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9 New Books We Recommend This Week 9 New Books We Recommend This Week
(3 days later)
Sometimes the news gets a little — heavy? Terrifying? Relentless? That’s O.K. We feel it too. And while we would never advise you to stop looking at the front page (those reporters are good), we can offer you some escapist reading when you’re ready for a break. Six of this week’s nine recommended titles are fiction. Fair warning, though: Just because a story is made up doesn’t mean it’s not heavy, or terrifying, or relentless. Spend some time with the depraved psychiatrist in Craig Russell’s horror thriller, or the victims of male violence in Maryse Meijer’s story collection, and you may be grateful to return to the usual planes dropping from the sky.Sometimes the news gets a little — heavy? Terrifying? Relentless? That’s O.K. We feel it too. And while we would never advise you to stop looking at the front page (those reporters are good), we can offer you some escapist reading when you’re ready for a break. Six of this week’s nine recommended titles are fiction. Fair warning, though: Just because a story is made up doesn’t mean it’s not heavy, or terrifying, or relentless. Spend some time with the depraved psychiatrist in Craig Russell’s horror thriller, or the victims of male violence in Maryse Meijer’s story collection, and you may be grateful to return to the usual planes dropping from the sky.
Gregory CowlesSenior Editor, Books@GregoryCowlesGregory CowlesSenior Editor, Books@GregoryCowles
THE OLD DRIFT, by Namwali Serpell. (Hogarth, $28.) Through the intertwined stories of three families — one white, one black and one the product of an interracial marriage — this debut novel weaves a complex narrative of Zambia. Serpell ranges between historical and science fiction, shifting gears between political argument, psychological realism and rich fabulism. The book is “an intimate, brainy, gleaming epic,” our critic Dwight Garner writes. “The reader who picks up ‘The Old Drift’ is likely to be more than simply impressed. This is a dazzling book, as ambitious as any first novel published this decade.”THE OLD DRIFT, by Namwali Serpell. (Hogarth, $28.) Through the intertwined stories of three families — one white, one black and one the product of an interracial marriage — this debut novel weaves a complex narrative of Zambia. Serpell ranges between historical and science fiction, shifting gears between political argument, psychological realism and rich fabulism. The book is “an intimate, brainy, gleaming epic,” our critic Dwight Garner writes. “The reader who picks up ‘The Old Drift’ is likely to be more than simply impressed. This is a dazzling book, as ambitious as any first novel published this decade.”
HATTIESBURG: An American City in Black and White, by William Sturkey. (Belknap Press, $29.95.) Sturkey’s book is a portrait of a Mississippi town from its founding in 1882 through the depredations of racial apartheid, ending with a brief coda on the civil rights movement. The close-up view affords us the chance to learn how segregation operated on the most intimate level, in the everyday experiences of Hattiesburg’s residents. “Sturkey’s cleareyed and meticulous book pulls off a delicate balancing act,” our critic Jennifer Szalai writes.HATTIESBURG: An American City in Black and White, by William Sturkey. (Belknap Press, $29.95.) Sturkey’s book is a portrait of a Mississippi town from its founding in 1882 through the depredations of racial apartheid, ending with a brief coda on the civil rights movement. The close-up view affords us the chance to learn how segregation operated on the most intimate level, in the everyday experiences of Hattiesburg’s residents. “Sturkey’s cleareyed and meticulous book pulls off a delicate balancing act,” our critic Jennifer Szalai writes.
THE PROMISE OF ELSEWHERE, by Brad Leithauser. (Knopf, $27.95.) A comic novel that sends a depressed American academic in flight to Europe. So why does he wind up in Greenland? “‘The Promise of Elsewhere’ uses the ordinary as a prism, splitting the tropes with which it plays into a surprising spectrum of colors,” Erica Wagner writes in her review. “I was glad I went along for the ride.”THE PROMISE OF ELSEWHERE, by Brad Leithauser. (Knopf, $27.95.) A comic novel that sends a depressed American academic in flight to Europe. So why does he wind up in Greenland? “‘The Promise of Elsewhere’ uses the ordinary as a prism, splitting the tropes with which it plays into a surprising spectrum of colors,” Erica Wagner writes in her review. “I was glad I went along for the ride.”
DOING JUSTICE: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law, by Preet Bharara. (Knopf, $27.95.) The former United States attorney for the Southern District of New York has written a memoir as well as a guide to justice in general, offering advice to young lawyers and explaining to a wider readership how the legal system is a reflection of humanity’s strengths along with its weaknesses. “Most chapters delight or provoke in some way,” our reviewer, Jennifer Senior, writes. “His book is ultimately about ordinary fallibility, and how those responsible for the dispensation of justice are regular humans, prone to act as humans do. It is filled with sobering stories about error and — in the more beautiful, memorable cases — ingenuity, determination, redemption.”DOING JUSTICE: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law, by Preet Bharara. (Knopf, $27.95.) The former United States attorney for the Southern District of New York has written a memoir as well as a guide to justice in general, offering advice to young lawyers and explaining to a wider readership how the legal system is a reflection of humanity’s strengths along with its weaknesses. “Most chapters delight or provoke in some way,” our reviewer, Jennifer Senior, writes. “His book is ultimately about ordinary fallibility, and how those responsible for the dispensation of justice are regular humans, prone to act as humans do. It is filled with sobering stories about error and — in the more beautiful, memorable cases — ingenuity, determination, redemption.”
