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What happens when a husband harbors a deep secret from his wife and son? ROBERT KALICH blurs the lines between memoir and fiction in a timeless story of love and redemption, with a dash of noir.
At the twilight of one’s life, mortality is no longer an abstract notion. As David Lazar, now in his eighties, undertakes a perilous journey into his own soul, his thoughts drift from his happy childhood in Manhattan to his friends, business associates, and the women he had loved and lost, until he met his soulmate, Elizabeth Dunn. Haunted by a dark secret and the ruthless nature of the business that made him rich, Lazar is torn between the need to confess and redeem himself and the fear of losing what he cherishes most: the love and respect of his wife and his only son. But is there any redemption for wealth based on corruption?
ROBERT KALICH is a born and bred New Yorker, the city he still calls home. His first novel, The Handicapper: A Novel about Obsessive Gambling was a national best-seller. As a sports enthusiast, Kalich has also compiled handbooks in professional
PHOTO Š K&R PHOTOS
basketball and baseball. He is a co-founder of a film production company called The Kalich Organization, with his twin brother, literary writer Richard Kalich. Robert Kalich is an avid reader and maintains a home library of ten thousand books. He lives with his wife and son in New York City and North Salem, NY.
AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE BOOKS ARE SOLD Available to the trade through Itasca Books: orders@itascabooks.com Bunim & Bannigan, Fall 2019 Hardcover ISBN 978-1-9334-8049-7 / $19.50 Trade Paperback ISBN 978-1-9334-8050-3 / $14.95
Volume 267 Number 01 ISSN 0000-0019
January 6, 2020
FEATURES
11 Fairs, Festivals, and Conferences
This year is filled with dozens of industry meetings around the world, and we round up some of the biggest and best.
15 Gathering Clouds
After Dept. of Speculation, Jenny Offill looks outward.
17 Sacred Land
Lauren Redniss’s latest work of visual nonfiction explores a conflict over copper mining on Apache land in Arizona.
NEWS 3 ‘Crawdads’ Was Top Seller Last Year
WRITE IN
MIAMI WITH RICHARD BLANCO & BORIS FISHMAN & R.O. KWON & ANA MARÍA SHUA & BRYAN WASHINGTON
Delia Owens’s debut novel was the runaway print sales winner in 2019.
4 PW’s Top News Stories of 2019 Elliott Advisors’ acquisition of Barnes & Noble and Baker & Taylor’s exit from the retail wholesale market were among the biggest publishing news stories of the year.
MAY 6-9, 2020
7 Publishing Stocks End the Year Down
The eight companies listed on the PW stock index saw their combined stock price decline 9% in 2019.
8 Deals Notable deals this week include a major acquisition for MIT Press, a first-person tale of survival on the high seas, and a YA novel that HarperTeen won at auction.
9 Sonny Mehta Dies at 77 The editor-in-chief of Knopf and chairman of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group died December 30 in New York City from complications of pneumonia, according to Knopf.
VISIT US ONLINE FOR ADDITIONAL NEWS, REVIEWS, BESTSELLERS & FEATURES. publishersweekly.com
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Contents
INTRODUCING
DEPARTMENTS & COLUMNS 48 Soapbox by Bob Eckstein It’s official: we’ve closed the book on 2019. As publishing turns a new page, here are some suggestions for a better 2020.
BESTSELLERS ●
Top 25 Overall 10
REVIEWS
300-word honest and detailed review from a PW reviewer
Fiction
Nonfiction
19 General Fiction 22 Mystery/Thriller 27 SF/Fantasy/Horror 29 Romance/Erotica 30 Comics
32 General Nonfiction 38 Lifestyle 40 Religion/Spirituality
42 Picture Books 45 Fiction 46 Comics 46 Nonfiction
Succinct and memorable takeaway Help to reach the right readers Production grades
Children’s
21
Boxed Review These Ghosts Are Family
24
39
Boxed Review The Book of St. John
Q&A with Peter Swanson
44
∙ · ·
Guaranteed paid review within 4-6 weeks
33
Reviews Roundup Picture books on women activists
Q&A with Wendy Williams
Published in the BookLife section of PW Low cost, high value
Get started online booklife.com/blr
PW Publishers Weekly USPS 763-080 (ISSN 0000-0019) is published weekly, except for the last week in December. Published by PWxyz LLC, 71 West 23rd Street, Suite 1608, New York, NY 10010. George Slowik Jr., President; Cevin Bryerman, Publisher. Circulation records are maintained at ESP, 12444 Victory Boulevard, 4th Floor, North Hollywood, CA 91606. Phone: (800) 278-2991 or +001 (818) 487-2069 from outside the U.S. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Publishers Weekly, P.O. Box 16957, North Hollywood, CA 91615-6957. PW PUBLISHERS WEEKLY copyright 2020 by PWxyz LLC. Rates for one-year subscriptions in U.S. dollars drawn on a U.S. bank: U.S. $289.99, Canada: $339.99, all other countries: $439.99. Except for special issues where price changes are indicated, single copies are available for $9.99 US; $16.99 for Announcement issues. Extra postage applied for non-U.S. shipping addresses. Please address all subscription mail to Publishers Weekly, P.O. Box 16957, North Hollywood, CA 91615-6957. PW PUBLISHERS WEEKLY is a (registered) trademark of PWxyz LLC. Canadian Publications Mail Agreement No. 42025028. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: IMS, 3390 Rand Road, South Plainfield, NJ 07080 E-mail: pw@pubservice.com. PRINTED IN THE USA.
News ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ Was Top Seller in 2019 Delia Owens’s debut novel was the runaway print sales winner last year
PRINT BESTSELLERS, 2019
Telgemeier, also published by Graphix, sold nearly 444,000 print copies last year, landing it in 17th place on the 2019 bestseller list, while The Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith, released by Scholastic Paperbacks, sold 498,326 copies in 2019, putting it at #14. Besides Pilkey, two other authors had two books make the top 20 bestseller lists last year. Jeff Kinney scored with Wrecking Ball and Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, while Rachel Hollis’s Girl, Wash Your Face and Girl, Stop Apologizing were the eighth and ninth bestsellers in 2019, respectively. Led by a number of juvenile titles, fiction books had 12 books among the top 20 sellers compared to 10 in 2018, when nonfiction sales, spurred by sales of books related to the Trump administration, soared. Three books about the president were among the top 20 bestsellers in 2018, but none made the list in 2019. Five books, however, that were on the top 20 list in 2018 appeared last year as well. —J.M.
Rank
Title
Author
Imprint
Units sold
1
Where the Crawdads Sing
Delia Owens
Putnam
1,845,515
2
Becoming
Michelle Obama
Crown
1,155,879
3
Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls
Dav Pilkey
Graphix
1,085,519
4
Educated: A Memoir
Tara Westover
Random House
880,884
5
Wrecking Ball
Jeff Kinney
Amulet Books
853,626
6
Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild
Dav Pilkey
Graphix
785,328
7
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid
Jeff Kinney
Amulet Books
720,807
8
Girl, Wash Your Face
Rachel Hollis
Thomas Nelson
672,859
9
Girl, Stop Apologizing
Rachel Hollis
HarperCollins Leadership
667,258
10 The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Heather Morris
Harper Paperbacks
655,319
11 Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Dr. Seuss
Random House Books for Young Readers 633,947
12 Dog Man: Fetch 22
Dav Pilkey
Graphix
574,227
13 The Guardians
John Grisham
Doubleday
514,022
14 The Wonky Donkey
Craig Smith
Scholastic Paperbacks
498,326
15 Strengthfinder 2.0
Tom Rath
Gallup Press
462,701
16 The Institute
Stephen King
Scribner
453,661
17 Guts
Raina Telgemeier
Graphix
443,738
18 The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Eric Carle
Philomel
441,454
19 The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Ree Drummond
Morrow
422,419
20 You Are a Badass
Jen Sincero
Running Press
422,013
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SOURCE: NPD BOOKSCAN. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
W
here the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens was the bestselling print book in 2019 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Owens’s debut was one of the biggest-selling novels in recent years and easily topped one million copies sold in the year, a rare occurrence for the print edition of an adult fiction book. In 2018, The President Is Missing by James Patterson and Bill Clinton was the top-selling novel, selling more than 703,000 copies. Michelle Obama’s Becoming, the bestselling print book in 2018, finished in second place on the 2019 bestseller list, selling 1.1 million copies. The third book that topped the million-mark level last year was Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls by Dav Pilkey. Pilkey had three books among the top 20 print bestsellers in 2019 and led a great year for Scholastic’s trade group. In addition to Pilkey’s three books, which are published by Scholastic’s graphic novel imprint Graphix, Guts by Raina
3
News
PW’s Top News Stories of 2019
B
ig changes in the bookselling landscape were the subject of several of the industry’s top stories in 2019, along with publishers’ relationships with different partners.
1. Elliott Advisors Buys Barnes & Noble; Daunt Named CEO
© JON ENOCH POTRAIT CROP .
After struggling for several years to find ways to boost the bookstore chain’s sales and to improve its bottom line, B&N’s board of directors approved the sale of the company to private equity firm Elliott Advisors in a deal worth $683 million. The transaction didn’t come without some drama, as another company—widely believed to be ReaderLink— was working to make a counteroffer. In the end, the B&N committee charged with evaluating all offers voted in favor of the Elliott cash deal, believing it had the necessary financing to get the purchase done quickly.
James Daunt CEO of B&N
Following the completion of the deal on August 6, Elliott officially named James Daunt B&N CEO. Daunt already served as CEO of the U.K.’s Waterstones bookselling chain, which is also owned by Elliott. Among the changes Daunt has discussed implementing in 2020 at B&N are an overhaul of its merchandising approach and returning the responsibility of each store’s performance to local managers.
2. B&T Exits the Retail Wholesale Market In early May, Baker & Taylor announced that it was closing its retail wholesaling business, which supplied books to bookstores and other physical retailers. The decision came following months of rumors that some deal between B&T and competitor Ingram was in the works. When no deal surfaced, B&T began phasing out its retail operations, a process that lasted into the early fall. The move was made, B&T explained, to better align itself with its parent company, Follett Corp., whose strengths include working with schools and school
libraries. B&T’s library wholesaling operations were not affected. Publishers and booksellers were both concerned that B&T’s exit from the retail business would slow shipments to stores, especially to the West Coast, where B&T fulfilled orders through its Reno warehouse, which was set to close. Publishers, as well as Ingram and Bookazine, came up with plans to alleviate any potential problems, with Penguin Random House perhaps coming up with the most aggressive plan of all: in November, it announced it was taking over the operation of the Reno warehouse, which it will use to service West Coast stores.
3. Macmillan Implements E-book Windowing for Libraries In late July, Macmillan announced that, beginning November 1, it would implement a two-month embargo on library e-books across all of the company’s imprints. Under the publisher’s new digital terms of sale, library systems are allowed to purchase a single perpetual access e-book during the first eight weeks of publication for each new Macmillan release, at half price ($30). Additional copies will then be available at full price after the eight-week window has passed. All other terms remain the same: e-book licenses will continue to be metered for two years or 52 lends, whichever comes first, on a one copy/one user model. The decision outraged librarians across the country, who see the move as a direct attack on their ability to offer timely services to their patrons. Scores of library systems are boycotting buying Macmillan e-books in protest of the move. For his part, Macmillan CEO John Sargent says “frictionless” e-book loans by libraries reduce the value of the books and hurt overall sales. Sargent is set to appear in a session discussing the matter at the ALA Midwinter Meeting, which runs January 24–28 in Philadelphia.
4. Audible Caption Proposal Called Copyright Infringement When word began circulating in July that Audible was developing a new program called Captions to run text alongside its audiobooks, publishers, agents, and authors all called the proposal copyright infringement. Before the program could be launched, the AAP filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Big Five trade houses, as well as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Scholastic, asking for a preliminary injunction; the lawsuit was subsequently backed by reprecontinued on p. 6
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CPE Winter
2020 February 9-11
Where the Industry Does Business
Go to
CPEShow.com and click Winter Show 2020 to learn more!
Chase Center on the Riverfront
Wilmington, Delaware
Registration is open to all retailers and publishers. Sponsored in part by
News continued from p. 4
sentatives for the Authors Guild and the Association of Authors Representatives. At year end, Captions had still not been implemented, and the judge overseeing the case has urged the publishers and Audible to settle the matter out of court.
on-sale date and said the situation had been corrected. The incident highlighted the frustration many booksellers feel about the enforcement of embargoes, which are frequently broken by one retailer or another.
8. The Netflix-Literary Connection 5. Tariffs Imposed on Books Manufactured in China As part of its trade war with China, on September 1 the Trump administration slapped 15% tariffs on most books manufactured in China. Excluded from the tariffs were children’s picture books, coloring books, and drawing books, as well as Bibles and religious books. Children’s books were subject to possible tariffs on December 15, but the administration suspended imposing those tariffs after reaching a “phase one” agreement with China over trade. The other book tariffs, for now, remain in effect.
6. Citing Problems, Publishers Cut Ties with Authors Given the charged nature of the times, publishers have been keenly aware of the reputations of their authors. In 2019, that led to a number of publishers dropping authors following various allegations or charges. Three instances of this in particular were among the most read stories on PW. After allegations of inappropriate behavior made against Tim Tingle by two booksellers, Scholastic dropped plans to publish his middle grade book Doc and the Detective; Tingle, who had his rights to the book returned, denied the allegations. Author Kosoko Jackson requested that Sourcebooks withdraw publication of his debut YA novel, A Place for Wolves, following concerns raised on social media. And in June, after a Netflix drama reopened interest in the Central Park jogger case, in which five black and Latino teenagers were falsely accused of assault and rape, Dutton and author Linda Fairstein terminated their publishing relationship; Fairstein was formerly chief of the Manhattan district attorney’s sex crimes unit and oversaw prosecution of the case.
7. Indie Booksellers Incensed over Breaking of ‘Testaments’ Embargo Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments was expected to be one of the big books of 2019, especially for independent booksellers. So when it was discovered that Amazon had broken the September 10 embargo date, booksellers were furious. Publisher Penguin Random House acknowledged that a retailer had inadvertently released copies before the official 6
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Streaming services have increasingly been looking to book publishers for source material, none more so than Netflix, which was on a book acquisition spree over much of 2019, developing screen adaptations of dozens of novels, series, short story collections, and graphic novels, with a particular interest in those aimed at children and teens.
9. AWP Fires Executive Director Less than six months after being named the Association of Writers and Writing Programs’ permanent executive director, Chloe Schwenke was fired in September. She had succeeded longtime executive director David Fenza, who was dismissed in April 2018. Schwenke, a transgender woman, alleges that her firing was primarily based on discrimination.
Allison Hill CEO of ABA
10. Allison Hill Named ABA CEO Allison Hill, president and CEO of Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, Calif., was named the next CEO of the American Booksellers Association. Hill succeeds Oren Teicher, who has served as ABA CEO for the past 10 years. Hill begins her new job March 1. —Jim Milliot
Call for
Information Feature: Cookbooks Issue: Mar. 2 Deadline: Jan. 9 For this feature, we’re particularly interested in restaurant cookbooks, and how professional chefs, bakers, bartenders, and others simplify their recipes for the home cook—or don’t. We’d also like to hear about sustainability-minded cookbooks and other big trends for the coming season. Pub. dates March–August. New titles only, please; no reprints. Email pitches and links to artwork to features@publishersweekly.com by Jan. 8 and put “Call for Info: Cookbooks” in the subject line.
News
Stocks Fell in 2019
In Memoriam Renée Senogles 11.13.1979 – 12.19.2019
A
fter beginning the year with 10 companies, the Publishers Weekly Stock Index was down to only eight members at the close of 2019. Barnes & Noble, whose stock price was selling at $7.09 per share on Dec. 31, 2018, was taken private when it was acquired by Elliott Advisors in August for $6.50 per share. The second company that departed the PWSI in 2019 was CBS, parent company of Simon & Schuster. CBS merged in early December with Viacom to form ViacomCBS, and while S&S is part of the new conglomerate, its financial performance will have little impact on ViacomCBS’s stock price. The remaining eight companies listed on the PWSI saw their combined stock price decline 9% in the year. LSC Communications had the steepest decline in its share price, which plunged 95%. The printing giant began 2019 with a $7 per share stock price and a deal to be acquired by Quad Graphics. When the Justice Department sued to block the merger on antitrust grounds, the two companies called off the planned deal and with it, LSC’s share price steadily fell. With its stock price trading for under $1 per share, LSC received notification from the New York Stock Exchange on November 20 that the company no longer complied with the NYSE continued-listing criteria. LSC has six months from the time of notification to maintain an average closing share price of at least $1 over a period of 30 consecutive trading days. Only three companies saw their stock price rise in the year, led by HarperCollins’s parent company, News Corp., whose stock price increased 22% in 2019. —Jim Milliot
Stock Watch, 2019 Company
Dec. 31, 2018
Dec. 31, 2019
% Chnge
News Corp. 11.55 B&N Education 4.01 John Wiley 46.97 Scholastic 40.26 Educational Dev. Corp. 8.53 Pearson 11.94 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 8.86 LSC Communications 7.0 Publishers Weekly Stock Index 139.12 Dow Jones Average 23,327.46
14.14 4.27 48.52 38.45 6.18 8.43 6.25 0.37
22.0% 6.5 3.3 -4.5 -28.0 -29.0 -29.0 -95.0
SOURCE: PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
126.61 28,538.44
-9.0 22.0
Renée Senogles, Marketing and Publicity Manager of Hardie Grant of uveal cancer. Renée had just turned 40 in November. Julie Pinkham, Group Managing Director of Hardie Grant writes: “Renée joined Hardie Grant in May 2016, housed at Chronicle Books in San Francisco. Renée’s commitment to her work was exceptional and appreciated and was apparent in everything she did. We could have had no better person to represent us.” Tyrrell Mahoney, President of Chronicle Books writes: “Ever-committed to her work and driven by her love of publishing, Renée was even responding to work emails last week. She made here in this world never holding out hope that she could continue forward for years to come”. Renée worked at Harper One in San Francisco as Publicity Manager from 2013 -2016. She was also a valued Executive Committee Member of the Litquake Literary Festival in San Francisco. In Australia Renée was Programming Co-ordinator for the Sydney Writers’ Festival in 2012 and at Allen and Unwin from 2005 – 2012 where she rose through the ranks from Publicity Department Coordinator to Publicity Manager. Patrick Gallagher, Chairman of Allen and Unwin writes: “I am immeasurably saddened by the news of Renée’s death. Renée joined Allen & Unwin and was soon recognized as an outstanding colleague and an absolutely delightful person. She impressed all who worked with her, her colleagues in-house and the numerous authors with whom she worked tirelessly. All liked her, many adored her. AC Grayling, Christopher Hitchens, Jodi Picoult, Michelle de Kretzer, the list goes on and the books all received the greatest attention and the widest coverage. How bitterly unfair that the exciting career she had embarked on in the US should be cut so short.” Renée had great skill, and passion for her work and undoubtedly made a real contribution to the success of the authors’ careers that she worked on as well as bringing value to the publishers she worked with. In the end though it is her generous, kind, thoughtful and considerate personal approach that Renée brought to her professional life that so many will be grateful to have experienced. It was Renée’s request that no flowers be sent so instead Hardie Grant and Chronicle Books will make a donation to her preferred research subject: https://web.giving.columbia.edu/giveonline/index. jsp?schoolstyle=542&alloc=04206
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DEALS
By Rachel Deahl ■ June’s ‘Jay’ Draws
DEAL OF THE WEEK ■ MIT Gets ‘Exquisite’ with Harding For the MIT Press, Bob Prior bought world rights to Sian Harding’s debut, The Exquisite Machine. The nonfiction book from the professor at Imperial College London is, the press said, about “the workings of the human heart.” Harding said the book explores the “revolution going on in our understanding of the heart” and gets into “the perfection of its design and the way it fights for your survival.” Jaime Marshall at J.P. Marshall Literary Agency represented Harding, calling her “an established world Harding authority in cardiac research.”
HarperTeen After an auction, HarperTeen’s Megan Ilnitzki won Jason June’s Jay’s Gay Agenda. The world English rights, two-book agreement was brokered by Brent Taylor at Triada US. Taylor said the debut YA novel “follows the titular character after he June moves to Seattle from his rural high school, introducing him to other queer teens for the first time, and allowing him to finally cross items off his gay romance to-do list.” The novel is scheduled for summer 2021.
■ North’s Graphic YA to
Yellow Jacket ■ Simon’s ‘Sea’ Sails to
CRP
© CLARA LEE
Nelson Simon sold Into the Sea, a first-person survival story, to Jerry Pohlen at Chicago Review Press. The world rights agreement was brokered by Stacey Glick at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. The book, slated for fall 2021, is about a sailing trip the Simon author took in October 1991. What was intended as a relaxing getaway turned into a fight for survival when Simon’s ship sailed into the path of Hurricane Grace. Describing the book, Glick said it is both “a gripping story of survival and an exploration of the choices we make and where those choices land us.”
For Bonnier’s middle grade imprint Yellow Jacket, Rachel Gluckstern nabbed world English rights to Ari North’s Always Human. The graphic novel, being published in partnership with GLAAD, is, the publisher said, “about the developing relationship between two young women North in a near-future, soft sci-fi setting.” North, a webcomic artist, the publisher noted, adds “an extraordinary color palette” to the work, which is slated for summer 2020. Maria Vicente, at P.S. Literary Agency, represented North.
■ Gonzales’s ‘Ex-
Girlfriend’ Cozies Up to Wednesday Books
■ Pinkney Takes ‘Loretta’
© LARGEFILE
For Little, Brown, Alvina Ling took world rights to Andrea Davis Pinkney’s Loretta Little Looks Back: Three Voices Go Tell It. The middle grade title by the Scholastic editor (and picture book author) is, LB said, is about “three children as they naviPinkney gate the dramatic events that lead to African American voting rights.” The book will be illustrated by Pinkney’s frequent collaborator and husband, Brian Pinkney. Rebecca Sherman at Writers House brokered the agreement for the book, which is slated for fall 2020.
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Sophie Gonzales sold a YA novel titled The Ex-Girlfriend Getter-Backer Experiment to Sylvan Creekmore at Wednesday Books. Moe Ferrara at BookEnds Literary brokered the world rights deal. According to the Gonzales publisher, the novel follows “a bisexual girl who gives out anonymous love advice at her high school.” When she’s blackmailed by a popular guy in her class “into helping him get his ex-girlfriend back... the unintended consequences of her advice end up affecting everyone, including herself.” The publisher added that the book, slated for spring 2021, was pitched as The DUFF meets To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
© MELBOURNE ACTOR ’ S HEADSHOTS
to LB
News
Knopf’s Sonny Mehta Is Dead at 77 open mind.” That open mind was reflected in the range of authors published by Knopf under Mehta’s leadership: among those listed in Knopf’s announcement were world leaders like Pope John Paul II, Bill Clinton, and Tony Blair; distinguished jurists William Rehnquist, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor; acclaimed historians Robert A. Caro, Joseph Ellis, T.J. Stiles, and Geoffrey Ward; a long list of novelists, short story writers, and poets, including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, John Banville, Julian Barnes, Anne Carson, Ted Chiang, Michael Crichton, Edwidge Danticat, Katherine Dunn, James Ellroy, Nathan Englander, Richard Flanagan, Yaa Gyasi, Carl Hiaasen, P.D. James, Jhumpa Lahiri, Emily St. John Mandel, Gabriel García Márquez, Cormac McCarthy, Lorrie Moore, Haruki Murakami, Jo Nesbø, Sharon Olds, Michael Ondaatje, Tommy Orange, Anne Rice, Karen Russell, Richard Russo, Anne Tyler, and John Updike; and a wide-ranging list of nonfiction writers, including Ken Burns, Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, Robert Gates, Oliver Sacks, Patti Smith, Cheryl Strayed, Gay Talese, and Tobias Wolff. Mehta’s contributions to the world of letters and publishing are without precedent, Knopf said in announcing Mehta’s death. “He was a friend to writers, editors, and booksellers around the world. Mehta was also a gentleman, who cared deeply about his colleagues and the work with which he entrusted them. He was a beloved figure at Knopf, working at the only career he ever wanted. He lived a life in books, of books, and for books and writers.” In Mehta’s acceptance speech after he received the Maxwell E. Perkins Award for lifetime achievement from the Center for Fiction in 2018, he talked of his love for reading: “Reading has been a constant in my life. I have always found comfort in the confines of a book or manuscript. Reading is how I spend most of my time, is still the most joyful aspect of my day. I want to be remembered not as an editor or publisher but as a reader.” —Jim Milliot © LESLIE JEAN - BARTWW
P
ublishing giant Sonny Mehta, editor-in-chief of Knopf and chairman of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, died December 30 in New York City. He was 77. News of Mehta’s death came in an announcement from Knopf. Mehta, who had been in declining health, died from complications of pneumonia, Knopf said. Mehta began his career in London, where he worked with a roster of both literary and commercial writers. He was named editor-in-chief of Knopf in 1987, succeeding Robert Gottlieb in that role. Under Mehta’s leadership, Knopf noted, six of its writers were awarded Nobel Prizes—Kazuo Ishiguro, Alice Munro, Orhan Pamuk, Imre Kertész, V.S. Naipaul, and Toni Morrison—and dozens of others won Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards, Booker Prizes, and other notable honors. Mehta also had an eye for commercial hits. He was responsible, for example, for bringing the works of Swedish author Stieg Larsson to the U.S. Larsson’s Millennium series has sold tens of millions of copies. But while Mehta had great marketing instincts, he was personally publicity shy, preferring that any media attention go to his authors. In 2015, Mehta was named PW Person of the Year, and in a story about his many accomplishments another side of Mehta came through: his commitment to designing and publishing beautiful books. Andy Hughes, who in 2015 was senior v-p of production and design at Knopf, pointed to Mehta’s passion for the physical product. Mehta understood, Hughes said in an interview, that with the rise of superstores in the 1990s, “your book had to stand out with allure” to be noticed among the hundreds of other books on display. That same article discussed what may well have been Mehta’s key to success—his passion for reading. “He’s the most curious person I’ve ever met,” explained Knopf executive editor Jordan Pavlin. “He’s also the most credulous, in the best sense of the word. He’s the person most likely to read anything, and to approach a book with a truly
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Information supplied by NPD BookScan. Copyright © 2020 The NPD Group. All rights reserved.
