The Millions’ Great Summer 2026 Book Preview

After a long and merciless winter, summer is upon us, and with it, the urgent need for beach reads, pool reads, park reads, fire escape reads, coffee shop patio reads, you get the point. We’ve got you covered. Below, you’ll find some 130 books out this summer that we’re excited about here at The Millions. Some we’ve already read in galley form; others we’re simply eager to dive into based on their authors or subjects. We leaned on our friends at Publishers Weekly to help blurb some of the many, many titles that we’re eager to put on your radar.

, Sophia Stewart, editor

Note: While we’re still on an editorial hiatus, we’re still working hard to produce our seasonal previews, we hope to return to our full operations soon.

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July

The Abyss by Jeyamohan, tr. Suchitra Ramachandran (Transit)

Originally published in 2003, this deeply human story from Jeyamohan tells of slavery, religious hypocrisy, official corruption, and arranged marriage in 1991 Tamil Nadu. Read more.

Up All Night: A World History of Nightlife by Imogen Willetts (Grove)

In this spectacular debut, historian Willetts surveys 350 years of influential international nightlife scenes. Read more.

Élisabethr by Éric Rohmer, tr. Aaron Kerner (McNally)

Originally published in 1946, the lone novel from celebrated French New Wave filmmaker Rohmer (1920, 2010) is an alluring if rambling affair set mostly in northern France before the outbreak of WWII. Read more.

Scavenging Beauty by Angelica Glass (Riverhead)

In her striking debut, social worker Glass recalls walking down every road in Santa Cruz County, Calif. Read more.

A Real Animal by Emeline Atwood (Catapult)

A young woman navigates her desires in the wake of a sexual assault in the propulsive and stunning debut from Atwood. Read more.

American Alt by Chris Lockhart (Bloomsbury)

This extraordinary memoir by anthropologist Lockhart follows his efforts to help his friend, Michael Dodd, a former Marine diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, recover his memories of events leading to his 2021 arrest for planning to kidnap Washington governor Jay Inslee. Read more.

The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders (Holt)

Sanders delivers a gripping multigenerational epic of land, home, and inheritance. Read more.

We Were Forbidden by Jacqueline Harpman, tr. Ros Schwartz (Transit)

The three female protagonists in this sharp-edged triptych from international bestseller Harpman push back against the political, educational, and sexual regimes, respectively, that govern their lives. Read more.

Good Morning Means I Love You by Kendra Allen (Ecco)

Allen continues the theme of self-manifestation explored in her memoir, Fruit Punch, in this lyrical and sensuous debut novel about a 30-something woman’s unconventional family. Read more.

Nightjar by Emily Ruskovich (Random House)

Ruskovich explores the implications of mysteries and lies in this potent collection of five stories. Read more.

You Won’t Get Free of It by Rachel Aviv (Knopf)

New Yorker staff writer Aviv delivers a sharp collection of reported stories about mothers and daughters navigating medical and moral crises. Read more.

False Prophet by Afsheen Farhadi (Melville House)

An up-and-coming actor fabricates his late mother’s life story for a memoir, in Farhadi’s beguiling debut. Read more.

A Sudden Flicker of Light by David Thomson (S&S)

Film critic and historian Thomson delivers an insightful history of filmmaking that investigates the negative effects of the medium. Read more.

They Stole a City by Lauren Collins (Penguin Press)

Collins’s history, spanning more than 125 years, traces the impact of the 1898 white supremacist massacre and coup in Wilmington, N.C., through the stories of four families.

Ada by Mark Haber (Coffee House)

A petty French tyrant recounts his failed conquests in this cerebral and entrancing narrative from Haber. Read more.

Astronaut! by Oana Aristide (Norton)

Aristide evokes in this splendid novel the heightened fear and tension of 1989 Romania near the end of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s totalitarian reign. Read more.

Every Inch a Lady by Audrey Smaltz (Amistad)

Pathbreaking model and businesswoman Audrey Smaltz, who also worked as a Wall Street broker and magazine editor, details her rise to the upper echelons of the fashion industry in this lively memoir.

