Narrative theme: coming of age

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Book SynopsisPlayfully, poetically unstable . . . What compels a woman to turn to the wilderness? What brings one, after a decade of caregiving, to exchange a terminal parent’s final vigil for the company of strangers? Goldblatt poses these questions with great assurance. —Lisa Locascio, The New York Times Book ReviewDenny works nights as a tech in a labyrinthine facility outside of D.C., readying fruit flies for experimentation. Her life’s routine is straightforward, limited. But when her father announces that he won’t be treating his recurrent, terminal cancer, she responds by quietly dismantling her life. She constructs in its place the fantasy of perfect detachment. Unsure whether her impulse is monastic or suicidal, she rents a secluded cabin in the mountains. Without saying goodbye, she leaves her parents behind and enters a new, solitary world. It’s not without disruption: her blowsy trash bag of an imaginary pal is still lingering. And then a house cat appears out of nowhere. And after a bad storm rips through the mountainside, someone else shows up, too. Her time in the wilderness isn’t the perfect detachment she was expecting. Denny is forced to reckon with this failure while confronting a new life with its own set of pleasures and dangerous incursions.Morbidly funny, subversive, and startling, Hard Mouth, the debut novel from 2018 NEA Creative Writing Fellow Amanda Goldblatt, unpacks what it means to live while others are dying.The novel begins existential (think: Camus as an intersectional feminist), and ends with a gut punch that somehow manages a deeply felt sympathy for its characters. —Rebekah Frumkin, NYLON

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Book Synopsis“[Swamy’s] prose is so assured . . . The Archer dazzles as it asks: How does a woman remain an artist?” —The New York Times Book Review Recommended by: BuzzFeed * The Millions * Book Riot * Literary Hub * Bookmarks * Ms.* Bookish * Goodreads * Library Journal * San Francisco Chronicle FINALIST FOR THE CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE In this original and transfixing novel, Vidya comes of age in 1960s- and 1970s-era Bombay, her childhood marked by the shattering absence and then the bewildering reappearance of her mother and baby brother at the family home. Restless, observant, and longing for connection with her brilliant and increasingly troubled mother, Vidya one day peeks into a classroom where girls are learning kathak, a dazzling, centuries-old dance form that requires the utmost discipline and focus. Her pursuit of artistic transcendence and escape through kathak soon becomes the organizing principle of her life, even as she leaves home for college and falls in complicated love with her best friend. As the uncertain future looms, she must confront the tensions between romance, art, and the legacy of her own imperfect mother. Lyrical and deeply sensual, Shruti Swamy’s The Archer is a bold portrait of a singular woman striving toward life as an artist while navigating desire, duty, and the limits of the body. It is also an electrifying and utterly immersive story about the transformative power of art, and the possibilities that love can open when we’re ready.Trade Review'Set in 1970s Bombay, the novel explores art, ambition, gender roles and class with the same shimmering prose of Swamy’s first book, the story collection A House Is a Body.' —San Francisco Chronicle '[A] sublime, boundary-pushing exploration of sexuality, creativity, and love.' —NPR Longlisted for the 2021 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize “Mesmerizingly poetic . . . The Archer’s beauty resides in Swamy's sequential narrative form, which reads like music—at times almost exactly like reading a musical score—but with something more; her words carry the visceral power of a dancer's intersection with air . . . [A] sublime, boundary-pushing exploration of sexuality, creativity, and love . . . A sensual, artful dance, powerfully told.” —NPR “This novel swallowed me whole. The Archer is the kind of book you always hope for: lush and sensual, tasted and felt, with striking images that play out like film behind the eyes. Swamy evokes an India that resists flat stereotype and teems with exuberance, beauty, and life. The Archer is timeless yet utterly modern as it asks what it means for a woman to make a life of art.” —C Pam Zhang, author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold “Shruti Swamy is a writer to celebrate. Her fiction is provocative, precise, and gorgeously inventive.” —Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning “With its coiled energy and feverish imagery, The Archer often reads more like a lucid dream than a novel, oceans of wild feeling roiling just below the surface . . . Swamy writes about the imperatives of an artist’s life with bright, furious poetry: the singular will of a body that burns to be in motion, and a mind set free.” —Entertainment Weekly “[A] visceral first novel . . . The Archer blends the corporeal and the spiritual in a story about what it means to be a woman and an artist. Swamy’s writing is transportive, precise and almost hypnotic . . . The author’s perceptive and observant eye misses nothing.” —BookPage “Set in 1970s Bombay, the novel explores art, ambition, gender roles and class with the same shimmering prose of Swamy’s first book, the story collection A House Is a Body.” —San Francisco Chronicle “A searing portrait of the woman artist . . . Shruti Swamy has defined herself as a bold new voice in not only South Asian diaspora literature, but modern literature as a whole.” —Chicago Review of Books “Every page of The Archer holds evidence of Swamy’s talent, each sentence a performance so strong as to appear effortless. But just as with an elite dancer, only in the recognition of the effort can we truly appreciate the art. Like any rapt audience, readers will delight and despair in the fiercely wrought world of The Archer, fully aware they are witnessing greatness.” —Chapter16 “Lush and poetic.” —Ms. Magazine “Swamy’s prose is incantatory and often lovely, swirling in dancelike rhythms that sweep the story along. She builds a complex character in Vidya, whose urge toward autonomy brings results that range from ecstatic to tragic. A young woman seeks freedom through art in a mesmerizing coming-of-age story.” —Kirkus Reviews “A saga as rich and gorgeous as Kathak itself.” —Library Journal “As in her lauded debut collection, A House Is a Body, Swamy examines women’s ownership of their very selves… [and] challenges expectations and exposes the limitations of being female.” —Booklist “[An] affecting debut novel . . . Swamy confidently evokes the time and place with spare, precise prose. This writer continues to demonstrate an impressive command of her craft.” —Publishers Weekly “This is a singular work, a story of a dancer, and of a hungry self seated at the table of womanness and desire and art, told with unparalleled originality and elegance. Swamy writes with a thrilling clarity of vision that wakes the sleepwalker right into joyful consciousness. Every word is intimate, honest, ecstatic—utterly alive.” —Meng Jin, author of Little Gods “The Archer is a stunning novel, as intimate and visceral as an expertly executed dance. Swamy's arresting and immersive prose vibrates with attention, and does what the best writing does: it leaves me more alive in my own body, and renders the world around me richer—more layered—with meaning. Meditating on what it means to be an artist (and a woman), Swamy has created her own wondrous work of art—singular, unforgettable, and important.” —Rachel Khong, author of Goodbye, Vitamin “Alive with desire, Shruti Swamy's prismatic language glimmers with the force that drives her characters to dance, beating against the restrictions of body, society, tradition, sexuality, and the fallible self toward a liberatory devotion to life. A gorgeous, taut, deeply embodied reading experience, The Archer further establishes Swamy as a writer of thrilling talent.” —Asako Serizawa, author of Inheritors “The Archer unfolds like an urgent dream, its heroine’s desire—for artistic transcendence, love, and liberation—its driving pulse. This novel, and the many keenly rendered moments within its pages (a swirl of bright fabric, the temperature of a lover’s skin, the abrupt chilling of a mood) lodged themselves in my consciousness long after. Shruti Swamy is one of the most gifted, excitingly unpredictable writers working today.”—Mimi Lok, author of Last of Her Name “Shruti's Swamy's The Archer combines exquisite prose with a kind of rare narrative propulsion. I found myself reading slower and slower, to make the sentences last even longer. By the end I was exhilarated and deeply moved. The Archer is a flat-out gorgeous piece of work.”—Peter Orner, author of Maggie Brown Others

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Book SynopsisLonglisted for the National Book Award for FictionA wrenching debut about the causes and effects of poverty, as seen by a father and son living in a pickupEvicted from their trailer on New Year?s Eve, Henry and his son, Junior, have been reduced to living out of a pickup truck. Six months later, things are even more desperate. Henry, barely a year out of prison for pushing opioids, is down to his last pocketful of dollars, and little remains between him and the street. But hope is on the horizon: Today is Junior?s birthday, and Henry has a job interview tomorrow.To celebrate, Henry treats Junior to dinner at McDonald?s, followed by a night in a real bed at a discount motel. For a moment, as Junior watches TV and Henry practices for his interview in the bathtub, all seems well. But after Henry has a disastrous altercation in the parking lot and Junior succumbs to a fever, father and son are sent into the night, struggling to hold things together and make it through tomorrow.In an ingenious structural approach, Jakob Guanzon organizes Abundance by the amount of cash in Henry?s pocket. A new chapter starts with each debit and credit, and the novel expands and contracts, revealing the extent to which the quality of our attention is altered by the abundance?or lack thereof?that surrounds us. Set in an America of big-box stores and fast food, this incandescent debut novel trawls the fluorescent aisles of Walmart and the booths of Red Lobster to reveal the inequities and anxieties around work, debt, addiction, incarceration, and health care in America today.