Top 25 Overall | Dec. 22–28, 2019 Because BookScan was unable to deliver its data for the January 6 issue in sufficient time for us to publish our usual weekly lists, we’re presenting one list of the top 25 books in all formats and age ranges for that week. Regular bestseller coverage will resume with the January 13 issue. Happy new year! RANK
TITLE
AUTHOR
IMPRINT
ISBN
UNITS
1
Fetch-22 (Dog Man #8)
Dav Pilkey
Graphix
9781338323214
81,324
2
The Blue Zones Kitchen
Dan Buettner
National Geographic
9781426220135
66,533
3
Wrecking Ball (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #14)
Jeff Kinney
Amulet
9781419739033
60,118
4
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
Charlie Mackesy
HarperOne
9780062976581
55,972
5
Where the Crawdads Sing
Delia Owens
Putnam
9780735219090
54,111
6
The Guardians
John Grisham
Doubleday
9780385544184
40,536
7
The Pioneer Woman Cooks: The New Frontier
Ree Drummond
Morrow
9780062561374
32,687
8
For Whom the Ball Rolls (Dog Man #7)
Dav Pilkey
Graphix
9781338236590
29,361
9
Becoming: A Guided Journal for Discovering Your Voice
Michelle Obama
Clarkson Potter
9780593139127
26,593
10
Guts
Raina Telgemeier
Graphix
9780545852500
25,805
11
Strange Planet
Nathan W. Pyle
Morrow Gift
9780062970701
25,328
12
Becoming
Michelle Obama
Crown
9781524763138
23,856
13
The Night Before Christmas
Moore/Birmingham
Running Press
9780762424160
23,716
14
Criss Cross
James Patterson
Little, Brown
9780316526883
23,350
15
Educated
Tara Westover
Random House
9780399590504
22,444
16
Guinness World Records 2020
–
Guinness World Records
9781912286836
22,391
17
Me
Elton John
Holt
9781250147608
21,899
18
The Institute
Stephen King
Scribner
9781982110567
20,744
19
Talking to Strangers
Malcolm Gladwell
Little, Brown
9780316478526
20,649
20
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Dr. Seuss
Random House
9780394800790
20,192
21
The Bad Guys in the Baddest Day Ever
Aaron Blabey
Scholastic
9781338305845
20,191
22
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Rowling/Kay
Scholastic/Levine
9780545791427
19,852
23
Sam Houston and the Alamo Avengers
Brian Kilmeade
Sentinel
9780525540533
16,177
24
Tales from a Not-So-Best Friend Forever (Dork Diaries #14)
Rachel Renée Russell Aladdin
9781534427204
15,783
25
A Minute to Midnight
David Baldacci
9781538761601
15,595
10 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J A N U A R Y 6 , 2 0 2 0
Grand Central
Select Book Conferences, Fairs, and Festivals in 2020 Stuck in a book rut? Want to find more people who enjoy your favorite author or fandom? Fear not! Book conventions and fairs have continued to be a large and growing part of the publishing world. And whether you are a publishing insider or simply a book nerd, you should be able to find something to suit you in this list of events in 2020. COMPILED
BY
GILCY AQUINO
January ABA Winter Institute, Baltimore, Md., Jan. 21–Jan. 24 ALA Midwinter Meeting, Philadelphia, Jan. 24–28 Albuquerque Comic Con, Albuquerque, N.Mex., Jan. 17–19 Angoulême International Comics Festival, Angoulême, France, Jan. 30–Feb. 2 AniMore, Baltimore, Md., Jan 10–12 Atlanta Comic Convention, Atlanta, Jan. 12 Cairo Book Fair, Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 22–Feb. 4 Çukurova Book Fair, Adana, Turkey, Jan. 4–12 International Kolkata Book Fair, Kolkata, India, Jan. 29–Feb. 9 Jaipur Literature Festival, Jaipur, India, Jan. 23–27 New Delhi World Book Fair, New Delhi, India, Jan. 4–12 Shoff Promotions Comic Book Show, Annandale, Va., Jan. 4 Wizard World Portland, Portland, Ore., Jan. 24–26
February Amelia Island Book Festival, Amelia Island, Fla., Feb. 13–15 AniMangaPOP, Plymouth, U.K., Feb. 8–9 C2E2, Chicago, Feb. 28–Mar. 1 Casablanca Book Fair, Casablanca, Morocco, Feb. 6–16 Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, Dubai, U.A.E., Feb. 4–9 Feria Internacional del Libro La Habana, Havana, Cuba, Feb. 6–16 Lahore International Book Fair, Lahore, Pakistan, Feb. 6–10 Lit & Luz Festival of Language, Literature, and Art, Mexico City, Mexico, Feb. 12–15 PubWest, Portland, Ore., Feb. 20–22 Riga Book Fair, Riga, Latvia, Feb. 28–Mar. 1 San Francisco Writers Conference, San Francisco, Calif., Feb. 13–16 San Miguel Writers Conference, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Feb. 12–16 Savannah Book Festival, Savannah, Ga., Feb. 13–16 W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
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Conferences & Festivals
Taipei International Book Exhibition, Taipei, Taiwan, Feb. 4–9 Tempo di Libri, Milan, Italy, TBA Vilnius Book Fair, Vilnius, Lithuania, Feb. 20–23
March AWP Conference & Bookfair, San Antonio, Tex., Mar. 4–7 Bangkok International Book Fair, Bangkok, Thailand, TBA Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Bologna, Italy, Mar. 30–Apr. 2 Book Lovers Con, Nashville, Mar. 18–22 Deckle Edge Literary Festival, Columbia, S.C., Mar. TBA Foire du Livre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, Mar. 5–8 History Book Festival, Lewes, Del., Mar. 17 Left Coast Crime, San Diego, Calif., Mar. 12–15 Lehigh Valley Book Festival, Lehigh Valley, Pa., Mar. 27–29 Leipzig Book Fair, Leipzig, Germany, Mar. 12–15 London Book Fair, London, Mar. 10–12 North Texas Teen Book Festival, Irving, Tex., Mar. 6–7 Palm Beach Book Festival, Palm Beach, Fla., Mar. 20–21 Salon du Livre de Paris, Paris, France, Mar. 20–23 SleuthFest, Boca Raton, Fla., Mar. 26–29 South by Southwest, Austin, Tex., Mar. 13–22 Southern Kentucky Book Fest, Bowling Green, Ky., Mar. 20–21 Tech Forum and E-bookcraft, Toronto, Mar. 23–25 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, New Orleans, La., Mar. 25–29 Texas Library Association Conference, Houston, Tex., Mar. 24–27 Tucson Festival of Books, Tucson, Ariz., Mar. 14–15 UW–Madison’s Annual Writers’ Institute, Madison, Wis., Mar. 26–29 Virginia Festival of the Book, Charlottesville, Va., Mar. 18–21 Wizard World, Cleveland, Ohio, Mar. 6–8 The Write Stuff Writers Conference, Bethlehem, Pa., Mar. 12–14
April Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., Apr. 15–21 Alabama Book Festival, Montgomery, Ala., Apr. 18 Alexandria International Book Fair, Alexandria, Egypt, Apr. 23–25 Arkansas Literary Festival/Six Bridges Book Festival, Little Rock, Ark., Apr. 23–26 Bogotá International Book Fair, Bogotá, Colombia, Apr. 21–May 6 Buenos Aires Book Fair, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Apr. 30–May 18 12 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J A N U A R Y 6 , 2 0 2 0
Calgary Expo, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Apr. 23–26 Chicago Humanities Festival Springfest, Chicago, TBA Eurasian International Book Fair, Astana, Kazakhstan, Apr. 22–26 Festival Neue Literatur, New York City, Apr. 23–26 IBPA Publishing University, Redondo Beach, Calif., Apr. 2–4 Idaho Writers Guild Pitchfest, Boise, Idaho, Apr. 24–25 International Book Festival Budapest, Budapest, Hungary, Apr. 23–26 L.A. Times Festival of Books, Los Angeles, Apr. 18–19 Newburyport Literary Festival, Newburyport, Mass., TBA Norwescon, SeaTac, Wash., Apr. 9–12 Quebec International Book Fair, Quebec City, Canada, Apr. 15–19 San Antonio Book Festival, San Antonio, Tex., Apr. 4 Sant Jordi Festival, Barcelona, Spain, Apr. 23 The Self-Publishing Conference, Leicester, England, Apr. 25 Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival, Sharjah, U.A.E., Apr. 8–18 Strokestown International Poetry Festival, Strokestown, Ireland, Apr. 30–May 4 Tehran International Book Fair, Tehran, Iran, Apr. 14–24 Tulsa Lit Fest, Tulsa, Okla., TBA Unbound Book Festival, Columbia, Mo., Apr. 24 WonderCon, Los Angeles, Apr. 10–12 YALLWest Book Festival, Santa Monica, Calif., Apr. 24–25
May Anime Central, Chicago, May 15–17 Bay Area Book Festival, Berkeley, Calif., May 2–3 Biographers International Organization Annual Conference, New York City, May 15–17 Book World Prague, Prague, Czech Republic, May 14-17 BookCon, New York City, May 30–31 BookExpo, New York City, May 27–29 Bookfest, Bucharest, Romania, May TBA ECPA Leadership Summit, Nashville, May 5–6 Feira do Livro de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal, TBA Florida Writing Workshop, Tampa, Fla., May 16 Gaithersburg Book Festival, Gaithersburg, Md., May 16 Hawaii Book & Music Festival, Honolulu, Hawaii, TBA Hay Festival Wales, Hay-on-Wye, Wales, U.K., May 21–31 Hudson Children’s Book Festival, Hudson, N.Y., May 2 International Arsenal Book Festival, Kiev, Ukraine, May 20–24 Literary Hill BookFest, Washington, D.C., May 23 LitUp, Independence, Mo., May 2 Madrid Book Fair, Madrid, Spain, May 29–June 14 Malice Domestic, Bethesda, Md., May. 1–3
Conferences & Festivals
Miami Writers Institute, Miami, TBA New York Rights Fair, New York City, May 28–29 Nonfiction Writers Conference, online, May 6–8 Pennsylvania Writers Conference, Lancaster, Pa., May 15–17 The Prince George’s Book Festival, Landover, Md., TBD Romance Slam Jam, Norfolk, Va., May 28–29 St. Petersburg International Book Fair, St. Petersburg, Russia, TBA Tbilisi International Book Fair, Tbilisi, Georgia, May 31–June 3 Thessaloniki Book Fair, Thessaloniki, Greece, May 7–10 Turin International Book Fair, Turin, Italy, May 14–18 Venezuela International Book Fair, TBA Warsaw International Book Fair, Warsaw, Poland, May 21–24
June ABA Children’s Institute, Tucson, Ariz., June 22–24 ALA Annual Conference, Chicago, June 25–30 Association of Jewish Libraries Annual Conference, Evanston, Ill., June 29–July 1 Bronx Book Festival, Bronx, N.Y., June 6 Brooklyn Comic Con, Brooklyn, N.Y., June 20–21 Chuckanut Writers Conference, Bellingham, Wash., June 26–27 Istanbul International Literature Festival, Istanbul, Turkey, June 3–6 Lit Crawl Boston, Boston, Mass., June. 11 Nantucket Book Festival, Nantucket, Mass., June 18–21 PePcon: The Print + ePublishing Conference, Austin, Tex., June 1–5 Printers Row Lit Fest, Chicago, June 6–7 Queens Book Festival, Queens, N.Y., TBD Queen’s Park Book Festival, London, June 27–28 The Santa Barbara Writers Conference, Santa Barbara, Calif., June 14–19 Sarah Lawrence College Writing Institute, Bronxville, N.Y., TBD Seoul International Book Fair, Seoul, South Korea, June 24–28 Squam Writes Retreat, Holderness, N.H., June 26–28 Why Reading Matters, Brooklyn, N.Y., TBD
July Anime Expo, Los Angeles, July 2–5 Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference, Corte Madera, Calif., July 30–Aug. 2 Comic-Con International, San Diego, Calif., July 23–26 Fiction at Its Finest Festival, London, July TBA
Hero Hype, Orlando, Fla., July 18 Hong Kong Book Fair, Hong Kong, July 15–21 International Book Fair of Lima, Lima, Peru, July 17–Aug. 2 Northwest Book Festival, Portland, Ore., TBA Otakon, Washington, D.C., July 31–Aug. 2 Paraty International Literary Festival (FLIP), Brazil, July 29–Aug. 2 PoetryFest, New York City, July TBA Read Up, Greenville, Greenville, S.C., TBA Santiago Book Fair, Santiago, Chile, July 22–Aug. 6 ThrillerFest, New York City, July 7–11
August Beijing International Book Fair, Beijing, China, Aug. 26–30 Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference, Corte Madera, Calif., Aug. 20–23 Ghana International Book Fair, Accra, Ghana, TBA Killer Nashville, Nashville, Aug 20–23 Melbourne Writers Festival, Melbourne, Australia, TBA Mississippi Book Festival, Jackson, Miss., Aug. 15 National Book Festival, Washington, D.C., Aug. 29 Nepal International Book Fair, Kathmandu, Nepal, TBA Romance GenreCon, Kansas City, Mo., TBA Writer’s Digest Conference, New York City, Aug. 13–16 Writers at Woody Point, Woody Point, Newfoundland, Canada, Aug. 18–23
September AJC Decatur Book Festival, Decatur, Ga., Sept. 4–6 Amman International Book Fair, Amman, Jordan, TBA Bloody Scotland, Stirling, Scotland, U.K., Sept. 18–20 Bookmarks Festival of Books and Authors, Winston-Salem, N.C., TBA Brooklyn Book Festival, Brooklyn, N.Y., TBA Burlington Book Festival, Burlington, Vt., TBA California Independent Booksellers Alliance Discovery Show, San Francisco, Sept. 23–25 Digital Book World Conference + Expo, Nashville, Sept. 14–15 Dragon Con, Atlanta, Sept. 3–7 Feira do Livro do Porto, Porto, Portugal, TBA Göteborg Book Fair, Göteborg, Sweden, Sept. 24–27 Harbor Springs Festival of the Book, Harbor Springs, Mich., Sept. 25–27 Indonesia International Book Fair, Indonesia, Sept. 9–13 International Fair of Intellectual Literature, Moscow, Russia, Sept. 2–6 Kentucky Women Writers Conference, Lexington, Ky., TBA Kerrytown BookFest, Ann Arbor, Mich., N/A W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
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Conferences & Festivals
Lviv International Book and Literature Festival, Lviv, Ukraine, TBA Nairobi International Book Fair, Nairobi, Kenya, TBA New American Festival, New York City, TBA New England Independent Booksellers Association Fall Conference, Providence, R.I., Sept. 22–24 Open Book Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, Sept. 2–6 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Tradeshow, Tacoma, Wash., Sept. 30–Oct. 2 South African Book Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa, TBA Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Discovery Show, New Orleans, Sept. 11–13 Transylvanian Book Festival, Richiş, Romania, Sept. 10–13 Unicorn Writers Conference, Purchase, N.Y., Sept. N/A The Village Trip, New York City, TBA Word on the Street, Toronto, TBA
October 2019 Neustadt Lit Fest, Oklahoma City, Okla., TBA Antwerp Book Fair, Belgium, TBA Bienal do Livro, São Paolo, Brazil, Oct. 30–Nov. 8 Boston Book Festival, Boston, Mass., TBA Bouchercon, Sacramento, Calif., Oct. 15–18 Brattleboro Literary Festival, Brattleboro, Vt., TBA Bucks County Book Festival, Doylestown, Pa., Oct. 3–4 Dodge Poetry Festival, Governor’s Island, N.Y., Oct. 22–25 Florida Writers Association Annual Conference, Florida City, Fla., Oct. 15–18 Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 14–18 Geneva Book and Press Fair, Geneva, Switzerland, Oct. 28–Nov. 1 The Heartland Fall Forum, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 14–16 Helsinki Book Fair, Helsinki, Finland, Oct. 22–25 High Desert Book Festival, Hesperia, Calif., Oct. TBA International Belgrade Book Fair, Belgrade, Serbia TBA Istanbul Book Fair, Istanbul, Turkey, Oct. 31–Nov. 8 Komiket, Quezon City, Philippines, TBA Krakow International Book Fair, Poland, Oct. 22–25 Krasnoyarsk Book Culture Fair, Krasnoyarsk, Russia, Oct. 31–Nov. 4 LIBER International Book Fair, Barcelona, Spain, Oct. 7–9 Lit & Luz Festival of Language, Literature, and Art, Chicago, TBA Litquake, San Francisco, Oct. 8–17 Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association Fall Conference, Denver, Colo., Oct. 8–10 New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Fall Conference, Baltimore, Md.,Oct.-25-27 14 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J A N U A R Y 6 , 2 0 2 0
New York Comic Con, New York City, Oct. 8–11 Rainbow Book Fair, New York City, TBA RomCon, Denver, Colo., N/A Southern Festival of Books, Nashville, TBA Texas Teen Book Festival, Austin, Tex., TBA Twin Cities Book Festival, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn., TBA Vancouver Writers Fest, Vancouver, Canada, Oct. 19–25
November Anime NYC, New York City, Nov. 20-22 Bibliotéka Bratislava, Slovakia, TBA Brilliant Baltimore, Baltimore, Md., Nov. 1–10 Dublin Book Festival, Dublin, Ireland, TBA ECPA Publishing University and Art of Writing Conference, Nashville, Nov. 11 Festival Albertine, New York City, TBA Gaudeamus Book Fair, Bucharest, Romania, TBA Guadalajara International Book Fair, Guadalajara, Mexico, Nov. 28–Dec. 6 Interliber, Zagreb, Croatia, TBA International Children and Young Adults Book Fair (FILIJ), Mexico City, Mexico, TBA Malta Book Festival, Valletta, Malta, TBA Miami Book Fair, Miami, Nov. 15–22 NCTE Annual Convention, Denver, Colo., Nov. 19–22 Salon du Livre de Montréal, Montreal, Canada, Nov. 15–30 Shanghai International Children’s Fair, Shanghai, China, Nov. 13–15 Sharjah International Book Fair, Sharjah, U.A.E., Nov. 4–14 Slovenian Book Fair, Ljubljana, Slovenia, TBA Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading, Tampa, Fla., TBA Texas Book Festival, Austin, Tex., Nov. 7–8 Vienna International Book Fair, Vienna, Austria, Nov. 11–15 Wordstock: Portland’s Book Festival, Portland, Ore., TBA YALLFest, Charleston, S.C., TBA
December Con+Alt+Delete, Chicago, TBA FIL de Guadalajara, Guadalajara Mexico, TBA Jeddah International Book Fair, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, TBA Moscow Non/Fiction Book Fair, Russia, TBA Più Libri Più Liberi (Rome Book Fair), Rome, Italy, TBA Pula Festival of Books and Authors, Pula, Croatia, TBA Sofia International Book Fair, Sofia, Bulgaria, TBA ■
Editor's Note: For events that have not yet released their dates for this year's fair, we have placed the meeting in roughly the usual time period.
