Although I haven’t finished any books this week, the time I have spent reading has been a balm. Especially in times like these, any respite helps us be able to carry on. And carry on we must.
Some of the new fiction being released this week follows. The blurbs are, as usual, from the publishers. Links are to The Literate Lizard, the online bookstore of our Readers and Book Lovers colleague Debtorsprison. Find something that calls to you and spend what time you can with it.
Three Keys by Laura Pritchett
Ammalie Brinks has just lost the three keys of her life’s purpose—her husband, her job, and her role as a mom, after her son went off to college. She’s also mystified to find herself in middle age: How exactly had that happened? The terrifying idea of becoming irrelevant, invisible, of letting her life slip away Into obscurity, has her driving distracted through Nebraska with a broken plastic fork in her tangled hair.
There Is Happiness: New and Selected Stories by Brad Watson
A posthumous collection of beloved and never-before-read stories from a titan of contemporary Southern fiction.
Brad Watson was a master of dark comedy, extraordinary lyricism, appalling grotesquerie, and unabashed vulnerability; a sublime prose stylist whose novels and stories drew upon the fecundity and moodiness of the South.
Bright Objects by Ruby Todd
A young widow grapples with the arrival of a once-in-a-lifetime comet and its tumultuous consequences, in a debut novel that blends mystery, astronomy, and romance,
Beep by Bill Roorbach
An ebullient, funny, and hugely original novel told from the perspective of Beep, a squirrel monkey who—with the help of a brilliant young girl— forges the way forward for a planet in crisis.
The Son of Man by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo
In the soft morning light, a man, a woman, and a child drive beyond the borders of a sleepy French post-industrial town into the forested mountains beyond. After several years of absence, the man has reappeared in the life of his wife and their young son, intent on being a family again. He takes them to Les Roches, a dilapidated house in the mountains where he grew up with his own ruthless father. There, while the mother watches the passing days with apprehension, the son discovers the bewitching enchantment of nature, from the herds of wild horses who gather under a grove of sycamores to the infinite expanse of a glittering night sky.
Fog & Car by Eugene Lim
Long out of print, Eugene Lim’s wry and haunting debut novel returns to shelves with a new introduction from Renee Gladman and a fresh, reversible cover.
Jim Fog is marooned in a small Midwest town shortly after his divorce, succumbing to aimless nostalgia. His ex, Sarah Car, has moved to New York City, hoping to skip right over any mourning period for their marriage. Despite everything, Jim and Sarah find they’re still connected through an old, shared friend. When they both decide to chase him down, the resulting coincidences and cryptic occurrences culminate in a trading of souls that blurs the lines between reality and something much stranger.
The Melancholy of Untold History by Minsoo Kang
A beautifully crafted, enriching saga inspired by East Asian mythology, The Melancholy of Untold History follows the grand traditions of exploring time, generations, history, and storytelling of the modern classics R.F. Kuang’s Babel, Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land, and David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, interweaving four complex yet entertaining stories as they shape and create a nation’s literary narrative through the themes of love and grief.
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