For a special issue October 13 about multilingual publishing and bookselling, Shelf Awareness is seeking information from publishers and booksellers. Publishers, please send information about relevant resources such as collections, websites, and more (but not lists of titles). Booksellers please send us information about your programs and successes reaching multilingual readers and communities. Information should go to extra@shelf-awareness.com. Thank you!

The Wild Detectives, a bookstore and bar in Dallas, Tex., has opened a second location, KERA News reported.

Officially called Wild Detectives--Ideas, the new store resides at 321 Zang Blvd., just a few blocks from the original location at 314 8th St., which is now called Wild Detectives--Stories. Ideas opened for business on September 11 with a book inventory focusing on nonfiction, while the original store continues to emphasize fiction.  

Wild Detectives--Ideas is also a bookstore and bar, though it features a full kitchen and more extensive food menu. Chef Inaki Betran is overseeing the menu; prior to joining Wild Detectives, Betran was the chef at a restaurant called Sketches of Spain, which previously occupied the space at 321 Zang Blvd. 

Store owner Javier Garcia del Moral told KERA that the expansion came about quickly. He and his wife began talking about the possibility in the spring, as they wanted to host more events and expand the store's inventory, but that wasn't doable in the bookstore's current space. Once the location on Zang Blvd. became available, it all happened very quickly.

"We've been in the neighborhood for a while," del Moral said. "We already know who we're working with, we all know each other, and that simplifies things."

The opening on September 11 had little promotion and was more of a soft opening, with del Moral and the team wanting to get "a little bit used to the dynamics of the space" without there being a lot of pressure. The store will officially celebrate the opening this weekend, October 2-4. Wild Detectives will be running its happy hour book promotion all day, whereby customers who buy a book will receive a free drink. 

Wild Detectives first opened in Dallas in 2014.

Lavender Cafe & Bookstore, an LGBTQ-focused bookstore, launched last month as an online and pop-up store in advance of opening a bricks-and-mortar location in New Orleans, La., Verite News reported.

Owner Kyle DeVries began by launching an online donation drive for Lavender Cafe that has so far raised $5,555. Money raised by the drive will go toward inventory, merchandise, mobile equipment for the pop-up, and other expenses. DeVries will take the pop-up throughout New Orleans, carrying a selection of books and other merchandise made by LGBTQ authors and artists, while looking for a suitable space for the bricks-and-mortar location. 

They want the bookstore and cafe to be a "true third space for both LGBTQ people in New Orleans as well as kind of all people who find themselves as others in general," DeVries told Verite News.

DeVries has been inspired by LGBTQIA2S+ bookstores in other cities like Giovanni's Room in Philadelphia, Pa., A Different Light in San Francisco, Calif., and Lambda Rising in Washington, D.C., as well as indies in New Orleans like Baldwin & Co. They noted that given the current political and social climate, it felt necessary to create Lavender Cafe.

"Right now, there's a lot of censorship efforts around books and specifically LGBTQ culture and history," DeVries explained. "People are trying to actively erase our communities and histories. And so we really need more bookstores that are going to be able to champion those stories right now."

This Saturday, DeVries will host a kickoff cabaret for Lavender Cafe at Allways Lounge featuring drag performances and more.

Mission Bookworm, a children's and YA-focused bookstore, will open in Mission, Kan., later this fall, the Johnson County Post reported. Store owner Jennifer Schmidt has found a space in the Mission Mart Shopping Center at 5301 Johnson Dr. and is turning a former medical office into a bookstore. The finished space will feature reading nooks and room for events, and though the bookstore will center children and teens, there will be some titles available for adults. Schmidt's nonbook plans include greeting cards, art supplies, and gifts.

"My hope is that people feel comfortable in the space and that it's inclusive and welcoming," Schmidt told the Johnson County Post. "It can be that third space for young families to connect to each other, and for kids to connect to books." 