Going to the Moon by Sally Ashton (Duke)

The poet’s entry in Duke University Press’s Practices series meditates on the Moon’s influence on humanity, and the threat posed by our attempts to colonize it.

Living, Together ed. Samantha Paige Rosen (Beacon)

Contributors including Kristen Arnett, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Sarah Thankam Mathews reflect on the virtues of communal living, chosen family, and the many forms of home in this imaginative collection.

Seven: Or How to Play a Game by Joanna Kavenna (Faber)

An underemployed young academic assists a famous “Box philosopher” on researching her quixotic book in this stimulating if freewheeling novel from Orange Prize winner Kavenna. Read more.

Aging Out by Lucy Schiller (Flatiron)

Schiller, a nonfiction writing professor at Texas Tech, debuts with a moving examination of the complex reality of growing old in the U.S. Read more.

Our Knives Will Save Us by Nephi Craig (Penguin Press)

In this affecting debut memoir, Craig extols the culinary heritage of his ancestors and discusses how cooking supported his sobriety. Read more.

Push the Wall by Frank Miller (Saga)

Miller, creator of such celebrated comics series as the Dark Knight Returns and 300, meditates on the forces behind his art in this exuberant memoir. Read more.

Hustle, Baby by Priya Guns (Doubleday)

Guns serves up an energetic tale of a Tamil family struggling to survive in Toronto. Read more.

Should the Waters Take Us by Stephanie Soileau (Doubleday)

Steeped in history, Soileau’s wonderful debut novel, after the story collection Last One Out Shut Off the Lights, revolves around three interconnected French Acadian clans in 2019 Louisiana. Read more.

Bedlam by Jennifer Higgie (Verso)

Higgie, author of The Mirror and the Palette, captivates in this poetic story of English artist Richard Dadd (1817, 1886) and his descent into madness. Read more.

Chosen Family by Madeleine Gray (Mariner)

Gray explores two women’s messy friendship and tortured love affair in her perceptive latest. Read more.

Country People by Daniel Mason (Random House)

The North Woods author’s latest narrates a year in the life of a family as they strike out into the unknown (aka Vermont), leaving all the comforts of home behind.

Famous Men by Julie Buntin (Random House)

In the engrossing sophomore novel from Buntin, an aspiring writer enters a complex relationship with a renowned author notorious for his romances with younger women. Read more.

Journey to Nowhere by Shiva Naipaul (Outsider)

First published in 1980, this searing report from late novelist and journalist Naipaul picks apart the story of the 1978 Jonestown massacre. Read more.

A Quiet Place by Seichō Matsumoto (Modern Library)

In this stellar psychological thriller from Matsumoto, Japanese bureaucrat Tsuneo Asai tries to unravel why a woman with a serious heart condition would risk her health by climbing a steep hill in an area where she knew no one. Read more.

Data Empire by Roopika Risam (Harper)

Data science is “not a modern tool but an ancient turning point in how humans learned to organize and imagine the world,” asserts media studies scholar Risam in this brilliant history of “how those early marks grew into systems of power over everyday life.” Read more.

Sex Diaries by Alyssa Shelasky (Random House)

These all-new anonymous accounts, compiled by Shelasky in the style of her popular New York magazine column, pull back the curtain on non-monogamy.

It Will Come Back to You by Sigrid Nunez (Riverhead)

Nunez, winner of the National Book Award for The Friend, offers more close readings of human nature in this masterful career-spanning story collection. Read more.

Air by Christian Kracht, tr. Daniel Bowles (Norton)

In this disorienting tale by the International Booker Prize, nominated author of Eurotrash, a Swiss interior designer receives a strange commission to coat a massive Norwegian data center in the “perfect white.”

The Frenchmen: Or, My Life in Theory by Emily Eakin (Penguin Press)

New York Times Book Review editor Eakin’s masterful debut blends a coming-of-consciousness memoir with an engrossing portrait of the tumultuous (and often intertwined) lives of French theorists. Read more.

