Sweet Pea (publication day November 3, 2027) by Kit de Waal is a sweeping character study of a Caribbean British woman, Paulette, who came from St. Kitts with her grandmother in the 1960s, but stayed in Birmingham after her grandmother went back to the island. As the novel opens, she is working as a nurse’sContinue reading “Sweet Pea”
Tag Archives: literary fiction
Madeline McKnight Signs Off
Madeline McKnight Signs Off (publication day November 3, 2027) is Evan Brooke’s debut novel, and I look forward to many more from her. Considering I have a high tolerance for stories involving grief and main characters with cancer, I was delighted by the story, but it may not be for people who can’t tolerate blackContinue reading “Madeline McKnight Signs Off”
There There
I didn’t get to multi-award winning There There (2018) by Tommy Orange when it came out, but am glad that I finally made the time to listen to it. The audiobook is narrated by Darrell Dennis, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Kyla Garcia, and Alma Cuervo, and I’m so glad the publisher decided to use multiple narrators, asContinue reading “There There”
Long Island Girls
Long Island Girls (publication day June 23, 2026) is Gabrielle Korn’s first foray into historical / literary fiction from her previous two novels, The Shutouts and Yours for the Taking, which were speculative, near-future, fiction. The novel primarily follows 17-year old Susan, beginning in 2005, where she and her best friend Katie live on LongContinue reading “Long Island Girls”
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years (2024) is Shubnum Khan’s first novel published in the U.S., but she also has published an earlier novel and a memoir. Set along the coast of South Africa among the Muslim Indian community there, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years is delicious, heartbreaking, gothic historical literary fiction that hasContinue reading “The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years”
A Grandmother Begins the Story
A Grandmother Begins the Story (2023) by Michelle Porter is an inventive, beautifully-written book that tells the story of five generations of Métis women and the bison and the land they live on. The audiobook is read by a full cast of 16 different actors, who read the chapters written from the perspectives of theContinue reading “A Grandmother Begins the Story”
Fat Swim
Fat Swim (publication day April 28, 2026) by Emma Copley Eisenberg (of the Frump Feelings Substack, Housemates, and The Third Rainbow Girl) is a beautiful collection of semi-linked short stories that is a celebration of fat, queer love. All of the stories are set in or around Philadelphia and feature fat and queer characters inContinue reading “Fat Swim”
Westward Women
Westward Women (publication day March 10, 2026) by Alice Martin is completely unique–speculative fiction, but in an alternate history way. It’s 1973, and an epidemic has gripped the United States at the same time as news of Watergate has broken. Women ages 18-35 are gripped with an itch that’s impossible to satisfy–both internal and external.Continue reading “Westward Women”
Now I Surrender
Now I Surrender (English publication day March 3, 2026, original Spanish 2018) by Álvaro Enrigue, translated by Natasha Wimmer defies genre. It is historical fiction, set mostly in the 1800s during the Apache wars in the desert southwest where the borders between the United States, Mexico, and “Indian territory” changed often. But there are multipleContinue reading “Now I Surrender”
And The Ancestors Sing
And The Ancestors Sing (publication day 2/3/2026) by Radha Lin Chaddah transported me back to 1978 to post-cultural revolution China, to the farm workers and their families and the newly arrived migrants from the country to the city, and all of the issues they had to deal with. From arranged marriages to prostitution, from earthquakesContinue reading “And The Ancestors Sing”