After ‘Dept. of Speculation,’ Jenny Offill looks outward
BY DANIEL LEFFERTS
© emily tobey
I
t’s a Friday afternoon, and Jenny Offill, author of the widely acclaimed 2014 novel Dept. of Speculation (Vintage), is at her home in the Hudson Valley. She’s speaking via Skype, about to broach the subject of her new novel, Weather (Knopf, Feb.), when her internet goes down. The conversation switches to the telephone, but Offill isn’t flustered. In some ways the interruption seems fitting. Both Dept. of Speculation and Weather, with their fragmented structures, suggest that linearity is suspect, that connection is fragile, and that we are at the mercy of forces beyond our understanding. Offill’s biography, like her novels, is haphazard. Her parents were boarding school teachers, and throughout her childhood she moved around the country, living in Massachusetts, California, Indiana, and, eventually, North Carolina, where W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
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Author Profile she attended high school and college, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After graduating, she worked a number of odd jobs—waitress, bartender, caterer, cashier, medical transcriber, fact-checker, writer of “things for rich people who have a story to tell,” as she puts it. She published her first novel, Last Things (Bloomsbury), in 2000, when she was 30. That book received critical acclaim but failed commercially. In the years that followed, Offill worked as an adjunct writing instructor at various universities and wrote children’s books. Like the writer-narrator of Dept. of Speculation, she struggled for years to produce a second novel. When she did produce that second novel, it exceeded expectations. “I was hoping other writers would like it,” Offill, 51, says of Dept. of Speculation. “That was just a weird book. I didn’t think a novel that was structured like that would have a big audience.” For all its unconventionality, Dept. of Speculation is propulsive and absorbing. Critic Elaine Blair, writing in the New York Review of Books, said it can be read “in about two hours.” She’s right. Perhaps this is why it didn’t remain some “weird book,” as Offill assumed it would. To date, Dept. of Speculation has sold about 57,000 print copies in hardcover and paperback, according to NPD BookScan; it has been acquired in 21 territories outside of North America; and it’s been optioned for film. The novel tells the story of an unnamed woman who once aspired to be an “art monster” but, saddled with family and work commitments (including a gig as a ghostwriter for an egomaniacal “almost astronaut”), has thus far failed to realize her potential. The Wife, as she’s sometimes called, begins to question her devotion to her family when she discovers that her husband has had an affair with a younger woman. Proceeding in a series of frenzied fragments, separated by double paragraph breaks, the novel presents the narrator’s fearsome intellect as well as her changeable demeanor. In a single brief chapter, the narrator alludes to Einstein, recounts the gruesome death of a Russian cosmonaut, quotes the explorer Frederick Cook, writes an imaginary and self-flagellating Christmas card to loved ones, describes her daughter swimming, and references the Stoics. Dept. of Speculation’s success may also have been owed, in some small part, to its association with a style of writing, popular in the last decade, known as autofiction. The term has come to stand for a literary approach that does away with the conventions of fiction, such as plot and invented characters, and draws, or appears to draw, on the author’s lived experience. Offill is often mentioned in the same breath as other practitioners of the form, such as Rachel Cusk and Ben Lerner, but she smarts at the label. “Autofiction has been around for so long,” she says. She also feels it’s gendered, asserting that women who write it are assumed to be pulling from their diaries. “I wouldn’t be a fiction writer if I didn’t believe that you could invent, and conflate, and add to things.” And Weather, while formally similar to Dept. of Speculation, certainly strays from the 16 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J A N U A R Y 6 , 2 0 2 0
precepts of autofiction. Its narrator is named, for example, and its preoccupations are less insular. The book centers on a librarian named Lizzie who is raising a son with her husband and caring for a brother with a history of drug addiction. Over the course of the novel, Lizzie, who begins working for a former mentor who operates a podcast about futurism, becomes increasingly fixated on the climate crisis and the doomsday preparation movement. Her anxieties only accelerate when Donald Trump (who is never named) is elected president. Jordan Pavlin, Offill’s editor at Knopf, feels that Weather is “more ambitious in its themes” than Dept. of Speculation, and that “one of its most thrilling seductions is the way it uses the anxiety we are all experiencing in relation to the current climate—both literally and figuratively—as a plot engine.” Offill says that with Weather she was looking to respond to the current moment more directly, to write a book that wasn’t “frozen in amber.” She was inspired to address climate change in part by her conversations with her best friend, novelist Lydia Millet, who has written about environmental issues for the New York Times and who addresses those themes in her fiction. “For years we’ve been talking, and at a certain point I thought, ‘I need to know more about this,’ ” Offill says. At the same time, Offill worried about the pitfalls of political fiction, which she feels can be boring, didactic, and humorless. “I don’t love the language that’s available to talk about this stuff,” she says. “Do I like to say interconnectedness? No. Do I like to say web of life? Mm, no. If you’re not particularly drawn to earnestness, how do you make yourself be a more engaged person?” Nonetheless, Offill thinks the central problems of our time— climate change, social justice—can’t be tackled individually. “It’s about getting more people—including people like me, who actually hate all group activities—to sign up for the messiness and frustration and occasional exhilaration of collective action. I’ve been to more marches and more meetings and I’ve written more postcards and called more people than I’ve ever done,” she says. “I don’t like to do any of that stuff.” Weather, like Dept. of Speculation, is told through frenetic fragments. But where the fragments in Dept. of Speculation were meant to mimic the churning of the narrator’s mind, the fragments here are meant to mimic weather. “People always say, ‘It’s an atmospheric book,’ ” Offill explains. “I wanted to see what it would be like to try to write atmospherically.” The book, she says, is “meant to swirl” as if its paragraphs were clouds. Its atomized form is intended to congeal into an uneasy whole, mirroring the challenge of political movements, in which individuals must find a way to act in concert. If Offill arrived at any wisdom by the end of writing Weather, it’s the wisdom captured in a quote the protagonist’s husband posts above his desk: “You are not some disinterested bystander/ Exert yourself.” With Weather, Offill hopes to do just that. ■
MacArthur fellow Lauren Redniss’s latest work of visual nonfiction explores the conflict surrounding Oak Flat, Ariz.; the Apache people; and copper mining BY HEIDI MACDONALD
O
© abigail pope
ver the course of a highly unusual career, Lauren Redniss, a much-lauded author and visual artist, has followed her instincts, never really planning exactly where she’s going—but so far her approach has led to an astonishing amount of acclaim. Her new book, Oak Flat: A Fight for Sacred Land in the American West (due in April from Random House) is the latest example of what she calls her “visual nonfiction,” a career path that has thus far included a 2016 MacArthur “genius grant,” a spot as a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award for nonfiction, and a Guggenheim fellowship, among other honors. Not too bad for someone who started out not knowing what she wanted to do. “I try and trust the feeling,” she says of her process for picking her subjects—which thus far have included an early-20th-century showgirl, Nobel laureate physicist Marie Curie, and the weather. “If I have a hunch about something, there’s a reason for it, and I try to dig for that reason. I trust that if I think about it and explore it, I will eventually be able to articulate that motivation, even if it starts out amorphous and impressionistic.” The result of this process is books that meld prose, science, journalism, and illustration to tell stories with an evocative depth. She doesn’t consider herself a cartoonist, or her books graphic novels (though Oak Flat is listed on PW’s graphic novels announcements list). However, though they may not fit into any easy category, her books get much of their power from the same strength of visual storytelling found in graphic novels. It’s a blend of storytelling processes that she’s taken further than ever in Oak Flat, the riveting story of a contested piece of Arizona land—a rocky mesa that’s been sacred to the San Carlos Apache tribe for hundreds of years. Oak Flat is home to a rich vein of copper, and, while mining had long been banned there, in 2014, President Obama signed a controversial and longdisputed piece of land exchange legislation allowing mining
interests to acquire 2,400 acres of sacred land. However, the fate of the ecologically and religiously vital site is still b e i n g f o u g h t o v e r, e v e n a s t h e Resolution Copper mining company is preparing to dig, inevitably destroying Oak Flat in the process. In November 2019, a coalition of 20 Arizona tribal, mining-reform, and religious organizations petitioned the U.S. Forest Service in a challenge to the environmental review of the copper mine site, claiming it was rushed and flawed. Arrayed against the mining concerns is the Nosie family, led by Wendsler Nosie, former chairman and councilman of the San Carlos Apache tribe, and his teen activist granddaughter Naelyn Pike, who has spoken before Congress about the traditional importance of Oak Flat to the Apache people. In precise, descriptive prose based on hours of interviews both with Apache leaders and white locals, and bolstered with pages of haunting colored-pencil drawings, Redniss paints a picture of two peoples locked in an inevitable conflict. She depicts both the oppression of indigenous people throughout American history, and the experiences of mining families who are willing to risk their lives and the well-being of their families to provide for them. It’s a story that Redniss spent years researching, returning to Arizona many times, she says over coffee at a local café near her Brooklyn home, where she lives with her husband and two children. Redniss calls herself shy—and she is soft-spoken—but she is also passionate about the stories she tells, and grows increasingly animated as she talks of the people she writes about. Redniss explains that she didn’t really start out intending to be an illustrator, a journalist, an author, or anything in particular. In fact, the more you talk to Redniss, the more it becomes clear that her creative process is as intuitive and undefinable as the finished works it produces. Redniss loved to draw as a child, she says, but initially she’d pursued a postgraduate career in botany—until a lab job drawing seed specimens made her realize how much she missed W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
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Author Profile making art. All the while, she also kept a journal, and worked to compile an oral history of her grandparents—and, somehow, all this led to the realization that “there was a way to bring these things together,” she says. “It just sort of evolved organically out of different interests.” Redniss began to put it all together in 2001 when a friend of hers, an art director at the New York Times, saw her journals and thought she might be able to produce something like it for the Times’s op-ed page. The result was a series of profiles of centenarians, all based on interviews and accompanied by Redniss’s impressionistic but accurate drawings. One of the subjects for the series was Doris Eaton, a 102-year-old former Ziegfeld Follies showgirl whose home was practically a museum of burlesque. Meeting Eaton led to 2006’s Century Girl: 100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis, Last Living Star of the Ziegfeld Follies, a collageheavy biography of Eaton and her times, marking the first time that Redniss was able to put all her interests together as a book. Next came Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, a Tale of Love and Fallout, an acclaimed 2010 biographical account of the relationship between the two pioneering scientists that used a similar collage approach. The book was a National Book Award finalist in 2011, and in 2019 a film adaptation of the book was released, directed by another noted visual storyteller, Marjane Satrapi, creator of the pioneering graphic novel Persepolis. “We just totally hit it off,” Redniss says about her first encounters with Satrapi. Redniss followed the publication of Radioactive with Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future in 2015, a book that required her to travel from the Arctic to rainy Madagascar to explore how extremes of weather affect civilization and the biosphere. The book won the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and soon after, in 2016, she was awarded a MacArthur “genius grant.” All of these subjects were ideas that spoke to her, on an intuitive level, Redniss explains, and Oak Flat, perhaps her most dramatic book, is no exception. Her interest in the place started simply enough: by reading about the contested area in an article in the New York Times. Inspired, she traveled to Arizona and started talking to the people involved. “I just felt compelled by the people and the stakes,” she says. “It was the history of the American West, the myths that are told about it.” Redniss would spend the next three years traveling back to Oak Flat and the mining ghost towns of Arizona, meeting the Nosie family and the Gorhams of Superior, Ariz., whose history is intertwined with the history of mining. But as with her other books, various aspects of the tale grew organically. “The ques18 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J A N U A R Y 6 , 2 0 2 0
tions that arose were things I hadn’t thought about,” she says. “Such as where does copper come from—and how do we mine it?” But the most significant part of this story is the people. While Oak Flat is immensely sympathetic to the indigenous experience—especially in its account of Naelyn’s “Sunrise Dance,” a traditional San Carlos Apache ceremony celebrating entry to womanhood held at Oak Flat—Redniss also examines the hardscrabble lives of white residents who support opening the copper mine. Redniss tried to avoid the obvious traps and tropes in writing about indigenous people. “I tried to be as respectful as possible in talking to people,” she says. “I’m relating the stories and ideas that are important to them. And I definitely feel like there is a great responsibility as a non-Native person. There’s a great history of injustice even by well-meaning people.” The visual elements of the book include full-page coloredpencil sketches of Oak Flat and the surrounding areas, as well as portraits of the main players. Redniss often uses a series of fullpage illustrations to slow the tempo of the narrative for the reader and to force a more thoughtful approach to the subject, while her precise verbal descriptions give the work a sense of immediacy. “I’m hoping to create a kind of visceral connection,” Redniss says. “Words can have that power, but images affect us in a way that we don’t have language for. It’s more of a feeling.” As with most aspects of Redniss’s work, her approach to the balance of words and pictures is an intuitive one. “It’s not necessarily a struggle in a negative sense,” she says. “It’s a kind of dynamic push and pull, each exerting a force—and, hopefully, in the end I find the tension between those two dynamics.” Redniss also teaches illustration at the Parsons School of Design. After Century Girl came out, famed cartoonist Ben Katchor, himself a MacArthur winner and an associate professor at Parsons, encouraged her to apply for a full-time position. “I thought, ‘Oh, that’s a good idea, because I have no idea how I’m gonna pay the bills after this book,’ ” she says with a laugh. After completing Oak Flat, Redniss says she’s expanding into three-dimensional art with some projects she can’t talk about right now. Once again, she’s found a new creative direction that interests her a great deal. “To me, books are a perfect technology, and I hope to continue to make books, but I like the visual component of my work,” Redniss says. “I hope that from one project to the next, some new seed will be planted and that I can nurture that without knowing much about it in advance.” ■ Heidi MacDonald writes regularly for PW on comics and graphic books.
Review_FICTION © marian calle
Reviews Fiction Godshot Chelsea Bieker. Catapult, $26 (336p) ISBN 978-1-948226-48-6
Religious fanaticism, environmental disaster, and gender inequality form the core of Bieker’s propulsive, ambitious debut centered on 14-year-old Lacey May and her drought-stricken hometown of Peaches, Calif. After Lacey’s mother abandons her, she’s left at the mercy of her widowed grandmother, Cherry, a devoted zealot under the spell of enigmatic cult leader Pastor Vern. Vern wears shiny capes, has convinced most of Peaches that he is God and can bring back the rain the area so desperately needs, and convinces a group of girls, among them Lacey, to become pregnant. When his plans for the babies become clear, Lacey’s life is thrown in a harrowing direction that leads her to discover her own resilience and salvation. Bieker straddles the line between darkly comic and downright dark, and excels in portraying female friendships—motherdaughter duo Daisy and Florin, who run a phone sex operation and step in to help Lacey, are particularly memorable—and the setting, a town full of abandoned shops and concrete canals and surrounded by dusty fields. Delving into patriarchal religious zealotry, Bieker’s excellent debut plants themes seen in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale into a realistic California setting that will linger with readers. (Apr.)
Maisy Card’s These Ghosts Are Family is a profound, assured debut about a family’s painful past (reviewed on p. 21).
apologetic Daehyun insists to his parents that “she’s not well,” and coaxes Jiyoung to see a psychiatrist whose report on Jiyoung forms the novel, offering insight on the challenges she’s faced. Jiyoung grew up in Seoul as a middle child with an older sister and younger brother, and learned from her grandmother to accept that boys receive special treatment. At her school, she is punished for eating lunch too slowly despite being given much less time than the boys. The psychiatrist recognizes how sexism has shaped Jiyoung and reflects on his privilege as a man, but he concludes his report without resolving to offer support and validation. While Cho’s message-driven narrative will leave readers wishing for more complexity, the brutal, bleak conclusion demonstrates Cho’s mastery of irony. This will stir readers to consider the myriad factors that diminish women’s rights throughout the world. (Apr.)
Reproduction Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 Cho Nam-Joo, trans. from the Korean by Jamie Chang. Liveright, $20 (176p) ISBN 9781-63149-670-7
Cho’s spirited debut offers a picture of rampant sexism in contemporary South Korea through the experience of a frustrated, subjugated, 33-year-old housewife. At a gathering with her husband Jung Daehyun’s family, Kim Jiyoung suddenly speaks up to her father in law, questioning the cultural expectation that she bend over backward to serve them. A distressed,
Ian Williams. Europa, $18 trade paper (576p) ISBN 978-1-60945-575-0
Williams’s inventive, Giller-winning debut novel (after the collection Not Anyone’s Anything) explores the roots of Canada’s home care program for migrants. In the late 1970s, Felicia Shaw, 19, and her mother live in Brampton, Ontario, having recently arrived from a “small unrecognized island” in the West Indies. Her mother suffers from a heart condition and winds up in a hospital in Toronto. Felicia forms an unlikely bond with middle-aged Edgar
Gross, whose mother shares her mother’s hospital room. After Felicia’s mother dies, Edgar persuades her to move in with him, and their uneasy relationship is further complicated after Edgar gets Felicia pregnant and kicks her out of the house. Williams jumps through the years in short, indelible bursts of dialogue between Felicia and her son, Armistice (“Army”), and in chapters titled “XX” or “XY” after the sex chromosomes. At 14, Army develops a crush on his landlord’s teenaged daughter, Heather. After Heather becomes pregnant, she confides to Army that she was raped, while Felicia compares Heather’s plight to her own experience of teen pregnancy and hopes Army will break from the cycle. While the dizzying shuffle of voices and complicated structure occasionally overtax the reader, Williams’s unsparing view on the past’s repetition is heartrending. This ambitious experiment yields worthwhile results. (Apr.)
St. Ivo Joanna Hershon. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25 (224p) ISBN 978-0-374-26814-5
Hershon’s somber, murky fifth novel (after The Dual Inheritance) gradually reveals the unhappy secrets between floundering filmmaker Sarah and her adult daughter, Leda. Sarah, who hasn’t made a film for years, has recently, and uncertainly, reunited with her husband, Matthew, after a two-year separation. The novel follows the couple over the course of a weekend spent in upstate New York with their friends and fellow artists Kiki and Arman, who have just had a baby. Hershon slowly drags in clues to the source of Sarah’s suffering, and the circumstances surrounding her and Matthew’s estrangement from Leda, which Sarah tries to work through in a screenplay despite Matthew’s objections. Heading into the weekend, Sarah behaves in increasingly risky ways and gives her name and phone number to a “grandfatherly” Czech man she meets on the subway. Upstate, she tempts danger in a swimsuit-clad encounter with Kiki and Arman’s gruff neighbor in the woods, stimulated by the sense that the man could overpower her after he touches the fringe of her suit. While Leda’s story of heroin addiction and betrayal is rather predictable, Sarah’s opaque emotional backdrop receives welcome bursts of illumination with brief, W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
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Review_FICTION dialogue-driven cinematic scenes. Hershon explores with moving simplicity the complexities friendships and a marriage that has frayed but not yet died. (Apr.)
The Prettiest Star Carter Sickels. Hub City, $27 (308p) ISBN 9781-938235-62-7
A man dying of AIDS returns home to Chester, Ohio, from 1986 New York City in this heartfelt novel from Sickels (The Evening Hour). Brian, a documentary filmmaker whose boyfriend recently died, leaves behind the “ghosts” of the West Village for Chester, “to be seen, to be accepted, and to be loved.” As paranoia and fear around the AIDS epidemic escalates, Brian’s family finds themselves the targets of malicious gossip and ostracizing, and Brian’s presence changes how his sister, Jess; mother, Sharon; father, Travis; and grandmother Lettie relate to each other and to their friends and neighbors. Brian gains additional support from Annie, his best friend from New York and a very out lesbian, who flies to Chester to help brace him from the homophobic taunts endured by him and his family as he documents his experience on video. After Brian feels he’s bringing too much trouble to his family, he moves in with a new friend, who eventually invites Lettie to come and care for him after his condition worsens. Sickels is at his best in his characters’ most painful moments, poignantly revealing Lettie’s regret of offering Brian too little, too late. This tragic story of AIDS and violent homophobia stands out by showing the transcendent power of queer communities to make their voices endure through art. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Apr.)
Above Us the Milky Way: An Illuminated Alphabet Fowzia Karimi. Deep Vellum, $28 (440p) ISBN 978-1-64605-002-4
Karimi’s inventive, allegorical debut renders a family’s wartime emigration
through a polyphonic mix of voices and genres along with evocative color illustrations and photographs. With a newly elected government dropping bombs on civilians, Father finds out he’s on a list to be arrested. Mother visits a soothsayer for guidance and is told they will flee their unnamed country for a new land. Heeding the prophecy, Mother and Father depart with their five daughters and squeeze into a small apartment. The unnamed sisters, along with their mother and father, alternate the narration, giving definition to their new lives through alphabetical chapters (such as H for “Home. What we carried with us no matter how often we moved, who and what we left behind”). After Mother and Father find jobs, the family moves into a house, leaving the sisters to fight among themselves until Mother encourages them to reflect on a spirit world inhabited by relatives who didn’t survive the war, which Karimi alludes to with haunting drawings of demons and beheaded men juxtaposed with peaceful, happy family photos. Karimi’s steady pace and loosely defined setting will allow readers to share in the characters’ dreams and visions of their “first land.” Fans of Lost Children Archive will love this. (Apr.)
A Hundred Suns Karin Tanabe. St. Martin’s, $27.99 (384p) ISBN 978-1-250-23147-5
Tanabe (The Gilded Years) transports readers to the beauty and danger of 1930s Indochina in this stirring, elegant romance. American-born Jessie Lesage leaves Paris with her French husband, Victor, and their daughter, Lucie, in 1933 so that Victor, whose family owns the Michelin tire company, can oversee his family’s rubber plantations in Phu Rieng, Cochinchina. Once Jessie arrives in Hanoi, she meets Marcelle de Fabry, the wife of Arnaud de Fabry, a successful Hanoi financier. Marcelle introduces Jessie to the excesses of the colony, inviting Jessie onto a sailboat belonging to her lover, Khoi Nguyen, a silk scion and Communist
sympathizer. After Jessie meets Hugh “Red” Redvers, a handsome British man working to expand the railroad in Indochina, Red gives her opium and encourages her to visit the rubber plantations to witness the conditions faced by the workers, which she had yet to see firsthand. As she tries to reconcile love for her husband with her newfound outrage at his industry’s abuses, her emotional torment and opium use lead to hallucinations. Tanabe’s richly drawn novel is complete with multidimensional characters who gradually reveal their secrets, leading Jessie to discover that her frequent bouts of confusion are not only caused by opium. Fans of historical fiction will be enthralled. Agent: Bridget Matzie, Aevitas Creative Management. (Apr.)
Marrow and Bone Walter Kempowski, trans. from the German by Charlotte Collins. New York Review Books, $16.95 trade paper (208p) ISBN 978-1-68137435-2
Kempowski (All For Nothing) offers an astute and ever-surprising comedy of the cultural divide between East and West in 1988. At 43, war orphan Jonathan Fabrizius halfheartedly pursues a life of the mind in Hamburg, where he works as a sometime journalist. After Frau Winkelvoss, a representative of the Santubara car manufacturer, offers Jonathan an opportunity to document a trip across Poland for an upcoming rally, Jonathan readily accepts out of interest in his birthplace in former East Prussia. Jonathan takes ironic pride in a painful past (“As far as suffering was concerned, this guaranteed him an unparalleled advantage over his friends”) and adopts a wry attitude toward
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Review_FICTION the way he’ll be perceived as a German abroad (“When you’d started a world war, murdered Jews and taken people’s bicycles away (in Holland) the cards were stacked against you”). On the road in Poland with Winkelvoss and a famous race car driver at the wheel of the flashy V8, Jonathan plays the part of arrogant Western intellectual as their adventure turns picaresque, complete with a car jacking. As Jonathan tunes in to the wreckage of war, Kempowski’s unsparing, dagger-sharp prose leads Jonathan to face the loss of his parents and homeland. This hilarious, deeply affecting exploration of postwar dichotomies successfully channels the satire of Confederacy of Dunces and the somber reflectiveness of Austerlitz. (Mar.)
The Companions Katie Flynn. Scout, $27 (272p) ISBN 978-1982122-15-7
A deadly virus strikes near-future California in Flynn’s nightmarish debut, leading to a quarantine of the state’s surviving residents in sealed towers. “Companions” are provided to the shut-ins in the form of the dead, whose consciousnesses have been uploaded into various forms, from crude robots to flesh-covered humanoids. The robot-embodied Lilac serves Dahlia, a petulant adolescent, by entertaining her with snippets of Lilac’s life before death and quarantine. Lilac’s memories of teen parties lead her to buffer on a scene in which she is battered by a boy whose advances she resisted. But when Dahlia’s mother threatens to send Lilac back to the factory for breaking things around the apartment, Lilac escapes, setting out to find out what happened to her best friend, Nikki, who was with her when she died. On the way, she meets Cam, a compassionate caregiver to geriatric patients; Gabe, a feral child living on the streets; Jakob, a movie star turned companion; and Rachel, a passing-for-human companion whose memory might hold the key to Lilac’s quest. Told by eight voices over the course of 20 years, the overly busy narrative often threatens to overwhelm Lilac’s story. But by the end, Flynn’s vibrant characters movingly answer the oft-asked question, “What does it mean to be human?” This will satisfy fans of literary and science fiction alike. (Mar.)
★ These Ghosts Are Family Maisy Card. Simon & Schuster, $24 (288p) ISBN 978-1-9821-1743-6
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ard’s profound, assured debut explores Jamaican colonial history to uncover a family’s painful past. Spanning two centuries and eight generations of the Paisley family, the narrative begins in 2005 with Stanford Solomon, a Jamaican immigrant to the United States who was once known as Abel Paisley before faking his own death 35 years earlier, assuming his dead friend’s identity, and estranging himself from his family. After Stanford finally reaches out to his daughter, Irene, a 37-year-old home health aide in New York City, to confess that he’s been alive all this time, her late mother, Vera, a ghost who spent decades without knowing what happened to her husband, notes that “death is just one long therapy session.” Meanwhile, Stanford’s daughter by a second marriage, Estelle Solomon, struggles with heroin addiction and grief that she cannot support her 18-year-old daughter. As Card traces the family’s roots back through Jamaica’s history under British rule and enslavement, literal and figurative ghosts animate the novel, and a wrenching description of the violent 1831 Christmas Rebellion and its aftermath reveals that Stanford was not the first of the Paisleys to rewrite the history of their lineage. Through a fluid blend of patois and erudite descriptions of Jamaica, Card offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of a troubled but resilient family whose struggles are inscribed by the island they once called home. This masterful chronicle haunts like the work of Marlon James and hits just as hard. Agent: Monica Odom, Bradford Literary Agency. (Mar.)
The Book of Kane and Margaret Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi. FC2, $18.95 trade paper (298p) ISBN 978-1-57366-184-3
Araki-Kawaguchi’s inventive, surreal novel in stories (after Disintegration Made Plain and Easy) follows a group of characters who leave the bounds of a WWII-era Japanese internment camp through magic and mischief. Each loosely connected vignette centers on a wildly different iteration of Yoshikane “Kane” Araki and Margaret Morri. In one story, a man named Kane grows a pair of wings and crosses the camp’s barbed wire to mingle freely in the “nearest Arizona Chinatown.” Elsewhere, another Kane leaves the camp by passing as white, not by “any sort of skin condition” but by adopting a confident posture. Margaret Morri appears as a singing cicada; a woman who uses men to reenact the last day with her husband, who disappeared after “going over the wire”; and a young typist seduced by an enchanted frog. Later, Kane and Margaret are octogenarian spouses who reignite their sex lives to compete with the “noises of newly married
couples fiercely, hysterically fucking each other” in their barracks’ neighboring bunks. Some stories employ realism to bring the trauma and small rebellions of the camp into sharp relief, such as one about an interned young mother worried about her infant daughter and a dismissive nurse. This beautifully rendered reflection on a dark moment of American history will appeal to fans of literary speculative fiction. (Mar.)
The Henna Artist Alka Joshi. Mira, $26.99 (368p) ISBN 978-07783-0945-1
Joshi’s eloquent debut follows a soughtafter henna practitioner in postindependence Jaipur, India. Lakshmi Shastri survives a harsh childhood in rural Ajar by running away from an abusive, arranged teenage marriage. Determined to make something of herself, Lakshmi parlays her talent for original henna designs and herbal remedies into a successful business, offering henna to high-caste women and discreetly selling contraceptive tea to men with W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
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Review_FICTION mistresses, including a man named Samir. After her estranged husband tracks her down years later, in 1955, with Lakshmi’s just-orphaned, 13-year-old sister, Radha, Lakshmi is surprised to learn she has a sister and devastated by the death of their parents, who were shamed after her departure. Lakshmi had saved to bring them to Jaipur, hoping to earn back their respect. Instead, Lakshmi takes in Radha, whose carefree interest in boys threatens to damage Lakshmi’s reputation and years-long struggle for independence. When faced with Samir’s vengeful wife, Lakshmi must come to terms with the effect of her actions on others. And after Radha becomes pregnant, Lakshmi gains an opportunity to put her family first. Joshi’s evocative descriptions capture India’s sensory ambience (horse-drawn tongas, pungent cooking fires and incense, and colorful saris), drawing readers deep into her moving story. Joshi masterfully balances a yearning for selfdiscovery with the need for familial love. (Mar.)
Flygirl R.D. Kardon. Acorn, $16.99 trade paper (310p) ISBN 978-1-947392-21-2
Kardon’s exciting, spirited debut follows a new female pilot as she vies to move up to the captain’s seat. Thirty-something Patricia “Tris” Miles abandons her career as a middle school English teacher to pursue a lifelong dream of learning to fly planes. After training with a commuter airline, she accepts an offer to become a copilot for a corporation’s private jet, which she thinks will allow her to advance in her career more quickly. Instead, she faces stiff, rude competition with male counterparts such as Ed Deter, a misogynist ex-military pilot who “hadn’t met a woman yet whose hands he’d put his life into,” and who resents the assignment to train Tris. Another pilot, Larry Ross, considers standing up for Tris, but worries that his coworkers will tease him for having a crush on her. Tris brushes off Ross’s flirtation, driven by her laser focus on achieving her goals, and eventually an opportunity presents itself to shine next to Deter and save the day. Kardon, a pilot, convincingly
★ The Mountains Sing Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai. Algonquin, $26.95 (352p) ISBN 978-1-61620-818-9
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guyễn’s lyrical, sweeping debut novel (after the poetry collection The Secret of Hoa Sen) chronicles the Tran family through a century of war and renewal. As middle-aged writer Hu’o’ng revisits her native Hanoi in 2012, she reflects on the lessons shared by her late grandmother Diê.u Lan (“The challenges faced by Vietnamese people throughout history are as tall as the tallest mountains. If you stand too close, you won’t be able to see their peaks”) and chronicles their journey of survival during the Vietnam War. Hu’o’ng was 12 when bombs encroached on Hanoi, where she lived with Diê.u Lan after her mother, Ngo.c, a physician, left to search for her father, a soldier in the NVA. After an evacuation to the mountains, Diê.u Lan “opened the door of her childhood” to Huoung with stories of being raised by a wealthy family to pursue an education and resist old customs such as blackening her teeth. Diê.u Lan also describes the harrowing truth of the Viê.t Minh Land Reform, during which her family’s land was seized in the spirit of resource distribution, encouraging her to question what she’s been taught in schools. Grandma and Hu’o’ng return to Hanoi and find their house decimated, and Ngo.c, who survived torture and rape while imprisoned by South Vietnamese soldiers, comes home without Hu’o’ng’s father. In a subtle coda, Nguyễn brilliantly explores the boundary between what a writer shares with the world and what remains between family. This brilliant, unsparing love letter to Vietnam will move readers. (Mar.)
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describes the intricacies of flying, and a passage in which a plane must be flown through thick fog, with nothing but the instruments for guidance (“Woman and machine entwined in the exceptional conversation of flight”) is particularly well done. This soaring testament to the value of following one’s dreams delivers the goods. (Self-published)
Mystery/Thriller ★ Hid from Our Eyes:
A Clare Fergusson/ Russ Van Alystyne Mystery
Julia Spencer-Fleming. Minotaur, $27.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-60685-5
It’s the summer of 1972, and the body of a well-dressed young woman turns up in the middle of a remote Adirondacks road, in bestseller Spencer-Fleming’s stellar ninth mystery featuring Episcopal priest Clare Fergusson and her husband, Millers Kill, N.Y., police chief Russ Van Alystyne (after 2013’s Through the Evil Days). The case goes cold, just as in a 1952 homicide, but the stakes rise when a second contemporary murder scene is eerily familiar to Russ, the lead suspect in the unsolved 1952 crime. As Russ struggles to solve the new murders, local politicians are campaigning to disband the understaffed police department for budgetary purposes and rely on the state police instead. Even home offers little refuge for Russ as he and his wife, Clare, struggle with their new parental responsibilities and the ever-present concern of Clare’s fragile sobriety. SpencerFleming combines a first-rate mystery with flawed but endearing characters. Readers will hope they won’t have to wait another seven years for the next installment. Author tour. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Apr.)
