LITTLE FOXES TOOK UP MATCHES by Katya Kazbek

Waterproof protocol” Whelan himself set up. If de Greer did come to grief, after all, the most obvious suspect is none other than Diana Taverner, who holds down the First Desk at MI5. Diana, for her part, is busy trying to figure out the agenda of her smirking Russian counterpart, Vassily Rasnokov, who’s popped up in London from behind a false identity that wouldn’t have fooled a child but fooled the spooks who were supposed to be following him. Although Diana takes time out for a meeting with her regular sparring partner, Slough House zookeeper Jackson Lamb, the problems here go far beyond Lamb’s slow horses, as she realizes when someone does trigger the Candlestub protocol, transforming her instantly from the head of MI5 into a woman on the run. Once again, Herron summons a witches’ brew of double talk, petty rivalries, and professional paranoia, this time less John le Carré than George V. Higgins, to demonstrate that any talk of the intelligence community outside Slough House is nothing but an oxymoron.

More proof that the enemies of the state are no more than a pretext for infighting to the death among the agencies.

OUTSIDE

Jónasson, Ragnar Minotaur (352 pp.) $27.99 | May 24, 2022 978-1-2508-3345-7

The ptarmigan hunt four old friends have planned for a winter weekend in the wilds of eastern Iceland goes south when the weather turns on them and they turn on each other. Three of the four—actor Daníel, attorney Gunnlaugur, and Helena, an engineer for a tech startup—would have no business traipsing around in the snow under any circumstances if it weren’t for the fourth, Ármann, a travel guide with a checkered past as a drug user–turneddealer whose underworld connections in Denmark might well have killed him if Helena hadn’t ridden to the rescue. Once an unexpected snowstorm sends them searching desperately for a hut they can shelter in, it’s gradually revealed that the others all have secrets of their own. Daníel can’t stop lying about the fact that his career in London has never taken off. Helena’s still mourning Víkingur, the ex who died under suspicious circumstances five years ago. And Gunnlaugur is an alcoholic rapist whose two years on the wagon come to an end inside the hut, where the refuge they’ve sought swiftly turns nightmarish with the discovery of an armed stranger inside. No matter what they do, the man won’t move, won’t talk, and won’t put down his gun even when the group falls asleep. Soft-pedaling the supernatural trappings of The Girl Who Died (2021), Jónasson presents the weekend getaway as an excruciatingly slow-motion avalanche in which it’s obvious from the beginning, as Helene says, that “something’s got to die before we finish this trip”; the only questions are who, how many, under what circumstances, and at whose hands.

A shivery delight. It’s nice that the Icelandic Tourist Board hasn’t paid Jónasson to quit publishing.

LITTLE FOXES TOOK UP MATCHES

Kazbek, Katya Tin House (350 pp.) $26.95 | April 5, 2022 978-1-953534-02-6

Folklore enlivens a queer coming-ofage story set in 1990s Russia. Mitya is born in the Soviet Union, but by the time he’s 5, the USSR is dissolved and the adults in his life—his parents, Yelena and Dmitriy, his grandmother Alyssa, and his cousin Vovka, a Chechen War veteran—see their lives and livelihoods change with the nation. Likewise, Mitya’s understanding of himself and the world transforms as he enters adolescence. The defining moment of Mitya’s infancy is one of potential catastrophe: While babysitting, Alyssa accidentally drops an

“A Gen Z vampire suffers an identity crisis.”

woman, eating

embroidery needle on the rug. She, along with the rest of the family, becomes convinced that Mitya has swallowed it and that the ingested needle will eventually kill him. Mitya survives, however, and comes to see the needle as a link to Koschei the Deathless, a gender-nonconforming character from Russian fairy tales who achieves immortality by hiding “the needle that is his death” where no one can find it. Kazbek deftly intertwines tales of Koschei’s exploits in heaven and hell with Mitya’s misadventures around Moscow as the preteen navigates a first crush and considers whether he wants to be a girl, a boy, both, or neither. The novel’s subject matter is weighty—Mitya survives sexual abuse, experiences transphobic violence, and struggles to come to terms with systemic inequality and corruption while seeking justice for a murdered homeless man—but Kazbek’s incisive prose and Mitya’s enduring compassion keep this debut novel from feeling maudlin or exploitative.

A rich and moving look at a child in the midst of self-discovery. As dark as a Brothers Grimm fairy tale—and as magical.

WOMAN, EATING

Kohda, Claire HarperVia/HarperCollins (272 pp.) $26.99 | April 12, 2022 978-0-06-314088-2

A Gen Z vampire suffers an identity crisis. Lydia—a 23-year-old vampire of Japanese, Malaysian, and British descent who recently graduated art school—is excited to move to London and get a place of her own, but after dropping off her addled mother—also a vampire, and Lydia’s sire—at the Crimson Orchard nursing facility in Margate, little goes according to plan. Her single suitcase of belongings goes missing. Her unpaid gallery internship consists of nothing but bizarre busywork and unwanted advances from her lecherous boss. She has no idea what type of artist she wants to be, the boy she likes is dating someone else, and nobody in the city sells fresh pig’s blood, which is the only substance her self-loathing mum ever permitted the two of them to consume. (“Pigs are dirty. It’s what your body deserves.”) Lonely, listless, and starving, Lydia spends nights and weekends holed up in her windowless studio, bingeing Buffy the Vampire Slayer and watching YouTube videos of strangers eating, desperate for the kind of connection to the Earth and other people that actual food allows humans to feel. Debut author Kohda makes clever use of her premise to explore weighty topics—including cultural alienation, disordered eating, emotional abuse, sexual assault, the stressors of navigating adulthood, and caring for an aging parent—with sensitivity. Though aimless to start, Lydia’s achingly vulnerable first-person narration gains momentum as she achieves self-acceptance—and, ultimately, self-empowerment.

Subversive and gratifying.

THE LATECOMER

Korelitz, Jean Hanff Celadon Books (448 pp.) $28.00 | May 31, 2022 978-1-250-79079-8

A fatal car crash sets the stage for a fraught marriage and family life. Drifting through his privileged existence, 20-year-old Salo Oppenheimer is further unmoored after a Jeep he’s driving flips and kills two passengers. On a subsequent trip to Europe, a rapturous encounter with a Cy Twombly painting launches his passionate engagement with cutting-edge art. He’s less engaged with Johanna Hirsch, even though he marries her (it’s expected) and, after three childless years, agrees to IVF, which results in four embryos and the birth of triplets Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally. Salo’s real life is in the Brooklyn warehouse where he keeps his art collection—and with Stella, a fellow survivor of the crash whom he