We recommend: The best new book releases

The best of new fiction

I See You Have Called in Dead by John Kenney: This darkly comic work set in the world of wakes and funerals has a long list of influences—from ‘The Office’ to ‘Six Feet Under’ via ‘About A Boy’. The story centres on a down-on-his-luck newspaper obituary writer whose wife has recently left him for another man. One night due to drinking a Scotch too many after a bad blind date, he proceeds to write and publish his own obituary. Hilarity ensues as the newspaper wants to sack him for the prank but their system now flags him as ‘dead’, causing a technical snag. Amid this delay, his boss gives him another chance to turn his life around. 

Reviews are mixed. Washington Post says, “There’s a weird tension…between the author’s willingness to call out sappy tropes and his desire to gorge on them, like a fierce nutritionist who raids the Oreos every night.” According to Star Tribune: 

“Although it’s darkly funny, more than a little sad and occasionally downright tragic, ‘I See You’ve Called in Dead’ is never cheesy, thank god.” (April 1)

Fearless by Lauren Roberts: The third and final book in the Powerless Trilogy. Paedyn Gray and Kai Azer return to the Kingdom of Ilya as a resistance brews and loyalties are tested. After surviving betrayals, battles and the unraveling of a kingdom built on power and prejudice, Paedyn now faces a life-altering choice—one that will seal her fate and that of everyone around her. Set against a backdrop of rising unrest and a brutal regime, the final chapter of this romantasy unfolds in a world where love and loyalty are constantly at war. There are no reviews out as of yet for this book. (April 8)

Their Monstrous Hearts by Yigit Turhan: A struggling writer inherits his grandmother’s crumbling villa in Milan and her famed butterfly collection. Hoping to find inspiration, Riccardo moves in—only to find strange figures from her past, a greenhouse that seems to breathe, and a diary that hints at something sinister. As he digs deeper into Perihan’s life and death, secrets emerge through a dual timeline, tying past obsessions to present dangers in this gothic tale of family, memory and unease. Reviews are sparse but good. Vogue writes the novel blends “family secrets, hidden manuscripts, and mysterious butterflies” with sly humor and profound grief. (April 8)

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry: On the quiet shores of Little Crescent Island, two writers—sunny Alice Scott and brooding Hayden Anderson—compete to tell the story of Margaret Ives, a reclusive heiress tied to one of the most scandalous families of the twentieth century. Invited for a one-month trial, they’re given fragments of her life under strict NDAs and left to piece together a tangled legacy of fame, tragedy, and reinvention. But as the past unfolds in glimpses, a new story—one between Alice and Hayden—begins to take shape. 

Reviews are great! Publishers Weekly says that what starts as a “charming if standard rom-com” transforms into a “hauntingly beautiful meditation on what makes a life well lived.” Kirkus Reviews describes it as a “delightful slow burn” with historical depth. (April 22)

Zeal by Morgan Jenkins: Some love stories happen in a few seconds, while some others take 150 years. This multigenerational story follows two couples—Ardelia and Oliver who are engaged and their ancestors Harrison and Tirzah in 1865. The story explores the ideas of star-crossed lovers while we learn all about Harrison and Tirzah’s lives in Mississippi and  Louisiana, respectively through the newly engaged couple. (April 22)

Gabriele by Anne Berest & Claire Berest: A follow up to ‘The Postcard’, this new novel by the Berest sisters is a story of a passionate love affair that triggered a revolution. It is set in 1908, during the height of the Belle Époque. The story follows a brilliant, young French woman named Gabriële and her attempt to revolutionise art and open up new ways of seeing and thinking, along with her husband and lover. The dynamic plot moves around Paris, New York, Berlin, Zurich, Barcelona, London, and even Saint-Tropez! Kirkus Reviews writes; “The novel becomes an account of this union, the art movements (Cubism, Dadaism) Picabia and his friends explore, and of a colorful, creative circle.” (April 22)

This month’s poetry pick

Carbonate of Copper by Roberto Tejada: This lyric poetry-cum-documentary photography project captures stories and voices from the US-Mexico border, and all the fraught issues that come with it. Militarised surveillance, xenophobia, forced displacement, the pandemic—everything gets addressed over the course of this book. If it happened at the border, it’s in here—and told from the perspective of those hardest hit by the political football that is the border.  

There is only one review out for this book. Post Gazette says, “Tejada has created his own mythos around the US-Mexican border in a language that feels unfamiliar yet well-tread.” (April 1)

The best of the non-fiction list

Notes to John by Joan Didion: In November 1999, Joan Didion began documenting her sessions with a psychiatrist in a journal she created for her husband, John Gregory Dunne. These sessions spanned over a decade and covered a wide range of deeply personal themes—alcoholism, adoption, depression, anxiety, and her relationship with her daughter, Quintana. Over time, the focus shifted to her struggles with writing, childhood memories, strained communication with her parents, and questions around legacy. Through detailed entries, the journal offers a raw and intimate portrait of Didion’s inner life. There are no reviews out as of now. (April 22)

Strangers in the Land by Michael Luo: This is a history of immigration—the Shanghai to San Francisco kind—and of exclusion—with the US Supreme Court upholding a law that barred Chinese labour from setting foot on Amreeki shores for the next fifty years. Much like the internment of their Japanese counterparts during World War II, this is an under-explored aspect of US history—far removed from mainstream narratives. An editor and writer at New Yorker, Luo traverses two centuries to tell character-driven stories within a larger context—like how Chinese immigrants tried to participate in the gold rush and the rise of railroads but faced the ire of white supremacists at every step. There are no reviews out yet for this book (April 29)