Without Sanction Don Bentley. Berkley, $27 (384p) ISBN 978-19848-0511-9
In Bentley’s predictable debut and series launch, Matt Drake, an agent for the Defense Intelligence Agency, goes off the rails after a disastrous mission to Aleppo, Syria, that leaves him with PTSD, a buddy horrifically wounded, and a Syrian family dead. He has zero interest in returning to Syria, but of course he does, to undertake an
Review_FICTION important mission: extracting a chemical weapons expert who is believed to have created a particularly effective new poison. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., just a few days before the presidential election, a covert CIA-led mission goes sideways, and President Jorge Gonzales’s chief of staff, Peter Redman, doesn’t want bad headlines to hurt Gonzales’s reelection chances. Redman’s subsequent damage control interferes with Drake’s mission. Caught in the middle, Drake does exactly what the reader expects and soldiers on with a mixture of machismo and jingoism. The exciting combat scenes and the militarytechnology detail will appeal to Tom Clancy fans. However, Bentley will have to come up with a more original plot next time if he’s to compete in the crowded military action genre. Agent: Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman Agency. (Mar.)
Hour of the Assassin Matthew Quirk. Morrow, $27.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-06-287549-5
Nick Averose, the star of this nonstop whirlwind from Quirk (The Night Agent), works as a so-called red teamer, testing the security surrounding government VIPs. While on the job one night checking out the protection level at the home of former CIA director Malcolm Widener, Averose is shocked to discover Widener stabbed to death on the floor of his study. Quickly realizing he’s likely been framed, Averose escapes into the Washington, D.C., night. So starts a mad scramble through the nation’s capital and its suburbs with Averose dodging pursuers while trying to figure out why somebody would want to set him up. Though frantically on the move, Averose eventually connects enough dots to determine that what’s going on somehow involves the presidential campaign of Sen. Sam MacDonough. Quirk again displays the infectious pacing he’s known for, but Averose leaves little lasting impression. There’s plenty of action, but readers will be disappointed in how closely this sticks to the contours of a typical chase story. Author tour. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (Mar.)
The Jerusalem Assassin Joel C. Rosenberg. Tyndale, $27.99 (472p) ISBN 978-1-4964-3784-6
Bestseller Rosenberg’s gripping third
Marcus Ryker novel (after 2019’s The Persian Gamble) finds former Secret Service agent Marcus ostensibly working for the Diplomatic Security Service, but in reality he’s employed by the CIA. At a Washington, D.C., diner, Marcus is having breakfast with his new partner, Kailea Curtis, when gunfire from a nearby church propels the two agents into action. Two shooters are taken down, but Marcus’s pastor and close friend, Carter Emerson, is killed. This attack is the kickoff to an intricate plot to kill a succession of toplevel American officials culminating in a suicide bombing at a peace conference being held on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, where U.S. president Andrew Clarke is meeting with Israeli premier Reuven Eitan and Saudi King Faisal Mohammed Al Saud for what is being billed as the “greatest diplomatic breakthrough of the century.” Never mind the familiar restoration of the Islamic Caliphate plot. Readers will tear through the final pages to see whether Marcus can once again triumph over evil. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group. (Mar.)
She Lover of Death: The Further Adventures of Erast Fandorin Boris Akunin, trans. from the Russian by Andrew Bromfield. Mysterious, $26 (272p) ISBN 978-0-8021-4814-8
Akunin’s intriguing, if flawed, eighth mystery featuring investigator Erast Fandorin (after 2019’s The Coronation) opens with a series of newspaper articles detailing several tragic deaths in 1900 Moscow. After a “latter-day Romeo and Juliet” take their own lives, a correspondent for the Moscow Courier speculates in print that his city has become the base for a suicide club, similar to ones that have existed in Berlin and London. The concept of a “secret society of death worshippers” who pledge to kill themselves is a promising one, and Akunin does a good job of bringing the reader into the mindset of a wannabe member of such a group, Marya Mironava, who arrives in the city in pursuit of a love-interest. An anonymous agent whom series fans will recognize as Fandorin goes undercover to infiltrate the society in an effort to destroy it, but newcomers may wonder why no one named Erast Fandorin appears in the book. This is not a good starting place for the uninitiated. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann
Ritterberg Literary. (Mar.)
Gone by Midnight Candice Fox. Forge, $27.99 (352p) ISBN 9781-250-31758-2
When eight-year-old Richie Farrow goes missing from his hotel room while on vacation in Crimson Lake, Queensland, in Australian author Fox’s intense third Crimson Lake novel (after 2019’s Redemption Point), his mother, Sara, asks Ted Conkaffey, a former Sydney homicide detective, to help find Richie. The local police reluctantly work with Ted, who was once a suspect in a child’s attempted murder, and his quick-witted partner, Amanda Pharrell, a convicted killer who served eight years in prison. As Amanda and Ted question witnesses and suspects, they discover that many of them are less than truthful, leading the pair to consider a myriad of scenarios to explain Richie’s disappearance. Complicating their investigation is Ted’s decision to look after his two-year-old daughter for his ex-wife and a budding relationship with his veterinarian. Quirky, no-nonsense characters complement the suspenseful plotting, which includes a multitude of twists. Readers will look forward to seeing more of Ted and Amanda. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore & Co. (Mar.)
★ Eight Perfect Murders Peter Swanson. Morrow, $26.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-06-283820-9
In 2004, Malcolm Kershaw, the narrator of this outstanding fair-play crime novel from Swanson (Before She Knew Him), began working at Boston’s Old Devils Bookstore, where he posted a list on the store’s blog of eight mysteries in which “the murderer comes closest to realizing that platonic ideal of a perfect murder.” Years later, FBI agent Gwen Mulvey tells him she’s investigating multiple killings that she believes may have been influenced by his blog post. For example, Mulvey is probing the deaths of three people apparently connected only by having a name related to W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
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Review_FICTION
[Q&A]
PW Talks with Peter Swanson
Murder by the Book A mystery bookstore blog post inspires a serial killer in Swanson’s Eight Perfect Murders (Morrow, Mar.; reviewed on p. 23). How did you come up with the premise? I was taking a walk around Walden Pond, and mentally trying to come up with a clever murder idea for another project I was thinking of doing. I began internally listing some of my favorite fictional murders to myself, and the idea for the book popped into my head. Not just the premise, but almost the entire book. By the end of my walk, I knew who the narrator was, who the killer was, and pretty much how the whole book would play out. That’s never happened before. It was exciting, but also overwhelming, because then I had to go home and try to write the thing.
©jim ferguson
Do the eight perfect murders in the book mirror your own choices for the eight best fictional murders, or did you choose them to better fit with the plot? When I began to construct the list, I was thinking specifically of books that proposed clever ideas for murders, ideas that would baffle a detective. But I was also definitely looking for books that would work within the context of my plot. The A.B.C. Murders is definitely not my favorite Christie book—that would be And Then There Were None. But it wouldn’t make sense to have someone try and copycat that. They’d need a remote island and 10
victims—way too much work. Any qualms about spoiling the endings of the eight perfect murders? Hmm, a little bit, but not that much. The way I rationalized it was to say to myself that anyone who’s reading my book and hasn’t read Agatha Christie, or Patricia Highsmith, needs to get their priorities straight. Also, even though I do spoil many of the books I discuss, there are also many surprises in those books that I don’t spoil. Except for The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which is, frankly, a onesurprise book. Early on, you suggest that the narrator may not be 100% reliable. Can you discuss your thinking in sharing that at that point of the book? I think what I wanted to do was to get ahead of the readers who would already be second-guessing the book in the early pages. It was a way to acknowledge the rules the narrator was establishing, but it was also a way for me to say, I already know what you’re thinking, and you might be right, and you might be wrong. And if readers weren’t already wondering about the reliability of the narrator, then it was a way of keeping them on their toes.
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—Lenny Picker
birds, a setup similar to Agatha Christie’s The A.B.C. Murders, one of the books on the list. Mulvey is also looking into a murder that mirrors the circumstances of James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity and hopes that Kershaw can give her a lead as to who might be using his list for a campaign of bloodshed. The stakes rise when Kershaw admits he knew one of the victims but chose not to share that with Mulvey. Swanson will keep most readers guessing until the end. Classic whodunit fans will be in heaven. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel & Weber. (Mar.)
The Safety Net Andrea Camilleri, trans. from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli. Penguin, $16 trade paper (272p) ISBN 978-0-14-313496-1
Bestseller Camilleri’s 25th outing for Insp. Salvo Montalbano (after 2019’s The Other End of the Line) offers a rich, nuanced mix of plot elements. Besides looking into a mysterious but nonfatal terror attack on a school, Montalbano has an unsought but unshakable obsession with a strange series of home movies belonging to a local resident with a tragic family history. The films show nothing but the same piece of a crumbling wall, each year from 1958 to 1963. He must also deal with a Swedish TV production that’s taken over his Sicilian town of Vigàta and made everything look as it did in the 1950s. The rhythms and layers of the aging detective’s thoughts, routines, and speech are droll and subtle, and fans will be attuned to Montalbano’s attempt to reckon with a serious past mistake. As the cases conclude, with none of the resolutions showing up on official records, readers will feel a pang of loss that this may be one of the last visits they’ll have from an old, wise friend. Camilleri died in 2019, having completed several books for posthumous publication. Agent: Carmen Prestia, Alferjeprestia (Italy). (Mar.)
The Sea of Lost Girls Carol Goodman. Morrow, $16.99 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-285202-1
Tess, the unreliable narrator of this exciting, if flawed, psychological thriller from Mary Higgins Clark Award–winner Goodman (The Night Visitors), teaches English at Haywood, a prestigious boarding school on the Maine coast, where her 17-year-old son, Rudy, is a student.
Review_FICTION Early one morning, Rudy texts Tess asking her to pick him up near the beach. Tess finds Rudy in a bloodstained sweatshirt, and he reveals that he had a fight with his bright, go-getter fellow classmate and girlfriend, Lila. A few hours later, Tess receives a phone call from Haywood’s headmistress informing her that Lila’s body has been found on the beach. With a history of aggression, Rudy is a person of interest in Lila’s murder, and his overbearing mother is desperate to protect him, even if it involves lying to the police and exposing dark secrets about her past concerning Rudy’s father. Unfortunately, most of the characters, including the irritating Tess, grate, and the culprit’s identity comes as no surprise. Still, readers will have a hard time putting this one down thanks to Goodman’s storytelling powers. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House. (Mar.)
Santa Fe Noir Edited by Ariel Gore. Akashic, $15.95 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-161775-722-8
As noted in the introduction to this solid Akashic noir anthology, Santa Fe, N.Mex., and environs is less the Land of Enchantment, per the tourism slogan, than the “Land of Entrapment,” where characters are inexorably tied to or haunted by the area’s long history and uneasy mix of cultures. One highlight is Hida Viloria’s “SOS Sex,” a traditional crime story in which a property appraiser stumbles onto a sex trafficking racket that ties to a longago family tragedy of his own. In a more off-beat vein, Cornelia Reed’s scathing “The Cask of Los Alamos” retells Poe’s revenge tale “The Cask of Amontillado,” but this time set at the 1945 test of the first atomic bomb. For many of the selections, however, crime is secondary or even nonexistent, as in Jimmy Santiago Baca’s unsettling “Close Quarters,” in which a Chicano writer is visited by the ghosts of his ancestors. The quality of the 17 entries varies widely, but the book’s diverse group of writers will provide readers with unexpected perspectives on this centuriesold city and its people. (Mar.)
The Keeper Jessica Moor. Penguin, $16 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-14-313452-7
Set in rural England, Moor’s clever debut presents a movingly sympathetic portrait
of the victims of domestic violence. The investigation of Katie Straw’s apparent suicide takes two policemen, old-school Det. Sgt. Daniel Whitworth and his trainee, Det. Constable Brookes, into the women’s shelter where she worked and where the director is protective of the women under her care. Meanwhile, in an alternating narrative, Katie relates the deterioration of her relationship with boyfriend Jamie, who’s initially indulgent, if overprotective, then becomes isolating, controlling, and worse. Though the characters hit a lot of the expected tropes, such as the addict with mental health issues, the skittish wife and mother, and the tough feminist, they come through more as archetype than stereotype. Katie’s simultaneous identities as protagonist and corpse effectively build a sense of resigned dread, while also helping the reader understand how an intelligent, resourceful woman could become trapped in an abusive relationship. Moor is off to a fine start. Agent: Alexandra Cliff, Peters, Fraser & Dunlop (U.K.). (Mar.)
★ Please See Us Caitlin Mullen. Gallery, $26.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1-9821-2748-0
At the start of Mullen’s exceptional debut, the Atlantic City, N.J., boardwalk psychic known as Clara Voyant receives an unexpected client, a man who’s trying to find his missing teenage niece. The man’s visit causes Clara to have visions filled with warnings and bad omens long afterward. In addition, she suddenly feels and hears things that aren’t there. Meanwhile, Clara forges an unlikely friendship with Lily Louten, a former SoHo art gallery worker now employed at a casino spa, who’s dealing with demons of her own, in particular painful memories of her father’s death. After a tough reading for a prostitute nicknamed Peaches, Clara’s visions intensify. Fearing the worst after Peaches disappears, Clara enlists Lily’s help to find her, and they plunge into the dark heart of a
tourist town in the middle of economic turmoil. Readers won’t be able to stop turning the pages of this heartbreaking story as it touches on prostitution, drug abuse, and the fates of women who go unseen. Mullen is definitely an author to watch. Agent: Sarah Bedingfield, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary. (Mar.)
The Lady of the Lake Peter Guttridge. Severn, $28.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8967-6
In Guttridge’s sprightly seventh Brighton mystery (after 2019’s Swimming with the Dead), Det. Insp. Sarah Gilchrist and Det. Sgt. Bellamy Heap are dispatched to a lake belonging to Hollywood film star Nimue Grace, where Maj. Richard Rabbitt, a neighbor of Grace, has been found with his throat slit. The possible murderers include locals Donald Kermode, who discovered the body while swimming nude in the lake and has a creepy obsession with Grace, and Said Farzi, who’s suspected of human trafficking. The stakes rise with the appearance of more bodies. Guttridge adds humor at appropriate spots, including in the byplay between the leads, as well as in the person of an eccentric ostrich farmer, who schemes to resurrect dinosaurs using DNA from his flightless birds. Catherine Aird fans who’ve not yet discovered this series will be delighted. Agent: Paul Moreton, Bell Lomax Moreton Agency (U.K.). (Mar.)
Mimi Lee Gets a Clue Jennifer J. Chow. Berkley Prime Crime, $16 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-9848-0499-0
Mimi Lee, the 25-year-old heroine of this sparkling series launch from Chow (the Winston Wong mysteries), has just opened Hollywoof, a pet grooming salon in a beach town near L.A. As an opening-day present, her sister gives her a Persian cat, whom Mimi names Marshmallow. No ordinary cat, Marshmallow can hear, understand, and communicate thoughts to humans, dogs, and other cats. Meanwhile, when friends bring their Chihuahuas to Hollywoof, Mimi notices the dogs all have health issues, and further investigation reveals they all came from the same breeder, Russ Nolan. Incensed, Mimi goes to Nolan’s house in the San Fernando Valley and threatens to turn him in for operating a puppy mill. When Nolan is discovered W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
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Review_FICTION dead the next day, Mimi becomes the prime suspect in his murder. Marshmallow’s unique talents come in handy as he oneby-one chats up the Chihuahuas to reveal secrets and gossip that help point to the culprit. Chow smoothly mixes intrigue, romance, and humor. Cozy fans will have fun. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds Literary. (Mar.)
Night Train to Murder Simon R. Green. Severn, $28.99 (192p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8917-1
In Green’s decent eighth paranormal mystery featuring disguised alien Ishmael Jones (after 2019’s Till Sudden Death Do Us Part), Jones—whose spaceship crashed in England in 1963 and was transformed by the ship’s machines into the simulacrum of a human—and his partner in the secret group called the Organization, Penny Belcourt, are tasked with guarding the new head of Britain’s Psychic Weapons Division, Sir Dennis Gregson, on a late-night train from London to Bath. Steps have been taken to keep Gregson alive, but Jones and Belcourt’s track record of “catching killers, if not always protecting their victims,” is unfortunately extended. After Gregson goes to the bathroom, he’s found on the toilet, with his neck broken, behind a locked door. Jones focuses on the surviving three passengers and Gregson’s bodyguard, but neither Jones nor Belcourt saw any of the four approach the bathroom between the time Gregson entered it and the discovery of his body. Never mind that a human detective could have done as well in solving the crime. This entertaining romp is one of the series’ better entries. (Mar.)
A Silent Stabbing Alyssa Maxwell. Kensington, $26 (304p) ISBN 978-1-4967-1742-9
Early in Maxwell’s appealing fifth a Lady and a Lady’s Maid mystery set in postWWI England (after 2019’s A Murderous Marriage), maid Eva Huntford and her employer, Lady Phoebe Renshaw, are disturbed to hear that a brash American, Horace Walker, wants to buy the struggling orchard of Cotswolds resident Keenan Ripley and level it to build a resort on the site. Keenan’s ne’er-do-well brother, Stephen, is abetting Horace in this scheme. The locals value the product of Keenan’s pear crop—perry, a type of hard cider—
Are Snakes Necessary?
character’ ”) and three refined ladies in their 70s. It comes as no surprise that haughty Poppy, one of the septuagenarians who had managed to irritate everyone with her endless reminiscences about her past glories, is eventually found dead. The police arrive, including Commissario Marta Moretti, the officer in charge, who asks Francis to assist in the investigation because of his “experience as a detective.” Francis spends a lot of time running through the possible suspects with the attractive Marta. Readers will have fun, but the flimsy mystery element won’t challenge genre fans. Agent: Jamie Maclean, Coombs Moylett Maclean (U.K.). (Mar.)
Brian De Palma and Susan Lehman. Hard Case Crime, $22.99 (224p) ISBN 978-1-78909-120-5
★ Your Turn, Mr. Moto
and view Horace as an interloper. When Lady Phoebe finds Stephen murdered with a pair of hedge clippers, Keenan is arrested. Eva worries that her married sister, Alice, a former sweetheart of Keenan, may be involved, and Lady Phoebe worries about the disappearance of a servant and the toll of the crime on her infirm grandfather, the Earl of Wroxly. Eva and Lady Phoebe provide smart sleuthing and insight into the upstairs and downstairs worlds. Fans of traditional English mysteries will be rewarded. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (Mar.)
The 2016 reelection campaign of Sen. Lee Rogers of Pennsylvania, a philandering scoundrel, drives this disappointing political thriller from filmmaker De Palma and former New York Times editor Lehman. At a chance encounter with a former flame, Jenny Cours, Rogers meets her 18-yearold daughter, Fanny, who’s a political junkie eager to help his campaign. Known as the Hunk of the Hill on Capitol Hill, Rogers agrees to hire Fanny, who’s “in the full flush of carnality,” as a videographer. He soon lures her into his bed. Their relationship proves dangerous for Rogers after Fanny vanishes, and Jenny’s persistent search for her daughter places the politician in law enforcement’s crosshairs. A subplot involving a remake of the Hitchcock film Vertigo set at the Eiffel Tower sets the stage for a risible climax. The predictable and tired plot twists aren’t helped by the authors’ portrayal of present-day politics as if the 2016 presidential campaign never happened. This would have worked better as an intentional parody of the genre. (Mar.)
Murder Your Darlings Mark McCrum. Severn, $28.99 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8993-5
McCrum’s amusing third Francis Meadows mystery (after 2018’s Cruising to Murder) takes British crime writer Francis to Italy, where he has agreed to teach a memoir writing course at an elegant villa in the Umbrian countryside. Among his eight budding memoirists are an Irishman (“such a caricature of the type that Francis would have ruled him out as a ‘realistic
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John P. Marquand. Penzler, $25.95 (216p) ISBN 978-1-613161-56-2; $15.95 trade paper ISBN 978-1-613161-57-9
First published in 1935, this stellar entry in the American Mystery Classics series from Marquand (1893–1960) introduces an enigmatic Japanese agent known only as Mr. Moto. U.S. Navy Intelligence Cmdr. James Driscoll asks American pilot K.C. Lee, whose experience during WWI led him to an unsatisfying career as a stunt flyer and product endorser, to write down his version “of certain peculiar transactions which took place in Japan and China.” Flash back to a year earlier in Tokyo. Lee, who drinks “to drown the depression that inevitably follows a man unlucky enough to become a publicized hero,” is preparing to make a flight from Japan to the States on behalf of a tobacco company. When the job is cancelled, Lee ends up meeting a Russian femme fatale named Sonya, as well as Moto, who offers him a replacement gig flying the Pacific on behalf of Japan. Lee’s acceptance leads to murder and further intrigue. Marquand’s skillful portrayal of a deeply flawed lead makes this a standout. Those seeking literary spy fiction will be rewarded. (Mar.)
Review_FICTION All Kinds of Ugly Ralph Dennis. Brash, $16.99 trade paper (196p) ISBN 978-1-941298-20-6
Fans of Dennis (1931–1988) will welcome the author’s previously unpublished, hard-hitting 13th and final book featuring unlicensed Atlanta PI Jim Hardman. Hardman, recently dumped by his longtime girlfriend, accepts a case that takes him to London in search of Harrison Gault III, the grown grandson and heir of rich and powerful industrialist Harrison Gault. He returns without the younger Harrison, but with the grandson’s secret wife, Anna Piroski, who’s pregnant with the old man’s great-grandson. Wanting nothing more to do with the Gaults, Hardman tries to distance himself from the old moneyed family only to be dragged back into their fold in a cycle of troubles involving gangsters, drugs, and murder, with Anna at the heart of it all. Dennis wrote, in the best sense, old-school hardboiled crime fiction. His strong prose and well-paced storytelling place him alongside the likes of George V. Higgins and Ross MacDonald. (Feb.)
An Oxford Murder: A Golden Age Mystery G.G. Vandagriff. Orson Whitney, $8.95 trade paper (264p) ISBN 978-1-699886-99-1
Set in 1934 Oxford, England, this cleverly plotted series launch from Vandagriff (the Alex and Briggie genealogical mysteries) introduces poet and amateur detective Catherine Tregowyn. Catherine has returned to Oxford to celebrate the retirement of her former tutor and adviser, but instead murder intrudes. Catherine, along with Harry Bascombe, who teaches modern British poetry at Christ Church, find the strangled corpse of professor Agatha Chenowith in a chapel, where the pair went to look for her after the academic didn’t appear at a dinner. When the police learn that Chenowith, who was a friend of Virginia Woolf and a member of the Bloomsbury Group, hadn’t been a fan of Catherine’s verses, she becomes a suspect; their theory is that the victim surprised Catherine and Harry “canoodling” and threatened to expose their relationship. Catherine finds no shortage of suspects and motives as she perseveres in spite of an attempt on her life and opposition from the authorities. Agatha Christie
★ City of Margins William Boyle. Pegasus Crime, $25.95 (320p) ISBN 978-1-64313-318-8
S
et in South Brooklyn in the early 1990s, this outstanding novel from Boyle (A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself) focuses on a group of people whose lives seem fated to collide with often tragic consequences. Donnie Parascandolo, a disgraced ex-cop, now works as an enforcer for a local mobster, Big Time Tommy Ficalora. Widow Rosemarie Baldini struggles to repay a gambling debt that her late husband owed to Ficalora. Rosemarie’s son, Mikey, has dropped out of college and is back in the neighborhood, possibly destined for the kind of strong arm work that got his father murdered. A disturbing note leads Mikey to Donna Rotante, Donnie’s ex-wife, who lives a quiet monastic life with her turntable and records following the suicide of her teenage son. Revenge and retribution follow. Battered by loss and unrealized dreams, Boyle’s characters are vividly drawn and painfully real. Fans of literary crime novelists such as George Pelecanos and Richard Price will be highly rewarded. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber Assoc. (Mar.)
buffs will be pleased. (Self-published)
SF/Fantasy/Horror ★ The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
Grady Hendrix. Quirk, $21.99 (400p) ISBN 978-1-68369-143-3
When Patricia Campbell, a bored housewife in 1990s Charleston, S.C., sighs, “Don’t you wish that something exciting would happen around here?” she all but invites the chilling horrors that soon enmesh her and her friends in this clever, addictive vampire thriller from Hendrix (We Sold Our Souls). Patricia is one of a clutch of local women who assuage their ennui by forming a book club to discuss pulpy true crime chronicles. Their lives are upended by the arrival of James Harris, an outsider who easily ingratiates himself into their community, bringing an influx of money and good fortune to the town. Patricia alone finds Harris’s lack of traditional
identification and sensitivity to daylight peculiar. When people begin to disappear, she struggles to convince her friends that Harris is more sinister than he appears. Hendrix draws shrewd parallels between the serial killers documented in the book club’s picks and Harris’s apparent vampire persona, loading his gruesome story with perfectly-pitched allusions to classic horror novels and true crime accounts. This powerful, eclectic novel both pays homage to the literary vampire canon and stands singularly within it. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JABberwocky Literary. (Apr.)
