July 27, 2024
These novels crisscross the globe with characters in search of family, food, and answers to the secrets of their pasts. A mother goes missing in rural England; a London heat wave disrupts a weekend; the African Diaspora is explored in a family epic; a powerful eco-fiction arrives from Latin America; and an Ethiopian American journalist takes a journey across America in this selection. Embrace the heat and take a trip with this gifted group of writers.
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
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They Dream in Gold
By MAI SENNAAR
Published by ZANDO
Sennaar’s first fiction is Sarah Jessica Parker’s latest offering in her SJP Lit imprint. The author wanted to write about “the transformation that occurs when different cultures within a diaspora are intimately engaged with one another.” Mansour, a Senegalese jazz musician has not returned from a tour with his band and his pregnant partner Bonnie, ensconced with his extended family in Switzerland, is concerned. Throughout this sweeping story, a vivid ensemble of women’s voices express the search for home. Playwright and filmmaker Sennaar has created a cast of inedible characters, from Paris to Brazil to Switzerland, and across America, to populate this rich debut novel about Black identity.
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Someone Like Us
By DINAW MENGESTU
Published by KNOPF
Mamush, a former journalist, was born of Ethiopian immigrants and like so many, lives between two worlds. With his marriage in trouble, he leaves his wife and child in Paris and travels to see his mother outside of Washington, D.C. for the first time in five years. There he finds out that the man he considered his father, the cab-driving Samuel who was a mainstay in his life, is dead. This sets in motion Mamush’s journey to find out what happened to Samuel and to untangle the stories about his roots that have always remained mysterious. Mengestu is a beloved, prize-winning writer who is at the top of his game here.
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Pink Slime
By FERNANDA TRÍAS
Published by SCRIBNER
Translated by Heather Cleary
Uruguayan writer Trías’s speculative fiction has a wistful poignancy that separates it from recent dystopian novels. The unnamed narrator in this unexplained apocalypse cares for a boy whose constant hunger has made him obese. Her mother and ex-husband take up the rest of her time. There is red wind, thick fog, and a scary red algae bloom. What is left to eat is processed paste—the “pink slime.” Yet she remains in this dying coastal town, paralyzed by her dedication to the trio who make up her circumscribed life. The writing is superb, as is the elegant translation. In a sea of novels on this subject, this one stands out.
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Pearl
By SIÂN HUGHES
Published by KNOPF
This Booker Prize longlisted gem by poet Hughes follows a woman whose mother goes missing when she is a child. Marianne spends her life trying to piece together the mystery of her disappearance. “I find myself starting conversations with her in my head, even now.” Now with a child of her own she returns to the rural English village where she grew up. The discovery of a medieval poem (“Pearl,” a real poem about a mourning father by an anonymous Gawain poet) among her mother’s things informs the story and the journey to her own self-discovery. The prose is dreamy and melancholy; you’ll sail along hoping the best for Marianne.
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Evenings and Weekends
By OISÍN MCKENNA
Published by MARINER BOOKS
A beached whale on the Thames opens McKenna’s new novel, like its listless band of characters trying to endure the heat wave that has descended upon London over a summer 2019 weekend. Maggie, 30, is pregnant; her boyfriend Ed is surprised by the news and self-medicating on an acid trip. He is attracted to Maggie’s childhood friend, Phil, but Phil’s attracted to his housemate. There are many appealing characters, friends and family, in this sparkling debut. McKenna deftly explores relationships, queerness in London, Britain’s economy, and how one copes when life takes some unexpected turns. Like a ’90s Hugh Grant movie, it is an infectious romp.