Schmidt and her family have lived in Mission since 2019 and have spent plenty of time at local library branches and independent bookstores. But, Schmidt noted, "I've gone into the different stores around the metro, and every time I've been drawn to thinking that there needs to be a store just for kids and teenagers. The more that I kind of sat on the idea, the more I really wanted to actually bring it to life."

The store's name, Schmidt explained, references both the store's location and her mission of fostering a love of reading in children and young people.

"I'm just really excited to create a space for kids and families, and hopefully even educators," Schmidt said. "There is so much value and beauty in children's literature and I hope people can discover that in our store."

Schmidt hopes to have the bookstore open by the end of November.

W.W. Norton is launching a new imprint, Norton Waverly, which is being led by Karen Lotz, who joined Norton as director, children's books and strategic development, in September 2025, with the goal in part of expanding Norton's own children's book publishing as well as widening market opportunities for Norton's distributed clients.

The imprint plans to publish up to six titles annually and has a children's focus, but, as Lotz put it, "The primary audience for a Norton Waverly book can range from young childhood to adulthood, but with each, we hope to foster opportunities for sharing and dialogue across the generations." The imprint is the first new imprint at Norton since Norton Young Readers launched in 2018. 

Norton chairman and president Julia Reidhead noted that Norton Waverly "takes its name from 109 Waverly Place, the address in New York City where newlyweds William Warder Norton and Mary Dows Herter Norton first took up their publishing enterprise in 1923, assembling pamphlets in their living room. Their aim was to engage readers across all backgrounds and experiences in a dialogue with the great ideas of their time. Karen Lotz's concept for the Norton Waverly imprint builds on this tradition, but with a new approach."

Lotz said in part, "In learning about Norton's history, I was delighted to realize that the Nortons' mission from a century ago offers a wonderful opportunity for us today: the chance to engage readers from different points of view in a dialogue of ideas, connected by a shared love of storytelling. Reading in our time is often 'unbound,' and we intend to offer e-books and, whenever suitable, audio editions. But our hope is that Norton Waverly print editions will shine as the centerpiece offering, because the experience of holding and sharing a beautiful book is irreplaceable.... Our curation of Norton Waverly will adhere to the principle of creating singular, spectacular reading experiences, flying free as needed from constraints of format, genre, and age banding.... The Nortons exhorted us to create Books That Live. Norton Waverly will hope to do just that by publishing dazzling narratives that are worthy of legacy--joyful books created to last." 

The imprint's first title is The True Story of Edith Leapyear, Child Outlaw: As Told by Herself by Kate DiCamillo, the two-time Newbery Medalist, most of whose titles have been published by Candlewick Press. DiCamillo said she is "deeply moved" to have her book be the first published by Norton Waverly. "I believe in the power of stories to connect us, to change us. This imprint embodies that belief." The publication of DiCamillo's 12th major work marks a kind of reunion for her and Lotz. From 1999 to 2023, Lotz was president and founding U.S. publisher of Candlewick and from 2010 to 2023, she was group managing director of Walker Books, Candlewick's parent company.

Another upcoming Norton Waverly title is "a lavishly illustrated and never-before-announced" Heir to Magic duology by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis. Meloy is the bestselling novelist and picture-book author (and Decemberists indie rock singer-songwriter), and Ellis is the bestselling Caldecott Honoree for Du Iz Tak? The first book of this reimagining of the world of Arthurian legend is Mordred Rex, "a sweeping and lyrical epic tale in which Mordred, not Arthur, has won the day and a new hero, schooled in sorcery, must arise to challenge him."

Norton Waverly has also signed two books by Grammy Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Rhiannon Giddens, the first of which will be a long-form, multinarrative, highly illustrated history of the banjo.

Norton Waverly will also introduce works by authors new to children's books, including The Many Revolutions of Sophie Germain, a debut novel by Paris author and scientist Agathe Chave-Lucas about the eponymous 18th-century mathematician, and two fictional stories for young children by Sugpiaq writer and biologist Autumn Loyal Watkins inspired by the author's childhood memories of living off the sea and land with her family while growing up as a member of the Sun'aq Tribe of Kodiak on Kodiak Island, Alaska.