Oakwood Island: The Awakening Pierre C. Arseneault and Angella Cormier. Artemesia, $15.95 trade paper (238p) ISBN 978-1-951122-03-4
The overcomplicated and sometimes gruesome sequel to 2016’s Oakwood Island raises fascinating questions but answers few of them. Five relatively quiet years after the events of the previous book, supernatural danger returns to Oakwood Island in two apparently unconnected forms: a mysterious fungus infects local wildlife, causing them to attack humans, and a curse from 1898 is reborn in fouryear-old twins Patrick and Lily. Detective Burke, frustrated by a string of unsolved deaths from five years ago, detailed in book one, teams up with scientist Jin W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
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Review_FICTION Hong to investigate a possible connection between the fungus and the fatalities, while offensively stereotyped Mi’kmaw elder Jack Whitefeather, who has the power to see through the eyes of a crow, works to counteract the twins’ curse. Unfortunately, the story is cluttered with thinly sketched secondary characters, and the connection between the muddled central mysteries never becomes clear. This is strictly for series completists. (Apr.)
Hearts of Oak Eddie Robson. Tor.com, $14.99 trade paper (272p) ISBN 978-1-250-26053-6
Four people in an uncannily unchanging city come to question their reality in this piercing work. Iona, Steve, Saori, and Victor can’t remember a time when they didn’t live in the unnamed city or follow their daily routines. They go to work, go home, and repeat this cycle again the next day alongside their obedient, homogeneous fellow citizens. But the arrival of a stranger triggers repressed memories, sending all four hurtling into danger as they realize that the city is not a haven but a cage. Robson (Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully) is a master of the gradual release of information, ratcheting up the tension by degrees as both readers and characters learn the truth of his intricately constructed universe. The clipped, measured, and deceptively simple prose echoes the unnatural calm of the monotonous city and serves as a surprisingly effective vehicle as Powers raises questions about the nature of complacency and of humanity itself. Clever, emotional, and thematically rich, this is sure to please fans of classic science fiction. (Mar.)
Re-coil J.T. Nicholas. Titan, $14.95 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-1-78909-313-1
Nicholas (SINdicate) introduces a far future in which humans stave off death by transferring their consciousness into new bodies in this briskly paced, noir-infused
space opera. Three-hundred-year-old Carter Langston and his salvage crew explore a derelict spaceship full of coils, lab-grown human bodies without working brains. When one of the coils attacks, Langston dies, but his brain had been backed up and can easily be installed into a new coil, a procedure he’s gone through often. This time, a strange glitch causes the re-coiled Langston to lack key memories that could help him understand the attack, and the majority of his crewmates haven’t been able to re-coil at all. To investigate, Langston teams up with hacker Chan. Their search leads from the habitats orbiting Venus to the domed cities of Mars, the base of Genetechnic Corporation, whose well-intentioned nanobots have created cyber zombies. Nicholas leavens his cynical noir ethos with a genuine connection between Langston and Chan; a sensitive, albeit rudimentary, exploration of the identity politics that would arise from humans frequently swapping bodies; and unexpected, if somewhat naive, optimism about corporate integrity. Readers will be drawn in by the compassionate characters and captivating premise. Agent: Laurie McLean, Fuse Literary. (Mar.)
The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. Harper Perennial, $21.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-06288900-3
The eerie, enchanting third Welcome to Night Vale novel (after It Devours!) offers up a Shakespearian revenge drama that doubles as the origin story of one of Night Vale’s most mysterious residents. Born in 1792, the nameless protagonist grows up with her father on their Mediterranean estate until a tragic encounter with the enigmatic Order of the Labyrinth leaves her an orphan. She dedicates her life to a long-con revenge plot, infiltrating the Order’s ranks to bring them down from within. As years pass, she grows impatient, leading her to accidentally stumble upon a vast conspiracy with herself at its center. Scenes set in present-day Night Vale, where the protagonist haunts residents’ homes, are interspersed throughout this swashbuckling adventure. With this tightly plotted tale, Fink and Cranor successfully expand their universe beyond
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Night Vale’s desert setting. The protagonist’s matter-of-fact descriptions of the strange and horrible, meanwhile, will draw in readers. Newcomers need not be familiar with the Night Vale podcast to enjoy this standout story. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House. (Mar.)
Shadows of Annihilation S.M. Stirling. Ace, $17 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-399-58627-9
Stirling continues his stirring alternate WWI series (after Theater of Spies) with an explosive what-if that draws from H.G. Wells’s predictions of advanced chemical warfare. In 1917, President Theodore Roosevelt reluctantly orders U.S. forces to retreat from a Europe devastated by horrifying German annihilation gas. Roosevelt is now determined to fight Germany through stealth using Black Chamber operatives, among them Luz O’Malley. O’Malley and her tech-genius partner, Ciara Whelan, travel in disguise to Mexico to protect the U.S. Dakota Project, which is secretly at work developing its own gas weapon. Prussian aristocrat Horst von Dückler, meanwhile, leads a secret mission to destroy the Dakota Project, motivated by his old vendetta against O’Malley. Stirling fleshes out the ensuing game of cat and mouse with a staggering wealth of cultural, military, and linguistic detail that’s sure to please historically minded readers but overwhelm more casual fans, and smart political commentary about how both Roosevelt’s New Nationalism and America’s history affect its present. This fast-paced spy thriller has impressive depth. Agent: Russ Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary. (Mar.)
Crowman David Rae. Brain Lag, $14.99 trade paper (234p) ISBN 978-1-928011-29-3
Rae (Midnight in the Garden of Naughty and Nice) misfires on a promising premise with this sloppy dark fantasy series opener. The evil spirit Vatu keeps the sun locked in a box, causing darkness to fall across the land. Vatu’s former acolyte, Utas, flees from Vatu’s control with his daughter, Alaba, whose body has the power to create light. They encounter Zintoa, a wounded soldier, and stop to help him using Alaba’s magic. Zintoa
Review_FICTION repays them by taking them captive, determined to return them to Vatu. Their path back to “the city of the sun” is perilous and bloody, as strangers they meet along the road prove to be dangerous. One of the travelers they encounter, Erroi, appears to be more than human, giving Utas hope that he and Alaba may be able to use Erroi’s powers to save themselves from Vatu. But while the world is fully conceived, the characters are underdeveloped (other than Utas’s desire to protect his daughter, readers will struggle to understand motivations), and the short, staccato sentences tend to flatten emotional moments. Dark fantasy fans will find this one a slog. (Mar.)
The Forever House Tim Waggoner. Flame Tree, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-1-78758-320-7
The common horror trope of a malignant new arrival upending an otherwise normal town serves as the template for this chilling but uneven supernatural novel. In this case, the new arrival is the Eldreds, a creepy family of five that will put readers in mind of a less approachable Addams family, who move to Brookside Court, Ohio. Waggoner (The Mouth of the Dark) devotes the first half of his tale to profiling the Eldreds’ neighbors, delving into the deep-seated flaws beneath their perfect suburban exteriors—Neal Wilkerson is uneasy with his wife Kandice’s bisexuality; Martin Hawkins has a gambling addiction; Spencer Parsons is a pedophile; and so on. The Eldreds lure this troubled cast of characters to their home to feed on the “negative psychic energy” they give off, subjecting each of the townspeople to terrors personally tailored to their faults and fears. The horrors inside the Eldred house are spectacularly realized, but so over-the-top that the eventual resolution is contrived and unconvincing. Waggoner’s tale delivers some solid scares, but only occasionally rises above the genre conventions it employs. (Mar.)
★ Blood & Ash Deborah Wilde. Te Da Media, $3.99 e-book (316p) ISBN 978-1-98868-135-1
Wilde (the Unlikeable Demon Hunter series) combines hardboiled noir and Jewish folklore in this action-packed,
perfectly paced paranormal romp. A centuries-old botched Kabbalah ritual created the magic users, or Nefesh, that pervade mundane private investigator Ashira Cohen’s alternate present-day Vancouver. Ash discovers a Star of David tattooed on her scalp and realizes it’s a ward meant to suppress the dormant blood magic she never knew she had. When she breaks the ward, her newfound abilities allow her to perceive a vicious, undiscovered shadow magic that no one else can see, not even the other Nefesh. Levi Montefiore, Ash’s childhood rival turned leader of Nefesh regulatory body House Pacifica, hires Ash to track those shadows down. Soon that case converges with one she’s working for a teenage client hoping to find her missing refugee girlfriend. Golems, Nefesh politics, a dangerous plot to sell magic, and Ash’s attraction to Levi add spice, but the real star is Ash’s hilariously snarky narrative voice, which is archly sarcastic but never mean. Wilde balances exuberant wit with deep compassion and handles Ash’s chronic pain and fragmented family with care. This giddy, sexy series launch is a delight. (Self-published)
Romance/Erotica You Deserve Each Other Sarah Hogle. Putnam, $16 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-593-08542-4
With a narrator readers will either love or hate, Hogle’s over-the-top debut takes the progression of lovers-to-enemies (and back to lovers) to an unbelievable extreme. Almost two years after Naomi Westfield and Nicholas Rose’s first date, the picture perfect couple is engaged and Nick’s overbearing mother, Deborah, is planning their wedding. Naomi despises Deborah and Nick can’t stand Naomi’s artsy work friends. And Nick and Naomi have grown to loath one another as well, but have kept that a secret since neither can break the engagement
without incurring massive bills and embarrassment. Instead, they embark on an all-out prank war as each tries to get the other to end things first. Though the couple’s shenanigans are written as humorous fun that help them rediscover the joy of their relationship and slowly bring them back together, the pranks themselves frequently verge on gaslighting and actual cruelty: Naomi sabotages Nick’s business and breaks his phone, Nick berates Naomi and dangles the potential of him having an affair in her face. Hogle has a gift for detail and narrative flow, but many readers will grow frustrated by Naomi’s voice, which alternates between snarkiness and whininess. This rom-com is not for the faint of heart. Agent: Jennifer Grimaldi, Chalberg & Sussman. (Apr.)
Every Bit a Rogue Adrienne Basso. Zebra, $7.99 mass market (327p) ISBN 978-1-4201-4622-6
Love hides in plain sight in Basso’s delightful fourth Ellingham Regency (after A Little Bit Sinful). Artistically minded Emma Ellingham, younger sister to the heroines of the previous novels, attends what was supposed to be the wedding of Viscount Jon Burwell, whose fiancée abandons him at the altar. Emma can sympathize: the object of her girlhood infatuation rejected her as well. One year later, Emma stumbles on the reclusive viscount tinkering in his workshop, which neighbors her brother-inlaw’s estate. A storm traps the pair in the workshop overnight, an innocent sleepover that would cause a scandal were it to get out. But when Jon’s ex-fiancée’s new husband turns up murdered the next morning, Emma must come forward to provide Jon’s alibi. To save Emma’s reputation from ruin, the two wed and vow to make the marriage a “true union” despite both fearing their spouse yearns for a previous lover. Though readers will be disappointed the murder mystery W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
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Review_FICTION goes unresolved, the honorable protagonists’ chemistry and gradual growth toward emotional maturity is deeply satisfying. This rousing romance will enchant series fans and win over new readers. Agent: Pam Hopkins, Hopkins Literary. (Mar.)
In Search of Truth Sharon Wray. Sourcebooks Casablanca, $7.99 mass market (512p) ISBN 978-1-4926-5566-4
Wray pulls out all the stops in the twisty, pulse-pounding third Deadly Force novel (after Every Deep Desire). After Green Beret Zack Tremaine’s unit is unfairly blamed for a failed operation, they are all dishonorably discharged. Zack believes the man responsible for the mission’s failure was also behind the recent murder of his good friend, Stuart Pinckney. Stuart’s death also puts his widow, and Zack’s longtime secret love, college professor Allison Pinckney, in danger; soon, she is contacted by a secret society, whose members speak largely in Latin and Shakespearean allusions and inform her that her husband died while searching for a pirate treasure with ambiguous ties to her own ancestry. They task her with finishing his quest and threaten those she loves should she fail. Zack and Allison team up to find the treasure, giving in to their chemistry as they uncover shocking secrets. Consistently hair-raising surprises will keep readers hooked as the plot hurtles through kidnappings and conspiracies toward a deeply satisfying climax. This breathless romantic suspense novel provides equal amounts of heat and intrigue. Agent: Deirdre Knight, the Knight Agency. (Mar.)
Cross Her Heart Melinda Leigh. Montlake Romance, $24.95 (372p) ISBN 978-1-5420-0694-1
Leigh (Whisper of Bones) launches a promising series featuring Philadelphia detective Bree Taggert with this tense mystery, inexplicably being marketed as a romance, centered on the ubiquity of
domestic and workplace violence against women. Bree returns to her hometown of Grey’s Hollow, N.Y., to take care of her niece and nephew after her sister, Erin, is murdered. Erin was found shot to death in the home of her husband, Justin, from whom she had separated. The crime brings up painful memories for Bree, whose father murdered their mother and then himself when she and Erin were children, but she is determined to solve the mystery. Bree teams up with Justin’s best friend, ex-deputy Matt Flynn, for a back-channel investigation. Each of the terrible men in Erin’s life—her ex, her boss, and a stalker, to name just a few— remain convincing potential suspects right until the thrilling climax. Though the working relationship between Bree and Matt is effortlessly amiable, their chemistry is weak and any hints at a brewing romance are minimal and unresolved. This satisfying mystery will disappoint readers hoping for a love story. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Mar.)
The Stars May Rise and Fall Estella Mirai. Estella Mirai, $17.99 trade paper (388p) ISBN 978-1-68454-753-1
The turbulent romantic connection between two musicians is at the heart of Mirai’s fluid, well-plotted debut, a loose retelling of The Phantom of the Opera set in the year 2000. La Rose Verboten is a visual kei band, the Japanese equivalent of glam rock. After playing a gig in Tokyo, the band’s 22-year-old drummer, Teru, meets 36-year-old Rei, a reclusive, mask-wearing songwriter whose career as a visual kei star ended after a car accident crushed his arm and severely burned his face. Rei promises to make Teru a star, offering him private vocal coaching and arranging for La Rose Verboten’s singer to be ousted and for Rei to take his place. As the band’s popularity grows, Teru struggles to understand his simultaneous attraction to Rei and disgust at his scarred skin, a revulsion that
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will disappoint sensitive readers. Rei’s attempts to regulate Teru’s life become overly controlling, but his slowly revealed backstory will help readers understand, if not sympathize, with his actions. Though the dynamic of their relationship is murky, the way the complicated characters cope with believable pain provides a window into a fascinating subculture. This competent tale will appeal to fans of gay romance who don’t mind a bit of darkness in their love stories. (Self-published)
The Un-queen Fiona West. Tempest and Kite, $14.99 trade paper (424p) ISBN 978-1-7328774-5-0
This lighthearted sequel to The Ex-Princess shifts the focus from a sweeping exploration of its technocratic fantasy world to a domestic royal romance. Runaway Princess Abelia of matriarchal Brevspor and King Edward of Orangiers fell in love while working to save Orangiers from Edward’s usurper brother, Lincoln. Now their wedding is fast approaching and free-spirited Abbie must weigh life with the man she loves against the reality of leaving behind her job, best friends, and apartment for a life in which she’ll be open to public scrutiny and dogged by a security detail. Recently diagnosed with lupus, Abbie faces larger challenges of learning to live with her illness, overcoming her pride, and allowing her fiancé to help her cope. West’s characterization of Abbie explores with astute compassion the thin line between her fantasy-heroine toughness and stubborn self-sabotage, but the brunt of the actual plot is taken up by Abbie and Edward’s pre-wedding lust and immature bickering. None of the couple’s difficulties—including a cursory subplot about Lincoln threatening Abbie’s life— is substantial enough to unify this sliceof-life romance. Though readers will delight in returning to this rich universe, they’ll long for more story. (Self-published)
Comics A Gift for a Ghost Borja González, trans. from the Spanish by Lee Douglas. Abrams ComicArts, $24.99 (128p) ISBN 978-1-4197-4013-8
The lives of two teenage girls living
Review_FICTION 160 years apart intertwine in this magical coming-of-age story. In 1856, Theresa, an insouciant young woman with a taste for gothic poetry, is on the cusp of her debut into society and facing the expectations that come with it. In 2016, Laura, wearing a new costume each time she appears (sometimes as a fairy princess, sometimes a skeleton), writes inscrutable lyrics for her all-girl punk band. The mystery at the heart of this evocative graphic novel is exactly what connects these two girls, and the book cannily uses the artwork to provide clues. Teresa’s story appears in muted autumnal colors, while Laura’s is in black-and-white, except where pops of color escape from Teresa’s narrative— butterflies, ice cream, a cat, a costume. Each page is elegantly composed, with flat blacks that invoke a Mike Mignola– esque chiaroscuro. Though the figures are faceless, each character has a distinctive personality and body language that mark them as individuals. The idiosyncrasies of teenage girls’ friendships and sibling relationships are quietly conveyed and thoroughly believable. Combining understated visual storytelling and dialogue with gentle fantasy, this mystical story is wonderfully grounded in real emotion and experiences. (May)
I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf Grant Snider. Abrams ComicArts, $16.99 (128p) ISBN 978-1-4197-3711-4
This playful, self-aware collection of strips and gags on the joys and frustrations of reading and writing is equal parts lighthearted and sincere. Snider is “writing the great American novel,” and one gets the sense that creating these comics was an escape during slumps. He riffs on literary genres (“Choose Your Own Memoir” displays a MadLibs mashup of tropes) and the writing process (“The Writer’s Block” offers a Richard Scarry–esque streetscape whose “Publishing House” bears a “No
Soliciting” sign). Snider pays homage to bibliophilia via a Haruki Murakami bingo game and a breakdown of bookshelf types that includes “stylish but shallow” and “stuck in high school.” Snider’s relationship to literature runs deep and is fraught with recognizable “Reader’s Blocks,” such as “low curiosity” or “overwhelmed by infinite possibility.” The panels range from gently clever to surprisingly profound to laughout-loud. And for aspiring writers in doubt (“What should I write about? Gods of Literature, send me a ray of hope”), Snider suggests looking to the “Three Rays”(Carver, Chandler, Bradbury): “A man. In a truck. By a river,” says Carver. “Murder at a tattoo parlor,” says Chandler. “A computer that can cry,” says Bradbury. All to say, Snider’s got a bit here for every avid reader. (Apr.)
The Dairy Restaurant Ben Katchor. Schocken, $29.95 (496p) ISBN 978-0-8052-4219-5
Both narrowly targeted and searchingly broad, this religio-cultural-culinary historical deep dive from Katchor (Cheap Novelties) is ostensibly a study of the “dairy restaurants” that once served New York’s Jewish immigrant community. Katchor ranges much further afield, often but not always in rewarding tangents. Interleaving dense text blocks with his usual sketchy, angular, but somehow ethereal drawings in gray and white, Katchor starts with the mythology of the Garden of Eden, where the drama of Adam, Eve, God, and the forbidden fruit establishes “the relationship between patron, proprietor, and waiter.” From there, Katchor roams through Torah restrictions on the “proper handling of milk and meat,” to the issues that arise when observant Jews ate with Gentiles, how the pastoral ideal merged with the rise of the restaurant, the “complex culture of milk drinking” and “Milchhallen” (milk- and cheese-focused cafes), and Tevye’s role as Sholem Aleichem’s tragicomic milkman. By the time Katchor gets to his loving accounting of New York’s mostly disappeared dairy restaurants, including original menus, he has nearly lost the threads of community, religion, exile, assimilation, and longing
for the tastes of childhood that he so ambitiously tried to tie together. Exhaustive and somewhat exhausting, this graphic history shows again Katchor’s gimlet eye for curious connections and obsessive attention to detail. (Mar.)
Familiar Face Michael DeForge. Drawn & Quarterly, $21.95 (176p) ISBN 978-1-77046-387-5
This allegorical tale from DeForge (Leaving Richard’s Valley) follows a woman who spends her days reading the minor and major complaints of the public, offering a searing, surrealist critique of the culture of technological customization, and an ode to love in the face of overwhelming power. The reality of the unnamed heroine, from the architecture of her city to her own body, is subject to constant “optimization.” (“Maps would rearrange themselves with every update. The street you were driving on would fold in on itself without any warning.”) Her body becomes more and more abstracted as the panels progress. An automated system fields citizen complaints about all of this, and the protagonist is tasked with reading them, but she “never was told when or if a complaint was resolved.” Then her girlfriend Jessica disappears, forcing her to question the very nature of her ever-shifting world. DeForge’s loopy artistic talents are on full display: roads spiral dizzyingly; bodies mesh in tangled heaps of bright, flat color; and subways rush along on fleshy, veined tracks. It’s profoundly disorienting, yet skirts the edge of cuteness. The climax, involving a radical group of cartographers and a massive social protest, however, feels pat and stands out against DeForge’s otherwise staunch refusal of sentimentality. This is a kaleidoscopic vision of the strength of human connection, another artful and clever volume for DeForge’s many indie comics fans. (Mar.)
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Nonfiction ★ Enemy of All Mankind:
A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History’s First Global Manhunt
Steven Johnson. Riverhead, $28 (304p) ISBN 978-0-7352-1160-5
Johnson (Farsighted), a historian and popular science writer, recounts the story of English pirate Henry Every’s 1695 seizure of a Grand Mughal treasure ship returning to India from Mecca and its global ramifications in this entertaining and erudite chronicle. Johnson charts the historical arcs, including the rise of the Mughal Empire, the East India Company’s efforts to tap into the Empire’s wealth, and the “radical egalitarianism” that came to characterize early modern piracy that set Every and the Mughal ship on a collision course, and details how the Englishman’s Neal Bascomb's Faster dramatizes the development and signature 1938 Pau Grand Prix victory of the Delahaye 145, seen here (reviewed on p. 35). actions were quickly mythologized at home, with rumors circulating that he filmmakers—and his eye may be caught mixing a discussion of her experiences won the heart of a Muslim princess along by Picasso or Giacometti, or his ear by learning about butterflies with an overview with an estimated £200,000 (equivalent the recordings of Vladimir Horowitz or of centuries’ worth of research, offers a to about $20 million today) worth of gold the compositions of Iannis Xenakis. He deeply personal and lyrical book that also and jewels. At the Mughal court, however, ponders how Emily Dickinson elides the provides meaningful scientific insight. the incident was reported as a horrific boundaries between prose and poetry, Captivated by the insects’ beauty, she “gang rape.” Facing pressure, the East and takes on “Punctuation” with a nod to, writes, “The language of butterflies is the India Company organized a worldwide among others, Hannah Arendt, whose language of color,” and that she likes to manhunt for Every (who was never caught) writing displays the “weight of paren“imagine them as the world’s first artists.” and thereby gained sovereignty over the thetical information, subordinate yet She relates the stories of similarly Indian Ocean, which permanently altered urgent.” “Occasionally,” Koestenbaum entranced people, including Maria Sibylla the balance of power in the region, opines, “I intend my writing to be comic,” Merian, who, in the 17th century, cast reshaped Anglo-Indian relations, and particularly in his faux advice columns, aside gender norms to pursue entomology helped to launch a new global era, including the title essay and “18 Lunchtime and traveled from her native Germany to according to Johnson, whose lucid prose Assignments.” Themes of sexuality and Suriname to find the spectacular blue and sophisticated analysis brings these gender are pervasive, typically in eyemorpho butterfly, in the process writing events to vibrant life. This thoroughly catching declarations —“I want the liberty the first account of the caterpillar-toenjoyable history reveals how a single act to use the word penis as a mutating signibutterfly transformation. Williams can reverberate across centuries. (May) fier”—which some may find provocative, spends much time on monarch butterfly Figure It Out: Essays others tiresome. There’s fun and games biology, discussing the insects’ ability to Wayne Koestenbaum. Soft Skull, $16.95 trade and erudition throughout, but one has to migrate thousands of miles and the iripaper (288p) ISBN 978-1-59376-595-8 be a card-carrying Koestenbaum fan to descent wing scales that give them, like Koestenbaum (Camp Marmalade), a get into the full spirit of this assemblage. all butterflies, their signature patterns. poet and novelist, presents 26 nonfiction (May) She also discusses the factors behind pieces, most previously published, in this declining butterfly populations, from The Language of Butterflies: inventive but self-absorbed collection. habitat destruction to climate change, but How Thieves, Hoarders, Scientists, Spiraling in structure and dizzyingly remains optimistic that corrective action and Other Obsessives Unlocked varied in theme, the essays are peppered is still possible. Nature-loving readers the Secrets of the World’s with reveries and fantasies, suggesting a will surely share the joy Williams takes in Favorite Insect kind of ramble through Koestenbaum’s her subject in this admiring tribute to the Wendy Williams. Simon & Schuster, $26 consciousness. He muses about artists of butterfly. Agent: Michelle Tessler, Tessler (240p) ISBN 978-1-5011-7806-1 all sorts—writers, painters, singers, Literary. (May) Science journalist Williams (The Horse), composers, sculptors, photographers, and 32 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J A N U A R Y 6 , 2 0 2 0
Review_NONFICTION Diary of a Drag Queen
Twenty-something British journalist and drag queen Rasmussen, who goes by the stage name Crystal, delivers a cheeky, irreverent debut memoir in diary form. Rasmussen covers such topics as sex, career, and self esteem—and doesn’t shy away from sharing graphic sex stories with vivid details of their dating app hookups. Rasmussen also discusses writing about queer issues for magazines; being verbally and physically attacked for going out in drag; struggling to make it as a drag performer; and the freedom of being a drag queen (“drag allows you to become the kind of superstar you never thought you were allowed to be”). The memoir nods to Sex and the City (Rasmussen identifies as a Samantha and later as a Carrie) and often reads like a queer Bridget Jones’s Diary (like Bridget, the author is a broke writer, and they’re emotionally entangled with a Mark Darcy figure). Beyond being an entertaining romp, this memoir serves as an education for those living outside queer and drag circles. This exuberant, irreverent confessional is loud and proud with its message of acceptance and inclusion. (Apr.)
