Counting BackwardsBinnie Kirshenbaum. Soho, $28 (400p) ISBN 978-1-64129-468-3
irshenbaum (Rabbits for Food) offers a deeply moving and playfully arch narrative of an artist dealing with her husband’s mental and physical decline. A typical “internal weather report” for Addie, a middle-aged New Yorker, is “overcast with anxiety.” Her husband, Leo, who runs a university... Continue reading »
The Savage, Noble Death of Babs DionneRon Currie. Putnam, $29 (368p) ISBN 978-0-593-85166-1
The cruelty and absurdity of family bonds drive this riveting crime saga from Currie (The One-Eyed Man). Babs Dionne, the domineering French American matriarch of her Waterville, Maine, community, maintains a sprawling criminal empire through sheer force of will. After surviving a near-fata... Continue reading »
The Raven ScholarAntonia Hodgson. Orbit, $21.99 trade paper (704p) ISBN 978-0-316-57722-9
Historical mystery writer Hodgson (the Tom Hawkins novels) shifts genres masterfully in this stellar fantasy trilogy kickoff. Emperor Bersun of Orrun intends to step down after 24 years on the throne, abiding by his empire’s strict term limits. His successor will come from one of seven contenders, e... Continue reading »
Heart of the Shadow KingSylvia Mercedes. Ace, $19 trade paper (464p) ISBN 978-0-593-95222-1
Mercedes’s thrilling trilogy comes to an electrifying conclusion (after Vow of the Shadow King) that doubles down on adventure, romance, magic, and intrigue. As “the stirrings,” a series of earthquakes signaling the waking of a sleeping dragon, continue to rumble through Mythanar, reluctant... Continue reading »
The Legend of KamuiShirato Sanpei, trans. from the Japanese by Richard Rubinger, Noriko Rubinger, and Alexa Frank. Drawn & Quarterly, $39.95 (600p) ISBN 978-1-77046-729-3
Shirato’s politically aware ninja manga, which ran from 1964 to 1971, makes its English-language debut in this glorious collection, the first of 10 volumes. In 17th-century Japan, the ninja Kamui is born an “outcast,” the lowest caste in the feudal system. He rabble rouses tirelessly against the pea... Continue reading »
Outside the JoyRuth Awad. Third Man, $17.95 trade paper (96p) ISBN 979-8-98661-459-5
Awad’s deeply felt sophomore collection (after Set to Music a Wildfire) reverberates with lines as hard and true as rock: “The lie is that I survived because parts of me didn’t.” She shifts and complicates the sentiment, adding, “we tell the version of the story/ that lets us live with ours... 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 »
Four Red Sweaters: Powerful True Stories of Women and the HolocaustLucy Adlington. Harper Paperbacks, $19.99 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-337513-0
Historian Adlington follows up The Dressmakers of Auschwitz with a moving account of four Jewish girls persecuted during the Holocaust whose fates were intertwined with a simple article of a clothing—a red sweater—that bore outsize significance in a bleak time. Jockewet Heidenstein, a Kinde... Continue reading »
Hot Date!: Sweet & Savory Recipes Celebrating the Date, from Party Food to Everyday FeastsRawaan Alkhatib. Chronicle, $35 (272p) ISBN 978-1-79722-644-6
The stunning cookbook debut from poet and artist Alkhatib (King Crab, a board book) sings the praises of dates. She provides a mouthwatering history of the “holy fruit,” extolling it as a symbol of survival and bounty for many cultures. With more than 3,000 varieties, the date is a remarkab... Continue reading »
Godstruck: Seven Women’s Unexpected Journeys to Religious ConversionKelsey Osgood. Viking, $30 (368p) ISBN 978-0-593-83467-1
In this illuminating account, memoirist Osgood (How to Disappear Completely) interweaves her own story with those of six other women who found religion in a rapidly secularizing society. All millennials currently in their 30s, Osgood’s subjects converted to faiths ranging from Mormonism to ... Continue reading »
The Trouble with SunshineYamile Saied Méndez. Scholastic Press, $19.99 (272p) ISBN 978-1-546-12274-6
In a heartfelt novel about adapting and overcoming personal challenges, Méndez (The Beautiful Game) spotlights the camaraderie to be found in difference and the joys one discovers while learning to fit in. Thirteen-year-old Dorani Gutierrez is multitalented: she’s smart, compass... Continue reading »
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