The Argentine Federation of Bookstores, Stationeries, and Related Businesses (La Federación Argentina de Librerías, Papelerías y Afines) declared a "bookselling emergency," after a national survey revealed a sharp decline in activity since 2023, the Buenos Aires Herald reported.

The study found that book sales fell by approximately 25% between 2023 and 2026, while bookshops' revenue has shrunk by 41.5%. Meanwhile, major costs required to run a bookstore--including utilities, communications, and transport/logistics--have risen by 31.1%, the survey showed. 

FALPA noted that many independent bookstores are staying afloat by cutting their owners' pay, tapping into savings, or going into debt. The organization also connected the issue to concerns about Argentina's declining PISA test scores, which measure students' learning. 

"This emergency is occurring, moreover, within an educational context that demands rebuilding reading habits," FALPA said. "The latest PISA test results show a worrying decline in reading comprehension among our youth. In light of this reality, strengthening the reading habit and preserving the network of bookstores that connects every community with books must be part of a priority cultural and educational policy."

The Federation called on national, provincial, and municipal governments to "adopt urgent measures to preserve the independent bookstore network.... We are not asking for privileges. We are asking for conditions that allow us to compete, work, and survive. There comes a point where individual effort by booksellers is no longer enough. We are getting to that point," FALPA said, adding: "Bookstores form a cultural network spread across cities and towns throughout the country. They bring books closer to readers, help people discover authors and publishing houses, and play a particularly key role in promoting reading.... When a bookstore closes, it's not just a business disappearing. A gateway to books and to the community's culture disappears as well."

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Chapters Bookstore in Dublin, An Post's 2025 winner

Twelve booksellers around Ireland have been longlisted for the An Post Bookshop of the Year category, designed to acknowledge the significant role played by independent bookshops and local branches of bookshop chains in helping their local communities to find and savor the titles of their choice. A shortlist will be released on October 22 with the overall winner named at the An Post Irish Book Awards on December 1. The longlisted bookshops are:

Bantry Bookshop, Co. Cork
Books at One, Louisburgh, Co. Mayo
Bridge Books Dromore, Co. Down
Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Galway
Genius Juniors, Co. Clare 
Leaf and Bower, Co. Cork
O’Mahony’s Booksellers, Limerick
Philip’s Bookshop, Mallow, Co. Cork
Tales for Tadpoles, Bray, Co. Wicklow
The Book Centre, Waterford
The Bookshelf, Newry
Woodbine Books, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare
 
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Can bookshops survive the digital age? Bookseller Kris Konnaris is a believer. He purchased the Moufflon Bookshop in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 2022 from Ruth Keshishian, who founded the bookstore in 1967 and died last year. Konnaris spoke with the Cyprus Mail about the future of bookselling and his role as the owner of the shop that is considered an "unofficial culture ministry." Among the highlights of the interview:

Asked if bookshops can carry on as they used to, Konnaris replied: "I'm not worried about the future, we carry on doing what we know and our clientele is growing. People are going back to reading, and this is something analyzed in panels and discussions on the future of the books, and existing alongside the digital era and e-books etc. Our problem isn't so much the end of the book, e-books function as additions. We print more books today than we ever printed in history of typography. We print some millions of books a year.

"The matter comes down to do you have something to offer. And the Moufflon always had this knowledge.... There's something almost metaphysical about this place: strange encounters, uncanny coincidences, a constant flow of people coming and going, asking, calling, e-mailing. That movement is what a bookshop does best, and it's how Moufflon has always lived. Online sales have grown and help financially, but it's the shop itself that brings the money and, more importantly, the people.... I'm deeply grateful and proud that Ruth entrusted me with this; one day I too will pass it on too, because Moufflon must continue."