★ Odetta:
A Life in Music and Protest
Ian Zack. Beacon, $28.95 (288p) ISBN 978-08070-3532-0
Zack (Say No to the Devil) celebrates the life of guitarist-vocalist-lyricist Odetta Holmes (1930–2008) in this fascinating first full-length biography of the musician. Odetta blended jazz, blues, country, and folk and influenced generations of musicians, including Joan Baez, Miley Cyrus, Bob Dylan, and Rhiannon Giddens. “Her soaring vocals and preternatural ability to inhabit the characters she sang about left her predominantly white audiences spellbound,” Zack writes. He traces Odetta’s life from her birthplace in Birmingham, Ala., to Los Angeles, where she received opera lessons at 13 and performed in musical and theatrical ensembles. By the mid-1950s, she was performing folk music in San Francisco and New York City nightclubs. Zack provides a complete discography of her seminal recordings, which includes Odetta Sings Ballads and Odetta at
[Q&A]
PW Talks with Wendy Williams
Insects of Beauty and Hope In The Language of Butterflies (Simon & Schuster, May; reviewed on p. 32), Williams explores and celebrates the world of butterflies. You write that once you saw Yale University’s butterfly collection, you were hooked. But what drew you to butterflies in the first place? Curiosity. And greed: pure, naked, unadulterated lust to see all the beauty the natural world has to offer. I’ve been fortunate in my life to be able to enjoy plenty of the big vista stuff, the standingon-the-mountaintop experiences like riding on the plains of Africa, visiting eagles in Yellowstone and condors in California. This time, I turned 180 degrees to look at the tiny jewels nature makes available to us right beneath our feet. © rich maclone
Crystal Rasmussen, with Tom Rasmussen. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $17 trade paper (432p) ISBN 978-0-374-53857-6
Despite recognizing the range of environmental problems facing humanity, you are optimistic about the future. Why? It’s just who I am. But also, nearing 70, I can take the long view. Growing up in the ’50s in southwestern Pennsylvania, I thought the world was nothing but soot and belching steel mill stacks and lands destroyed by the oil industry. Everything was dead. I left, then returned after many decades. I thought I had made a wrong turn and ended up back in Vermont. Everything was green! Thank you, ’60s environmental activism! Of course, we’ve only just begun. Butterflies can help show us the way.
How do you negotiate the tension between presenting both science and human interest stories in the same book? I guess I just don’t see any tension. To me, science is tremendous fun. Scientists are some of my favorite people. Of course, I am not a scientist, so I don’t have to publish scientific papers. But even those can be fun. Look at the gracious and graceful writing of E.O. Wilson. His sentences take my breath away. Have the years you spent on this project and the knowledge you’ve gained changed you? Every book I do changes me. That’s why I write. This book has taught me the elegance of the infinitesimal. What a joy to be an author. Given all you’ve learned, do you have a favorite species? Well, of course, I love monarch butterflies. And blue morphos and their cool Christmas tree–shaped scales. Who knew? And the delicate Karner Blues, brought back from the brink to once again rise in clouds in revitalized fields just outside of Albany. And... I guess I don’t have favorites. After all, evolution shows us that, at heart, we are all the same—with a little room for our own unique individuality.
—Michael Zimmerman
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Review_NONFICTION the Gate of Horn. Throughout this expertly researched biography, Zack shares testimonies of friends and fellow musicians, including Harry Belafonte: “the people who heard her became deeply committed to a force and something that she brought to the table that was so artful.” A political activist, Odetta performed at the 1963 March on Washington, after which she would earn the moniker “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement.” Odetta fans will delight in this timely biography. (Apr.)
Only in Tokyo: Two Chefs, 24 Hours, the Ultimate Food City Michael Ryan and Luke Burgess. Hardie Grant, $29.99 (224p) ISBN 978-174379479-1
Australian chefs Ryan and Burgess bring readers on a daylong escapade through the thrumming streets of Tokyo in this vibrantly photographed debut. Enrolling a cast of industry insiders for guidance, the chefs make their way from cramped coffee shops to back alley bars, profiling their favorite haunts. The book is roughly organized by the progression of the day, divided into morning destinations such as the “idiosyncratic” Artless Coffee, where one should “savor the wait” for an excellent pour-over coffee, and sundown spots such as Kokoromai (meaning “heart of rice”), where delicate meals center on a selection of eight regional varieties of pearly Japanese grains. Each concise profile begins with essential information: the informant who tipped the chefs off on each destination, the location, the hours of operation, why to seek it out, and what to order. The book is less an attempt to unravel the tangled net of the Tokyo dining scene than to pick glittering delicacies from its knotted folds. But the authors insist that in Tokyo, one must always allow for the unexpected: “Following these threads will often lead to your fondest memories.” This is a standout culinary guide for foodies traveling to or living in Tokyo. (Apr.)
American Rebels: How the Hancock, Adams, and Quincy Families Fanned the Flames of Revolution Nina Sankovitch. St. Martin’s, $29.99 (416p) ISBN 978-1-250-16328-8
Historian Sankovitch (The Lowells of Massachusetts) explores the family connections and revolutionary politics shared by
John Hancock, John and Abigail Adams, and Josiah Quincy Jr., in this richly detailed and fluidly written account. Beginning with the 1744 funeral of Rev. John Hancock, whose son John would later serve as governor of Massachusetts and president of the Second Continental Congress, Sankovitch charts the close connections between her central figures—John Hancock married Josiah Jr.’s cousin, Dolly Quincy, and John Adams’s wife, Abigail, was also descended from the Quincy line—and details the leading roles that Hancock and Adams played in writing the Declaration of Independence. For many readers, however, the book’s biggest revelation will be lesser-known figure Josiah Jr., who served as Adams’s co-counsel in the Boston Massacre trial, traveled to England to make a last-ditch effort to avoid armed conflict, and tried, in an attempt thwarted by fatal illness, to convey secret messages to rebel leaders about British intentions. Sankovitch leavens her deeply researched account with wit, and presents a persuasive and entertaining portrait of life in colonial Boston. Revolutionary War buffs will savor this thoughtful addition to popular histories of the period. (Mar.)
Bloody Okinawa: The Last Great Battle of World War II Joseph Wheelan. Da Capo, $30 (432p) ISBN 987-0-306-90322-9
Military historian Wheelan (Midnight in the Pacific) draws on U.S. and Japanese sources to deliver an encyclopedic chronicle of the April 1945 invasion of Okinawa. American forces seeking to establish a launching pad for the invasion of Japan made a “deceptively easy” beach landing, Wheelan writes, because Japanese commanders planned to mount their primary defense in the vicinity of Mount Shuri, where 10,000 soldiers occupied a network of caves and tunnels and the rocky terrain was “anathema to tanks.” Wheelan minutely details major battles, including Sugar Loaf Hill and Hacksaw Ridge, in the
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three-month campaign to take the island, and describes the rituals of kamikaze pilots, the use of native islanders as “human shields” by Japanese troops, and the high incidence of “battle fatigue” among U.S. soldiers and Marines. He cites death tolls of more than 100,000 Japanese troops, 120,000 civilians, and 12,000 Americans, and quotes U.S. Gen. George C. Marshall that the “‘bitter experience of Okinawa’” played a significant role in the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Wheelan mines a wealth of source material to present a 360-degree view of the battle, and maintains a brisk pace. This exhaustive yet accessible account will appeal to WWII history buffs and general readers alike. (Mar.)
The Dream Universe: How Fundamental Physics Lost Its Way David Lindley. Doubleday, $27.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-3855-4385-9
Astrophysicist Lindley (Uncertainty) argues that modern physics has drifted too far from its roots in reality, into increasingly complex and abstract theory, in this eyeopening treatise. Setting the stage, he observes that at the start of the Renaissance, scientists placed more weight on orthodox, Church-sanctioned theory, derived from Aristotle, than on empirical evidence. That changed with Galileo, who relied on his own astronomical observations to investigate the laws of motion and the configuration of the universe. Galileo used math as a tool, Lindley writes, to make sense of his data, an approach that served many other scientists, from Isaac Newton onward, until the birth of quantum mechanics in the early 20th century. With scientific inquiry increasingly pushing into the subatomic realm, theoreticians began to use mathematical formulas, rather than experimentation, to infer the existence of elusive or unobservable phenomena. When a field of science depends on logically rigorous but untestable formulas, Lindley provocatively asks, does it still constitute science? He sees physics reverting to the classical world’s model, when empirically and logically based knowledge were strictly separated, and the latter was prized over the former. Lindley’s probing work raises important questions about what science should be, and how it should be approached. Agent: Susan Rabiner, Susan Rabiner Literary. (Mar.)
Review_NONFICTION Dressed: A Philosophy of Clothes Shahidha Bari. Basic, $28 (352p) ISBN 978-15416-4598-1
Bari (Keats and Philosophy), a professor at the London College of Fashion, skillfully deconstructs the language of clothes in this philosophical examination of the items people wear. She observes that the “making and wearing of clothes is an art form” for some, including for Sylvia Plath, whose writing shows a keen awareness of “how a certain ensemble might be sympathetic to the certain person you imagined yourself to be.” Bari’s analysis is at times Freudian (“And who dares deny that the pliant foot mimics the penis when it enters that dark, contracted space of the shoe”?) and at others literary, as when she muses about the significance of the worn coat in Nikolai Gogol’s short story “The Overcoat,” or of the white cropped mess jacket in P.G. Wodehouse’s novel Right Ho, Jeeves. Clothes in Hitchcock classics are also lovingly scrutinized (Cary Grant’s classic example of mid-20th-century executive-wear, a gray flannel suit, in North by Northwest, or the elegant outfits of Tippi Hedren’s socialite heroine in The Birds), as are the garments shown in classic works of art (the elegant black gown in John Singer Sargent’s Portrait of Madame X) or on fashion catwalks, such as those of famed minimalist Yohji Yamamoto. Devoted fashion students will eagerly eat up every word of Bari’s wellresearched and passionate work. (Mar.)
Faster: How a Jewish Driver, and American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler’s Best Neal Bascomb. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28 (368p) ISBN 978-1-328-48987-6
Historian Bascomb (The Escape Artists) dramatizes the Golden Era of Grand Prix racing and the showdown between French-Jewish driver René Dreyfus and German champion Rudi Caracciola at the 1938 Pau Grand Prix in this exuberant chronicle. Bascomb sketches the early his-
tory of motor racing, including the 1903 Paris to Madrid race that killed more than a dozen people, and charts the precipitous rise of German drivers and their Mercedes-Benz “Silver Arrows” after car enthusiast Adolf Hitler (who kept a lifesized portrait of Henry Ford behind his desk) came to power. As the narrative around Grand Prix racing shifted from driver vs. driver to nation vs. nation, England, France, and Italy fell behind Germany. American heiress and race car driver Lucy Schell helped to change that dynamic, however, by funding French automaker Delahaye’s efforts to build a car fast enough to compete with Hitler’s “mechanized army” of drivers. With Dreyfus—whose Jewish heritage excluded him from the sport’s best teams—behind the wheel, the Delahaye 145 went headto-head with Mercedes-Benz on a treacherous racetrack in the French village of Pau and won. Bascomb packs the book with colorful details and expertly captures the thrill and terror of early-20th-century auto racing. This rousing popular history fires on all cylinders. (Mar.)
Hacking Planet Earth: How Geoengineering Can Help Us Reimagine the Future Thomas Kostigen. Tarcher, $27 (352p) ISBN 978-0-593-18754-8
Journalist Kostigen (Extreme Weather) reviews dozens of projects designed to mitigate global warming’s deleterious effects in this stimulating survey. Some of the plans—solar and wind farms—are quotidian, but others—a laser that can make it rain, an outer space parasol that would deflect the sun’s energy before it reaches Earth, and metal trees that capture carbon emissions—stretch the imagination. Joven Santos’s whimsical sketches and Kostigen’s interviews with the “mad geniuses” behind these bizarre ideas together provide food for thought and cause for optimism that some climate disasters might be avoided. Some of the projects, such as shingles made with “smog-reducing granules,” get only a brief mention as Kostigen casts a wide net, exploring projects throughout the globe, in China, Morocco, and elsewhere. What’s missing are reality checks, such as how much investment would be needed to put these prototypes into action and how effective
they would be. Some ideas—for example, a Brazilian tunnel project to move water over hundreds of miles to drought-prone regions—sound potentially more environmentally harmful than useful. Overall, though, this is an intriguing overview of what science and engineering could do to help keep the planet livable. (Mar.)
How to Be Fine: What We Learned from Living by the Rules of 50 Self-Help Books Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer. HarperCollins, $24.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-06295719-1
Greenberg and Meinzer distill what they learned from following the advice of 50 self-help books for the By the Book podcast in this grounded, large-hearted work. Greenberg, who admits a long-standing fascination with self-help titles, and Meinzer, who has more skepticism, adhered to the rules of each book for two weeks and then shared the outcomes with listeners. They open with 13 pieces of advice that improved their lives, including positive selftalk, making concrete and direct apologies, finding time for emotional recharge, and actively preparing for death. As they describe the self-help books, they provide just enough detail to convey what the authors of each preach. Their criticism of eight tactics that made them anxious or frustrated contains typical beefs about dieting and surprising inclusions such as meditation and unlimited forgiveness. They also rightly question self-help authors who suggest a trick that worked for them would apply universally. To close, they outline eight lessons they wished they had found more of among the books they selected, including recognizing the power and beauty of one’s body and being willing to enter therapy or use medication. Greenberg and Meinzer craft a welcoming tone and strike a perfect balance between sharing their traumas and folding in amusing anecdotes. This will delight fans of selfW W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
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Review_NONFICTION help books and encourage even the hardest cynics to reconsider the genre. Agent: Liz Parker, Verve. (Mar.)
The Hunt for History: On the Trail of the World’s Lost Treasures—from the Letters of Lincoln, Churchill, and Einstein to the Secret Recordings Onboard JFK’s Air Force One Nathan Raab, with Luke Barr. Scribner, $30 (288p) ISBN 978-1-5011-9890-8
Rare documents dealer Raab relates the stories behind his greatest finds in his brisk and entertaining debut. After working in politics and public relations, Raab followed his father into the antiquarian business; in one of his first transactions, he fetched a quarter-million dollars for a collection of Ronald Reagan’s letters. Other high-price articles include a section of the first underground
electric cable laid between Thomas Edison’s house and laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J.; the original, unedited recording from Air Force One as JFK’s body was flown from Dallas to Andrews Air Force Base; and the fragments of an 1829 letter from Andrew Jackson to Native American tribal leaders. Raab sketches the historical context of these and other items, describes how they came to his attention, and details the painstaking authentication process. The anecdotes share a similar structure, and they all serve to burnish Raab’s reputation. His genuine love of history radiates from the page, however, and readers will root for people like Robert Johnson, who saved a piece of Amelia Earhart memorabilia from the trash pile. The result is a thoughtful tribute to the art and business of collecting history. (Mar.)
★ Tower of Skulls: A History of the Asia-Pacific War, Volume I: July 1937–May 1942 Richard B. Frank. Norton, $40 (836p) ISBN 978-1-324-00210-9
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ilitary historian Frank (Downfall) taps a massive, multicontinent array of sources to deliver the definitive account of the first phase of WWII in the Pacific. Frank begins more than four years before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, with the July 1937 skirmish between Japanese and Chinese Nationalist forces that sparked full-scale combat in the region. He documents the Battle of Shanghai, where fierce Chinese resistance enraged Japanese attackers, leading to the Imperial Army’s “carnival of violation” at Nanking, and reveals that Chiang Kai-shek’s attempt to save the wartime capital of Wuhan by breaching dykes along the Yellow River cost roughly half a million civilian lives. Frank traces the intricacies of Japanese, British, and American war plans as the theater of combat expanded to Hong Kong, the Malaya Peninsula, the Dutch East Indies, Burma, and the Philippines, and details intelligence and communication failures that led the U.S. Pacific Fleet to be caught by surprise at Pearl Harbor. Interweaving high-level strategic analysis with vivid eyewitness reports, Frank documents the chaotic fall of Singapore, when Japanese soldiers “wreaked slaughter” on thousands fleeing the city-state in “every imaginable craft... with the faintest prospect of seaworthiness.” Concluding with a brief but gruesome account of the Bataan Death March and noting that the capture of Corregidor “marked the moment when the Imperial Japanese Empire reached its zenith,” Frank masterfully sets the stage for the next installment in a planned trilogy. This epic yet accessible account sets a new gold standard for histories of the conflict. (Mar.)
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The Idealist: Wendell Willkie’s Wartime Quest to Build One World Samuel Zipp. Belknap, $35 (380p) ISBN 9780-674-73751-8
Brown University American studies professor Zipp (Manhattan Projects) chronicles Republican politician Wendell Willkie’s 1942 trip around the world as President Franklin Roosevelt’s unofficial WWII envoy in this admiring and exhaustive deep dive. After squaring off in the 1940 presidential election (which Roosevelt won), Willkie supported his former rival’s Lend-Lease Program and made a morale-boosting trip to England during the Blitz. Hoping to showcase America’s bipartisan resolve in the international war effort, Wilkie carried personal letters from Roosevelt to Soviet premier Joseph Stalin and Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kei-Shek, visited the front lines of the Allied fight against Germany in North Africa, and witnessed the rise of “antiimperial nationalism” in French-controlled Syria and Lebanon. After returning home, he wrote a bestselling account of the journey and came to believe, according to Zipp, that America must confront its own history of imperialism and racism in order to forge a “more cooperative relationship with the world.” Zipp’s frequent asides explaining the geopolitics of each stop on Willkie’s journey provide crucial information but slow the narrative down somewhat, and readers not well-versed in foreign policy may find the level of detail dizzying. Nevertheless, this insightful and nuanced portrayal successfully elucidates Willkie’s globalist politics and America’s emergence as a world leader. (Mar.)
Pretty Bitches: On Being Called Crazy, Angry, Bossy, Frumpy, Feisty, and All the Other Words That Are Used to Undermine Women Edited by Lizzie Skurnick. Seal, $28 (320p) ISBN 978-1-58005-919-0
Journalist Skurnick (That Should Be a Word) curates a sharp-witted and intimate essay collection examining how language is used to disempower women. Each piece addresses a single word, as writers including Laura Lippman, Dahlia Lithwick, Rebecca Traister, and Meg Wolitzer take on ostensibly admiring adjectives (nurturing, sweet), outright slurs (shrill; crazy), and veiled insults (ambitious; feisty). Guardian
Review_NONFICTION columnist Afua Hirsch’s “Professional” explores how women are viewed in the workplace, while essays by South African writer Lihle Z. Mtshali and AsianAmerican memoirist Beth Bich Minh Nguyen address the cultural stereotypes behind yellow-bone and small, respectively. The collection’s confessional nature—feminist critic Kate Harding wrestles with identifying as a victim after a sexual assault, and novelist Jennifer Weiner admits that being called fat has the power to “shut me up and shut me down”—packs a punch but leaves little room for charting concrete solutions. The diverse contributor list offers new perspectives on mainstream, whitedominant culture, even though the essays largely share a similar and somewhat traditional notion of what femininity connotes. Nevertheless, this eloquent inquiry into how language enshrines gender stereotypes will resonate with feminists, wordsmiths, and fans of the personal essay. Agent: Victoria Skurnick, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency. (Mar.)
Seven Days in Augusta: Behind the Scenes at the Masters Mark Cannizzaro. Triumph, $26.95 (304p) ISBN 978-1-62937-749-0
New York Post columnist Cannizzaro (Tales from the New York Jets Sidelines) takes readers behind the scenes of the world’s most famous golf tournament in this entertaining history. Arranging the book in seven parts—one for each day of the Masters—Cannizzaro surveys the breadth of the tournament, including the role the Augusta Chronicle plays in publishing interviews with the contestants, a lighthearted par three contest on Wednesday, and Sunday’s donning of the green jacket. Throughout, Cannizzaro provides intense glimpses of legendary Masters moments such as Tiger Woods’s 1997 victory and Phil Mickelson’s 2004 breakthrough for his first major. While the recollections of such memorable victories will surely delight golf fans, the vivid imagery and descriptions
of the course itself and the atmosphere surrounding—sophisticated and snobbish though it may be—leaves a lingering impression of a warm spring day in Augusta. Closing chapters touch on Tiger Woods’s remarkable resurgence in the 2019 tournament, providing readers with a look at the triumph that turned “one of the world’s most famous and snooty golf clubs” into something like “Yankee Stadium with fans chanting.” Coming out just in time for the 2020 Masters, this fascinating behindthe-scenes account will delight many a golf aficionado. (Mar.)
Sloths: A Celebration of the World’s Most Misunderstood Mammal William Hartson. Trafalgar Square, $14.95 (208p) ISBN 978-1-78649-425-2
Inspired by a YouTube video, Harston (A Brief History of Puzzles), a columnist for the U.K.’s Daily Express, resolved to learn more about sloths, and in this fast-paced, fact-filled book, he provides readers with his findings. Harston covers topics that range from sloth anatomy and reproduction to their appearances in myth and recent resurgence in pop culture. Replete with the energy and excitement of a newfound enthusiasm, the book relates a wide variety of informational nuggets, such as sloth eating habits—determined by their four-chambered stomach and month-long digestive process—and their unusual, and still mysterious, injury-recovery abilities. Harston also sets the record straight on sloths’ proverbial “laziness,” reporting scientists have found that they are merely energy-efficient. Quotations featuring sloths are interspersed throughout, but since these often perpetuate the mistaken conflation of the attribute of slothfulness with the animal in question (Harrison Ford: “The kindest word to describe my performance in school was Sloth”), these tend to seem like space fillers. While far from definitive, this zippy primer has a contagious sense of wonder. (Mar.)
Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy David Daley. Liveright, $29.95 (288p) ISBN 978-1-63149-575-5
Journalist and voting rights advocate Daley follows Ratf**ked, his investigation into how Republicans “weaponized gerrymandering” in the wake of President
Obama’s 2008 victory, with an uplifting survey of grassroots efforts to make American democracy more inclusive. In 2018, Daley set out to meet with such reformers as Louisiana resident Norris Henderson, who founded Voice of the Ex-offender, an organization that fights to restore voting rights to former felons, after his life sentence for murder was overturned in 2004. Daley also profiles three young Idahoans who traveled the state collecting signatures for a Medicaid expansion bill (it eventually passed with 61% of the vote); Native Americans battling restrictive voter ID laws in Nevada, North Dakota, and Utah; anti-gerrymandering activists in Michigan and Pennsylvania; members of the League of Women Voters, who helped to bring ranked-choice voting to Maine; and Amanda Litman, a former Hillary Clinton campaign staffer who recruits millennial candidates and trains them in the art of running for office. Daley’s wit (the offices of the Election Protection hotline are filled with “enough Starbucks cups to caffeinate The Walking Dead”) and clear explanations of electoral processes make the book accessible to political neophytes as well as experts. This optimistic appraisal of the political scene will strike a chord with progressives gearing up for the 2020 elections. (Mar.)
The Upside of Being Down Jen Gotch, with Rachel Bertsche. Gallery, $27 (288p) ISBN 978-1-9821-0881-6
Gotch, the founder of clothing and accessory lifestyle website Ban.do, chronicles a lifetime of mental health challenges in her self-deprecating and witty debut. After bouncing from job to job, Gotch writes of finding her niche in commercial photography and styling in her early 20s, then diving into therapy in an effort to face her demons. After being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety, and attention deficit disorder—and being properly medicated—Gotch realizes that her challenges have fueled her creative endeavors (though not always in a healthy way, she admits, noting her tendencies toward workaholism). Gotch unflinchingly explores her past, recounting her suicidal thoughts and a time she hallucinated that her skin had turned green, and sharing stories from her failed marriage. “Here’s the thing about writing a W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
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Review_NONFICTION memoir,” she writes. “The person you are when you start and the person you are when you finish are practically strangers.” Throughout, Gotch is unequivocal in delivering her message that mental health is every bit as important as physical health (and that the two are interrelated), and her often humorous delivery underscores her belief that sometimes a laugh truly is the best medicine. Anyone who’s ever dealt with mental illness will appreciate this forthcoming and empathetic volume. (Mar.)
War Fever: Boston, Baseball, and America in the Shadow of the Great War Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith. Basic, $30 (368p) ISBN 978-1-5416-7266-6
Roberts and Smith, history professors at Purdue University and Georgia Tech respectively, portray the lives of three German-American men from Boston during WWI in this well-researched if flimsily connected sports history. The fever of the title refers to the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which killed millions worldwide, as well as to America’s frenzy to find German sympathizers and the country’s passion for baseball. At the center of this perfect storm of disease, war, politics, and sports are Karl Muck, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Germanspeaking immigrant conductor; Harvardeducated lawyer Charles Whittlesey; and Red Sox player Babe Ruth. Muck, who refused to play the National Anthem before a concert, was later accused of siding with Germany and interned in a Georgia prison camp. Whittlesey enlisted in the Army and became a hero for saving his “lost battalion.” Despite Ruth’s hardscrabble upbringing and German roots, he escaped anti-German sentiment and was on his way to becoming an American baseball legend by 1919. The authors combine detailed research and solid storytelling to illustrate the ways in which these three GermanAmericans, however tangentially connected, were defined—as “war hero, war villain, and war athlete.” Despite the tenuous connections between the main characters, this is a solid story of early-20th-century immigrant life. (Mar.)
