Andromeda.
By Therese Bohman. Tr. by Marlaine Delargy.
Jan. 2025. 192p. Other, $16.99 (9781635424188); e-book (9781635424195).
Sofie, a young intern at a publishing company, has a chance encounter with Gunnar, her boss. He is in his sixties, nearly twice her age, but despite this, Sofie sees something in him that calls to her, and after a colleague leaves for an extended vacation, Gunnar has Sofie take over her job. It results in her spending years at the company. But when Gunnar dies of heart issues, her world is torn apart. Half of the book is written from Sofie’s perspective, and the other half from Gunnar’s; what the reader thinks might be a tawdry tale about an inappropriate office relationship becomes something much more. It is a beautifully written book about a publishing company undergoing massive changes, a questionable and yet somehow aching relationship between an intern and her boss, nostalgia, the feeling of being left behind, and the ideals we cling to when everything is falling apart around us. Translated from Swedish, Andromeda is what Gunnar might call a breath of fresh air in the literary world. —Lily Hunter
Bright Segments: The Complete Short Fiction.
By James Sallis.
Nov. 2024. 864p. Soho, $35 (9781641295543); e-book (9781641295550).
Acclaimed and beloved Sallis is perhaps most renowned for his popular Lew Griffin crime novels, but readers know that his literary talents know no limits. This massive collection of 154 stories is sure to delight and surprise his legion of fans. The stories explore and expand upon various genres. Many are speculative fiction, sf, or simply reality-adjacent, while others offer a surrealist or absurdist spin. They all feature Sallis’ hyper literary prose powered by snappy, pulsing dialogue; an exuberant, philosophical wit; clever turns of phrase; and spirited, unexpected discursions. The result can feel like a manic fever-dream of an uber-loquacious addict speed-balling Roget’s Thesaurus—disorienting, weird, and altogether original. Readers will discern an arc or evolution in Sallis’ style. Whereas a musical virtuoso might prioritize a complex solo, a master understands it is all about feel. Sallis’ prodigious talent and boundless imagination refuse to be pigeon-holed as he balances inventive plots and underline-worthy gems, such as, “the sculpting of single grains of sand, using the tools of my father, then scattering my invisible beauty in handfuls wherever I walked.”—Bill Kelly
Death of the Author.
By Nnedi Okorafor.
Jan. 2025. 443p. Morrow, $30 (9780063391147).
In many ways, Okorafor’s latest (after She Who Knows, 2024) feels recognizable: the main character, Zelu, deals with family drama, grief and loss, and discovering her purpose in life. However, the author quickly flips expectations. Zelu is a Nigerian American paraplegic woman who writes a hugely popular sf novel without even being a fan of the genre. Her fame immediately changes her life and creates amazing opportunities. She works with a scientist who builds her robotic legs so that she can walk again, and she considers going into space. Unfortunately, Zelu can’t always count on her family’s support, even when she needs it the most. And her fandom is all about the sequel, without considering her feelings. Zelu’s famous novel, Rusted Robots, is intercut throughout the story, showing the impact of events on her writing. Death of the Author explores many of Okorafor’s familiar themes, like conservationism, African futurism, and what a world without humans could look like. The focus on the near future and the issues that Zelu faces give the postapocalyptic Rusted Robots a greater urgency. Zelu’s desire to live life on her own terms will engage readers who love to watch protagonists grow. Highly recommended for fans of Octavia Butler, Nicky Drayden, and Tade Thompson. —Ashley Rayner
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Okorafor’s work is always a big deal, and her latest book-within-a-book will attract genre and literary fiction fans alike.
Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love.
By Marianne Cronin.
Dec. 2024. 301p. Harper Perennial, paper, $18.99 (9780063383517).
Eddie Winston is a 90-year-old retired academic who now works happily at the Heart Trust Charity Shop in Birmingham, England. He squirrels away treasures that to anyone else look like trash, such as letters and photos, holding on to them in case someone comes looking. When a pink-haired young woman donates a box of journals and drawn-on sneakers, Eddie knows they don’t belong in the garbage. He strikes up a friendship with the woman, Bella, a clerk at Sainsbury’s who is mourning the death of her boyfriend. Bella is shocked to learn that Eddie has never been kissed, and she makes it her mission to find him love. But Eddie had found love; it just was a matter of bad timing. The tale unfolds in present-day narratives, letters Bella writes to her late boyfriend, and the seemingly unconnected story of an unhappily married woman in the 1960s. Cronin (The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot, 2021) blends real-feeling characters and several emotionally rich plot lines in this British charmer that is a powerfully sweet ode to human connection in all forms. —Susan Maguire
The Estate.