Unsayable: A Life in Writing by Michael Cunningham (Random House)

Pulitzer winner Cunningham offers eloquent reflections on life, love, and literature, as well as valuable pointers on craft and storytelling, in this sterling memoir. Read more.

Olenka by Budi Darma, tr. Tiffany Tsao (Penguin Classics)

Romantic obsession drives this intelligent 1983 novel from Darma and translated by Tsao, who won the PEN Translation Prize for Darma’s People from Bloomington. Read more.

Yellow Pine by Claire Vaye Watkins (Riverhead)

In this lyrical and scathing narrative from Watkins, an environmental advocate longs for another child. Read more.

Country of Lords by Kimberly Phillips-Fein (Norton)

Responses to the rise of Trumpism often focus on “cultural and economic conflicts of recent origin,” but this striking study from historian Phillips-Fein points to a different, older “source of strength for the right today”, a tradition stretching back to the nation’s founding that “sees working people as essentially inferior” and the rich as a “natural aristocracy.” Read more.

Carousel: An Essay on Seeing by Sarah Minor (Yale)

Minor delivers a meditative exploration of seeing and being seen, following a professor as she teaches a class called “History of the Panorama.” Read more.

Rise Above by Matthew Schnipper (Random House)

Schnipper debuts with a wrenching account of his toddler’s sudden death from a congenital abnormality. Read more.

Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)

Whitehead concludes his Harlem Trilogy with a transcendent and wildly entertaining novel in which his recurring characters grapple with the ways their lives are defined by crime and the city they call home. Read more.

The Savage Landscape by Cal Flyn (Viking)

Flyn delivers an exhilarating exploration of the nature and meaning of wild lands. Read more.

Liberation Summer by Micki McElya (Avid Reader)

Pulitzer Prize finalist McElya writes a sweeping account of the road to the September 1968 protests of the Miss American Pageant and the birth of a new politics of beauty.

All That’s Unseen by Emilee Hackney (Penguin Press)

Hackney debuts with a thought-provoking account of her early life in Appalachian Virginia, which was characterized by lush landscapes, financial hardship, and church. Read more.

Beginning Middle End by Valeria Luiselli (Knopf)

A writer and her 12-year-old daughter grapple with their family legacy while on a road trip through Sicily in this arresting and layered novel from Luiselli. Read more.

Few and Far Between by Jan Carson (Scribner)

On the eve of the Troubles, Northern Ireland’s largest lake is drained to form a new county, in this stunning alternative history from Carson. Read more.

I Made You Up Inside My Head by Marta Pérez-Carbonell, tr. Rosalind Harvey (Riverhead)

Three strangers meet on a sleeper train in this elegant debut from Pérez-Carbonell. Read more.

The Obsessed by Lizzie Buehler (Putnam)

Literary translator Buehler debuts with a thought-provoking meditation on romantic love, parasocial relationships, and academia. Read more.

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August

Profiling by Philippe Huneman (Stanford)

This demanding study from Huneman, director of research at the Institute of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology in Paris, examines how predictive algorithms influence identity and social life. Read more.

Suffer a Witch by Joy McCullough (Dutton)

YA novelist McCullough blends poetry and prose in this bruising account of being sexually abused by a youth pastor at her preacher father’s Presbyterian church. Read more.

Daylight Come by Joshua Jelly-Schapiro (Penguin Press)

Jelly-Schapiro paints a revealing portrait of Harry Belafonte, whose career as the “King of Calypso” and lifelong activism helped remake America through the civil rights era and beyond.

Yñiga by Glenn Diaz (Coffee House)

The incendiary latest from Diaz chronicles a Manila woman’s displacement and reckoning with her country’s legacy of violence. Read more.

Hiroshima, 8:15 by Kiyoshi Tanimoto (Modern Library)

This previously unpublished, English-language account by atomic blast survivor Japanese Methodist minister Tanimoto features his own harrowing observations of the catastrophic event. Read more.

Etna by Paul Yoon (Scribner)

A combat-trained dog sets out for home after a war in this magnificent novel from Yoon. Read more.