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Book SynopsisThe shimmering, windswept first novel by the internationally acclaimed author of Out Stealing Horses. Echoland is the powerful and emotionally resonant first novel from Per Petterson. Written in the mold of his early story collection Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes, it features a young Arvid Janssen, who is now twelve, on the verge of his teenage years and beginning to understand more about the world and his place in it. Set over the course of a single formative summer, the novel captures a series of episodes from Arvid's long visit to his grandparents' home in Denmark. He rides his bike around town, befriends other children on the beach, fishes for plaice, and weathers misunderstandings with his mother and grandparents, all of which Petterson imbues with the hope and yearning that come with this stage of life. Echoland is an assured and poignant beginning for an authorand characterwho would go on to be loved the world over.

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Aurealis Awards for Best Fantasy and Best Horror NovelWith brilliantly evocative, hypnotic prose, Trent Jamieson crafts a coming-of-age, elevated horror story about a headstrong boy—and the monstrous vampire who taught him to be a man. The Masters, dreadful and severe, rule the Red City and the lands far beyond it. By night, they politic and feast, drinking from townsfolk resigned to their fates. By day, the Masters must rely on their human servants, their Day Boys, to fulfill their every need and carry out their will. Mark is a Day Boy, practically raised by his Master, Dain. It’s grueling, often dangerous work, but Mark neither knows nor wants any other life. And, if a Day Boy proves himself worthy, the nightmarish, all-seeing Council of Teeth may choose to offer him a rare gift: the opportunity to forsake his humanity for monstrous power and near-immortality, like the Masters transformed before him. But in the crackling heat of the Red City, widespread discontent among his fellow humans threatens to fracture Mark's allegiances. As manhood draws near, so too does the end of Mark's tenure as a Day Boy, and he cannot stay suspended between the worlds of man and Master for much longer.“Poetic and meditative—at times frightening, visceral and bloody—this is a dark journey worth making.” —AurealisTrade Review“At the fingertips of a gifted writer there will always be new and interesting takes on the vampire tale and happily, Day Boy is one of them. . . . At times touching, at times frightening, and always interesting. The ideas are fresh and new, and by the end of the novel there is still so much left to be said.” —Melbourne Review of Books“Jamieson has kept all of the central facets of vampire mythology while fashioning something new and often riveting. Poetic and meditative—at times frightening, visceral and bloody—this is a dark journey worth making.” —Aurealis“Dry, rolling heat flows from the page in waves of long days and even longer nights. . . . A poetic story of humanity, of monsters living in the Shadow of the Mountain, bitter cold and open to the burning of the clear night sky.” —Fantasy Book Review“A beautifully written and surprisingly tender novel about fathers and sons, and what it may mean to become a man.” —Good Reading

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Book SynopsisThis fiercely original debut novel follows four Nigerian siblings over the course of two decades as they search for agency, love, and meaning in a society rife with hypocrisy. “. . . lush, sharp, and shot through with hope! —Well-Read Black Girl I like the idea of a god who knows what it’s like to be a twin. To have no memory of ever being alone. Twin sisters Bibike and Ariyike are enjoying a relatively comfortable life in Lagos in 1996. Then their mother loses her job due to political strife, and the family, facing poverty, becomes drawn into the New Church, an institution led by a charismatic pastor who is not shy about worshipping earthly wealth. Soon Bibike and Ariyike’s father wagers the family home on a “sure bet” that evaporates like smoke. As their parents’ marriage collapses in the aftermath of this gamble, the twin sisters and their two younger siblings, Andrew and Peter, are thrust into the reluctant care of their traditional Yoruba grandmother. Inseparable while they had their parents to care for them, the twins’ paths diverge once the household shatters. Each girl is left to locate, guard, and hone her own fragile source of power. Written with astonishing intimacy and wry attention to the fickleness of fate, Tola Rotimi Abraham’s Black Sunday takes us into the chaotic heart of family life, tracing a line from the euphoria of kinship to the devastation of estrangement. In the process, it joyfully tells a tale of grace and connection in the midst of daily oppression and the constant incursions of an unremitting patriarchy. This is a novel about two young women slowly finding, over twenty years, in a place rife with hypocrisy but also endless life and love, their own distinct methods of resistance and paths to independence.

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Vulgar Geniuses AwardFlorida kitsch swirls together with magical realism in this glittering debut novel about a young Black and Indigenous woman who learns to change the color of her skinGabrielle has always had a complicated relationship with her mother Tallulah, one marked by intimacy and resilience in the face of a volatile patriarch. Everything in their home has been bleached a cold white—from the cupboards filled with sheets and crockery to the food and spices Tallulah cooks with. Even Gabrielle, who inherited the ability to change the color of her skin from her mother, is told to pass into white if she doesn’t want to upset her father.But this vital mother-daughter bond implodes when Tallulah is hospitalized for a mental health crisis. Separated from her mother for the first time in her life, Gabrielle must learn to control the temperamental shifts in her color on her own.Meanwhile, Gabrielle is spending a year after high school focusing on her piano lessons, an extracurricular her father is sure will make her a more appealing candidate for pre med programs. Her instructor, a queer, dark-skinned woman named Dominique, seems to encapsulate everything Gabrielle is missing in her life—creativity, confidence, and perhaps most importantly, a nurturing sense of love.Following a young woman looking for a world beyond her family’s carefully -coded existence, Notes on Her Color is a lushly written and haunting tale that shows how love, in its best sense, can be a liberating force from destructive origins.

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Book SynopsisSet in rural, poverty-stricken North Carolina, this beautiful, gritty, and piercing novel follows two young women—best friends—as they journey through the highs and lows of friendship, love, and addiction, perfect for readers of Julie Buntin's Marlena (Erika Carter, author of Lucky You).Irene, a lonely nineteen-year-old in rural North Carolina, works long nights at the local pool hall, serving pitchers and dodging drunks. One evening, her hilarious, magnetic coworker Luce invites her on a joy ride through the mountains to take revenge on a particularly creepy customer. Their adventure not only spells the beginning of a dazzling friendship, it seduces both girls into the mysterious world of pills and the endless hustles needed to fund the next high.Together, Irene and Luce run nickel-tossing scams at the county fair and trick dealers into trading legit pharms for birth-control pills. Everything is wild and wonderful until Luce finds a boyfriend who wants to help her get clean. Soon the two of them decide to move away and start a new, sober life in Florida—leaving Irene behind.Told in a riveting dialogue between the girls' addicted past and their hopes for a better future, Bewilderness is not just a brilliant, funny, heartbreaking novel about opioid abuse, it's also a moving look at how intense, intimate friendships can shape every young woman's life.