Barnes & Noble hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony on September 30 for the reopening of its completely remodeled bookstore at 28801 Chagrin Blvd. in Woodmere, Ohio. Festivities at the 20,000-square-foot store, which originally opened 23 years ago, included author John Rinaldi cutting the ribbon and signing copies of his memoir, Lil' John: Laughing My Way Through Life: Stories from an Accidental Career on Cleveland TV--and More! (Gray & Co.).

"Woodmere has long been an exceptional bookstore and we are very pleased to invest in so significant a renovation," B&N said. "The bookstore is now effectively a brand-new store when--pleasingly in this case--remaining in the same location. We look forward to surprising our customers with the transformation."

On September 23, B&N held official openings for three more bookstores:

In Richmond, Tex. an 18,000-square-foot location debuted in a newly constructed building in the Market Center at Aliana. Author J. Elle cut the ribbon and signed copies of her novel The Heart Trials (Putnam Books for Young Readers).

"We are very pleased by the welcome our new bookstores have received across Texas," B&N noted. "We are delighted to continue the momentum of store openings with an excellent new store in Richmond. These are very happy days for our booksellers in Texas."

There was also a celebration in Chapel Hill, N.C., for a new 20,000-square-foot bookstore in University Place at 201 S. Estes Dr. #200A. Author Scott Reintgen cut the ribbon and signed copies of his novel Rise of Neptune (Aladdin).

"It's a pleasure to be opening another Barnes & Noble in North Carolina," B&N said. "This is a wonderfully inviting store, and our booksellers are looking forward to becoming a part of the community and sharing their enthusiasm for books."

In Mobile, Ala., B&N hosted a grand opening celebration for its new store in McGregor Square at 3930 B Airport Blvd., marking a return to the city. The chain had closed its Springdale Mall store in 2010. Opening festivities included author Watt Key cutting the ribbon and signing copies of his novel Beast (Square Fish).
 
"Barnes & Noble is delighted to return to Mobile, a remarkable city with a deep appreciation for history, storytelling, and community," B&N said. "As bookstores enjoy such a renaissance, our bookselling team is excited to bring a Barnes & Noble to Mobile and to bring another bookstore to the Gulf Coast."

Bookmarks, Winston-Salem, N.C., closed out its 21st annual Bookmarks Festival with a keynote presentation from Jodi Picoult with author Virginia Evans. Picoult discussed her new book Hollow Bones (Ballantine) for an audience of nearly 2,000 readers at Wait Chapel. (photo: MJS Live Productions)

The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City shared "autumnal greetings from our spooky new fall window display."

Rooney at Storyline Bookshop in Upper Arlington, Ohio, shared bookish seasonal greetings on social media: "Happy October from your favorite shopdog." 

"Forecast: 100% chance of reading!" That was the sidewalk chalkboard message in front of Cottage Book Shop in Glen Arbor, Mich., which noted: "Come spend a little time at The Cottage Book Shop! Whether you're looking for your next great read, a gift for someone special, or just want to browse our shelves, we'd love to see you. And don't forget to check out our sale items! Stop in, say hello, and enjoy a little time in Glen Arbor."

In the HarperCollins group sales team:

Olivia Wilson has been appointed group sales director, children's books. She has broad experience across international, special markets, and most recently mass merch, where she was the Target children's sales rep. She will lead cross-channel sales strategy and serve as a key liaison for the children's and Usborne businesses.

Maria Magallanes will join the team as group sales manager, expanding her scope to support both the children's and adult businesses. Maria joined HarperCollins as manager, children's divisional sales, in 2025.

Monica Shah, v-p, national retail, will step away from leading children's sales to focus on channel sales, overseeing the company's Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million businesses.

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In the Viking Penguin publicity department:

Julia Falkner is promoted to publicist.

Becca Stevenson is promoted to associate publicist.

Magdalena Deniz is promoted to associate publicist.