Awake Awake by Fiona Mozley (Algonquin)

Struggling writer Mary Mooney comes to wonder if she’s been fabricating “fabulous tales” of her childhood to her psychoanalyst in this quirky and intellectually complex novel from Mozley, author of the Booker-shortlisted Elmet. Read more.

The People’s Historian by Dave Zirin (Dutton)

Nation sports editor Zirin offers a rousing biography of historian Howard Zinn, whose 1980 bestseller A People’s History of the United States remains as embattled as it is popular, with ongoing attempts to ban it from libraries and classrooms. Read more.

The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian (Doubleday)

A freak accident at a Westchester County, N.Y., golf course derails a young woman’s life in this powerful domestic thriller from Bohjalian. Read more.

Plant Lady by Minyoung Kang, tr. Shanna Tan (Berkley)

A woman abandons her office job to open a nursery that sells more than plants in Korean journalist Kang’s brilliant debut. Read more.

Sex and Dissent by Meaghan Beatley (Penguin Press)

Journalist Beatley’s remarkable debut surveys four feminist protest movements that raged across Latin America and Spain in the 21st century. Read more.

Kitten by Stacey Yu (Random House)

Yu’s deeply felt debut finds Katie, a young Chinese American woman and recent college grad, adrift in New York City, financially precarious and unable to muster the professional or personal ambitions being so diligently pursued by her peers. Read more.

A Country Doctor by Sarah Orne Jewett (Modern Library)

This oft-forgotten 19th-century novel centers on a young woman torn between her passion for medicine and what society expects of her.

The Ego Trip by Kimon de Greef (Doubleday)

South African journalist de Greef, who has spent years reporting on global psychedelic movements, delivers a chilling saga about a former doctor who spearheaded the rise of toad smoking in the 2010s. Read more.

Beyond Beauty by Devon Cox (Norton)

Historian Cox serves up an evocative biography of prominent 19th- and 20th-century painter and portraitist John Singer Sargent. Read more.

The Story of Your Life by Kathryn Jezer-Morton (Viking)

The Cut columnist Jezer-Morton debuts with a shrewd analysis of how social media has restricted the stories people tell about themselves and others. Read more.

Triage by Claudia Rankine (Graywolf)

Poet and essayist Rankine delivers an innovative, genre-defying mix of narrative and criticism centered on a contentious friendship between the narrator, presumably Rankine, and a character referred to as “the theorist.” Read more.

Hannah Arendt: A Life of the Mind by Thomas Meyer, tr. Shelley Frisch (Penguin Press)

Meyer’s intellectual biography draws on newly discovered archival materials and previously overlooked documents to trace the life and work of a philosophical icon.

Three Tenses by Ed Park (Random House)

Stray musings and recollections reveal a writer’s restless mind in this scintillating memoir from novelist Park. Read more.

A Tender Age by Chang-rae Lee (Riverhead)

The Korean American narrator of Lee’s striking latest reflects on a pivotal year of his childhood in the mid-1970s, inviting the reader to ponder with him the mystery of what drove him to act out in his wayward youth. Read more.

Mia by Leslie Bazzett (Scribner)

Two American expats in a picturesque Mexican city forge an exciting and dangerous bond in Bazzett’s nuanced and unsettling debut. Read more.

On the Mark by Florence Hazrat (Basic)

Hazrat’s history, which spans ancient Mesopotamia to the dawn of emojis, argues that all punctuation marks, from the forgotten (ever heard of an obelus?) to the ubiquitous, are worthy of attention.

Sunrise by Téa Obreht (Random House)

A Wyoming ghost town provides the stage for this spectacular novel from Obreht about the enduring myths of the Wild West. Read more.

Under the Falls by Richard Russo (Knopf)

This gripping and grounded tale of friendship and self-delusion takes place in rough-and-tumble Stone Mountain, N.Y., a small town in the Adirondacks that’s less like its upscale, tourist-destination neighbors and more like the Rust Belt communities Russo portrayed in his early novels such as Mohawk. Read more.