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Book SynopsisAn orphaned boy raised by a survivalist wends his way into the real world in an emotional novel about hope, fears, and found family by New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde. Out there is chaos, the collapse of society, and so much to be afraid of. All that matters is freedom. That’s what Remy Blake has been taught by his survivalist father. Raised off the grid in the middle of nowhere, his own survival skills not yet honed, Remy is days shy of his eighth birthday when his father unexpectedly dies. As seasons pass, supplies run out, and fending for himself grows more desperate, Remy sets out on foot, unprepared for the great unknown of civilization. He is found—near feral, silent, and terrified—in the small rural town of Blaire. To Anne, a nurturing mother of two adopted teenagers who’s still dealing with her own childhood rejections, Remy is not a lost cause. Just a challenging one. As Remy cautiously adapts to his new foster home, his family wants nothing more than to reassure him that he can trust the world. But to do so, they must first reexamine how much they trust the world themselves, and how much they should. As Remy’s journey into the real world begins, figuring out how to navigate it becomes a path they will have to learn to walk together.Trade Review“Prolific author [Catherine Ryan] Hyde applies her heartwarming style to the dynamic between a foster parent and child, highlighting the power of therapy and the reliability of inner strength.” —Booklist “The story is beautifully conceived and executed and incredibly touching. As with all of Hyde's characters, we really come to empathize with Remy and Anne.” —Bookreporter Previous Praise for Catherine Ryan Hyde “Fans of Catherine Ryan Hyde will adore her new novel…No one in this story is perfect. But despite our flaws, we are all worthy of love and able to share our love, just as Stewie so beautifully demonstrates.” —Bookreporter on Dreaming of Flight “A heartwarming story spanning decades of shared trials and personal growth.” —Booklist on My Name is Anton “There is a little bit of magic in every [Catherine Ryan Hyde] book…Perceptive, heartfelt, and enlightening.” —Novelgossip on Heaven Adjacent “Fans of Homer H. Hickam Jr.’s Rocket Boys, Andrew J. Graff’s Raft of Stars, and Hyde’s substantial backlist will savor this heart-opening and meticulously researched coming-of-age tale.” —Booklist on Boy Underground “A story about good people doing their best to survive, combined with a message that will cause readers to close the book feeling a bit more hopeful about humanity.” —Kirkus Reviews on Take Me with You “Multilayered and heartwarming.” —Booklist on Seven Perfect Things “A deftly crafted novel with an underlying message about the power of simple kindness…a thoroughly engaging read from first page to last.” —Midwest Book Review on Have You Seen Luis Velez? “Hyde is a master at mining the emotional depths of her characters and bringing them out the other side.” —New York Journal of Books on Just After Midnight

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Book SynopsisA powerful and emotional coming-of-age novel set amid the turmoil and profound changes of the 1960s by the bestselling author of West with Giraffes. In segregated High Cotton, Texas, in 1964, the racial divide is as clear as the railroad tracks running through town. It’s also where two girls are going to shake things up. This is the last summer of thirteen-year-old Corky Corcoran’s childhood, and her family hires a Haitian housekeeper who brings her daughter, America, along with her. Corky is quick to befriend America and eager to share her favorite new “grown-up” novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. America’s take on it is different and profoundly personal. As their friendship grows, Corky finds out so much more about America’s life and her hidden skill: she can run as fast as Olympian Wilma Rudolph! When Corky asks America to play with her girls’ softball team for the annual church rivals game, it’s a move that crosses the color line and sets off a firestorm. As tensions escalate, it fast becomes a season of big changes in High Cotton. For Corky, those changes will last a lifetime. Set on the eve of massive cultural shifts, Mockingbird Summer explores the impact of great books, the burden of potential, and the power of friendship with humor, poignancy, and exhilarating hope.Trade ReviewPREVIOUS PRAISE FOR LYNDA RUTLEDGE “A delightful read.” —The New York Times Book Review “[A] larger-than-life story about the power of both animal magnetism and human connection…witty, charming, and heartwarming.” —Booklist “West with Giraffes is truly a fun read…I [can’t] imagine a reading list that would not contain Lynda Rutledge’s astonishing novel.” —Old Naples News “Every year I find at least one book that soars above all the others. This year “West with Giraffes is that book.” —Florida Times Union “A flawless novel.” —Austin American-Statesman “A perfect balance between history and fiction.” —POPSUGAR

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Book Synopsis“Lauren Thoman’s I’ll Stop the World is a whip-smart mystery with a vibrant cast of characters that gives off great eighties vibes. I was absolutely dazzled by this unputdownable genre-bending novel that’s equal parts coming-of-age suspense and emotional tale of forgiveness and second chances.” —Mindy Kaling The end and the beginning become one in a heart-pounding coming-of-age mystery about the power of friendship, fate, and inexplicable second chances. Is it the right place at the wrong time? Or the wrong place at the right time? Trapped in a dead-end town, Justin Warren has had his life defined by the suspicious deaths of his grandparents. The unsolved crime happened long before Justin was born, but the ripple effects are still felt after thirty-eight years. Justin always knew he wouldn’t have much of a future. He just never imagined that his life might take him backward. In a cosmic twist of fate, Justin’s choices send him crashing into the path of determined optimist Rose Yin. Justin and Rose live in the same town and attend the same school, but have never met—because Rose lives in 1985. Justin won’t be born for another twenty years. And his grandparents are still alive—for now. In a series of events that reverberate through multiple lifetimes, Justin and Rose have a week to get Justin unstuck in time and put each of them in control of their futures—by solving a murder that hasn’t even happened yet.Trade Review“Thoman’s ambitious timeline of events is both expansive and compressed, with the storyline unfolding over the course of both one week and 38 years, and her portrayal of teenagers in varying degrees of crisis is sympathetic. A novel look at strange (and stranger) things.” —Kirkus Reviews “Thoman’s sweeping debut defies categorization. A multigenerational mystery, a compulsively readable love story, an intricately woven sci-fi—whatever it is, I’ll Stop the World is the mind-bendy time-travel eighties romp we all need right now. I’m obsessed with this book.” —David Arnold, New York Times bestselling author “I’ll Stop the World layers mystery upon mystery, from the everyday secrets in the lives of teens coming of age in a small town now to the dark shock waves still radiating out from deaths that took place decades before. Lauren Thoman’s debut novel is a time-bending page-turner packed with twists no one will see coming. This is a story that continues to resonate long after you finish.” —Gwenda Bond, New York Times bestselling author of Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds “In this standout debut, Lauren Thoman takes the reader on a wild ride, deftly wrapping a coming-of-age story with a clever mystery, sprinkled with eighties nostalgia that’ll have you reaching for your Bubble Yum. As I tore through the pages, I fell in love with the cast of flawed and funny characters, who felt as real as the friends I grew up with. Best of all, Thoman delivers an impossibly satisfying ending in a way only the very best time-travel storytellers can. This one should go at the top of everyone’s must-read list!” —Brianna Labuskes, Wall Street Journal bestselling author “A brilliant, thought-provoking page-turner that so deeply sucked me into a world of richly drawn characters and fast-paced action that I never wanted to leave.” —Sonali Dev, USA Today bestselling author of The Vibrant Years “A page-turning, time-bending mystery full of heart. I’ll Stop the World gave me a chance to solve a cold crime from a refreshing new perspective. Lauren Thoman is an exciting new talent not to be missed!” —Kara Thomas, bestselling author of That Weekend and Out of the Ashes

