We recommend: The best new book releases
The best of new fiction
Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner: This is Betsy Lerner’s debut novel. She is a celebrated literary agent who already has three non-fiction books to her name. Her novel is about the bond between two sisters—Olivia, the elder one and the problem child, and Amy, the straight A student. The book looks at their push-and-pull bond over the years. And hey, it’s actually not as boring and predictable as it sounds. Washington Post concludes “What comes at us, page after page, is new news, for which — laughter and pain alike — we’re ultimately grateful. The ride feels real.” Similarly, New York Times writes: “The prose is controlled, but neither virtuosic nor spare; the plot, enticing but neither Dickensian nor minimalist.” (October 1)
Some Like it Cold by Elle McNicoll: Few books are brave enough to explore a love story from the lens of a high functioning adult on the neurodiverse spectrum. Like a typical Hallmark movie, 18-year-old Jasper is home for the holidays where she meets Arthur—an amateur filmmaker—there to shoot about Lake Pristine. They meet, Jasper's secret is out and they still fall in love. The end. Unfortunately, the book doesn’t have reviews. (October 1)
The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrichy Red by Louise Erdrich: A young man is about to inherit two farms, he is terrified and also in love with a young woman. Another gentle but determined man is in love with the same woman. A fraught wedding is at hand in a North Dakota prairie community that struggles to come to terms with the forces that are out to upend it. The Guardian review describes it as “part romcom, part overblown family saga, part cli-fi warning, part absurdist heist, part small-town satire, all tumbling out amid the turmoil of the 2008 financial crash.” It also calls it “a garrulous satire”, “too much going on”, but says, “the narrative voice is the redeeming quality”. (October 21)
The Third Realm by Karl Ove Knausgaard: A new star has appeared in the sky above Norway. A painter on holiday has descended into psychosis, a policeman investigates a triple murder, and a 19-year-old falls in love with the frontman of a band. The dark forces of the world are at play as the supernatural meets the mundane. Knausgaard’s previous novels ‘The Morning Star’ and ‘The Wolves of Eternity’ have introduced some of these events and characters before. But, The Washington Post review calls it, “less a sequel and more of an eerie doppelgänger to ‘The Morning Star.’” The Guardian review heaps praises: “Knausgård seems prepared to be a brilliant failure—that may be part of his genius. And on he will go and on some of us will go with him, because even at his most flawed he has such an electrifyingly capacious sense of what the novel can be.” (October 21)
For She Is Wrath by Emily Varga: This is a reimagining of Alexandre Dumas’s extremely popular ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ —set in… Pakistan!? Yup. The Pakistani-Canadian author, Emily Varga, also flips the genders roles here. Her protagonist Dania hatches her revenge plan in jail, finds a hidden treasure after jailbreak, gets access to djinn magic and exacts her revenge on her former lover Mazin and his accomplices. Kirkus Reviews calls it a “vividly realised, page-turning revenge story.” Publishers Weekly gives it an elaborate praise: “Evocative prose is punctuated by sumptuous descriptions of Pakistani food, clothing, and weaponry…which build to a satisfying, somewhat hastily resolved denouement.” (October 29)
This month’s poetry pick
Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems 1961-2023 by Margaret Atwood: The author needs no introduction. She has published 18 books of poetry—in the span of six decades of work. This fat book is a compilation of all of her best works—from her earliest beginnings to brand new poems. (October 8)
The best of new non-fiction
Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell: Twenty-five years since he first released his landmark book ‘Tipping Point’, Gladwell revisits many of the themes in the first book in a follow-up work on the new and troubling landscape of social engineering, in what he claims is his most personal work yet. The Guardian thinks it’s a worthy follow-up but often “loses sight of the complexities and emotional resonance of his subject”. Washington Post wasn’t too impressed, though, claiming that “these stories feel like disjointed chatter rather than examples in service of a strong thesis”. (October 1)
Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism by Ramachandra Guha: In his deeply researched new work, author Ramachandra Guha recounts the beginnings of environmental consciousness beyond European and American definitions. It spans over a century of India’s history, with deep insight, from a time before the term environmental consciousness grew popular. In the process, Guha offers writing and resources, to counter the threat of climate change. There are no reviews of the book yet. (October 10)
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates: A book with three intertwined essays, Coates takes the readers on a journey to Dakar in Senegal, Columbia in South Carolina, and to Palestine–using all three locations to talk about the impact of storytelling, and the clash between the stories we tell about our lives, and how they really are on the ground. New York Times calls the book “harder edged” than the author’s previous work, but one that also shows “a sense of possibility”. Kirkus Reviews succinctly dubs it “A revelatory meditation on shattering journeys.” (October 15)
What I Ate in One Year: (and related thoughts) by Stanley Tucci: A follow-up to his 2021 memoir, ‘Taste: My Life Through Food’, actor and gourmand Stanley Tucci’s new work is as much a travelogue across cities, restaurants, film sets, and his family home, but is also a heartfelt collection of memories, and how his relationship with food was affected by his bout with oral cancer. Kirkus Reviews calls the book engaging and highlights it as a “charming and sometimes touching glimpse” into Tucci’s life. (October 15)
Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions by John Grisham and Jim Mccloskey: In his second non-fiction book, after the true crime ‘The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town’, John Grisham has teamed up with Jim McCloskey to tell ten well-researched true stories stories of wrongful convictions full of drama, battles for justice, and the inadequacy of the legal system. There are no reviews of the book yet. (October 28)
Shattered by Hanif Kureishi: The book is a biographical account of how Kureishi went from hospital to hospital, grappled with the medical systems in Italy, and was faced with the grim reality of being left paralysed by a fall in Rome in 2022. He takes these hospital dispatches and marries them with new writing to weave a narrative of pain and loss, with humility, gratitude, and love. Unfortunately, there are no reviews out for this book, yet. (October 31)