The Maltese Version by Katy Simpson Smith (FSG)

Smith follows The Weeds with a stimulating and slippery anti-detective novel featuring a travel writer, her missing boyfriend, a mysterious poet, and another travel writer dispatched to find out what’s going on. Read more.

A Very Special Episode by Camille Acker (Random House)

A shadowy organization offers to help a young heir to one of Washington, D.C.’s most influential Black institutions in this sly social commentary on the interplay of race, class, and family legacy.

The Breakup by Kurt Andersen (Random House)

Andersen chronicles the aftermath of a near-future American civil war, Civil War II, in this moving satire. Read more.

Hello Baby by Kim Eui-Kyung, tr. Sora Russell (Hogarth)

Switching between six characters undergoing IVF, a journalist, a police officer, a vet, a lawyer, and two housewives, this thought-provoking novel explores the social pressure and emotional strain put on women struggling to conceive.

Jolt by Ted Scheinman (Scribner)

Scheinman’s memoir of depression chronicles his intensive course of electroconvulsive therapy, which came at the price of many of his most important memories.

Range by Dorthe Nors; tr. Caroline Waight (Graywolf)

Nors’s novel follows a professor of astrophysics who has taken a leave from the institute where she teaches and moved to a rural area, kicking off a meditation on space, time, identity, and consciousness.

Unprecedented Times by Malavika Kannan (Holt)

In the tender and sharp-witted adult debut from YA novelist Kannan, an Indian American undergrad explores an alternative path for her life during Covid-19. Read more.

Crocodilopolis by John Manuel Arias (Bloomsbury)

A Costa Rican dynasty’s lust for power drives this lush and suspenseful saga from Arias. Read more.

Jacaranda by Gaël Faye, tr. Sarah Ardizzone (Hogarth)

Faye offers a nuanced if tonally uneven story of a young Frenchman reckoning with the history of Rwanda, his mother’s native country. Read more.

Daytona Teddy Riggs by Drew Buston (Hub City)

A bumbling muscle-bound Texan pursues his dreams of competing in the World’s Strongest Man contest and losing his virginity in this hilarious debut from Buxton. Read more.

Reality TV for Snobs by Ali Barthwell (Quirk)

Barthwell’s guide to the 20 most influential reality shows of the last 25 years aims to “turn skeptics into fans and fans into scholars.”

The Anniversary by Andrea Bajani, tr. Geoffrey Brock (Other)

The narrator of this poignant Strega Prize, winning novel from Bajani traces the causes and effects of his father’s physical and emotional abuse on his family. Read more.

Goodbye, Ramona by Montserrat Roig, tr. Megan Berkobian and María Cristina Hall (Modern Library)

The debut novel by Roig, a titan of Catalan literature, was first published in 1972 and chronicles the lives, loves, and secrets of three generations of women in 20th-century Barcelona.

Narrative of Sojourner Truth by Sojourner Truth (Modern Library)

Truth’s 1850 autobiography details how she defied 19th-century conventions to become a preacher, popular speaker, abolitionist, and women’s rights activist.

The Shame Is Over by Anja Meulenbelt, tr. Ann Oosthuizen (Astra House)

Former Dutch senator Meulenbelt traces her political awakening in this unvarnished memoir, a firsthand account, equal parts heady and heartfelt, of one woman’s liberation. Read more.

The Ghost of the Mountains by Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi (Riverhead)

Ecologist and conservationist Suryawanshi debuts with an enthralling account of efforts to study and protect snow leopards, elusive creatures that have become threatened as climate change and extractive mining impact their Himalayan habitat. Read more.

Changing Gender by Susan Stryker (FSG)

In this thought-provoking treatise, theorist Stryker forges an alternative history of gender inspired by an unlikely source: a lecture by right-wing pundit Matt Walsh. Read more.

Dèy by Edwidge Danticat (Knopf)

A Haitian American woman reckons with the cost of hiding her pain in this illuminating novel from Danticat, winner of the NBCC award for Everything Inside. Read more.