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Book SynopsisA poignant story about hopes, dreams, and how far one man’s talent takes him before he realizes it’s about what you do—and how you do it. Frank Ryder is unstoppable on the baseball field—his pitches arrive faster than a batter can swing, giving his opponents no chance. He’s being heralded as a game-changing pitcher. But within the maelstrom of press, adulation, and wild speculation, Frank is a man alone. Haunted by a tragic incident from years past, he yearns to be the best but cannot reconcile the guilt he carries with the man everyone believes him to be. Frank’s path to redemption leads him on a journey back to where his life changed forever, to visit his family, his high school coach, and his brother. Through reconnection and reconciliation with those also deeply affected by the devastating event of Frank’s youth, he finds peace and his place in the world both in and outside the game. The Fireballer is a lyrical, moving story of undeniable talent and the life-changing power of forgiveness and a subtly romantic ode to America’s favorite pastime.Trade Review“Readers looking for sports fiction heavy on the baseball will enjoy this book.” —Library Journal “Like the game of baseball, the great American pastime, there is much to love in The Fireballer by Mark Stevens…a book to enjoy like it was the seventh game of the World Series and your team won.” —New York Journal of Books “Fleet and fun, The Fireballer will appeal to fans of The Natural and Robert Coover’s The Universal Baseball Association. Frank Ryder is a classic American hero—the phenom who has to overcome his own terrible past. Mark Stevens has done the impossible: He actually had me rooting for the Orioles.” —Stewart O’Nan, coauthor of Faithful and author of Ocean State “Seldom do I read a book that knocks my socks off the way The Fireballer did. This is a feel-good baseball story with a hold on the vernacular, the heart, the soul, the big picture, and the subtleties of America’s favorite summer pastime. The characters are beautifully etched, and pitcher Frank Ryder may be the most likeable hero since Gary Cooper gave life to Lou Gehrig on the big screen. I guarantee that you don’t have to be a baseball fan to be swept up by this moving tale. With a full heart, I recommend—no, insist—that you read The Fireballer.” —William Kent Krueger, author of Fox Creek and This Tender Land “Mark Stevens’s The Fireballer is a timeless baseball story told with a love of the game and fast-moving prose that will leave you cheering and crying at the same time. Frank Ryder is the most appealing of heroes, taciturn and loyal, talented and haunted—truly haunted—and with a fastball that will change the game. With its authentic baseball scenes and its rich heart, The Fireballer is a novel that rests comfortably with other classics of the game.” —William Lashner, author of The Barkeep “The Fireballer is not just a great baseball yarn that any fan of the game will enjoy—it is also a richly-layered exploration of character, regret, and redemption.” —Lou Berney, author of November Road and The Long and Faraway Gone “The old game of baseball keeps coming up with new stories about the next twist or turn in the sport. In The Fireballer, Mark Stevens has invented a startling ‘What if?’ that stretches the limits of the game. More than a baseball book, the novel is a journey through the mind and heart of a gifted, but tragic, athlete who finds a road to redemption.” —Stephen Singular, New York Times bestselling author “The Fireballer is a compelling story that I found hard to put down, rich with authentic baseball details and full of heart. Mark Stevens hits it out of the park with this intricate and moving tale of redemption.” —Robert Bailey, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Golfer’s Carol “Mark Stevens has crafted a powerful, heartfelt story—with a memorable baseball backdrop—that carves out a place alongside classics like The Art of Fielding and The Natural. Stevens knows the game—but it’s his deft narrative and characters that help this book truly sing. I couldn’t put it down.” —Alex Segura, bestselling author of Secret Identity “You don’t have to know baseball to love The Fireballer. At the center of this big-hearted book is Frank Ryder, a star pitcher tormented by a mistake in his past. Readers root for Frank not for his fastball, but because his redemption delivers us all.” —Stephanie Kane, award-winning mystery writer and author of True Crime Redux “Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie…and heart. Pitcher phenom Frank Ryder’s heart is bigger than the game—as is his grief—and his fastball has the potential to transform or destroy both. As Mark Stevens divulges Ryder’s temptations and talent alongside the complexities of the sport, readers will find themselves captivated by a world-class athlete’s regrets and life choices in The Fireballer.” —Janet Fogg, award-winning author of Soliloquy and coauthor of the best seller Fogg in the Cockpit “The Fireballer goes straight into my pantheon of great baseball writing, alongside The Brothers K (David James Duncan), The Art of Fielding (Chad Harbach), You Gotta Have Wa (Robert Whiting), and the many treasures by Roger Angell. Mark Stevens’s ability to get ‘inside baseball’—while telling a moving human story—is both astounding and worthy of readers of all interests and tastes.” —John Galligan, author of the Bad Axe County series “In The Fireballer, Mark Stevens may have invented a new subgenre: the emotional thriller. As Frank Ryder journeys to the source of both his phenomenal talent and his psychic pain, I couldn’t stop turning pages. And when he earns his redemption? Reader, I cried. Love, loss, and ultimate triumph—this book delivers at 110 miles per hour.” —Keir Graff, author of The Three Mrs. Wrights (writing with Linda Joffe Hull as Linda Keir) “Brimming with humanity, The Fireballer is a richly imagined tale of the modern American pastime with a heart as big as center field. Pure storytelling genius.” — Scott Graham, winner of the National Outdoor Book Award and author of Saguaro Sanction “The Fireballer is about a baseball pitcher, sure. The way The Natural is about a bat and Shoeless Joe is about a corn field. But this many-layered tale deeply considers hope, fear, love, grief, and change, all through the prism of our beautiful national pastime. The writing is heartfelt and gorgeous. The Fireballer struck me out.” —Richard Cass, author of the Elder Darrow Jazz Mysteries and The Last Altruist “This is a great American novel that is about so much more than the great American pastime.” —Wendy J. Fox, author of If the Ice Had Held and What If We Were Somewhere Else “The Fireballer isn’t just about baseball. It’s about life and loss and what love can do. Mark Stevens shows not only a deep understanding of the game but of human frailty and grace as well. This book is a true triumph.” —Claire Booth, award-winning journalist and critically acclaimed author of the Hank Worth mysteries “With baseball as the backdrop, The Fireballer is a rich story that will have you rooting for Frank Ryder as he struggles with imprinted tragedies of his past. Don’t be dissuaded if you’re not a fan of baseball. The enjoyment of this novel comes from the talent of Mark Stevens and his craft of characters with depth and heart. The emotion is palpable and the story moving.” —Wendy Terrien, award-winning author of The Rampart Guards “The Fireballer is more than a story of a freakishly talented baseball pitcher. It’s the story of a good man trapped in an industry that both reveres and despises his abilities, and disregards the emotional toll the game takes. While reading The Fireballer I could see the players scattered in the field, smell the beer and hot dogs at the stadium, and feel the whoosh of Frank Ryder’s fastball zooming past the batter. A truly great sports novel.” —Stephanie Gayle, author of Idyll Threats “In fresh, evocative prose, Stevens spins a tale about a phenom baseball pitcher that transcends the genre of ‘sports fiction.’ Compelling and humane. Highly recommended.” —Karen Odden, USA Today bestselling author of the Inspector Corravan Mysteries