By Sarah Jost.
Nov. 2024. 416p. Sourcebooks/Landmark, paper, $16.99 (9781728262734); e-book (9781728262758).
In Jost’s latest (after Five First Chances, 2023), art appraiser Camille Leray faces burnout from her demanding career and her unique power, which allows her to enter artwork and experience the hidden stories and emotions within. When her power spirals out of control at an exclusive event featuring pieces by the elusive Constance Sorel, Camille’s future seems doomed. However, she then receives an invitation from Maxime Foucault to inventory art at his family’s estate, D’Arvor; it seems like the perfect chance to revive her career and possibly connect with the handsome and mysterious Maxime. Yet from the moment she arrives, it’s clear not all is as it seems. Camille receives a cold reception from the Foucault family, especially from Lila, Maxime’s partner. Torn between protecting her sanity and pursuing her obsession with a missing sculpture, Night Swimming, rumored to be Constance’s pièce de résistance, Camille is drawn deeper into the estate’s secrets. The novel’s moody, gothic setting in a French castle and its dive into Arthurian legends will attract many readers, even with sometimes disorienting scenes of Camille’s mysterious power. —Margaret Howard
The Favorites.
By Layne Fargo.
Jan. 2025. 464p. Random, $28 (9780593732045); e-book (9780593732052).
The author of They Never Learn (2020) puts Wuthering Heights on ice in this addictive outing. Teen Kat Shaw has loved Heath Rocha, the foster child her father adopted, since they were kids, but her first and most abiding passion is figure skating. Kat longs to compete professionally, and Heath, who loves Kat above all else, partners with her on the ice. After Kat’s father’s death, they flee Illinois and Kat’s dissolute older brother to enroll in an ice dance school in Los Angeles run by former Olympic champion Sheila Lin. Kat and Heath find themselves embroiled with Sheila’s teen twins, Bella and Garrett, their top competitors, whom both Kat and Heath are drawn to in different ways. What follows is a decade-and-a-half of drama and heartbreak on and off the ice. Told in a mix of Kat’s first-person narration and oral-history style commentary from a handful of characters who orbit the world of ice dance, Fargo’s latest is a blend of sports drama, romance, and page-turning suspense as Kat and Heath fight for gold on the ice and just as often battle with each other. Engrossing, thrilling, and just downright fun. —Kristine Huntley
YA: Teens will inhale this star-crossed lovers romance set amid the backdrop of a popular Olympic sport. KH.
I’ll Come to You.
By Rebecca Kauffman.
Jan. 2025. 224p. Counterpoint, $26 (9781640096714); e-book, $13.99 (9781640096721).
Ellen is increasingly sure that reentering the dating scene at her age is more trouble than it’s worth. Everyone already has baggage and a life full of bad habits, inside jokes, and family lore. But she feels drawn to Gary, who seems patient and self-aware and understands that delicate balance between loving your children and being utterly bewildered by them. Weighing the appeal of a fresh start against the labor of getting to know someone new, Ellen and Gary’s courtship is refreshingly realistic. Employing an ensemble cast with Ellen and Gary at its core, Kauffman (The House on Fripp Island, 2020) opens the story with the pair’s blind date before widening her net to include perspectives from friends and family members and flashbacks to key moments in each family’s history, giving extra weight to the formative experiences in each character’s life. Tender and charming, I’ll Come to You candidly exposes generational gaps in understanding and will appeal to fans of Jonathan Tropper and Amy Jo Burns. —Stephanie Turza
Mothers and Sons.
By Adam Haslett.
Jan. 2025. 336p. Little, Brown, $29 (9780316574716).
Haslett (Imagine Me Gone, 2016) introduces the Fischer family in this superb, character-driven novel. Protagonist Peter, 40 and gay, works as an immigration lawyer. His older sister, Liz, a more secondary character, produces cosplay events. And their mother, Ann, a former Episcopal priest, cofounded a women’s retreat in northern Vermont with her life partner, Clare. Moving backward in time, the novel takes us to Peter’s teenage years, when he is desperately in love with beautiful, charismatic Jared, who’s straight—or appears to be. Flash forward to the present, as Peter gets a new client, a 21-year-old Albanian named Vasel, who, if deported to Albania, may be killed for being gay. Peter quickly becomes obsessed with the case and the enigmatic Vasel. Meanwhile, the action moves to the retreat, where it limns Ann’s quiet, quotidian life and closely examines her longtime relationship with Clare as well as her relationship with Peter, uneasy for reasons that are gradually revealed. This deeply satisfying novel is a revelation—a thoughtful, psychologically acute, beautifully written examination of intersecting lives. The characters come alive on the page, commanding readers’ attention. This novel is sure to receive accolades, and it richly deserves them. —Michael Cart
Only Stars Know the Meaning of Space: A Literary Mixtape.
