September 14, 2024
The fall ’24 season is in full swing and extraordinary voices this week from Albania, Argentina, and South Africa await you. We also have new work from two sensational writers with their fingers on the pulse of modern life. Three have one-word titles that intrigue. There are a lot of tomes out this season, but these brainy, thought-provoking pieces of fiction are all under 300 pages.
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
-
.
Entitlement
By RUMAAN ALAM
Published by RIVERHEAD
Brooke, a young, idealistic, Black teacher finds a job at a philanthropic foundation run by a billionaire who wants to give away all his money. Brooke identifies a Black-owned organization that seems perfect for his donation, but it turns out not everyone wants help. As her boss Asher inspires her to demand what she wants, Brooke lets her personal life and family fall by the wayside while she gets a taste of the high life. But is she losing sight of what’s appropriate? And will she learn her lesson in time? Alaam (Leave the World Behind) perfectly nails the sometimes-invisible class system in American contemporary life.
-
.
A Sunny Place for Shady People
By MARIANA ENRIQUEZ
Published by HOGARTH
Translated by Megan McDowell
This popular Argentinian writer (The Dangers of Smoking in Bed) has a new collection of short stories that will make you squirm. Her blend of the unreal, the surreal, and the magically real creates a brew that is horror at its literary best. In a story published in the New Yorker, “My Sad Dead,” a doctor’s deceased mother haunts their house with her screams. And the neighborhood is full of other ghosts, many victims of local violence. Enriquez’s particular dispassionate prose makes it all seem natural, and all the creepier. These uncanny tales are a great introduction to her work.
.
-
.
Misinterpretation
By LEDIA XHOGA
Published by TIN HOUSE BOOKS
Our protagonist, who lives in the Village with her husband, is an interpreter, mostly for Albanian speakers. Interpretation is a complicated dynamic that can lead to inappropriate attractions. Lines start to blur when her husband gets increasingly uncomfortable with clients turning up on their doorstep and certain men rely on her for every need. The marriage starts to destabilize. Does she need better boundaries, or should he understand the importance of what she does? It is a juicy subject (see Kitamura’s Intimacies) and a way to explore both gender dynamics and racism. It is also longlisted for The Center for Fiction 2024 First Novel Prize.
-
.
Rejection
By TONY TULATHIMUTTE
Published by WILLIAM MORROW
In seven painfully hilarious connected stories, Tulathimutte (Private Citizens) turns his gimlet eye onto the ways in which the youth of today are hopelessly hampered by their incessant online scrolling, social media, and every other contemporary minefield. In “Ahegao, or the Ballad of Sexual Repression,” a thirty-something man agonizes over the mass email he’s sending out to friends and family to declare he is gay, then “turns off his phone and spends the rest of the night vomiting from stress.” In “Feminist” a narrow-shouldered college kid cannot seem to turn any of his girlfriends into girlfriends, an excruciatingly funny stream of indignities. Who knew there were this many versions of rejection?
.
-
.
Fathers and Fugitives
By S.J. NAUDÉ
Published by EUROPA
Acclaimed by Booker Prize recipient Damon Galgut, this is Naudé’s first U.S. publication. It is the brief but quietly searing story of Daniel, a cool customer living in London, working as a journalist. When his distant father is ailing, he begrudgingly returns home to South Africa to care for him. After his father’s passing, a condition of the will is that Daniel reunite with a cousin he has not seen in decades. Their renewed relationship takes them to emotionally and geographically unexpected places. Naudé is a master at combining politics with a story of family loyalties building to a powerful conclusion. I can’t wait to read more from this astonishing writer.