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Book Synopsis"[A] firecracker of a debut."—The New York Times"Andrea Abreu’s debut novel about two girls in the summer heat of Tenerife is perfect for these dog days."—Shreya Chattopadhyay, The New York Times Book ReviewMy Brilliant Friend meets Blue is the Warmest Color in this lyrical debut novel set in a working-class neighborhood of the Canary Islands—a story about two girls coming of age in the early aughts and a friendship that simmers into erotic desire over the course of one hot summer. High near the volcano of northern Tenerife, an endless ceiling of cloud cover traps the working class in an abject, oppressive heat. Far away from the island’s posh resorts, two girls dream of hitching a ride down to the beach and escaping their horizonless town. It’s summer, 2005, and our ten-year-old narrator is consumed by thoughts of her best friend Isora. Isora is rude and bossy, but she’s also vivacious and brave; grownups prefer her, and boys do, too. That's why sometimes she gets jealous of Isora, who already has hair on her vagina and soft, round breasts. But she's definitely not jealous that Isora’s mother is dead, nor that Isora's fat, foul-mouthed grandmother has her on a diet, so that she is constantly sticking her fingers down her throat. Besides, she would do anything for Isora: gorge herself on cakes when her friend wants to watch, follow her to the bathroom when she takes a shit, log into chat rooms to swap dirty instant messages with strangers. But increasingly, our narrator finds it hard to keep up with Isora, who seems to be growing up at full tilt without her—and as her submissiveness veers into a painful sexual awakening, desire grows indistinguishable from intimate violence.Braiding prose poetry with bachata lyrics and the gritty humor of Canary dialect, Dogs of Summer is a story of exquisite yearning, a brutal picture of girlhood and a love song written for the vital community it portrays.Trade Review"Read this coming-of-age story for its unsparing language and vivid sense of place."—The New York Times“In playful language, Abreu beautifully evokes a land of ‘light stored for so many thousands of years’, and an era of telenovelas and the birth of the internet, in which Pokémon and Bratz dolls give way to sexual discovery.”—John Self, The Guardian“One of the hottest translated novels of late . . . Dogs of Summer does a good job unnerving a reader in any language; it’s about girls navigating the complexities of being on the cusp of puberty as their bodies become increasingly more unrecognizable to them. Abreu captures the unique discomfort of this time through run-on sentences that are experimental and abrasive while also interspersing bachata dance music and chat-room threads.”—Greta Rainbow, Shondaland"Abreu’s novel, in Julia Sanches’s sparkling translation, is a revelation, perfectly capturing a festering summer of meltdowns and shrinking horizons."—Anderson Tepper, The New York Times“Emotionally resonant . . . Abreu’s exhilarating chronicle of a young friendship is not to be missed.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)"This frank exploration of the work of growing up as a girl in a place with limited horizons (don’t forget the clouds!) illuminates while it disturbs. This is not Little Women."—Kirkus“Like the portrayals of girls in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, Abreu offers brave and unvarnished renderings of complicated female friendships, painful sexual awakenings (with an LGBTQ twist), and gritty dialects, but she is in a category by herself. Her prose is bold and direct, and her characterization of two similar but different girls on the cusp of adolescence is as vivid as anything being written today.”—June Sawyers, Booklist"This lyrical novel is set in a working-class neighborhood in Tenerife, far from the Canary Islands’ poshresorts. During one oppressively hot summer, the 10-year-old narrator and her best friend Isoraexperience changes in their bodies and their volatile emotions — from love to jealousy, admiration,obsession and submission. The story, laced with Canary Islands dialect and bachata lyrics, builds to a crescendo when desire and violence fuse."—Bill Morris, The Millions"[Abreu] provides a unique perspective into romantic feelings buried within a friendship. Much like EdnaO’Brien’s The Country Girls, Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, and Lorrie Moore’s Who Will Run theFrog Hospital?, the novel is a portrait of the intensity of love, desire, and frenzied obsession at such a pivotal age."—Christina Obolenskaya, Ploughshares"Dogs of Summer is a memorable debut, poetic and vibrant."—Lydia Weintraub, Cleveland Review of Books"Dogs of Summer is a thoroughly immersive story of youth, with all of the inequities and frustrations thatthat implies. It’s also, in Andrea Abreu’s telling and Julia Sanches’s translation, a fascinating study of itsnarrator’s method of seeing the world. The prose, the rhythms, and the sense of place all combine toward a memorable whole."—Tobias Carroll, Words Without Borders"Dogs of Summer is a perfect summer novel that follows two best friends as they come of age and theirfriendship begins to simmer with desire and violence. The writing is a crave inducing mix of bachatalyrics, Canary dialect, and the language of girlhood — gritty, wild, poetic — an exquisite feat by debut author Andrea Abreu and renowned translator Julia Sanches."—Pierce Alquist, Book Riot"Dogs of Summer resists nostalgia and sentimentality while preserving the freshness and vibrancy of the narrator’s voice . . . Tenerife in 2005 offers a vivid depiction of early aughts girlhood that captures the precarity of puberty and the intrusion of the outside world within an isolated community, most notably through the growing impact technology has on everyday life. Unlike Ferrante, Abreu doesn’t shy away from the grittier aspects of girlhood—rather, she revels in all their glory . . . an intimate portrait of girlhood friendship that treads the often precarious waters of obsession, codependence, and sexual violence."—Eliza Browning, Asymptote“A caustic, claustrophobic story of disturbingly sexualised preadolescent children: bored, traumatised, blistering with a mix of envy, tenderness and viciousness . . . sensual and dirty, absurdist and tragic. Abreu’s talent is thrilling to witness.”—Catherine Taylor, The Irish Times"The way that Abreu just very boldly and blatantly captures the narrative voice of a ten-year-old girlcoming-of-age is genius, and from the very first page I was brought right back to my own adolescence."—Ashley Lynne, GateCrashers"As sultry as the summer weather. In playful language, Abreu beautifully evokes an era of telenovelasand the birth of the internet, in which Pokemon and Bratz dolls give way to sexual discovery."—OX Magazine “Whip-smart. Angular. Dreamy yet lucid, and cathartically brutal.”—Brontez Purnell, author of 100 Boyfriends“Bold, dazzling, hilarious. Andrea Abreu is a lively meteorite in the landscape of Hispanic literature.”—Fernanda Melchor, author of Hurricane Season“This slim novel’s scope and intensity are shockingly, magnificently large, and the sentences blast off the pages with all the sordidness and wonder of early adolescence. Readers will be unable to resist the spell of Dogs of Summer, a hilarious, devastating story that is brilliantly attuned to the erotics of friendship, the intoxicating muddle of identification and desire, and the power of both the sublime and the profane. The unforgettable girls at the center of Andrea Abreu’s moving debut are two of the liveliest fictional creations I’ve come across in quite a long time.”—Jamel Brinkley, author of A Lucky Man“Dogs of Summer will thump through your heart and mind. A novel that consumes and sentences to die for.”—Amina Cain, author of Indelicacy“Andrea Abreu’s characters, like her sentences, are bold and wild. Reminiscent of Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s The Discomfort of Evening, Abreu’s writing twirls and clacks with tactile precision, like winding a cassette tape with a No. 2 pencil. I’ll return to Dogs of Summer whenever I crave a searing, brutal shot of life.”—Gabriella Burnham, author of It is Wood, It is Stone“Dogs of Summer is like the tide. A force of nature. It drags you. It submerges you. And, all of a sudden, itleaves you stranded on a rich and prophetic insular world of women and low, grey, clouds that mergewith the sea. It is pure poetry. A book that carries you and makes you feel a place.”—Pilar Quintana, author of The Bitch“This is important: I felt envy. Envy over the impossibility of writing something like that myself.”—Sabina Urraca, author of Your Spelling Errors Make the God Child Cry

