, $27, ISBN 978-0-593-42052-2). The Jurassic Park–tinged latest from Ausubel follows a scientist on a quest to “de-extinct” the woolly mammoth, which is complicated when her teenage daughters join her in Siberia.
Scribner
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin (Feb. 7, $27, ISBN 978-1-982153-08-3) sends up Hudson Valley bohos with the story of a woman working for a sex therapist in Hudson, N.Y., where she meets and falls for one of her boss’s clients.
Simon & Schuster
The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson (Feb. 7, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-98219-736-0). The trajectories of two ambitious Black women in 1950s Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., converge in a campus story of love, hopes, and class divisions.
Soho
The Light at the End of the World by Siddhartha Deb (May 30, $27, ISBN 978-1-64129-466-9). Deb’s maximalist novel, his first since 2005, covers two centuries of India’s tumultuous history.
St. Martin’s
Weyward by Emilia Hart (Mar. 7, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-250-28080-0). A contemporary London woman leaves her abusive partner for a remote cottage, where she learns stories of her repressed female ancestors, among them a woman charged with witchcraft in 1619 and another declared mad in 1942.
Tin House
The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller (June 6, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-953534-87-3). A deadly pandemic and memory retrieval technology figure into this account of a hero looking for trust and friendship in a disordered world.
Tiny Reparations
Gone Like Yesterday by Janelle M. Williams (Feb. 14, $27, ISBN 978-0-593-47163-0). In Williams’s debut, two Black women discover a shared ability to hear their ancestors’ songs sung by gypsy moths.
Two Dollar Radio
At the Edge of the Woods by Kathryn Bromwich (May 2, $18.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-953387-31-8). A woman trying to make a fresh start winds up in the Italian Alps, where she tutors children and climbs mountains—until someone from her past shows up at her door.
Verso Fiction
Hit Parade of Tears by Izumi Suzuki, trans. by David Boyd et al. (Apr. 11, $19.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-83976-849-1). This collection from the late avant-garde Japanese writer plays with the tropes of the science fiction and fantasy genres.
Viking
Take What You Need by Idra Novey (Mar. 14, $27, ISBN 978-0-593-65285-5) explores art, xenophobia, and class tensions with the story of a family and grief in the Allegheny Mountains of Appalachia.
