Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Pico Iyer, Kashana Cauley, Janet Malcolm, and more—that are publishing this week.
The Half Known Life by Pico Iyer
Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Half Known Life: “Essayist Iyer (A Beginner’s Guide to Japan) visits regions of religious import in this immersive and profound survey of earthly paradises. ‘I’d begun to wonder what kind of paradise can ever be found in a world of unceasing conflict—and whether the very search for it might not simply aggravate our differences,’ Iyer writes, detailing his travels to Ethiopia, India, Iran, and Sri Lanka and discussing how people there understand the concept of ‘paradise.’ He begins in Iran, the ‘world’s largest theocracy,’ and visits the Imam Reza shrine, finding in the ‘competing visions of paradise’ that play out there affirmation of Persian poet Rumi’s exhortation to seek a personal heaven within oneself. In Sri Lanka, he visits Adam’s Peak—which Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus claim holds special significance—but remarks that the political violence in the country undercuts its idyllic pretenses and the ‘idea of paradise seemed… to move people to be not kinder but more reckless.’ Meditating on his conversations with his friend the Dalai Lama, Iyer decides to ‘just let life come to me in all its happy confusion and find the holiness in that.’ Iyer remains a cultural critic par excellence, matching penetrating insights with some of the most transportive prose around. This further burnishes Iyer’s reputation as one of the best travel writers out there.”
The Survivalists by Kashana Cauley
Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Survivalists: “TV writer Cauley’s well-crafted if schematic debut involves a New York City lawyer’s quest to make partner at her firm and find love. Aretha is a successful Black corporate attorney assigned to squash a bunch of homeowners’ insurance claims following Superstorm Sandy. Meanwhile, after countless failed dates, she meets and falls in love with coffee entrepreneur Aaron, who lives with his business partner, Brittany, in the Brooklyn house they collectively own. But once Aretha moves in, she finds out the household members, who include James, a disgraced former journalist, are stockpiling guns and making other preparations for survival, having been stirred in part by Sandy’s destruction (the business name, Tactical Coffee, ought to have been a red flag). With Aaron out of town sourcing beans, Aretha accompanies James on gun runs, but in her determination to prove her worth, she loses focus at work and starts slipping up. Cauley’s understanding of plot is impeccable and she keeps the tension taut as Aretha gets more involved with the group, but though the author lightly grapples with the politics of gun ownership, the matter is ultimately reduced to cheap thrills (Aretha, for instance, ‘wanted to enjoy the rush of her last trip to make money off guns’), and the characters are written to type. It’s a good story, but it should have gone straight to screenplay.”
Ghost Season by Fatin Abbas
Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Ghost Season: “Abbas debuts with an impressive account of five people who work for a humanitarian organization as war threatens their town on the border of North and South Sudan. William Luol, a Nilot, has been hired as a translator for Alex, an American, who’s been sent there to make a map of the area to guide aid efforts. William has a crush on Layla, the organization compound’s nomad cook, whom he worries about when she doesn’t show for work one day and a burned corpse is found upriver. He asks 12-year-old Mustafa, who cleans the compound, to find out where she lives, while Dena, a Sudanese American filmmaker staying for a few months, documents the herdsmen who brought the body to be buried, as rumors fly of renewed clashes with Southern rebels. Layla reappears and things between her and William blossom, while Alex, frustrated by impediments to his mapmaking, fights with Dena. Meanwhile, Mustafa secretly gets involved running guns for the rebels, and all become on edge when militias arrive in town and target Nilotes. With security deteriorating, Alex tries to evacuate, but a weather delay forces him back, and events that follow have heavy consequences for all. Abbas skillfully navigates boundaries between the disparate players and builds a fine drama out of their negotiations and bonds. Readers will be captivated by this immersive novel.”