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Book Synopsis"[A] firecracker of a debut."—The New York Times"Andrea Abreu’s debut novel about two girls in the summer heat of Tenerife is perfect for these dog days."—Shreya Chattopadhyay, The New York Times Book ReviewMy Brilliant Friend meets Blue is the Warmest Color in this lyrical debut novel set in a working-class neighborhood of the Canary Islands—a story about two girls coming of age in the early aughts and a friendship that simmers into erotic desire over the course of one hot summer. High near the volcano of northern Tenerife, an endless ceiling of cloud cover traps the working class in an abject, oppressive heat. Far away from the island’s posh resorts, two girls dream of hitching a ride down to the beach and escaping their horizonless town. It’s summer, 2005, and our ten-year-old narrator is consumed by thoughts of her best friend Isora. Isora is rude and bossy, but she’s also vivacious and brave; grownups prefer her, and boys do, too. That's why sometimes she gets jealous of Isora, who already has hair on her vagina and soft, round breasts. But she's definitely not jealous that Isora’s mother is dead, nor that Isora's fat, foul-mouthed grandmother has her on a diet, so that she is constantly sticking her fingers down her throat. Besides, she would do anything for Isora: gorge herself on cakes when her friend wants to watch, follow her to the bathroom when she takes a shit, log into chat rooms to swap dirty instant messages with strangers. But increasingly, our narrator finds it hard to keep up with Isora, who seems to be growing up at full tilt without her—and as her submissiveness veers into a painful sexual awakening, desire grows indistinguishable from intimate violence.Braiding prose poetry with bachata lyrics and the gritty humor of Canary dialect, Dogs of Summer is a story of exquisite yearning, a brutal picture of girlhood and a love song written for the vital community it portrays.Trade Review"Read this coming-of-age story for its unsparing language and vivid sense of place."—The New York Times“In playful language, Abreu beautifully evokes a land of ‘light stored for so many thousands of years’, and an era of telenovelas and the birth of the internet, in which Pokémon and Bratz dolls give way to sexual discovery.”—John Self, The Guardian“One of the hottest translated novels of late . . . Dogs of Summer does a good job unnerving a reader in any language; it’s about girls navigating the complexities of being on the cusp of puberty as their bodies become increasingly more unrecognizable to them. Abreu captures the unique discomfort of this time through run-on sentences that are experimental and abrasive while also interspersing bachata dance music and chat-room threads.”—Greta Rainbow, Shondaland"Abreu’s novel, in Julia Sanches’s sparkling translation, is a revelation, perfectly capturing a festering summer of meltdowns and shrinking horizons."—Anderson Tepper, The New York Times“Emotionally resonant . . . Abreu’s exhilarating chronicle of a young friendship is not to be missed.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)"This frank exploration of the work of growing up as a girl in a place with limited horizons (don’t forget the clouds!) illuminates while it disturbs. This is not Little Women."—Kirkus“Like the portrayals of girls in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, Abreu offers brave and unvarnished renderings of complicated female friendships, painful sexual awakenings (with an LGBTQ twist), and gritty dialects, but she is in a category by herself. Her prose is bold and direct, and her characterization of two similar but different girls on the cusp of adolescence is as vivid as anything being written today.”—June Sawyers, Booklist"This lyrical novel is set in a working-class neighborhood in Tenerife, far from the Canary Islands’ poshresorts. During one oppressively hot summer, the 10-year-old narrator and her best friend Isoraexperience changes in their bodies and their volatile emotions — from love to jealousy, admiration,obsession and submission. The story, laced with Canary Islands dialect and bachata lyrics, builds to a crescendo when desire and violence fuse."—Bill Morris, The Millions"[Abreu] provides a unique perspective into romantic feelings buried within a friendship. Much like EdnaO’Brien’s The Country Girls, Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, and Lorrie Moore’s Who Will Run theFrog Hospital?, the novel is a portrait of the intensity of love, desire, and frenzied obsession at such a pivotal age."—Christina Obolenskaya, Ploughshares"Dogs of Summer is a memorable debut, poetic and vibrant."—Lydia Weintraub, Cleveland Review of Books"Dogs of Summer is a thoroughly immersive story of youth, with all of the inequities and frustrations thatthat implies. It’s also, in Andrea Abreu’s telling and Julia Sanches’s translation, a fascinating study of itsnarrator’s method of seeing the world. The prose, the rhythms, and the sense of place all combine toward a memorable whole."—Tobias Carroll, Words Without Borders"Dogs of Summer is a perfect summer novel that follows two best friends as they come of age and theirfriendship begins to simmer with desire and violence. The writing is a crave inducing mix of bachatalyrics, Canary dialect, and the language of girlhood — gritty, wild, poetic — an exquisite feat by debut author Andrea Abreu and renowned translator Julia Sanches."—Pierce Alquist, Book Riot"Dogs of Summer resists nostalgia and sentimentality while preserving the freshness and vibrancy of the narrator’s voice . . . Tenerife in 2005 offers a vivid depiction of early aughts girlhood that captures the precarity of puberty and the intrusion of the outside world within an isolated community, most notably through the growing impact technology has on everyday life. Unlike Ferrante, Abreu doesn’t shy away from the grittier aspects of girlhood—rather, she revels in all their glory . . . an intimate portrait of girlhood friendship that treads the often precarious waters of obsession, codependence, and sexual violence."—Eliza Browning, Asymptote“A caustic, claustrophobic story of disturbingly sexualised preadolescent children: bored, traumatised, blistering with a mix of envy, tenderness and viciousness . . . sensual and dirty, absurdist and tragic. Abreu’s talent is thrilling to witness.”—Catherine Taylor, The Irish Times"The way that Abreu just very boldly and blatantly captures the narrative voice of a ten-year-old girlcoming-of-age is genius, and from the very first page I was brought right back to my own adolescence."—Ashley Lynne, GateCrashers"As sultry as the summer weather. In playful language, Abreu beautifully evokes an era of telenovelasand the birth of the internet, in which Pokemon and Bratz dolls give way to sexual discovery."—OX Magazine “Whip-smart. Angular. Dreamy yet lucid, and cathartically brutal.”—Brontez Purnell, author of 100 Boyfriends“Bold, dazzling, hilarious. Andrea Abreu is a lively meteorite in the landscape of Hispanic literature.”—Fernanda Melchor, author of Hurricane Season“This slim novel’s scope and intensity are shockingly, magnificently large, and the sentences blast off the pages with all the sordidness and wonder of early adolescence. Readers will be unable to resist the spell of Dogs of Summer, a hilarious, devastating story that is brilliantly attuned to the erotics of friendship, the intoxicating muddle of identification and desire, and the power of both the sublime and the profane. The unforgettable girls at the center of Andrea Abreu’s moving debut are two of the liveliest fictional creations I’ve come across in quite a long time.”—Jamel Brinkley, author of A Lucky Man“Dogs of Summer will thump through your heart and mind. A novel that consumes and sentences to die for.”—Amina Cain, author of Indelicacy“Andrea Abreu’s characters, like her sentences, are bold and wild. Reminiscent of Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s The Discomfort of Evening, Abreu’s writing twirls and clacks with tactile precision, like winding a cassette tape with a No. 2 pencil. I’ll return to Dogs of Summer whenever I crave a searing, brutal shot of life.”—Gabriella Burnham, author of It is Wood, It is Stone“Dogs of Summer is like the tide. A force of nature. It drags you. It submerges you. And, all of a sudden, itleaves you stranded on a rich and prophetic insular world of women and low, grey, clouds that mergewith the sea. It is pure poetry. A book that carries you and makes you feel a place.”—Pilar Quintana, author of The Bitch“This is important: I felt envy. Envy over the impossibility of writing something like that myself.”—Sabina Urraca, author of Your Spelling Errors Make the God Child Cry

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Book SynopsisWhen fourteen-year-old Rene stepped off the streetcar in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1949, he entered a situation he could never have imagined. His mother had taken a position as head nurse at the Salvation Army’s Booth Memorial Home and Hospital where they would live on campus. For the next year he would be surrounded by ten women who had dedicated their lives to God, and fifty young girls…all pregnant…all unmarried. To hide that embarrassing fact from new classmates, he walked around the block before boarding a streetcar for school. To bond with neighborhood kids, he tried playing hockey even though he didn’t know how to skate. Although his religion censured it, he took an interest in the home, the women running it and in the lives of the girls there to hide their condition. He learned how hard it was for them to give up their babies and felt the pain when difficult births and deaths visited the home. Inevitably, there came a time when he learned that life’s decisions are not always easy…and not without consequence. Those experiences at Booth Memorial guided Rene in his first steps toward being the responsible man that he was someday to become.