The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State by Jill Lepore (Liveright)

Society is on the precipice of “abandoning constitutional democracy…and even humanity itself for…government by machine,” warns Pulitzer winner Lepore in this powerful anti-AI treatise. Read more.

Her Own Voice by Anne Fernald (Beacon)

Using Virginia Woolf as a guide, Fernald chronicles the stories of eight wanderers, rebels, explorers, mentors, and other radical 20th-century women who forged their own paths.

I Have This Thing for Flowers by Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn (Flatiron)

Sachwyn, a creative writing professor at Bucknell University, mines her extensive plant knowledge for these introspective essays about personal relationships. Read more.

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September

O Mother by Emerson Whitney (McSweeney’s)

The Daddy Boy author turns their eye to their flawed and complicated mother and the relationship they shared in this poignant memoir.

The Castle by Jon Ronson (Riverhead)

Journalist Ronson delivers a by turns amusing and harrowing report on the desultory state of contemporary men. Read more.

Tree by Aya Kōda, tr. Charlotte Goff (HarperOne)

The first-ever English translation of this Japanese classic invites us to foster peace in our lives by connecting with trees.

The Disappearers by Marlon James (Riverhead)

The Booker Prize winner’s latest, a sprawling novel clocking in at 640 pages, follows the survivors of a homophobic attack in 1980s Jamaica.

I Liked Rex by Diane Williams (NYRB Classics)

Delightful characters, curious images, and love affairs gone awry animate this minimalist metafictional collection by Williams. Read more.

The Mess That Made Them by Ryan T. Pozzi (Bloomsbury Academic)

Pozzi pushes back against our notions of “genius,” arguing that the artists we revere didn’t succeed because of destiny or innate brilliance, but were instead shaped by rejection, persecution, illness, and grief.

Voice of a Century by Anthony Tommasini (Penguin Press)

The former chief classical music critic for the New York Times delivers a rich tribute to Marian Anderson, one of the great singers of the modern era who also broke racial barriers.

Ambivalence by Brian Dillon (NYRB)

Critic and memoirist Dillon catalogs his adolescent coming-of-consciousness in this dazzling if remote account. Read more.

Black Arts by Megan Giddings (Amistad)

Giddings’s first story collection explores complex family relationships, romances both troubled and charmed, and events that straddle the supernatural and the all-too-real.

The Chinese Lady by Bo Wang (HarperVia)

Wang’s debut novel depicts the life of Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to be brought to the United States in the 1800s, becoming a curio in a live exhibition.

Erratica by Brian Laidlaw (Milkweed)

Inspired by Laidlaw’s climb up Yosemite’s stone monolith, this ode to climbing, nature, and attention is part adventure narrative and part philosophical inquiry.

The Contessa by Benedetta Craveri, tr. Alex Andriesse (NYRB)

Craveri argues that Contessa di Castiglione, an Italian aristocrat who gained notoriety as a mistress of Emperor Napoleon III, was the original “famous for being famous” It Girl in this biography.

Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel (Knopf)

Mandel’s masterful seventh novel opens in 2031, with the United States having collapsed into warring city-states and regional republics, and expands into a dizzying story of doubles and parallel universes. Read more.

The Occidental Book of the Dead by T. Geronimo Johnson (Morrow)

The National Book Award longlisted author of Welcome to Braggsville returns with a crime novel about a Black police officer in an Atlanta precinct, who sees the “white-washed veneer” of his life begin to crack after a highly publicized murder.

About Looking by John Berger (NYRB)

Part of an ongoing reissue of Berger’s major works of criticism and fiction, this 1980 essay collection considers our role as observers to reveal new layers of meaning in what we see.

Foam by Kate Zambreno (Semiotext(e))

Zambreno’s latest, an unclassifiable work inspired by Eva Hesse and other masters of “soft sculpture,” explores the notions of precarity and domestic disruption across genres, textures, and time.

Justice for Jehanne by Sara McDougall (Princeton)

Centered on a sexual assault case in 15th-century France, McDougall’s narrative history challenges modern assumptions about women’s lives in the Middle Ages and and uncovers one woman’s story of survival.