By Rémy Ngamije.
Dec. 2024. 320p. Scout, $25.99 (9781668012468); e-book (9781668012482).
Ngamije’s rich collection follows characters as they navigate the untidiness of their lives, broken relationships, and elusive desires. Set in Africa, the stories alternate between the “A-side” and “B-side.” The A-side consists of loosely connected narratives of a young man’s search for purpose, further unmoored by the loss of his mother. In “Little Brother (Or, Three in the Morning)” a phone call unveils the past while quietly capturing a mother’s haunting admission. An innocuous trip to a grocery store in the affecting “Crunchy Green Apples (Or, Omo)” opens the floodgates to grief and memory. Other tales explore the complications of love in youth and adulthood—with a rambunctious group of friends often along for the journey. The B-side stories are equally invigorating, with characters surviving or testing their circumstances. “Neighbourhood Watch” follows homeless scavengers as their self-imposed rules propel them through another day. In the nuanced “Granddaughter of the Octopus,” one family’s history, and survival, is recounted through their spirited matriarch’s relationships. The narratives are finely alert to characters’ vulnerabilities, pulling differing worlds into poignant focus. —Leah Strauss
Penalties of June.
By John Brandon.
Dec. 2024. 266p. McSweeney’s, $28 (9781963270075).
Unfinished business, criminal and emotional, threatens a man’s fresh start in this neo-noir novel set in late 1990s Florida. Once a promising baseball player, Pratt followed his best friend, Matty, into a world of drugs and violence and landed in prison. After his release, twentysomething Pratt grieves Matty’s death and longs for Matty’s erstwhile girlfriend, Kallie, now a struggling single mom. But Matty’s father, Bonne, a notorious crime boss, has more nefarious plans for Pratt, involving a handgun and a shady accountant. Strapped for cash and threatened by gangsters and cops alike, Pratt finds both comfort and torture in memories of his long-deceased parents and geographic traces of his vanished childhood. His beat-up Chrysler with a cruelly busted cassette deck provides comic relief. Returning to the dark themes and underworld characters of Arkansas (2008) and Citrus Country (2010), Brandon offers an array of memorable characters, but it’s Bethuna, Florida, a (fictitious) grungy backwater somewhere near Tampa, that is his true focal point. “What [Pratt] knew was the state’s underfunded schools. Its potholed roads. Its weedy baseball diamonds. Its penitentiaries.”—Brendan Driscoll
Private Rites.
By Julia Armfield.
Dec. 2024. 304p. Flatiron, $27.99 (9781250344311).
A dystopian future sets the stage for this Shakespeare-inspired novel in which three sisters deal with the death of their emotionally abusive father. Armfield’s flooded city is disintegrating from unrelenting rain and is littered with detritus from ill-conceived, panic-driven efforts to postpone certain planetary demise. Armfield skillfully evokes a sense of exhaustion and hopelessness, richly depicting pervasive but enervated civil unrest borne of desperation. Isla, Irene, and Agnes gather at their uniquely adapted childhood home, their architect father’s technological masterpiece. The deceased was a temperamental genius whose mercurial parenting encouraged deep rifts among his daughters, contributed to their maladaptive personalities, and calcified their combative family roles. Armfield’s portrayal is deeply psychological, told in rotating narration, and imbued with fantastically detailed world-building. The plot is secondary to the characterization of the city, which serves as an extended metaphor for the very complex sibling relationships. Armfield’s haunting picture of a speculative future may be difficult to stomach, but the inclusion of devastating family dysfunction personalizes its tragic consequences. —Joelle Egan
Rental House.
By Weike Wang.
Dec. 2024. 224p. Riverhead, $28 (9780593545546); e-book (9780593545560).
Keru seems to have an enviable life. She’s married to her college sweetheart. They both have Yale degrees. She enjoys a successful consulting career, currently assigned to a highpower eight-month project in Chicago while Nathan remains professoring in Manhattan. They purposefully don’t have kids, content with fur baby Mantou. They take nice vacations, and in these rental houses Wang cleverly reveals what’s behind the fragile façades. In the “classic New England cottage” at the Cape, the couple ensure that visits are “strategic.” First, there’s Keru’s immigrant Chinese American parents, still obsessive-compulsively concerned about pandemic-induced safety,