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Book SynopsisAn emotionally wrought debut fiction novel perfect for book clubs about a girl who escapes from a cult after a deadly fire destroys her family's compound, only to be haunted by That Night as she tries to build a new life for herself.A fire. Her escape. And the realization her entire life has been a lie.One night, nineteen-year-old Avery is awoken by a fire consuming her family's compound. She manages to escape and runs away with her younger brother, Cole, hiding in the woods and then a school gym for weeks, dodging stares and stealing food to survive. After police apprehend them for shoplifting, a horrific discovery is made-they were actually kidnapped as children, taken by the cult leaders they knew as Mom and Dad.Cole is quickly reunited with his family and permanently separated from Avery, who is taken to a women's shelter when no family comes forward. Avery isn't certain who survived the Bakelite cult fire or, more importantly, who set it. As she tries to move past the lies and the trauma of her childhood, the events of the night of the fire come bursting back into the news, and a police investigation throws Avery into the spotlight where she's pushed to answer questions she can't explain. The memories of that night and her former life threaten to undo all the progress she's made, but she must uncover the truth about the fire to truly be free.Suspenseful, emotionally charged, and deeply thought-provoking, After We Were Stolen delves into ideas of family-those we're born into and those we make, resilience, and the lengths a cult survivor will go to finally be free of her painful past. Brooke Beyfuss's powerful debut novel sparkles with heart, grit, and extraordinary characters who will stay with you long after the last page.

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Book SynopsisFrom International Latino Book Award-winning author Ann Dávila Cardinal comes a gorgeously written family saga about a Puerto Rican teenager who finds herself gifted (or cursed?) with a strange ability.There was always an old woman dying in the back room of her family's house when Isla was a child...Isla Larsen Sanchez's life begins to unravel when her father passes away. Instead of being comforted at home in New Jersey, her mother starts leaving her in Puerto Rico with her grandmother and great-aunt each summer like a piece of forgotten luggage.When Isla turns eighteen, her grandmother, a great storyteller, dies. It is then that Isla discovers she has a gift passed down through her family's cuentistas. The tales of dead family storytellers are brought back to life, replaying themselves over and over in front of her.At first, Isla is enchanted by this connection to the Sanchez cuentistas. But when Isla has a vision of an old murder mystery, she realizes that if she can't solve it to make the loop end, these seemingly harmless stories could cost Isla her life.

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Book SynopsisFor fans of Matt Haig and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue comes a big-hearted novel following a man who can never be remembered and his journey to become unforgettable...On an ordinary night in an ordinary year, Tommy Llewellyn's doting parents wake in a home without toys and diapers, without photos of their baby scattered about, and without any idea that the small child asleep in his crib is theirs.That's because Tommy is a boy destined to never be remembered.On the same day every year, everyone around him forgets he exists, and he grows up enduring his own universal Reset. That is until something extraordinary happens: Tommy Llewellyn falls in love.Determined to finally carve out a life for himself and land the girl of his dreams, Tommy sets out on a mission to finally trick the Reset and be remembered. But legacies aren't so easily won, and Tommy must figure out what's more important-the things we leave behind or the people we bring along with us.With the speculative edge of How to Stop Time, the unending charm of Maria Semple, and the heart of your favorite book club read, How to Be Remembered is a life-affirming novel about discovering how to leave your mark on the places and people you love most.Trade ReviewHow to Be Remembered wears its heart proudly, earnest in the way of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or, dare I say, Forrest Gump * The Guardian Australia *Original, engrossing, sweet. * Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project *

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Book SynopsisIt s the early 2000s. Lauren is fifteen, soft-spoken, and ashamed of her body. She s a devout member of an evangelical church, but when her Bible-thumping parents forbid Lauren to bring evolution textbooks home, she opts to study at her schoolmate Mariah s house. Mariah has dial-up internet, an absentee mom, and a Wiccan altar the perfect setting for a study session and sleepover to remember. That evening, Mariah gives Lauren a makeover and the two melt into each other, in what becomes Lauren s first queer encounter. Afterward, a potent blend of Christian guilt and internalised homophobia causes Lauren to question the experience. Author Jessica Campbell (XTC69) uses frankness and dark humour to articulate Lauren's burgeoning crisis of faith and sexuality. She captures teenage antics and banter with astute comedic style, simultaneously skewering bullies, a culture of slut-shaming, and the devastating impact of religious zealotry. Rave is an instant classic, a coming-of-age story about the secret spaces young women create and the wider social structures that fail them.Trade ReviewPraise for XTC69: Singular, honest, and hilarious. The Comics Beat. In Jessica Campbell s scathing take on gender dynamics, a trio of gender-fluid space explorers return to a futuristic Earth . . . Campbell skewers contemporary misogyny in these pages, but also praises the strength and perseverance of women and non-binary individuals. The AV Club

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the 2017 Brage PrizeFanny, a 17-year-old high school senior, has lost both her parents in a car accident. Granted permission to live independently in the family home located on the outskirts of a small Norwegian town, the days pass by as she performs her daily routine: going to school, maintaining the house, chopping and stacking wood, and keeping the weeds at bay. As Fanny grieves and attempts to come to terms with the sad circumstances of her life, a fairy tale-like world full of new possibilities begins to emerge around her.Written by Rune Christiansen, one of Norway's most exciting literary talents, and masterfully translated by Kari Dickson, Fanny and the Mystery in the Grieving Forest is a beautiful, poetic portrait of grief, friendship, independence and transgression.Praise for Fanny and the Mystery in the Grieving Forest:"Fanny and the Mystery in the Grieving Forest is among the saddest and most uplifting books I've read. This story of a grieving young woman is told in short bursts of lustrous writing crisp as aquavit that leave the reader seeing the world anew. Christiansen is taking on the big themes, love and death, but I know what side he's on." —Michael Redhill, Scotiabank Giller Prize winning author of Bellevue Square"Rune Christiansen's Fanny and the Mystery of the Grieving Forest is one of those special stories I find myself petting once I've finished, as if it were a wee forest creature I have fallen in love with. A shimmering musing on grief, Fanny is both ecstatic fairytale and Gothic novel—beguiling, haunting, and erotic in equal measure. There are very few books I would put in the category of heart places, but this is certainly one." —Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, author of All the Broken ThingsTrade Review"Fanny and the Mystery in the Grieving Forest is among the saddest and most uplifting books I've read. This story of a grieving young woman is told in short bursts of lustrous writing crisp as aquavit that leave the reader seeing the world anew. Christiansen is taking on the big themes, love and death, but I know what side he's on." -- Michael Redhill, Scotiabank Giller Prize winning author of Bellevue Square"Rune Christiansen's Fanny and the Mystery of the Grieving Forest is one of those special stories I find myself petting once I've finished, as if it were a wee forest creature I have fallen in love with. A shimmering musing on grief, Fanny is both ecstatic fairytale and Gothic novel -- beguiling, haunting, and erotic in equal measure. There are very few books I would put in the category of heart places, but this is certainly one." -- Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, author of All the Broken Things

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Book SynopsisTelescope is a story cycle about Lawrence Teitel, the protagonist of Living Room (Boheme Press, 2001). The collection deals with seeing distances: above all, the growing distancing of Lawrence's family as they cope with new challenges and Lawrence's own maturation, physical and spiritual. The cycle is made up of nine stories, each covering a different stage in Lawrence's development after his family has moved from their old neighbourhood in Montreal to a somewhat wealthier suburb, Ville St. Laurent.Trade Review"If The Simpsons were a novel (or closely connected stories) it would be called Telescope by Allan Weiss. Not because of raw comedy, but the fact that the world's history, its creativity, its politics and its humanity is brilliantly filtered through a typical family in an isolated suburb of a place called Montreal." -- Clark Blaise