Culture Spark: 5 Steps to Ignite and Sustain Organizational Growth Jason Richmond. BookBaby, $28.50 (212p) ISBN 978-1-73371-050-3
Consultant Richmond builds a case for creating a strong company culture and points to the key elements in doing so in his invigorating manual. While offering some astounding stats (a Harvard Business School study that found an average revenue growth of 682% for 12 companies with “performance-enhancing cultures” over an 11-year period), Richmond suggests firms that have reached a “plateau” are in need of “rethinking their culture.” Readers are introduced to the “Culture Transformation Model” and will learn about five steps that companies must take to achieve the right culture for them: “Define, Diagnose, Plan, Measure, Sustain.” Helpful tools range from discussion questions to the “Purpose Statement Criteria and Evaluation,” the “Culture Walk Tool,” and the “Employee Experience Mapping Tool” (the latter with a separate tool for customers). In the “Plan” section, readers will learn about engagement and talent strategies, including key interview questions and onboarding guidelines. In “Sustain,” Richmond explores why cultural change initiatives fail and introduces “best practices to drive continued success.” He also outlines specific steps to create diversity and lists perks that millennials value in the workplace. The author’s encouraging words and helpful insights make this a worthwhile book for business leaders of all stripes. (Self-published)
Lifestyle Food & Drink Aran: Recipes and Stories from a Bakery in the Heart of Scotland Flora Shedden. Hardie Grant, $29.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1-78488-310-2
Great British Bake Off alum Shedden organizes the recipes in this encouraging and accessible recipe collection so as to follow a day in the life of her bakery in a rural Scottish village. Aran, which is Scottish for bread, opens early for baking, and the volume starts with helpful instructions for sourdough starter (the bakery’s starter is nicknamed “Big Mumma”) and recipes for rustic breads with oats and turmeric, as well as airy focaccia made
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with an especially wet dough. Breakfast treats include croissants (a three-day project) and Swedish buns gouged to make room for marzipan filling. Teatime means two recipes for Scottish shortbread: crisp cookies from Shedden’s grandmother and a softer version. Many choices for midday meals are twists on classics: sausage rolls contain apple alongside pork and are coated with sesame seeds; a vegetarian option with feta and fennel is also provided. A primer on big salads encourages touches of “crunchiness” and “frilliness” and is typical of the playful tone. Though Shedden insists the recipes were originally conceived for home kitchens, some, such as walnut vanilla eclairs with mirror glaze and gold leaf, are challenging. That aside, clear-cut directions balance the whimsy effectively throughout, and they’re sure to bolster readers’ confidence as well. (Apr.)
Faith, Family and the Feast: Recipes to Feed Your Crew From the Grill, Garden and Iron Skillet Kent and Shannon Rollins. HMH/Martin, $30 (272p) ISBN 978-0-358-12449-8
Husband-and-wife Rollins (A Taste of Cowboy) expand on cowboy cuisine with an added side of biblical teachings in this unfocused outing. In the duo’s wheelhouse are such satisfying recipes as savory hush puppies, fried green tomatoes, green chile pork stew, refried beans, classic Mexican street corn, green onion and ham scalloped potatoes, and their popular Cowboy Chili. But many outliers incorporate lazy shortcuts: shrimp ceviche is made with cooked shrimp, which defeats the purpose of the dish, which allows citrus to cook the shrimp; a cherry macaroon cake calls for boxed cake mix and two entire cans of cherry pie filling; Catalina Taco Salad incorporates packaged seasoning and bottled dressing; and cheesy tater soup requires an entire pound of Velveeta cheese. Then there’s a mocha chocolate mousse that simply feels out of place. The generous insertions of images of cowboys out on the range accompanied by biblical verses and inspirational quotes result in what feels like an attempt to capitalize on the homespun appeal of the Pioneer Woman. This spotty effort fails to live up to the promise of its predecessor. (Mar.)
Review_NONFICTION Rage Baking: The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury and Women’s Voices Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford. Tiller, $24.99 (208p) ISBN 978-1-982132-67-5
In this debut cookbook, food writers Gunst and Alford collect solid recipes and passionate essays from women suffering through the #MeToo era. Chapters are traditionally organized but given rousing names (one on breads is “Whisk, Fold, Knead, Rise Up”) and illustrated with inspiring photos of women’s marches from the 1960s to the 2000s. Recipes are functional and clever: Vallery Lomas, who won The Great American Baking Show in 2017 only to have the show canceled and not air after a judge was accused of sexual harassment, offers simple lemon bars that don’t require precooking the curd for the filling. The authors often artfully integrate their subjects: Alford provides an honest look at women’s experiences in restaurant kitchens and suggests a maple-walnut pullapart bread (“what better metaphor for my growing rage as the patriarchy works overtime”), and Katherine Gunst of NPR’s Here & Now recalls her dismay over Maine senator Susan Collins’s yes vote for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and how baking “temporarily restor[ed] my belief in the positive transformation of things” (she offers LGBTQ-inspired rainbow cookies). Attempts to politicize baked goods, including a tenuous connection between red velvet cake and The Handmaid’s Tale, can read like a reach, but they serve as a primal scream. This volume of accessible recipes squarely hits the target. (Feb.)
Big Mamma Cucina Popolare: Contemporary Italian Recipes The chefs from Big Mamma. Phaidon, $45 (380p) ISBN 978-1-83866-035-2
This labor of love by the France-based Big Mamma restaurant group presents 130 recipes for its most popular dishes. In addition to popular Italian staples, such as bruschetta with caponata, margherita pizza, and veal saltimbocca, there are dozens of dishes that have a distinctive twist like pasta with chickpeas and shrimp, beetroot risotto with yogurt sauce, and peach and pistachio panna cotta. Contributing to the volume’s lighthearted feel are dishes named after pop culture figures, such as Egg Sheeran (poached eggs with cress cream),
★ The Book of St. John Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver. Ebury, $55 (320p) ISBN 978-1-5291-0321-2
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glorious ode to snouts, trotters, offal, fat, and other less appreciated bits arrives from Henderson and Gulliver of London’s famed St. John restaurant. Henderson (The Complete Nose to Tail), a pioneer of whole-animal and farm-to-table cooking, rolls out recipes for the hearty yet refined fare he’s known for— grilled lamb hearts with peas and mint; pig’s tongue, butter beans, and green sauce; tripe and carrots—that are short on subtlety and big on flavor. Recipes are casual but confident affairs, with ingredient measurements and cooking instructions frequently loose (a chicken, bacon, and trotter pie calls for “a splash of chicken stock” and should be cooked “in a fairly hot oven for an hour or so”; or you could replace the bird with two or three wild rabbits), a departure that those comfortable with cooking fundamentals rather than explicit recipes will appreciate. No surprise here, the entrees are standouts, but the vegetable-forward sides and starters are no slouches, and the one-page take on making stock, “the very essence of potential, the lifeblood of every dish,” veers closer to manifesto than recipe. Indeed, this is about as close as one could get to a lifestyle guide–cookbook hybrid. Home cooks who know a good butcher and want to braise off the beaten path couldn’t hope for a better guide. (Mar.)
Snoop Dogg Pasta (tagliolini with rapini and anchovies), and Daft Punch (fruit punch with prosecco); a variety of witty sidebars (“This dish is perfect for impressing a date... if the date doesn’t work out at least you will have eaten well!”) will boost the home cook’s confidence. Included throughout is crucial advice from the restaurant group’s chefs that teach readers how to choose a good truffle (“size is all important... they should not be too small”), make perfect Chantilly cream, and much more. This is an ideal cookbook for readers who are looking to create Italian dishes with a contemporary twist. (Jan.)
Health & Fitness Run to the Finish: The Everyday Runner’s Guide to Avoiding Injury, Ignoring the Clock, and Loving the Run Amanda Brooks. Da Capo LifeLong, $16.99 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-7382-8599-3
Running blogger and personal trainer Brooks debuts with a useful and clear-cut primer for runners who find themselves in the “middle of the pack.” Having been running for 17 years and writing about it for 12, she’s clearly passionate about the
sport: Brooks has completed eight marathons, and run over 20,000 miles. Her definition of what constitutes an athlete, however, is inclusive, and she encourages readers who run, even if noncompetitively, to think of themselves as one. There are many reasons to run, she argues, including for the sake of freedom (from one’s cell phone, for instance), exploration, relaxation (running can be meditative), and community (she encourages group running). Practical matters such as fueling the body, choosing the right shoes and socks, and why one needs a “dynamic warm up” to promote mobility and strength are also addressed. Brooks infuses her text with lighthearted humor and amusing lists (“Weird Thoughts We All Have at the Start Line”) as well as advice on topics such as how to decide whether to run a marathon. Middle-of-thepackers will enjoy this information-rich guide on how to W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
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Review_NONFICTION make running a safe and enduring pastime. (Mar.)
Shaken Brain: The Science, Care, and Treatment of Concussion Elizabeth Sandel. Harvard Univ., $29.95 (368p ) ISBN 978-0-674-98741-8
A physician with over 25 years’ experience studying and treating concussion details what happens in the human brain when it is injured, and how medical providers can help, in this compassionate debut. A discipline still in its early stages, Sandel’s field draws from neuroscience, cytology, biomechanics, and neuroanatomy. She warns that the possible spectrum of symptoms is broad, so in addition to the obvious loss of consciousness and memory, headache, dizziness, lack of focus, and fatigue, there is also a panoply of secondary disorders and complications, including mood and cognitive disruptions and sensory and motor dysfunction, which may entail protracted recoveries. Emphasizing that it isn’t just athletes who need to worry, Sandel examines the high incidence of concussion among certain vulnerable populations, including the very young, elderly, homeless or impoverished, and victims of child abuse or domestic violence. To that end, she looks at prevention as a public health issue, calling for policy reforms—improved workplace standards, clinical care, and access to rehab services— to address it on an institutional level. Her expertly presented and researched work will be invaluable for anyone concerned about concussions. (Feb.)
Home & Garden No-Till Intensive Vegetable Culture: Pesticide-Free Methods for Restoring Soil and Growing Nutrient-Rich, High-Yielding Crops Bryan O’Hara. Chelsea Green, $29.95 trade paper (272p) ISBN 978-1-60358-853-9
In this passionate debut, farmer O’Hara merges science with the spiritual, detailing “no-till, pesticide-free, high-yielding” growing practices. Offering an approach that combines “biodynamics, with its spiritual and holistic view of agriculture,” and “Korean Natural Farming” which “improves soil function... through biological treatment of fertilizer materials,” O’Hara cites benefits that include “greater ease of planting, less need for irrigation, far fewer
weeds to be controlled, crops that show better disease and pest resistance and increased cold tolerance, speedier harvests, and higher-quality produce.” Less tangibly, he writes, by “bringing out the fullest expression of [plants’] potential... they in turn help us bring out the fullest expression of ourselves.” O’Hara gives instructions on creating beds, germinating seeds, and transplanting plants, along with creating compost and potting soil recipes, all with the aim of producing vegetables yearround. While some ideas are pretty out there (O’Hara advocates working barefoot to “allow water, nutrients, and earth energies to flow into the individual,” and hints at conspiracy theories, such as government control of weather), his enthusiasm for nurturing a harmonious relationship between agriculture and the natural world is admirable. Not for the casual hobbyist, O’Hara’s manual will appeal to those interested in balancing economically sustainable agriculture with environmentally responsible practices. (Feb.)
Parenting You Can’t F*ck Up Your Kids: A Judgement-Free Guide to Stress-Free Parenting Lindsay Powers. Atria, $26 (320p) ISBN 978-1982110-13-0
Powers, a journalist and former Yahoo executive, suggests parents “do more for your kids by doing a lot less” in her upbeat and practical debut. As a mother of two, Powers experienced plenty of judgment, from peers and even strangers, for her parenting choices. In founding the Yahoo! Parenting website and, later, creating the #NoShameParenting movement, Powers sought to make people think twice before being critical of parents. Here, she covers all the relevant topics, starting with pregnancy and delivery, including debunking C-section myths. Not shying away from controversy, Powers takes on breastfeeding vs. formula feeding (“one of the biggest battle lines in the so-called mommy wars”) and discipline—she admits that she’s a “huge fan” of bribery, and, though not a believer in spanking, admits very occasional and mild spanking might work for some families. Powers liberally draws on personal experience, including her difficult childhood, and on expert opinions, books, and research studies. However,
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it’s her unflagging encouragement that readers will find most helpful. Asking readers to “focus all the energy” wasted on self-doubt “on the one thing that matters: loving our kids,” Powers provides parents with an appealing and easy-to-use primer. Agent: Todd Shuster and Justin Brouckaert, Aevitas Creative Management. (Mar.)
Religion/Spirituality The Eastern Orthodox Church: A New History John Anthony McGuckin. Yale Univ., $32.50 (376p) ISBN 978-0-300-21876-3
McGuckin (The Book of Mystical Chapters), an emeritus professor of early Christianity and Byzantine studies, traces the history of the Eastern Orthodox Church from its founding to the present in this lucid if sometimes tough-going introduction. McGuckin’s opening explanation of Orthodox theology often veers into the abstract while breaking down “apostolic traditions,” but it serves as useful grounding for the rest of the book by shedding light on historical events such as the split between the Western Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. With the majority of the book rushing over 2,000 years of history—the Ecumenical councils of the first millennia CE, the 11th century Great Schism—McGuckin’s telling is engrossing but often overwhelming, and most readers with little knowledge of the material would benefit from more explanation of how the various branches of the church relate to one another. The closing chapters are more accessible, introducing notable 20th-century Orthodox figures and discussing what to expect when visiting an Orthodox church, from respect for icons to standing during prayer services. McGuckin’s thorough history will appeal to readers with a deep interest in nonWestern forms of Christianity. (Mar.)
Review_NONFICTION Hidden Potential: Revealing What God Can Do Through You Wendy Pope. David C. Cook, $16.99 trade paper (192p) ISBN 978-1-4347–1237-0
Pope (Wait and See), a Proverbs 31 Ministries speaker, tackles comparison culture in this ardent work, providing instruction on how to overcome weakness and self-doubt and live a life filled with God’s grace. She examines the story of Moses to think about strategies for personal betterment, including the concept of staying in a personal place of refuge after failure, and accepting faults, as Moses did with his slow speech and angry temperament. Pope blends biblical lessons about failure and fear with profiles and personal stories about experiencing God’s love during difficult times, such as following the death of a loved one, or her own feelings after the rejection of a book that was already completed and promised to be published. Thought-provoking writing prompts allow readers to respond to how each chapter’s topic applies to their own relationship with God. Pope’s steely advice to trust God’s plan despite failures, faults, and fears will appeal to Christian readers looking for an inspirited testament to God’s power. (Mar.)
The Koren Tanakh of the Land of Israel: Exodus Trans. from the Hebrew by Jonathan Sacks. Koren, $49.95 (328p) ISBN 978-965-7760-33-8
Theologian Sacks (Lessons in Leadership) translates and analyzes the Hebrew Bible in this attractive, thoughtful resource. His treatment of the Hebrew Bible is grounded in examination of the ancient Near Eastern milieu of the Israelites. A colorful chart contrasts stages in Israelite history with parallel developments in Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, Rome, and the Kingdom of the Hittites. Essays preceding scripture provide accessible overviews of relevant subjects—such as the history, culture, and religion of Egypt—at the time Moses was called upon to free his
people. While committed to a fundamentalist approach, this volume also includes discussions of motifs that stories such as Moses’s birth share with Mesopotamian mythology, noting the ethical principles that distinguish the Bible version. The commentary doesn’t always dig deep; for example, the episode in Exodus 4: 24–26, in which God seeks to kill Moses after entrusting him with his sacred mission, receives a very short treatment. While The Jewish Study Bible remains the go-to source for Hebrew Bible students, those comfortable with translation and analysis premised on the traditional view that “the Torah is a unified text from a single Divine author” will find this beautifully presented edition of the Book of Exodus helpful and enlightening. (Mar.)
You Are Enough: Revealing the Soul to Discover Your Power, Potential, and Possibility Panache Desai. HarperOne, $24.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-06-293257-0
Desai (Discovering Your Soul Signature), a speaker on spirituality, promises readers that they “are nothing less than a spark of Divine Light, which animates everyone and everything” in this uplifting work. According to Desai, one can achieve samadhi, the “recognition of our Essential Self,” not through external practices—such as meditation, yoga, or diet and exercise programs—but by turning inward. When one cultivates “awareness, acceptance, and compassion” for oneself, he writes, it is possible to activate a “powerful internal process” of “vibrational transformation” that harmonizes the “dissonant vibration” of negative emotions and experiences. Each chapter teaches readers to achieve their “optimal vibrational state” by cultivating awareness of “conditioning and wounding,” learning acceptance and flexibility, and adhering to five commitments that foster “expansion.” The author’s forthright sincerity and candid examples of his own personal transformation and the effect his work has had on others provide ballast to what might otherwise read as esoteric mysticism. With its focus on sitting “in awareness of feelings,” Desai’s cheery spiritual how-to will appeal to readers of Deepak Chopra. (Mar.)
ONLINE ONLY www.publishersweekly.com
FICTION The American People, Vol. 2: The Brutality of Fact Larry Kramer. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ISBN 978-0-374-10413-9, Jan. Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year, Vol. 4, edited by Sinclair Sexsmith. Cleis, ISBN 978-162778-295-1, Dec. Finding Him Rachel Van Dyken. Skyscape, ISBN 978-1-5420-2088-6, Feb.
★ Greenwood Michael Christie. Hogarth, $28 (528p) ISBN 978-1-984822-00-0, Feb. The King at the Edge of the World Arthur Phillips. Random House, ISBN 978-0-8129-9548-0, Feb. Owner of a Broken Heart Cheris Hodges. Dafina, ISBN 978-1-4967-2384-0, Feb. Shall We Dance? Shelley Shepard Gray. Blackstone, ISBN 978-1-982658-52-6, Feb. What Happens in the Castle Kelsey McKnight. Tule, ISBN 978-1-951190-86-6, Feb. Witch’s Oath Terry Goodkind. Head of Zeus, ISBN 978-1-78954-131-1, Jan.
NONFICTION
★ Avedon: Behind the Scenes 1964–1980 Gideon Lewin. PowerHouse, $75 978-1-57687928-3, Nov. ★ Dave Brubeck: A Life in Time Philip Clark. Da Capo, ISBN 978-0-306-92164-3, Feb. Facebook: The Inside Story Steven Levy. Blue Rider, ISBN 978-0-7352-1315-9, Feb. The Genius of Women: From Overlooked to Changing the World Janice Kaplan. Dutton, ISBN 978-1-5247-4421-2, Feb. Grandmothering: Building Strong Ties with Every Generation Kathleen Stassen Berger. Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 978-1-5381-3313-2, Nov. The Information Trade: How Big Tech Conquers Countries, Challenges Our Rights, and Transforms Our World Alexis Wichowski. HarperOne, ISBN 978-0-06-288898-3, Feb. The Shadow of Vesuvius: A Life of Pliny Daisy Dunn. Liveright, ISBN 978-1-63149-639-4, Dec. Smart Plants: Power Foods & Natural Nootropics for Optimized Thinking, Focus & Memory Julie Morris. Sterling, ISBN 978-14549-3343-4, Dec. We Fight Fascists: The 43 Group and Their Forgotten Battle for Post-War Britain Daniel Sonabend. Verso, ISBN 978-1-78873-794-4, Nov. We Will Rise: A True Story of Tragedy and Resurrection in the American Heartland Steve Beaven. Little A, ISBN 978-1-50394-222-6, Jan.
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stargazing becomes a community tradition, with “telescopes, binoculars, egg salad sandwiches, and strawberry pies.” Davenier (Snowy Race), whose talents seem tailormade for this material, matches the text’s plainspoken momentum. Animated ink washes capture both Mabel’s earnest determination and the wonder of what means so much to her: a dark night sky of deep blue and lavender, gloriously dotted with stars. Ages 3–7. Author’s agent: Susan Hawk, Upstart Crow Literary. Illustrator’s agency: Studio Goodwin Sturges. (Mar.)
Picture Books I Am Scary Elise Gravel. Orca, $10.95 (30p) ISBN 978-14598-2316-7
Gravel’s (What Is a Refugee?) beguiling, economical style is in top form in this board book. A big turquoise monster with an angry red mouth and two striped horns encounters a kid and dog in a forest. “Look at me!” the monster says, jumping out from behind a tree, “I am very SCARY!” While the dog strikes a range of attitudes, from snarling and protective to let’s-getout-of-here, the kid is fazed not one bit. In fact, no matter how much the monster rails (“Listen to this: Grrrrrrrrrrr!”), the child stands firm, until the monster finally breaks down in tears over being unable to frighten. “I think you’re cute,” says the kid—and in truth, the monster really is quite adorable. The child follows up the compliment with the offer of a hug, the dog joins in, and on the final page, it’s clear the monster’s heart has melted. The petite format, hand-lettered text, and spare, single-plane black line drawings, punctuated with saturated spot color, make this book feel like a comedy skit lovingly performed for an intimate audience. Ages up to 3. Agent: Lori Nowicki, Painted Words. (Mar.)
This Is a Dog Ross Collins. Nosy Crow, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5362-1200-6
A scruffy mutt disrupts the flow of a standard introductory animal book in this goofy story by Collins (What Does an Anteater Eat?). Hints of what’s to come appear on the cover, where a dog is featured, crayon in mouth, alongside a crossed-out title: “My First Animal Book.” The story begins simply enough with the declaration: “This is a dog.” But when a cat is introduced on the following spread, the hound is unable to give up the spotlight, poking its head around the edge of the verso. The comedy unfolds visually as the dog grows increasingly brazen with its attentionseeking antics, chasing a squirrel up the edge of a page, extinguishing the light on a bear, and piddling on a giraffe’s back hoof.
Be You! Peter H. Reynolds. Orchard, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-338-57231-5
Oswald’s wordless picture book celebrates familial time spent in nature (reviewed on this page).
A chase ensues when the other animals attempt to take back the narrative, but the pup has other tricks to play right up until the end. With bright-colored backdrops, Collins’s silly scenes focus all the attention on the titular dog, whose troublemaking manages to introduce a bit of meta fun. Ages 2–5. (Mar.)
The Stars Just Up the Street Sue Soltis, illus. by Christine Davenier. Candlewick, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-76369834-8
“Mabel loved the stars,” writes Soltis (Nothing Like a Puffin)—she could count 19 from her backyard’s “narrow patch of sky,” but in Mabel’s town, the streetlights and houselights make it impossible to experience the kind of prairie night skies that her grandfather recalls from his youth, when “meteors there fell like rain.” What can one kid do? With Grandpa’s encouragement, Mabel begins by urging her neighbors to turn off their lamps and remind themselves of the celestial show above their rooftops (“Look, the Big Dipper!” shouts one neighbor in amazement). Then, by marshalling support from more townspeople and reminding the mayor that everyone was once a starry-eyed kid, Mabel succeeds in getting the town to dim the streetlamps during the next new moon. A crowd turns out on the hill up the street from where Mabel lives, and
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Reynolds (Say Something!) is back in full affirmation mode, exhorting readers to be themselves and breaking down what that means into a series of refrain-like “Be” statements (“Be curious,” “Be okay being alone”). Each gets a spread: on the left is a bright, poster-like vignette showing a child who embodies the desired character trait, while the right page offers a brief exegesis. “Be connected,” for example, shows two kids smiling broadly while riding on a tandem bike as the text explains, “Find kindred spirits./ Be with those who make you feel/ like the real you.” The statements pile up; taken together, readers may start feeling like all this encouragement blends into one tall order. Only one breaks with the format (“Be persistent” sits on a striking spread of a child intently but successfully sailing through a thunderstorm), and only one acknowledges that life can be truly overwhelming (“Be okay with reaching out for help” finds a flailing child being handed a life preserver). But any reader feeling the pressure to conform to expectations may find great comfort in knowing this book is on a nearby shelf, at the ready to offer up good counsel. Ages 4–8. Agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (Mar.)
★ Hike Pete Oswald. Candlewick, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5362-0157-4
Nature forms the backdrop of this largely wordless picture book, beginning with the nature motif of a child’s chamber. A brown-skinned father gently nudges his sleeping child as morning sun spills into
Review_CHILDREN’S the darkened room. The child rubs their eyes, remembers something wonderful, and leaps out of bed to assemble a hat and backpack, sturdy shoes, and a compass and map (a cat assists with the preparations). Then the two are on their way out of town and into the wilderness. With a gentle, misty palette and slender, angular figures, this journey by Oswald (The Sad Little Fact) follows the duo into the forest, capturing small dramas along the way—fear of crossing a log over a river made easier with an outstretched hand, a snack overlooking a magnificent vista, a final shared task. The beauty of the natural world is viewed through the lens of the relationship between parent and child; their closeness is what gives this outdoor experience meaning. On the way home, their eyes meet in the rear-view mirror; they know they’ve shared something special, a moment underscored by a final spread of the two cuddling on the sofa. Ages 4–8. Agent: Kirsten Hall, Catbird Productions. (Mar.)
★ Paolo, Emperor of Rome Mac Barnett, illus. by Claire Keane. Abrams, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4197-4109-8
Paolo the dachshund is trapped in a hair salon on Rome’s Via Torino, unable to see for himself the wonders he suspects lie beyond its glass door. But one lucky day, the door is left open, and what he finds is even better than he had dreamed. The classic architectural lines of the ancient city provide scope for imagination: “How beautiful to build such a towering marvel,” he murmurs to himself as he surveys the Colosseum, “and how cruel to fill it with barbarism.” True to his own high ideals, Paolo stands his ground against a cat, leads a pack of dogs, saves six nuns from certain death, and is nearly canonized by the Pope (“the cardinal shook his head”) before giving up his cosseted existence at the Vatican and striking out into the city again. Keane (Why?) draws with a brash, bold line, capturing the contours of Rome’s domes and bridges, and the flourish of Paolo’s long tongue with equal grace. Barnett (Just Because) writes with the panache of Cyrano (“Truly,” pronounces Paolo, “I am living my life”) in this bighearted tale that champions honor for honor’s sake. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)
Singular Sensibilities Picture book biographies recount the creative lives of Emily Dickinson and Gertrude Stein.
Emily Writes: Emily Dickinson and Her Poetic Beginnings Jane Yolen, illus. by Christine Davenier. Holt/Ottaviano, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-250-12808-9
Yolen and Davenier portray Dickinson as a small child who “tiptoes into Father’s study,/ being quiet as dust” and finds “a scrap of paper” and a “gnawed pencil stub, too... Perhaps, she thinks, I will make a poem.” Historical details—her siblings, Lavinia and Austin; her mother’s illness (“Mother,/ who makes her feel rainy”); her father’s emotional distance—add ballast to the imagined account. Most delightful is Mrs. Mack, of the family that bought the Dickinson family house and lived in it while the Dickinsons rented rooms. Yolen’s Mrs. Mack encourages Emily: “Hope, my dear girl,/ That’s the best rhyme for envelope. Though in a pinch you might try cope or lope.” Though an author’s note suggests that not much is actually known of Dickinson’s childhood, nor of her relationship with Mrs. Mack, Yolen conjures appealing possibilities. Davenier’s loose-lined, color-washed ink illustrations capture childlike joy and curiosity. Ages 4–8. (Feb.)
