#novelists

New from Catapult, a debut novel by Palestinian American writer Zaina Arafat, You Exist Too Much. (Listen to the NPR review here.)

A debut novel in English from Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, The Mountains Sing, by Nguyen pan Que Mai. (Listen to the NPR review here.)

Beautiful reissue from Picador, Where Joy Resides: A Christopher Isherwood Reader, edited by Don Bachardy and James P. White.

New from Grove Press, a wonderfult debut novel, Braised Pork, by An Yu. (Read the Guardian review here.)

New from Forge, Remembrance: A Novel by Rita Woods.  “Stunning. … Family is at the core of Remembrance, the breathtaking debut novel by Rita Woods.” – The Boston Globe. This breakout historical debut with modern resonance is perfect for the many fans of The Underground RailroadandOrphan Train.

New from Agora and novelist Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Untamed. Here’s our staff recommendation: “Moreno-Garcia deftly plays with the trope of the femme fatale in this tale of jealousy, escape, and greed. Written in prose every bit as surging and brutal as the hidden beaches and shark-hunting she describes.” – Anna

New from Soho, Quotients: A Novel, by Tracy O’Neill.  Two people search for connection in a world of fractured identities and aliases, global finance, big data, intelligence bureaucracies, algorithmic logic, and terror. (Read the review in Ploughshares here.)

New from Henry Holt, The Unsuitable, by Molly Pohlig. The book  is a fierce blend of Gothic ghost story and Victorian novel of manners that’s also pitch perfect for our current cultural moment.

“The Unsuitable is a fiercely feminist Gothic novel of manners and body horror, that portrays spinsterhood, self-image, and mental illness in Victorian times in fresh light.”
–Book Riot “20 Must-Read Debut Novels of 2020”

Novelists <3

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NOVEMBER 30 - LYDIA MARIA CHILD

Remembered for penning the popular children’s poem “Over the River and Through the Wood”, Lydia Maria Child often shocked audiences from the 1830s to the 1960s with her extremely liberal views. She called for the emancipation of slaves without any compensation to slaveholders, believing that women could not make significant progress in their rights until slavery was abolished.

Child’s 1833 work An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans is said to be the first anti-slavery book published in the United States. She also wrote fictional short stories in support of her anti-slavery beliefs, often exploring how sexual exploitation affected both the enslaved and the slaveholder’s family. The more she delved into these concepts, the more negative reactions she received from readers.

This was not, however, Child’s first taste of controversy. In the mid-1820s, she published a historical romance novel entitled Hobomok: A Tale of Early Times, writing under the anonymous pseudonym “an American”. The book caused quite a stir in the literary community due to its central relationship - an interracial marriage between a white woman and a Native American man.

Decades later, Child would publicly endorse Native American rights, compiling various pamphlets throughout the 1860s. One of her pieces, An Appeal for the Indians, called upon government officials and religious leaders to make a difference, leading to the establishment of the US Board of Indian Commissioners in 1869.

Charles Portis (1933-2020)

Listen, here’s what I’d like to do: I’d like to live in a trailer and play records all night.