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Book Synopsis'A disturbing descent into a surreal world, written with a deft hand.' Adrian Tchaikovsky, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2016Deep in an unnamed, unknown rainforest, Ben Ronson, a British police officer, investigates a spate of killings of a local, vaguely humanoid species. With long limbs and black button eyes, the Duendes are strange and silent creatures that have a deep psychic effect on people, unleashing the subconscious and exposing their innermost thoughts and fears. Ben rapidly becomes fascinated by the Duendes, but as his inquiry unfolds so too does he. Beneath the World, A Sea is a tour de force of modern fiction - a deeply searching and unsettling novel about the human subconscious, and all that lies beneath.'Beckett is superb at undercutting reader assumptions with a casual line of dialogue or acute psychological observation: the book reads like Conrad's Heart of Darkness reimagined by JG Ballard.' Guardian Trade ReviewA disturbing descent into a surreal world, written with a deft hand. * Adrian Tchaikovsky, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2016 *Beckett is superb at undercutting reader assumptions with a casual line of dialogue or acute psychological observation: the book reads like Conrad's Heart of Darkness reimagined by JG Ballard. * Guardian *Utterly compelling... it lingers in the memory. 5*s * SFX *The Eden trilogy is a remarkable achievement: with wit, insight and invention Beckett has imagined a scientific Genesis not just about a society, but about the culture and myths that sustain it. It is both politically astute and theologically compelling. * Stuart Kelly, Guardian, on the Eden Trilogy *Chris Beckett is a genius * Eric Brown on Spring Tide *Eden is building into one of most vivid and fascinating places in modern SF. * Eddie Robson, SFX (review for The Eden Trilogy) *An uneasy read that manages to feel both timely and urgent... Beckett offers an intelligent, visceral reminder that unless we change what today looks like, tomorrow will be turbulent indeed. * Guardian on America City *Compelling... a grim demonstration of how one person can change history, but not control it. * SFX on America City *A captivating and haunting book * Daily Mail on Dark Eden *

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Book Synopsis"Dazzling. A novel that holds up to scrutiny a world of claustrophobic war zones, virulent social media and cities collapsing upon themselves, and then sets it down again, transformed by the grace of storytelling." - Siddartha Deb, author of The Point of ReturnAnita lives in Karachi's biggest slum. Her mother is a maalish wali, paid to massage the tired bones of rich women. But Anita's life will change forever when she meets her elderly neighbour, a man whose shelves of books promise an escape to a different world.On the other side of Karachi lives Monty, whose father owns half the city and expects great things of him. But when a beautiful and rebellious girl joins his school, Monty will find his life going in a very different direction. Sunny's father left India and went to England to give his son the opportunities he never had. Yet Sunny doesn't fit in anywhere. It's only when his charismatic cousin comes back into his life that he realises his life could hold more possibilities than he ever imagined. These three lives will cross in the desert, a place where life and death walk hand in hand, and where their closely guarded secrets will force them to make a terrible choice.Trade ReviewFatima Bhutto vividly renders the seductions of Islamic radicalization in such a way that we understand both its historical specificity and its universal roots in idealism and desire, rage and romance, youth and rebellion. Drawn from the headlines but plunging much deeper, The Runaways is a novel for our difficult times. -- Viet Thanh NguyenAn astute and searing take on anomie and radicalization. * Kirkus Reviews *Stunning ... Bhutto's descriptions trade between stark beauty and restrained horrors, encompassing the damp of a rain-soaked slum, the wonder of self-caging birds, and the pure brightness of moonshine over the desert ... Her pages are brutal and surprising, and their revelations stand to unmake and rebuild their audiences. -- Michelle Anne Schingler * Foreword Reviews (Starred Review) *Dramatic. ... With poetic writing, Bhutto slowly reveals the characters' connections as well as some compelling twists, and makes a convincing case that extremism, especially for young people, is driven more by feelings of alienation than religion. -- Kathy Sexton * Booklist *Told in alternate chapters from the points of view of all three protagonists, the book moves forward and backward, explaining their motivations in spare, almost jaunty prose that elicits empathy for the troubled teens and stands in stark contrast to the seriousness of the plot. Bhutto's penetrating character study convinces all the way to the inevitable bloody end. * Publishers Weekly *The Runaways is an extraordinary novel by an author whose attention to detail [and] exceptionally effective narrative storytelling style has created the kind of book that will linger in the mind and memory long after it has been finished. * Midwest Book Review *A meticulous psychological study of who turns to radicalism and why. ... A provocative investigation of courage, and how it can foment either salvation or damnation. -- Anjali Enjeti * Minneapolis Star Tribune *The Runaways, with its complex fusion of ideas-personal, national, and transnational identity; the relationship between fervor and self-destruction; and the nature of the matrix within which we live-generates a complex fictional topography. The sensibilities of the novel's protagonists suggest a new dynamic of power relations in which politics and selfhood, empire and psychology prove to be profoundly interrelated. -- Nyla Ali Khan * World Literature Today *The Runaways is a finely wrought novel. ... Both thought-provoking and humane. -- Ron Jacobs * CounterPunch *[The characters'] alternating voices give a kaleidoscopic feel to the plot, and yield a panoramic look at the roots of radicalism. -- Adeel Hassan * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisA New York Times Book Review Editors' ChoiceA radiant first novel. . . . [Neon in Daylight] has antecedents in the great novels of the 1970s: Renata Adler’s Speedboat, Elizabeth Hardwick’s Sleepless Nights, Joan Didion’s Play It as It Lays. . . . Precision—of observation, of language—is Hoby’s gift. Her sentences are sleek and tailored. Language molds snugly to thought. —Parul Sehgal, The New York TimesNew York City in 2012, the sweltering summer before Hurricane Sandy hits. Kate, a young woman newly arrived from England, is staying in a Manhattan apartment while she tries to figure out her future. She has two unfortunate responsibilities during her time in America: to make regular Skype calls to her miserable boyfriend back home, and to cat–sit an indifferent feline named Joni Mitchell.The city has other plans for her. In New York's parks and bodegas, its galleries and performance spaces, its bars and clubs crowded with bodies, Kate encounters two strangers who will transform her stay: Bill, a charismatic but embittered writer made famous by the movie version of his only novel; and Inez, his daughter, a recent high school graduate who supplements her Bushwick cafe salary by enacting the fantasies of men she meets on Craigslist. Unmoored from her old life, Kate falls into an infatuation with both of them.Set in a heatwave that feels like it will never break, Neon In Daylight marries deep intelligence with captivating characters to offer us a joyful, unflinching exploration of desire, solitude, and the thin line between life and art.

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2020 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, this intoxicating story of a teenage girl who trades her a middle–class upbringing for a quest for meaning in 1980s Mexico is “a surreal, captivating tale about the power of a youthful imagination, the lure of teenage transgression, and its inevitable disappointments” (Los Angeles Review of Books).One autumn afternoon in Mexico City, seventeen–year–old Luisa does not return home from school. Instead, she boards a bus to the Pacific coast with Tomás, a boy she barely knows. He seems to represent everything her life is lacking―recklessness, impulse, independence.Tomás may also help Luisa fulfill an unusual obsession: she wants to track down a traveling troupe of Ukrainian dwarfs. According to newspaper reports, the dwarfs recently escaped a Soviet circus touring Mexico. The imagined fates of these performers fill Luisa’s surreal dreams as she settles in a beach community in Oaxaca. Surrounded by hippies, nudists, beachcombers, and eccentric storytellers, Luisa searches for someone, anyone, who will “promise, no matter what, to remain a mystery.” It is a quest more easily envisioned than accomplished. As she wanders the shoreline and visits the local bar, Luisa begins to disappear dangerously into the lives of strangers on Zipolite, the “Beach of the Dead.”Meanwhile, her father has set out to find his missing daughter. A mesmeric portrait of transgression and disenchantment unfolds. Set to a pulsing soundtrack of Joy Division, Nick Cave, and Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sea Monsters is a brilliantly playful and supple novel about the moments and mysteries that shape us.Aridjis is deft at conjuring the teenage swooniness that apprehends meaning below every surface. Like Sebald’s or Cusk’s, her haunted writing patrols its own omissions . . . The figure of the shipwreck looms large for Aridjis. It becomes a useful lens through which to see this book, which is self–contained, inscrutable, and weirdly captivating, like a salvaged object that wants to return to the sea. ―Katy Waldman, The New Yorker

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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