Accent Aigu Entertainment, the production company behind the hit TV series Heated Rivalry--based on Rachel Reid's Game Changer novels--has launched a real version of the Irina Foundation, the nonprofit started by Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov in the books, and named for the latter’s mother, Deadline reported.

The foundation is described as "a private independent fund dedicated to championing inclusivity and mental well-being through participation in sports and the arts, with a focus on LGBTQIA2S+ and underserved communities." An inaugural donation has come from Kate Spade New York, as well as early support from Harry's.

"Today, we're proud to introduce the Irina Foundation--a new initiative dedicated to championing inclusivity and mental well-being by creating opportunities for people to connect through sports and the arts," the organization said, adding: "It's also about turning the sense of belonging we've found in this community into something that can create meaningful change in the real world."

The launch comes as production has begun on the second season of Jacob Tierney's Crave Original series adaptation in Canada (seen in the U.S. on HBO Max), which is set to premiere in spring 2027.

Hulu is developing a TV adaptation of Elle Kennedy's bestselling novel Thornbird, with Marlene King (Pretty Little Liars, Now & Then) set as writer and executive producer of the 20th Television project, Deadline reported. Thornbird is a coming-of-age thriller about a girl at the center of her own true-crime mystery. Kennedy will also exec produce alongside King and Lauren Wagner.

The book is the first title released by Kennedy under the pseudonym E. Kennedy. The author is best known for her Off Campus book series, which was adapted for TV at Prime Video. Her novel Girl Abroad is also in development for the small screen at Amazon from A24 Television.

Finalists have been selected for the $1,000 Cercador Prize for Literature in Translation, co-founded in 2023 by Justin Walls and Spencer Ruchti and "the only U.S. prize recognizing translated works as chosen by independent booksellers." The prize's five committee members for 2026 are chair Pierce Alquist, Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, Mass., Sophie Chen, Belmont Books, Belmont, Mass., Mikayla Bryant, Books Are Magic, Brooklyn, N.Y., Lou Barcott, Myopic Books, Chicago, Ill., and James Webster, Recluse Books, Fort Worth, Tex. The winner will be announced November 16.

The finalists:

The Monroe Girls by Antoine Volodine, translated from the French by Alyson Waters (Archipelago)
Repetition by Vigdis Hjorth, translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund (Verso Fiction)
The Song of Stork and Dromedary by Anjet Daanje, translated from the Dutch by David McKay (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, translated from the Bulgarian by Izidora Angel (Sandorf Passage)
Eden at Dawn by Karim Kattan, translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman (Restless Books)
Pure Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud (Other Press)
My Dreadful Body by Egana Djabbarova, translated from the Russian by Lisa C. Hayden (New Vessel Press)
Dams by Irene Solà, translated from the Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem (Graywolf Press)
City Like Water by Dorothy Tse, translated from the Chinese by Natascha Bruce (Graywolf Press)
Event Horizon by Balsam Karam, translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel (Feminist Press)

Theodore Van Alst Jr.  (photo: Amie Van Alst)

Shane Hawk  (photo: Ana Murphy)

Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr., and Shane Hawk are the co-editors of the Never Whistle at Night series. Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II (Vintage, August 18, 2026) is the anthology risen again, like a horror movie monster, with even more gruesome and dark stories authored by established and newly unearthed Indigenous talent.

Ted Van Alst, Jr., is the editor of The Faster Redder Road: The Best UnAmerican Stories of Stephen Graham Jones as well as the author of Sacred Smokes, Sacred City, Sacred Folks, and Pour One for the Devil. His debut novel, The El, one of the Chicago Public Library's Favorite Books of 2025, was shortlisted for the Pattis Family Foundation Book Award as well as the Chicago Reader's Best New Book of 2025 and won the 2025 Chicago Review of Books Fiction of the Year.

