by Katya Apekina
With her debut novel, The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish, Katya Apekina proved willing to stretch beyond readers' expectations. Mother Doll displays a similar defiance of norms as it deftly tangles with history and memory and generational trauma. Apekina's confidence is evident from the book's first line: "It was ironic that Zhenia and Ben would come home from spending time with people who had kids and be so giddy with relief and self-righteousness over their decision not to have any that it would make
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by Katie M. Flynn
Some short story collections are treats to be consumed like little chocolates, with delight and frivolity. Other collections, rich like a multi-course meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant, are meant to be devoured. Island Rule by Katie M. Flynn (The Companions) is the latter. In these 12 interconnected stories, Flynn's deft hand brings readers backward and forward in time, all the while weaving her characters into an impressive tapestry and fully fleshing out a world of monsters--real and imagined alike.
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by Isabelle Simler, trans. by Vineet Lal
A poetic tour of 27 exquisitely detailed animal habitats awaits readers in French writer and illustrator Isabelle Simler's picture book Home, translated by Vineet Lal.
Simler (Sweet Dreamers) depicts the adaptability and creativity of the animal kingdom through illustrations of astounding, unusual, and breathtaking dwellings; each spread is accompanied by a poem that comments on the beauty and purpose of the habitats. Foam-nest tree frog eggs nestle securely "in our ball of foam,/ whipped up like Chantilly
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by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, trans. by Philip Roughton
Icelandic author Jón Kalman Stefánsson is relatively unknown in the United States, despite years of international success, including a Booker Prize nomination for Fish Have No Feet. With Your Absence Is Darkness now available in English (via translator Philip Roughton), Stefánsson offers a weighty yet light-saturated novel sure to leave a lasting impression. It is poetic and elegant, employing an unexpected structure that layers short sections in the way a sound engineer combines individual
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by Sophie Wan
Sophie Wan's Women of Good Fortune recalls the extravagant wedding fanfare of Crazy Rich Asians and the minute-by-minute scheming of Ocean's Eleven in an elaborate heist novel featuring a reluctant bride turned reluctant thief as she plans to rob her own wedding.
According to her mother, Lulu is a "leftover woman," unmarried in her late 20s and with no relationship in sight. But when a short romance turns into an unexpected engagement to one of the richest bachelors in Shanghai, Lulu finds herself caught up
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by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé's Where Sleeping Girls Lie is an outstanding slow-burn YA mystery featuring a Black Muslim teen who uncovers secrets at her prestigious boarding school after her roommate goes missing.
Sade Hussein is starting her junior year of high school at Alfred Nobel Academy, an elite boarding school in England. Sade, who has been homeschooled her entire life, is eager and nervous to be around other students her age. When she meets her new roommate,
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by Olivia A. Cole
Ariel Crashes a Train, inspired by author and journalist Olivia A. Cole's own struggles with undiagnosed OCD in 2020, uses poetry to compassionately explore the complicated reality of living with intrusive thoughts.
Seventeen-year-old white Ariel struggles with the "crocodile" in her mind: swampy, violent thoughts about the damage a "too big," too-queer girl could inflict. Her sister, Mandy, is away for the summer and, without her confidant, Ariel's counting rituals don't feel like enough to protect the world
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