Here in Chicago, we certainly braved the April showers. Now we’re looking to some beautiful blooms come May!
The beginning of summer is one of my favorite times for new books, as there’s always a surplus of exciting and interesting reads. This month’s list features an incredible and eclectic list of new releases that range in tone and perspective, but they all carry a similar theme: tons and tons of style. These insightful books are sure to be invigorating for any reader.
Here’s to the start of summer reading season!
How We See the Gray
By Rachel León
Curbstone Books
Chicago Review of Books’s very own Rachel León arrives on the literary scene with How We See the Gray, which follows a social worker and single mother named Meredith who finds herself trapped in the same system when she loses custody of her son. Prepare to have your heart broken and reassembled again and again, because León has weaved together a dazzling debut that is full of complexity and generosity amid the brutality of life. How We See the Gray does something that I wish more modern novels did: it turns an eye toward the areas of life our society too often ignores—including working-class people, the foster system, and the industrial Midwest—and it does so with heart and humane impartiality. It’s more than an achievement; it’s vital.
On Witness and Respair
By Jesmyn Ward
Scribner
There are few writers in the world who write eloquently as Jesmyn Ward, who brings a fierceness, beauty, and the sharpest resonance to every sentence. On Witness and Respair collects Ward’s nonfiction throughout the years, including previous essays, never-before published speeches, and more. In these urgent works, she explores the power of art as a tool for remembrance, resistance, and healing while also diving deep into her own familial history as storytellers. Nothing Ward writes is ever extraneous, but On Witness and Respair is a notably invigorating and insightful work; a true treasure from one of our most brilliant living writers.
Treat Them as Buffalo
By Blair Palmer Yoxall
Algonquin Books
In this gripping anti-Western, a community of women led by a shotgun-slinging rancher bands together to find a missing boy. Blair Palmer Yoxall perfectly encapsulates the complicated history of displacement at the heart of the mythos of the western frontier and twists it into a pulse-pounding thriller that strikes at the heart of the tropes we’re accustomed to seeing. Treat Them as Buffalo is an exciting debut that packs a punch from start to finish.
Hope House
By Joe Bond
Hub City Press
Set in 1980s Kentucky inside a treatment home for troubled teenagers, Joe Bond’s debut novel highlights a chorus of residents who must grapple with their pasts and attempt to move forward by cobbling together a family they never had. Bond delivers blows right to your heart while also bringing so much care, love, and generosity to a population who are all too often pushed to the edges of society. Hope House is the type of book I’m thankful exists, and one that certainly deserves your undivided attention.
Hidden River
By Sara Lippmann
Tortoise Books
If you’re not up on Sara Lippmann yet, it’s about time you jump aboard the bandwagon. Lippmann’s work is unsparing and unflinching, and her latest work brings these same trademarks to the story of a thirty-five year old woman living a lackluster existence who gets invited to a wedding for an estranged childhood friend. Toggling between the summer of 2008 and the late 80s/early 90, Hidden River offers both deeply dark comedy and aching human drama while exploring the long-lasting costs of trauma. Sara Lippman is an absolute gem of a writer.
John of John
By Douglas Stuart
Grove Press
When struggling artist John-Calum Macleod returns to his parents’ home on the Isle of Harris, he finds himself at odds with his preacher father. But as their lives crash together once more, he discovers that his father may also be keeping secrets. From the author of Shuggie Bain comes a tender tale of isolation and self-discovery that tackles the complexities of faith and identity with refreshing vulnerability. Douglas Stuart may just be our new king of drama.
Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun
By Mónica Ojeda
Translated by Sarah Booker
Coffee House Press
In the near feature, best friends Noa and Nicole flee their home to Guayaquil, Ecuador to attend a week-long, retro-futuristic gathering at the foot of an active volcano called Solar Noise Festival. But something may be darker at play beneath the drugs and the parties. Packed with psychedelic, biting lyricism and slipping between surrealism and impending horror, Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun is an intense tale of excess and escapism.
Filth Eaters
By Ito Romo
Deep Vellum Press
When vampire Radamés discovers an ancient Aztec codex that reveals that vampires of the “New World” live a more “human” life, he boards a ship for Mexico in search of a better life. There, he falls in love with an ancient sect of vampires who call themselves Filth Eaters, and in their union, a mestizo vampire is born. The slipstream novel weaves together gothic and body horror, noir, and cyberpunk sci-fi in this dark, bloody, and undeniable historical epic. Ito Romo uses vampire lore to take aim at the story of colonialism, and he doesn’t miss. Filth Eaters is horror with a heart and depth; a true can’t-miss novel.
Canon
By Paige Lewis
Viking
From acclaimed poet Paige Lewis comes an ambitious story of two unlikely heroes who embark on quests to win God’s favor. Canon is an odd duck of a novel in the best way possible—it’s a polyphonic, meta, hilarious epic that recontextualizes the hero’s journey for modern audiences. If you like books that bend conventions and expand your mind, look no further than Paige Lewis’s first foray into fiction.
Offseason
By Avigayl Sharp
Astra House
In this hilarious debut, a woman teaching at an all-girls boarding school returns to her hometown to visit her overbearing family, which leads her to have a run in with a figure from her adolescence who may or may not be responsible for violating her. Offseason is a voicey, irreverent romp told from the perspective of an unforgettable narrator. Revel in the whit and savor the heartbreak in the first from Avigayl Sharp.
Death of the Soccer God
By Dimitry Elias Léger
MCD
After Gilbert Chevalier leaves his bourgeois life in Port-au-Prince for Harlem in an attempt to pursue his soccer dreams, he’s recruited to play for the Americans in the 1950 World Cup in Brazil. But while he gets ever closer to achieving what he’s always wanted, it all begins to untangle before his eyes. Dimitry Elias Léger captures the intricacy and beauty of the beautiful sport of soccer while also exploring the lengths desire can take us. Death of the Soccer Guide scores with ease with its heart and humor.
Frank Buck: Chicago Hitman
By Joseph G. Peterson
Tortoise Books
Joseph G. Peterson’s latest follows Frank Buck, a slovenly, middle-aged mess of a man living in Chicago with one single talent: he’s a remarkable shot. This talent eventually draws him into the world of gangsters and psychopaths, leading to a gory, hilarious, and darkly absurd tale. Frank Buck: Chicago Hitman can lure you into believing that it is simply all out good time pulp fiction, but beneath its undeniably entertaining premise is a well-observed look into Chicago’s underbelly and unsparing critique on the precarity of our lives within capitalism.