The Deluge by Stephen Markley
Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Deluge: “In this brilliant dystopian epic from Markley (Ohio), spanning from 2013 to 2040, a range of characters attempt to avert catastrophic climate change, sometimes at great personal risk, and with varying degrees of success. There’s geologist Tony Pietrus; climate justice activist Kate Morris; Shane Acosta, a sophisticated ecoterrorist; and Ashir al-Hasan, chief of staff for the Senate Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. The plot begins in familiar terrain, with scientists sounding the alarm that time is running out. Speculative elements emerge with the meteoric ascent of Morris, whose organization, A Fierce Blue Fire, has made global warming the sole litmus test for its political support. The charismatic Morris also dreams up investment opportunities to benefit neglected and poverty-stricken regions. Interstitial segments, including a newspaper article written by AI about Shane’s truck bombing of an Ohio power station in 2030, add to the sense of frightening plausibility. Meanwhile, the bureaucratic al-Hasan comments in a memo on the ‘inanity and profiteering that surround the legislative process,’ while Pietrus, whose work on methane clathrates is quietly incorporated into government models, remains divisive and marginalized. Markley makes this anything but didactic; his nuanced characterizations of individuals with different approaches to the existential threat make the perils they encounter feel real as they navigate cover-ups and lies. It’s a disturbing tour de force.”
Small World by Laura Zigman
Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Small World: “In Zigman’s entrancing and thorny latest (after Separation Anxiety), two sisters confront the childhood death of their middle sister. After living in Los Angeles for 30 years, Lydia Mellishman moves in with her younger sister, Joyce, in Cambridge, Mass. Both women are divorced and childless, and are hopeful that rooming together will mean they can finally develop a bond. Lydia, however, remains her old bristly self: she’s rude and inconsiderate of Joyce’s feelings, especially after Lydia befriends their new neighbors Sonia and Stan, who disrupt Joyce’s life with the noise of their illegal yoga studio. As the narrative flits between the present and the sisters’ childhood, it becomes clear that their dynamic is fueled by having been neglected as children by their mother, Louise. Despite Joyce’s stutter and Lydia’s dyslexia, Louise directed her attention toward their sister Eleanor, who had cerebral palsy and died from the flu when she was 10. Later, Louise continued focusing on advocacy work for children with special needs. After Joyce’s job as an archivist leads her to someone from Louise’s circle, Lydia shares a secret, and the sisters find an opportunity for reckoning. Zigman does a stellar job of creating well-rounded characters, and a satisfying ending tops off her well-crafted paean to sisterhood. Readers will love this.”
In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas
Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about In the Upper Country: “Thomas’s mesmerizing debut explores freedom, family, and the interconnections between white, Black, and Indigenous communities in 1859 Canada. Lensinda Martin, a reporter for the Coloured Canadian newspaper, lives in the Black village of Dunmore, a stop on the Underground Railroad. One day, American bounty hunter Pelham Beall arrives in pursuit of six Kentucky fugitives from slavery who are staying with a farmer named Simeon. After one of them, an elderly woman named Cash, fatally shoots Beall, Simeon asks Lensinda to visit Cash in jail to ensure her explanation is recorded and shared. Cash proposes a bargain with Lensinda: she will tell the story of her life if Lensinda does the same. Though Lensinda, a self-professed ‘woman of little patience,’ is initially irked by the agreement, she’s soon swept up in their exchange and the surprising links between their lives. Thomas amplifies the women’s stories with excerpts from a collection of enslaved people’s narratives obtained by Lensinda, while stories of Cash’s Indigenous husband, John; Black Canadians during the War of 1812; and the American enslaved people who settled Dunmore add to the vivid tapestry. At once intimate and majestic, Thomas’s ambitious work heralds a bright new voice.”
Ghost Music by An Yu
Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Ghost Music: “Yu (Braised Pork) mesmerizes with this surreal story of music and mushrooms. Song Yan, 29, a former concert pianist turned piano teacher in Beijing, has recurring dreams of a dark, doorless room where a ghost mushroom speaks to her. Meanwhile, her life is fraying: Yu brilliantly captures the dying throes of Song Yan’s three-year marriage to Bowen, a BMW salesman; her untenable relationship with her mother-in-law; and her long-standing friendship with a supportive hairdresser. Everyone seems to know more about Bowen’s late nights at work and extended trips to Shanghai and Munich than Song Yan does, and they also know life-shattering secrets about Bowen’s past, including that he has a grieving ex-wife and a young son that might explain why he has been unwilling to have a child with Song Yan. Then there is the unsolved mystery of legendary pianist Bai Yu, who disappeared a decade ago, but might be the one who’s anonymously sending Song Yan rare mushrooms. Along the way, Song Yan continues teaching and reflects on her favorite pieces by Chopin, Debussy, and Schubert. As Song Yan relentlessly surges toward independence and away from solitude and loneliness, Yu’s blistering narrative reaches a plaintive end. Readers will be enthralled.”
Also out this week: OK by Michelle McSweeney and Still Pictures by Janet Malcolm.
