It’s hard to believe we’re in the final days of 2024!
This year has been remarkable for readers, and while I usually say that December is relatively quiet in the publishing world, that doesn’t seem to be the case this time around. In fact, we have 12 exciting new releases right here that will carry you through the cold nights of the holiday season and into the new year. Check out our recommendations below and from the entire Chicago Review of Books team, happy holidays!
Private Rites
By Julia Armfield
Flatiron Books
In this captivating speculative reimagining of King Lear, three sisters navigating the death of their father sort through the secrets and memories he left behind, only for their bonds to splinter from what they learn. Julia Armfield’s latest is a lesson in setting an undeniable atmosphere; from the non-stop rain that has reshaped the land to the ways in which varying forms of love take hold of the three sisters, Private Rites will captivate you from the first page to the last.
Kingdom of No Tomorrow
By Fabienne Josaphat
Algonquin Books
December brings us a new novel from PEN/Bellwether Prize-winning author Fabienne Josaphat. Kingdom of No Tomorrow follows Nettie Boileau, who joins the Black Panthers’ Free Health Clinics in Oakland in 1968 and becomes swept up in an all-consuming love affair with Melvin Mosley, a defense captain of the party. When they leave for Chicago to start the Illinois chapter of the Panthers, they find themselves the targets of J. Edgar Hoover’s insidious campaign. Kingdom of No Tomorrow brings history to life on the page as it explores the path toward fighting for social justice and the powerful forces throughout American society that often stand in the way of community and progress.
The Shutouts
By Gabrielle Korn
St. Martin’s Press
There’s no better way to finish off 2024 than with this insightful queer dystopian novel. In the year 2041, Kelly travels through the deadly storms and uncontrollable wildfires that have overtaken the United States to make her way back to her daughter. 40 years later, another mother, Ava, and her daughter Brook, also find themselves escaping from a climate change relief program known as The Inside Project that has treated them as lab rats. Set in the world of Gabrielle Korn’s Yours for the Taking, The Shutouts tells a timeless story of familial love and commitment in a world that is quickly coming apart at the seams.
The World With Its Mouth Open
By Zahid Rafiq
Tin House Books
It’s never too late in the year to welcome an exciting debut. The stories of The World With Its Mouth Open explore the inner lives of the people of Kashmir as they navigate the fractures caused by years of war. Zahid Rafiq strikes a perfect balance of darkness and dazzling glimmers of humor, beauty, and genuine connection to create a striking portrait of the resiliency of humanity and the communities it can build.
Sand-Catcher
By Omar Khalifah
Translated by Barbara Romaine
Coffee House Press
Sand-Catcher follows four young, Palestinian journalists at a Jordanian newspaper who are tasked—on account of their heritage—with profiling one of the last living witnesses of the 1948 Nakba. But the journalists find that their interview subject and last living witness to history has no desire to have his memories preserved or become an inspiration for the youth of tomorrow. Omar Khalifah’s debut novel is a darkly funny satire and a suspenseful tale about balancing the need for privacy and bearing witness to the traumas of the past and present.
No Place to Bury the Dead
By Karina Sainz Borgo
Translated by Elizabeth Bryer
HarperVia
In an unnamed Latin American country, a mysterious plague quickly spreads and erases the memory of anyone infected. While Angustias Romero flees with her family, they tragically lose both of her children, which lands her in the throes of grief in a town corrupted by greed and populated by storytellers, refugees, and predatory gangs. Here, she becomes caught in a dangerous power struggle between the manager of the cemetery and the landowner of the border. Remember the name Karina Sainz Borgo, as she’s masterfully blended thriller, western, and classic tragedy to craft an undeniably gripping and urgent novel.
What in Me is Dark: The Revolutionary Afterlife of Paradise Lost
By Orlando Reade
Astra House
We love a book that defies classification, and What in Me is Dark is just that. Part literary criticism and part political history, Orlando Reade’s book tells the unlikely story of how Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost came to haunt political struggles over the past four centuries, including the many ways it has been read, interpreted, and appropriated throughout time. Focusing on twelve readers including Malcolm X, Thomas Jefferson, George Eliot, and more and drawing on Reade’s own experiences teaching the poem in New Jersey prisons, What in Me is Dark is a unique work of literary history that highlights the far reaches of Milton’s masterpiece.
Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe
By Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry
Harper
You deserve to enjoy some fascinating history this winter. Oathbreakers explores the Carolingian Civil War, which pitted kings against kings and brothers against brothers when Louis the Pious’s sons tried to overthrow him. Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry do an excellent job of detailing a complex story of shifting alliances and bitter conflict, creating an intricate portrait of Medieval strife that rivals any episode of Game of Thrones. Oathbreakers is historical writing at its finest.
Also Here
By Brooke Randel
Tortoise Books
From Chicago author Brooke Randel comes Also Here, a deeply moving memoir about the author’s relationship to her grandmother and Holocaust survivor Golda Indig. For years the two never talked about her grandmother’s experiences, until she called unexpectedly to ask Brooke to write about her life and experience in the war. The result is a deeply resonant and unflinching memoir about her grandmother’s journey of survival and the special relationship between grandparents and their grandchildren.
Reading Arendt in the Waiting Room: A Philosophy Primer for an Anxious Age
By Jonathan Foiles
Belt Publishing
As individuals, how do we even begin to grapple with problems as large as late stage capitalism and impending climate change? In Reading Arendt in the Waiting Room, licensed psychotherapist Jonathan Foiles explains how philosophy can help us respond to the deep questions of our modern existence. Foiles writes clearly and accessibly about topics that would otherwise confound and overwhelm, and places history’s greatest philosophers into practice in our lives in order to use their lessons as a tool for good. At a time in which many feel frozen with anxiety, Reading Arendt in the Waiting Room is an essential text to spur us into action.
What It’s Like in Words
By Eliza Moss
Henry Holt and Co.
When Enola meets an enigmatic writer who allows her to finally fantasize about a bright future, she quickly realizes that what lies beneath his alluring exterior is a deep darkness and remove. Her desire for him quickly unravels into a wave of disorientation, threatening to put into question everything she knows about love and herself. Eliza Moss’s debut novel echoes the hilarious and bitterly painful yearning of Fleabag, which makes for a powerful investigation around the emotional devastation that can come with a first love.
I Might Be in Trouble
By Daniel Aleman
Grand Central Publishing
In this intense dark comedy, a struggling writer wakes up to find that his date from the night before is dead. Together with his literary agent, they must untangle what truly happened and decide how far he’s willing to go to spin his misadventure into his next big book. I Might Be in Trouble is a biting satire about the publishing world and an undeniable adventure from start to finish.