Shane Hawk is a horror writer, editor, and creator of the Native Horror Index, a comprehensive database of Indigenous horror. He is a co-writer of the horror stage play The Land Has Spoken. At Counterpoint Press, Hawk exclusively acquires and edits books authored by Indigenous North Americans. You can find his work in numerous anthologies, magazines, and academic volumes. He lives in San Diego, Calif., with his wife and daughter, and is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma.

Handsell readers your book:

Van Alst: Back for Blood is the second volume in the Never Whistle at Night series. We kept the title in mind as we selected 21 new stories for this one, and these authors delivered, just in time for spooky season!

Hawk: If you think you know horror, this collection of 21 Indigenous stories will completely reshape your understanding of what truly lurks in the dark.

On your nightstand now:

Van Alst: J.G. Ballard's effortless and masterful Cocaine Nights. We've watched the series, but my youngest recommended I read A Game of Thrones from George R.R. Martin. The kid never misses with their recs. It's difficult at first to disentangle the filmed images, but once you do, yeah. Good stuff. And I'm fortunate to be reading an ARC of Stephen Graham Jones's Off the Reservation. Man. What a ride. Folks should be excited for this one heading into the world soon.

Hawk: What Feeds Below by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne is infecting my mind right now, and every time I pick it up to read on my e-reader in dark mode, I know my heart is about to start racing as I return to the Void. I'm also dipping my toes into an ARC of Jacy Morris's next novel, A Town Painted Red, which comes out in April 2027 from Tenebrous Press. Gritty Indigenous horror is just too good to ignore, love his stuff and excited to blurb him again.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Van Alst: I guess if I had to pick I'd have to say an old anthology I found in the cloakroom at the back of our class when I was about 10 years old. It had stories that are still my favorites and have influenced my own work. "The Devil and Daniel Webster" by Stephen Vincent Benét, O. Henry's "The Ransom of Red Chief," Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," an excerpt of Mark Twain's Letters from the Earth, and, of course, "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs. Wow. What a find.

Hawk: I really loved and often reread my grandma's paperback of The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster because it was so strange and fun. Short stories were always my favorite (and often still is my favorite mode for writing and reading) so I've gotta hand it to Louis Sachar and his Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Alvin Schwartz and his Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and Judith Bauer Stamper and her Tales for the Midnight Hour. I'm also a 1990s kid, so I'd be remiss if I didn't mention R.L. Stine and his Goosebumps series. I devoured most of those because I was obsessed.

Your top five authors:

Van Alst: For fun or import or admiration? Yikes. Here goes: Clive Barker, Carl Hiaasen, Patricia Highsmith, Chuck Palahniuk, and William Gibson. Can we stretch it? 'Cause Jackie Collins and James Lee Burke would like a word.

Hawk: Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Louise Erdrich, Stephen Graham Jones, and Toni Morrison.

Book you've faked reading:

Van Alst: Can't do that one. But, I will say that I finally learned a couple years ago that the term "DNF" isn't the worst thing in the world.

Hawk: The books were never important enough to remember, but there were a couple instances in which I definitely faked reading a book. The first was in third grade: I pretended to be really into a book and joined a book club at school because a cute girl two grades above me was in there. Enamored little Shane... so bad I even pretended to hate Hostess treats like she did. Ugh. Also, in high school, I was more interested in staying up late, gaming, and playing in punk and metal shows; I definitely faked reading an assigned book a couple times and used CliffsNotes and SparkNotes as a crutch.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Van Alst: Can I profess multiple faiths here? Depending on who I'm preaching to, it's Christopher Buehlman's The Lesser Dead, or Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova. Or Ghassan Zeineddine's Dearborn: Stories.

Hawk: I'm kinduva zealot for Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Same with The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones or Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. I'll buy anyone a copy of Philip K. Dick's Ubik as well.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Van Alst: I, uh, permanently borrowed the Ace edition of Conan of Cimmeria with the Frank Frazetta cover from my local public library.

Hawk: When you get into vintage book collecting, you tend to do that. I own so many copies of various Philip K. Dick paperbacks dating back to when he first started. Just love most of the covers they gave his books.