THE DEVIL ASPECT, by Craig Russell. (Doubleday, $27.95.) In this gruesome historical thriller, which gets under your skin slowly and then goes deep, like the tip of a butcher knife, a Czech psychiatrist develops an experimental treatment he plans to try on six notorious murderers. Danielle Trussoni, in her horror roundup, calls it a “beguiling” and “wildly entertaining story that grabs you on Page 1 and drags you into its dark world kicking and screaming.”THE DEVIL ASPECT, by Craig Russell. (Doubleday, $27.95.) In this gruesome historical thriller, which gets under your skin slowly and then goes deep, like the tip of a butcher knife, a Czech psychiatrist develops an experimental treatment he plans to try on six notorious murderers. Danielle Trussoni, in her horror roundup, calls it a “beguiling” and “wildly entertaining story that grabs you on Page 1 and drags you into its dark world kicking and screaming.”
FOURSOME: Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury, by Carolyn Burke. (Knopf, $30.) Burke’s group portrait of two artist couples who helped launch American modernism features much flirting, lusting, letter-writing and, of course, inspired art-making. Sarah Boxer’s review calls the book a “fascinating, well-told history” in which “it becomes clear that the electric center of this group isn’t Stieglitz, the impresario, as one might guess, but O’Keeffe, the loner.”FOURSOME: Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury, by Carolyn Burke. (Knopf, $30.) Burke’s group portrait of two artist couples who helped launch American modernism features much flirting, lusting, letter-writing and, of course, inspired art-making. Sarah Boxer’s review calls the book a “fascinating, well-told history” in which “it becomes clear that the electric center of this group isn’t Stieglitz, the impresario, as one might guess, but O’Keeffe, the loner.”
RAG: Stories, by Maryse Meijer. (FSG Originals, paper, $15.) From a grisly miscarriage in a pizza parlor bathroom to a bloody accident at a community pool, the stories in Meijer’s new collection are soaked in bodily fluids, propelled by passionate violence (most of it perpetrated by men) and lit up by acutely visceral prose unafraid of the abyss. Merritt Tierce, in her review, calls it “a disturbing, forceful story collection” whose slim size “belies the profusion of terrors contained within it.RAG: Stories, by Maryse Meijer. (FSG Originals, paper, $15.) From a grisly miscarriage in a pizza parlor bathroom to a bloody accident at a community pool, the stories in Meijer’s new collection are soaked in bodily fluids, propelled by passionate violence (most of it perpetrated by men) and lit up by acutely visceral prose unafraid of the abyss. Merritt Tierce, in her review, calls it “a disturbing, forceful story collection” whose slim size “belies the profusion of terrors contained within it.
A WOMAN IS NO MAN, by Etaf Rum. (Harper/HarperCollins, $26.99.) This debut novel, by a Brooklyn native born to Palestinian immigrants, unsnarls the dark knot of history, culture, fear and trauma that shapes the experiences of three generations of an Arab-American family. Our reviewer, Etaf Rum, calls it “a dauntless exploration of the pathology of silence … that can render conservative Arab-American women so visibly invisible.” A WOMAN IS NO MAN, by Etaf Rum. (Harper/HarperCollins, $26.99.) This debut novel, by a Brooklyn native born to Palestinian immigrants, unsnarls the dark knot of history, culture, fear and trauma that shapes the experiences of three generations of an Arab-American family. Our reviewer, Beejay Silcox, calls it “a dauntless exploration of the pathology of silence … that can render conservative Arab-American women so visibly invisible.”
WHITE ELEPHANT, by Julie Langsdorf. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $26.99.) Langsdorf captures — and skewers — over-the-top consumerism in this jaunty novel of real estate, marriage and sex. But she also understands its “sensuous allure,” Jennifer Reese writes in a review of three books about family dysfunction: “Like Tom Perrotta’s ‘Little Children’ and Maria Semple’s ‘Where’d You Go, Bernadette,’ ‘White Elephant’ exposes middle-class domestic malaise with a light comedic touch.”WHITE ELEPHANT, by Julie Langsdorf. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $26.99.) Langsdorf captures — and skewers — over-the-top consumerism in this jaunty novel of real estate, marriage and sex. But she also understands its “sensuous allure,” Jennifer Reese writes in a review of three books about family dysfunction: “Like Tom Perrotta’s ‘Little Children’ and Maria Semple’s ‘Where’d You Go, Bernadette,’ ‘White Elephant’ exposes middle-class domestic malaise with a light comedic touch.”