August 23, 2025
This week, we have a dark fantasy about ancient magic that takes place in Hell; a Southern Gothic family story where the Devil’s handiwork is in evidence; a memoir from a writer who escaped a constrictive religious community in Manitoba; an impressive debut novel about a small-town catastrophe; and a biography of the treasured Black woman sci-fi writer who has brought legions of readers to the genre.
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
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Katabasis
By R.F. KUANG
Published by HARPER VOYAGER
The ancient Greek title of Kuang’s historical fantasy refers to a journey into darkness. Alice is an ambitious student majoring in Analytical Magick. Her dedication to becoming the best in her field has taken a physical and psychic toll. But when her beloved professor dies in an accident and ends up in Hell, she and her colleague—and rival—Peter must travel to the underworld to save his soul. Kuang researched classical logic to build her magic system for this inventive campus fiction with echoes of Dante. While supplies last, we will have the special limited edition; it is (literally) spellbinding.
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A Truce That Is Not Peace
By MIRIAM TOEWS
Published by BLOOMSBURY
Toews’s second memoir draws on pages from her past and revisits familiar subjects, particularly the 2010 suicide of her sister. “She‘s why I started writing, and why I continue to write.” Toews also explores what it means to be a writer, tracing how using her own life and harsh childhood in a Canadian Mennonite community, along with the lessons learned from her strong, independent mother, have shaped her body of work. Her voice blends dry humor with profound insight. You will feel this wise woman in the room with you as you read.
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Dogs
By C. MALLON
Published by SCRIBNER
A propulsive stream of consciousness with few places to take a breath, Mallon’s debut is a compassionate, yet ruthless portrait of a group of small-town boys in Utah whose lives revolve around each other and wrestling. Constantly punching each other (“I figured wrestling gave us an out for the quick, cheap collisions.”), the boys are all weirdos at heart, as most late teenage boys tend to be. Narrator Hal tells the brief, devastating tale of what happened to this group of misfits on an October night that changed their lives. The story builds to a violent crescendo with multiple disasters that will leave you gasping.
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Dominion
By ADDIE E. CITCHENS
Published by FSG
Longlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, Citchens’s debut is a knockout. The Reverend Winfrey’s family, who live up on Coon Hill “with all the rest of the fancy Black folk,” dominate the conversation in Dominion, Mississippi: the shamelessly handsy patriarch; the drug-addled mother who suffers from chronic pain; the angelic youngest son of five who is a star footballer but looks to be following in his father’s footsteps; and the young woman who loves him, no saint herself. There is evil in the garden, a family marked by secret and lies, and the women who try to save these men from themselves.
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Positive Obsession
By SUSANA M. MORRIS
Published by AMISTAD
Butler (Parable of the Sower) once remarked, “Positive obsession is about not being able to stop just because you’re afraid and full of doubts…. It’s about not being able to stop at all.” Her road to career success was fueled by her dedication to thwart the norms. Being a Black female writer—let alone a science-fiction writer—from humble beginnings was a challenging obstacle. But dedication to craft, and to civil and women’s rights brought her numerous awards and a cult-like following, introducing readers worldwide to speculative and dystopian literature that is timely and timeless. Morris’s biography is a fitting legacy for her enormous contribution.