Book that changed your life:

Van Alst: Reading had changed my life immensely in multiple moments, growing up. But when I read "The Yattering and Jack" from Clive Barker's Books of Blood: Volume One, I knew I wanted to write. That story has it all. Humor, horror. Dread, strength, frailty, and triumph. And most of all, the effortless illustration that the worlds are open, that you can write through them and about them. When you write, the rules are up to you.

Hawk: I could say a couple, but in recent memory, a book that was pivotal for my career pathway was Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones. Read that sucker in the summer of 2019 and swore it was a sign that I should become a writer. It just made all the pistons in my head fire up and everything clicked. The novella format is enticing as an aspiring writer since the word count is like a third of a novel. I truly thought, Hey, this Native guy is writing killer horror stories, and he doesn't have to take a whole novel to do it. Maybe I can take a stab at this writer thing. The rest is now history.

Favorite line from a book:

Van Alst: "Once upon a time..."

Hawk: "Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful." --Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Five books you'll never part with:

Van Alst: Vintage/original copies of Gibson's Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive; the entire Lancer/Ace collection of Conan the Barbarian; a mass-market edition of Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins; Michael Moorcock's Stormbringer, DAW Books edition; and a signed copy of Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk.

Hawk: I physically and emotionally cannot part with my first-edition hardcover of Ubik by Philip K. Dick; the signed SST Publications edition of Josh Malerman's Inspection he personally mailed me; my first-edition hardcover of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House; my signed paperback of Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk; or my hardcover of Sekret Machines: Chasing Shadows that Tom DeLonge (of Blink-182) autographed.

Novelist and academic Matthew Salesses's eighth book, To Grieve Is to Carry Another Time, is a potent philosophical memoir exploring the nature of loss: not just the death of Salesses's wife but also the foundational wound of his adoption from Korea.

The narrative opens with a jolt. The setting: a psychiatric ward after one of Salesses's suicide attempts. His keen observations shift from his fellow patients to himself. In 2018, Salesses's first wife, Cathreen, who was Korean, had died of metastatic stomach cancer, leaving him a single father of two. He quickly discovered "grief makes time... uncanny. To grieve is to feel that you are in the wrong time. The same is true of love."

It wasn't the first time Salesses (The Sense of Wonder; Craft in the Real World) felt he was living in the wrong time and despaired of reclaiming a fixed identity. He grew up in Connecticut with white parents and no exposure to Korean culture. His adoptive father was physically abusive. "As an adoptee, I grew up with grief as another time. I lived simultaneously in one reality in which I was American and another in which I was still Korean." At 23, he went to Korea to teach kindergarten and felt like an outsider, ignorant of the Korean language and culture. However, it was on that trip that he met Cathreen.

The 136 numbered fragments zigzag through time and incorporate science (Carlo Rovelli), philosophy (Roland Barthes), and psychoanalysis (Adam Phillips). Liberal quotations from Asian and Asian American authors, including Han Kang, Chang-Rae Lee, Ruth Ozeki, and Michelle Zauner, offer perspective. Throughout, Salesses interrogates accepted notions such as "time heals" and the "model minority stereotype" that expects Asian Americans to be quiet and assiduous. Instead, Salesses argues, he experiences "racial melancholy" because, although white people profess to be postracial, they actually wish to annihilate color. Perhaps aptly, he notes, white is the color of mourning in Korea.

The memoir's aphoristic style can feel detached, but there is dignity to its wrestling with paradoxes. Salesses never resorts to easy answers, because there are none; grief doesn't end. Yet through his writing he creates space for the ghosts of extinguished people and unlived lives. And by giving his child-self permission to let go of the burden of the past, he bypasses suicide and keeps going. Trenchant and cathartic, this work will captivate readers of Nicole Chung and Denise Riley. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck

Shelf Talker: A Korean American adoptee reflects on racism and bereavement in the wake of his first wife's death and his time in a mental hospital.