Hafni Says by Helle Helle, tr. Martin Aitken (New Directions)

This unconventional road trip novel is told over the course of one long conversation, wherein its titular character rings up the book’s narrator, a protagonist from Helle’s previous novel, they, in the aftermath of her failed marriage.

Postmuslim by Youssef Rakha (Graywolf)

Rakha explores the past three decades of Islam’s clash with the West from a secular Muslim perspective, finding inspiration for the future in the multiculturalism embodied by the Ottoman Empire.

Observer by Nicholas Russell (Ecco)

In Russell’s debut novel, a woman investigates her mother’s disappearance at an abandoned observatory in Nevada, and uncovers cosmic horrors in the process.

Blood Money by Anna Seghers, tr. Lucy Jones (NYRB)

Seghers’s novel of suspense and political upheaval, first published in the 1930s, tracks the nascent rise of the Hitler movement in a German village.

Fallow by Sarah Anderson (FSG)

The 23-year-old narrator of Anderson’s darkly funny dystopian debut, hates working at the demeaning call center where she’s employed, so she signs a 10-year contract to work at exclusive surrogacy program for executives who don’t want to take time off for pregnancy and childbirth. Read more.

Music Sets You Free by Ryuichi Sakamoto, tr. Sam Bett (HarperVia)

The godfather of electronic music delivers a meditation on making art, living life, and accepting death.

Female Life on Planet Earth by Laleh Khadivi (Ecco)

A grieving Iranian American woman processes the shocking news of her late mother’s involvement in the Iranian Revolution in this darkly funny novel.

Exhibit G by Fady Joudah (Milkweed)

The National Book Award finalist’s collection of poems, essays, and photographs explores the split perspective of a Palestinian American physician caring for the sick while watching the destruction of Gaza from the United States.

Anti-Zionism by Benjamin Moser (Doubleday)

The Pulitzer Prize winner delivers a sweeping history of the oft-suppressed tradition of Jewish thinkers around the world who oppose Zionism.

Madame Composer by Sarah Fritz (Pegasus)

Fritz’s biography reveals how and why Clara Weick Schumann, a giant of Romantic music who became a household name over her 60-year career, has been diminished and sometimes deliberately obscured.

The Radiance by Ayad Akhtar (Summit)

Akhtar unfurls an intense and transcendent philosophical novel, narrated by a successful Pakistani American novelist named Ayad Akhtar who has recently moved upstate from New York City, about the limits of words. Read more.

The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw (Mariner)

The prominent wife of a megachurch pastor reckons with her humble roots in the uproarious debut novel from Philyaw. Read more.

American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee (Cardinal)

Lee returns nine years after Pachinko with an illuminating saga of ambition, education, and familial duty. Read more.

Traumatized by Catherine Liu (Verso)

The cultural theorist explores how trauma became a weapon in the culture wars, resulting in “capitalism’s greatest coup: convincing us that wounds define us and that accom­modating each other’s trauma is more important than challenging the powerful.”

All the Love You Can Use by Carson McCullers, ed. Carlos Dews (Mariner)

The first and only comprehensive collection of the Carson McCullers’s letters, spanning 1935 to her death in 1967, chronicle the high points and tragedies that defined her.

John Berger: From Life by Tom Overton (Verso)

This biography by Overton, who catalogued Berger’s papers for the British Library, grew from the discovery, shortly after the novelist and critic’s death in 2017, of a complete untouched archive of his 1960s life and work.

Something Followed Us Home ed. Cynthia Pelayo (Primero Sueño)

For this solid anthology, Bram Stoker Award winner Pelayo brings together 17 fascinating shorts by Latinx horror authors, all of which are bite-size, easy to get into, and span a wide range of subgenres. Read more.

The Weight of Angels by John Boyne (Holt)

Boyne delivers a witty alternate history of Oscar Wilde, who, instead of dying in 1900 at 46, enjoys an influential life of letters into the 1950s. Read more.

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