★ On Wings of Words: The Extraordinary Life of Emily Dickinson Jennifer Berne, illus. by Becca Stadtlander. Chronicle, $18.99 (52p) ISBN 978-1-4521-4297-5
Butterflies flutter through this exploration of Emily Dickinson’s singular spirit, a visual leitmotif that mirrors her slantwise sensibility. Berne’s finely chosen words echo Dickinson’s poetic proclivities: “In a little room—in the dark before dawn—/ a baby girl was born./ Her parents celebrated the holiday/ they called Emily.” She paints a picture of a curious child who, as she grows, finds her own way to make sense of a world holding both trouble and joy. “Everywhere she looked,/ she was told to obey without asking,/ to believe without knowing why./ So she began to put her faith in/ what she could see and understand.” Lines from Dickinson’s poems punctuate Berne’s text, reflecting themes of nature, wonder, and joy. Stadtlander’s modern folkloric gouache and watercolor illustrations seamlessly merge realism and fantasy, capturing fine details such as floral-sprigged fabrics and rendering whimsical scenes like a miniature Emily astride a grasshopper in a sunset sky. Ages 5–8. (Feb.)
A Portrait in Poems: The Storied Life of Gertrude Stein & Alice B. Toklas Evie Robillard, illus. by Rachel Katstaller. Kids Can, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-5253-0056-1
The story begins in the middle: the middle of the Jardin du Luxembourg, at “an eight-sided pond/ where you can rent a tiny sailboat/ and set it adrift over and over again.” And in the middle of Stein’s adulthood, in the early 1900s at her home around the corner from the garden. Through eight short chapters, each marked with a Stein quote, Robillard elliptically traces the contours of Stein’s adulthood: the portrait of her that Picasso painted, her “word portraits” and long life beside Alice B. Toklas (“a tiny, dark-haired woman... Alice would ask you lots of questions/ in her quick, quiet voice”), and their eventual deaths. Robillard eventually asserts Stein’s genius—“Gertrude Stein was much, much more/ than a collector of paintings/ or a nibbler of tea cakes”—but Stein’s brilliance, as ever, is difficult to convey, though this introduction to the figure and her partner charms. Katstaller deploys gouache, colored pencil, and graphite in blues and greens, mustards and roses, to sketch art salons and garden idylls; supplemental materials add extra biographical detail and context. Ages 6–9. (Mar.)
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Radical Women Picture book histories celebrate world-changing female activists.
All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything Annette Bay Pimentel, illus. by Nabi H. Ali. Sourcebooks Explore, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4926-8897-6
“How do you change someone’s mind?” As a child who uses a wheelchair, Jennifer faces obstacles, from curbs that are like “a cliff” to exclusionary classmates. But “Jennifer knows they’re wrong. She’s just a friend waiting to happen!” In clear, accessible prose accompanied by Ali’s creamily textured digital illustrations, Pimentel relates the story of Jennifer Keelan-Chaffin’s activism in the disability rights movement, culminating in the Capitol Crawl on Mar. 12, 1990. Alongside adult activists with disabilities, Jennifer hauled herself up the steps of the U.S. Capitol to advocate for passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, after which Congress at long last passed the bill. Supplemental material contextualizes the disability rights movement, offering a jumping-off point for conversations: “Anyone can choose to be an activist, no matter your age.” Ages 4–8. (Mar.)
Mother Jones and Her Army of Mill Children Jonah Winter, illus. by Nancy Carpenter. Random House/ Schwartz & Wade, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-449-81291-4
A doughty white-haired woman, arms akimbo, nearly steps off the opening page of this book: “My name is Mother Jones,/ and I’m MAD./ And you’d be MAD, too, if you’d/ seen what I’ve seen.” Using Jones’s folksy voice, Winter whirls readers into descriptions of abominable working conditions, where “children YOUR AGE... worked like grown-ups.” To protest, Jones leads a march of child mill workers in 1903 from Pennsylvania to the Long Island summer home of President Theodore Roosevelt. Though the march doesn’t trigger immediate action, over the next 40 years, the cause prevails through legislation. Carpenter’s illustrations adroitly capture both the grim reality of children at work and the irresistible hope of people coming together to demand change. Supplemental materials note that “worldwide, there are 215 million child workers” yet today. Ages 4–8. (Feb.)
The Only Woman in the Photo: Frances Perkins & Her New Deal for America Kathleen Krull, illus. by Alexandra Bye. Atheneum, $18.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4814-9151-8
“When someone opens a door to you, go forward.” Advice from Frances Perkins’s grandmother guided her life. Before she became “the first woman ever to join a presidential cabinet,” Perkins had transformed herself from a quiet observer to an effective activist, building a career on righting wrongs—operating as a social worker, speaking out for suffrage, reporting on hazardous workplaces, and advocating for fire safety after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. When FDR asks Perkins to serve as
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secretary of labor, she agrees—as long as “FDR allowed her to do it her way.” In 1935, Perkins achieved “her most far-reaching dream... the life-changing Social Security Act.” Weaving in quotes from Perkins, Krull crafts a deft introduction to the achievements of a remarkable woman. Bye’s snappy illustrations are notable for crisp lines and stylized period flair. Supplemental materials included. Ages 4–8. (Feb.)
★ Lizzie Demands a Seat! Elizabeth Jennings Fights for Streetcar Rights
Beth Anderson, illus. by E.B. Lewis. Calkins Creek, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-62979-939-1
On July 16, 1854, “Lizzie Jenkins was in a hurry. A big hurry. The kind of hurry she couldn’t hold back.” When a New York streetcar conductor tries to stop her from entering a car reserved for whites, she protests. “Despite being born a ‘free black’ in a ‘free state,’ she’d never been treated as equal... Suddenly, latefor-church wasn’t as important as late-forequality.” When Jenkins is thrown off the streetcar, shown in a dramatic spread, a white witness steps forward, and Jenkins decides to take her case to court—a risk: “if she failed to win, she could make it worse.” But Jenkins, supported by her community, does win, notching the first victory in what would become a 100-year-long battle to end segregation on public transportation. Shimmering jeweltoned watercolors blur and delineate details in Lewis’s paintings. Includes an author’s note, bibliography, and reading suggestions. Ages 7–10. (Jan.)
No Steps Behind: Beate Sirota Gordon’s Battle for Women’s Rights in Japan Jeff Gottesfeld, illus. by Sheilla Witanto. Creston, $18.99 (44p) ISBN 978-1-939547-55-2
Beate Sirota Gordon was just 22 years old when her stellar language skills landed her on the U.S. team tasked with writing a new Japanese constitution at the end of WWII. Her family had fled from Russia to Japan to escape anti-Semitism, and as she grew, Gordon “came to love her new home,” though she disliked its sexism, exemplified through “ugly proverbs” such as “women walk three steps behind.” Gordon advocated for Japanese women’s rights as the new constitution was devised, writing the language for Article 14, which enshrined equality. Her contribution “should have made headlines.... But the United States considered it a security secret.” Gottesfeld’s compelling telling is supplemented by comprehensive notes. Witanto’s illustrations richly render the story of an immigrant’s contribution with the precision of old snapshots. Ages 7–12. (Mar.)
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Fiction The Missing Bookshop Katie Clapham, illus. by Kirsti Beautyman. Kane Miller, $9.99 (96p) ISBN 978-1-61067-901-5
Milly never misses story time at Mrs. Minty’s bookshop, where one day she notices that the paint is peeling, the cushions are worn, and the curtains are faded. But the girl is more dismayed that the elderly bookseller, like her story time rocking chair, is “getting a bit creaky,” and Milly (quite theatrically) frets that Mrs. Minty, “a walking encyclopedia when it came to books,” will soon be unable to run her store. Milly’s fears are realized when the shop suddenly closes due to “unforeseen circumstances,” and she assuages her sadness by painting a picture of the exterior as she imagines it was in its heyday, with colorful window displays and flowerpacked window boxes. After she tapes her artwork to the storefront and other patrons add their own tributes and appeals (“Save Our Book Shop”), a cheering turn of events that entwines the past and present launches a new chapter for the store. Folksy illustrations by Beautyman similarly evoke both a traditional and contemporary sensibility, reinforcing the story’s message of the importance of family, community, and reading. Ages 5–7. (Mar.)
Fins (Sharks Incorporated #1) Randy Wayne White. Roaring Brook, $16.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1-250-24465-9
The author of the Doc Ford series for adults makes his middle grade debut in this series launch set on that marine biologist’s home turf of Sanibel Island, Fla. After his mother’s death, sixth grader Luke moves from rural Ohio to live with his sea captain grandfather on the island, where a lightning strike imbues him with a “sixth sense” that gives him telescopic vision, extraordinary hearing, and the ability to gauge others’ moods via the colorful auras he sees surrounding them. White works this premise into the story when Doc Ford hires Luke and two sisters, Maribel and Sabina, who recently emigrated from Cuba, to help tag sharks for a research project. The boy uses his powers to locate the elusive fish and help track down a member of a poaching ring that’s been capturing sharks to peddle their fins.
Despite the plot’s underlying tension, its pace is thwarted by undue repetition of background facts and jargon, and the tiresome grumbling of the pugnacious younger sister. Yet the tempo accelerates as the kids crack the mystery, after which White caps his novel with a heartwarming finale. Ages 8–12. (Mar.)
The Hotel Whodunit (Goldie Vance #1) Lilliam Rivera, illus. by Elle Power. Little, Brown, $14.99 (264p) ISBN 978-0-316-45664-7
In this middle grade debut by Rivera (Dealing in Dreams) based on the beloved comics series, Goldie Vance, 16, may officially be a valet at the Cross Palm Resort in St. Pascal, Fla., where she lives part-time with her hotel manager father, but she considers her real title house detective in training. Lucky for Goldie, the actual hotel detective, Walt, gives in to her request to help out with a big movie filming at both the Cross Palm and the Mermaid Club, where Goldie’s mother works as one of the pool mermaids. The movie features megastar Delphine, an actress whom vivacious Goldie quickly befriends, and the Bejeweled Aqua Chapeau, a diamond-encrusted swim cap worth over a million dollars. When the cap goes missing and Goldie’s mom becomes the top suspect, Goldie resolves to solve the case. Though Goldie’s narration frequently sounds young for a 16-year-old, the hotels make great settings for intrigue, and the teen’s world is filled with entertaining characters, including her crush, Diane. Goldie’s endless optimism and belief in herself inspire while creating amusing moments in this satisfying gumshoe mystery. Comic book inserts by animator Power further enliven action-packed segments. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 8–12. (Mar.)
★ Prairie Lotus Linda Sue Park. Clarion, $16.99 (272p) ISBN 978-1-328-78150-5
Newbery Medalist Park explores prejudice on the American frontier in this sensitively told story about a multiracial girl and her white father in Dakota Territory. Hanna, 14, and her father have been traveling for nearly three years, since her half-Chinese, half-Korean mother’s death. When they settle in railroad town
LaForge in April 1880, Pa plans to open a dry goods store, and talented seamstress Hanna, taught by her mother, fervently hopes to attend school before designing dresses for the shop. Though the town reacts strongly to their arrival, mocking Hanna and keeping children home from classes, the girl perseveres by emulating her mother’s gentle strength. Strongly reminiscent of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s novels in its evocative, detailed depictions of daily frontier life, the book includes an author’s note acknowledging Park’s efforts “to reconcile my childhood love of the Little House books with my adult knowledge of their painful shortcomings.” Though Hanna’s portrayal at times hews closely to the “exceptional minority” mentality, her painful experiences, including microaggressions, exclusion, and assault, feel true to the time and place, and Park respectfully renders Hanna’s interactions with Ihanktonwan women. An absorbing, accessible introduction to a troubled chapter of American history. Ages 10–12. Agent: Ginger Knowlton, Curtis Brown Ltd. (Mar.)
Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor Ally Carter. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $16.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-358-00319-9
In this entertaining adventure reminiscent of Annie, five precocious foster siblings discover secrets in their sprawling new home. April, 12, has been in the foster system ever since her mother abandoned her with nothing but an ornate key and promise of her return. When the key turns out to bear the crest of the fabulously wealthy Winterborne family—whose sole heir, Gabriel, vanished a decade prior after his family was killed—April sneaks into the family’s just-opened museum exhibit, intent on finding what it might unlock. She accidentally sets the exhibit aflame, and when she awakens in the hospital, April and several other children, including genius Sadie, who is black, and Londoner con artist Colin, are brought to Winterborne House W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
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Review_CHILDREN’S as an effort to turn it into a group home. Once there, April discovers that Gabriel is alive, hiding in the mansion’s secret passages, and has a good reason for remaining hidden for so long—someone’s fiendish plan, which the children must help him thwart. In her middle grade debut, Carter (Not If I Save You First) offers up mystery, intrigue, and swashbuckling action in a rollicking story of long-lost secrets and found family. Ages 10–12. Agent: Kristin Nelson, Nelson Literary Agency. (Mar.)
Bloom (The Overthrow #1) Kenneth Oppel. Knopf, $16.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1-5247-7300-7
In the aftermath of a hard rain, everything changes for three teens living on small Salt Spring Island near Vancouver. Petra, allergic to water, discovers that her body does not react to the rain, while Anaya, usually allergic to nearly everything else, experiences alleviated symptoms. Meanwhile, unknown, fast-growing, nigh unkillable grass overruns the farm where newcomer Seth lives with his latest foster family. As strange quickly turns to horrifying and the black grass begins taking over the island and appearing globally, the teens begin undergoing physical changes that link them to the plants—and may make them the only ones capable of fighting back. Oppel (Inkling) steadily adds new horrors, potently escalating the story’s pace, stakes, and anxiety as the plants crowd out food crops, explosively release allergy-causing pollen, and begin exhibiting carnivorous tendencies. The teens’ alternating narration develops each character while continually reframing their relationship and the evolving crisis. While elements of the story will be familiar to fans of Jeff VanderMeer and Wilder Girls, the invading plants’ grim and efficient ways of challenging human dominance are effectively unsettling. Terrific momentum makes the abrupt ending jarring but should create anticipation for the sequel. Ages 10–up. Agent:
Steven Malk, Writers House. (Mar.)
Comics InvestiGators (InvestiGators #1) John Patrick Green. First Second, $9.99 (208p) ISBN 978-1-250-21995-4
World-famous cupcake maker Gustavo Mustachio hasn’t been seen in two weeks, and Mango and Brash, two alligators— wearing V.E.S.T. (Very Exciting Spy Technology) for their work with S.U.I.T. (Special Undercover Investigation Teams)— are dispatched to Gustavo’s bakery, Batter Down, to find out more. Brash is levelheaded, buoyant Mango can’t resist puns and wordplay (“We’re alligators. SNAPPY is what we do best!”), and both dive into toilets and travel through city sewers in service of the case. As the head scientist at the Science Factory across town prepares to announce a great discovery, a mysterious customer delivers a giant birthday cake from Batter Down, leading to the Science Factory’s explosion and adding another facet to the mystery. Helicopters, manyarmed gadgets, and wild schemes proliferate this graphic novel series opener as origin stories explain characters’ behavior (and occasionally slow the story’s frenetic pace). In high-intensity colors, straightforward panel artwork by Green (Hippopotamister) offers plenty of slapstick gags to Brash and Mango’s tale. Fast-paced fun for the bad pun and dorky joke crowd: “Now let’s flush ourselves down the nearest toilet and GATER DONE!” Ages 7–10. (Feb.)
Aster and the Accidental Magic Thom Pico, trans. from the French by Anne and Owen Smith, illus. by Karensac. Random House Graphic, $20.99 (224p) ISBN 978-0593-12417-8; $12.99 paper ISBN 978-0-59311884-9
Transplanted from a city to a small countryside town, Aster, 10, anticipates weeks of loneliness and boredom. But while exploring a nearby mountain, she encounters a strange old woman with a herd of woolly dogs who offers Aster one of her own: Buzz, whose presence ensures that “the mountain will always look after you.” The two stumble into adventure when they find a clearing inhabited by a mischievous spirit who grants Aster three wishes. Her first, being able to speak with
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Buzz, results in unexpected comic chaos that embroils Aster in an escalating series of reality-distorting magical escapades. In a second story, Aster must aid seasonal guardians in a transition of power. Friendly, accessible cartooning from Karensac lights up Pico’s whimsical world, endowing the offbeat characters and adorable creatures with a look simultaneously idiosyncratic and familiar. Aster’s confidence, impulsiveness, and quick thinking combine to create a strong and sympathetic heroine, and the supporting cast, including Buzz and a trio of diminutive chestnut knights, fills out the world with memorable personalities. Spirited adventure and an oddball sense of humor make this a promising start to a series that will be perfect for fans of the Hilda comics. Ages 8–12. (Mar.)
Nonfiction Madame Saqui: Revolutionary Rope Dancer Lisa Robinson, illus. by Rebecca Green. Random House/Schwartz & Wade, $17.99 (44p) ISBN 978-0-525-57997-7
Eighteenth-century circus child Marguerite-Antoinette Lalanne wants to be a tightrope dancer. Her resolution is so firm that even after her circus performer parents forbid it—they do not want her to suffer a career-ending fall like her father— she finds another teacher, studies in secret, and is up on a tightrope performing by age nine. In this way she resuscitates the fortunes of her family, who form a new circus around her. She wins fame and performs through adulthood on into her 70s: “Madame Saqui simply could not say farewell.” Robinson (Pirates Don’t Go to Kindergarten!) provides background about the French Revolution, explaining how it affects the family’s fortunes (“as riots erupted through the city’s streets, the Lalannes fled to the countryside”). At the height of her fame, Madame Saqui becomes Napoleon’s favorite acrobat, reenacting military battles on her tightrope. Mixed media illustrations by Green (A Year with Mama Earth) in dusky pastels provide period atmosphere with fancy costumes, dramatic lighting, and figures that look just a bit like marionettes. It’s an excursion into a long-ago era, but the iron determi-
Review_CHILDREN’S nation of this story’s hero feels very modern. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Alyssa Eisner Henkin, Trident Media Group. Illustrator’s agent: Nicole Tugeau, Tugeau 2. (Mar.)
Most Wanted: The Revolutionary Partnership of John Hancock & Samuel Adams Sarah Jane Marsh, illus. by Edwin Fotheringham. Disney-Hyperion, $19.99 (80p) ISBN 978-1-368-02683-3
Marsh and Fotheringham (Thomas Paine and the Dangerous Word) pair up again for an engaging and thoroughly researched glimpse into key figures from the Revolutionary War era. Opening spreads alliteratively point out distinctions between two famous Bostonians: affluent businessman John Hancock (“He loved parties and peach trees! He loved praise and personal attention!”) and the less wealthy, more political Samuel Adams (“He strode around town talking politics with silversmiths and sailors, wigmakers and whalers”). The narrative’s playful, direct style and Fotheringham’s trademark cartoon illustrations—in which facial expressions rule and oversize quill pens take on a life of their own—detail the duo’s unlikely partnership and their rebellious acts, which made them wanted men to the English. Marsh appends the story with more historical details, as well as a mea culpa: “The origin story of the U.S. is complex and contradictory. And it is not all to be celebrated,” she writes. Noting that her traditional account leaves out stories of the marginalized, including enslaved people, Native Americans, and women, she invites readers to question her perspective and “engage critically with the text.” A timeline, extensive source notes, and a bibliography wrap up a tale that, while admittedly limited in scope, shows that the study of history can be anything but boring. Ages 6–10. Author’s agent: Caryn Wiseman, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Illustrator’s agent: Pat Hackett, Pat Hackett Artist Representative. (Mar.)
★ The Next President: The
Unexpected Beginnings and Unwritten Future of America’s Presidents Kate Messner, illus. by Adam Rex. Chronicle, $18.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4521-7488-4
Messner (Chirp) and Rex (Pluto Gets the
Call) open with a flyleaf bookplate that reads not “This Book Belongs to” but rather “This Country Belongs to.” It’s emblematic of their core idea that “the presidents of tomorrow are always out there somewhere.” Ingeniously structured around inaugural years, the book’s softly textured digital vignettes are montaged to give a sense of events unfolding in many places and lives at once: “At the time of Washington’s inauguration... Presidents 8, 9, and 12 were all kids.” Two spreads illustrate that when William McKinley (the 25th president) took office in 1897, Teddy Roosevelt (26th) was assistant secretary of the Navy, Herbert Hoover (31st) was running a gold mine in Australia, while Dwight D. Eisenhower (34th), age seven, was helping out in the family creamery and playing baseball. Throughout, this timeline treatment shows how some future presidents have clearly and intently waited in the wings, while others could not seem further from the Oval Office. By the time the authors wrap with a variously inclusive spread reading “at least ten of our future presidents are probably alive today,” readers may be convinced that the future is wide open—presidentially speaking. Ages 8–12. (Mar.)
We Are Power: How Nonviolent Activism Changed the World Todd Hasak-Lowy. Abrams, $17.99 (208p) ISBN 978-1-4197-4111-1
In his introduction to this cogent appeal to young fighters of injustice, Hasak-Lowy (Roses and Radicals) carefully distinguishes institutional activism from nonviolent activism: the more “disruptive, risky tactics that challenge those in power and interrupt the way things normally work—without taking up arms.” Succeeding chapters, illustrated with black-and-white photos, cover Gandhi’s advocation of nonviolent resistance during India’s quest for independence, Alice Paul’s campaign for women’s right to vote, Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight for civil rights, Cesar Chavez’s work organizing farmworkers, and Vaclav Havel’s leadership of the 1989 Czech “Velvet Revolution.” In each case, despite different hostile conditions, activists’ insistence on nonviolent but forceful
actions successfully mobilized large groups of courageous people to fight for what they believed was right. HasakLowy argues that oppressed individuals can create powerful change and that individual responses enable change. A striking and very timely conclusion highlights teenage Greta Thunberg’s bold challenge to fight global climate change. Substantial back matter covers other notable movements of the past century and includes notes and a bibliography. Ages 10–14. (Apr.)
★ Dragon Hoops
Gene Luen Yang. First Second, $24.99 (448p) ISBN 978-1-62672-079-4
As a comic book enthusiast and graphic novelist, Printz Medalist Yang has always been more partial to superheroes than to sports. But in 2014, as a teacher at a Catholic high school in Oakland, Calif., Yang is drawn to a story about the school’s basketball team—the Dragons. Rumor has it that under the current coach, a former player at the school, this year’s team will surely grab the state championship. Shadowing the group for an entire season, Yang interviews players and coaches to uncover the talented students’ stories and the program’s allegedly shadowed past. Using documentarystyle storytelling, Yang serves as both narrator and a character, alternating player backstories and the Dragons’ 2014 season with interstitials about the sport’s beginnings and early tensions, historical and present-day discrimination (Black Lives Matter, Sikh persecution following the partition of India), and Yang’s own worklife balance. Using a candid narrative and signature illustrations that effectively and dynamically bring the fast-paced games to life, Yang has crafted a triumphant, telescopic graphic memoir that explores the effects of legacy and the power of taking a single first step, no matter the outcome. Ages 14–up. (Mar.)■
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Soapbox
New Year, New You It’s official: we’ve closed the book on 2019. As publishing turns a new page, here are PW’s suggestions for a better 2020. By Bob Eckstein
Bob Eckstein is a cartoonist, author, and the world’s only snowman expert. His newest books are The Illustrated History of the Snowman (Globe Pequot) and Everyone’s a Critic: The Ultimate Cartoon Book by the World’s Greatest Cartoonists (Princeton Architectural Press). 48 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ J A N U A R Y 6 , 2 0 2 0
PRAISE FOR DAVID LAZAR BY ROBERT KALICH “In eloquent prose Robert Kalich launches a brilliant novel, one most assuredly to become a best seller. Highly recommended.” —SAN FRANCISCO REVIEW OF BOOKS
“Awesome honesty, pacing and reflection. The best book I’ve read in a long while.” —SUSAN BRAUDY, PULITZER PRIZE NOMINEE, AUTHOR OF KICK KENNEDY’S SECRET DIARY
“If David Lazar were a song, it could only be sung by Frank Sinatra. As a book, it could only have been written by Robert Kalich. If it’s true that we’re all reduced to stories, Kalich has told one helluva one! Enjoy the ride.” —TIM O’MARA, AUTHOR OF THE RAYMOND DONNE MYSTERY SERIES
“In the hands of a vivid and cinematic storyteller, David Lazar’s winter-of-life soul search becomes an addictive journey, leaving the reader to wonder just how much Kalich has blurred the lines between memoir and fiction.” —KAREN TINTORI, AUTHOR OF UNTO THE DAUGHTERS: THE LEGACY OF AN HONOR KILLING IN A SICILIAN-AMERICAN FAMILY
“David Lazar is a gripping story of choices and their consequences; a slightly fictionalized memoir of a morally ambiguous life not so well lived. Whether it’s apology or rationalization is left to the reader to decide. It’s worth the journey.’’ —IRA BERKOWITZ, SHAMUS AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE JACKSON STEEG MYSTERY SERIES
“David Lazar is a refreshingly unabashed narrator, and his memory lane is populated by characters who are, well . . . characters! A most compelling read!” —WENDY CORSI STAUB, NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR
“A truly disturbing look into the mind of a guy who could live next door—if you happen to live next door to a professional gambler who works with mobsters and wealthy businessmen and just happens to be the best college basketball handicapper in the business.” —KENNETH WISHNIA, AUTHOR OF 23 SHADES OF BLACK, AND EDITOR OF JEWISH NOIR