March 21, 2026
Two of The Center’s upcoming programs launch books from this week’s selection: a much-anticipated conversation with a former teacher about his novel concerning a student shooting, and a virtual event for a stellar story collection by one of our most treasured writers. We also highlight the new novel by a Japanese rising star whose novels explore identity, isolation, loneliness, and friendship; and a welcome addition to the published works of an Australian writer of uncommonly delicate fiction. In nonfiction, we feature the indelible memoir of a son whose flamboyant father continues to haunt him. All prove how literature can express life in exaggerated and sensational ways that become seared in our memories.
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
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Hard Times
By JEFF BOYD
Published by FLATIRON BOOKS
In a rough Chicago high school, teacher Buddy Mack attempts to keep the peace in his classroom, struggling to balance his often-harrowing job with worrisome, at-risk students and troubles in his own family. This comes to a climax when a shooting of a student launches a cascade of trouble at home, which forces Mack to make some hard decisions. Boyd has captured a high-stakes atmosphere of volatility, exploring the difficulties of straddling family alliances amid police corruption. It is a totally compelling, cinematic novel reminding one of the fiction of Attica Locke and Richard Price.
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Python's Kiss
By LOUISE ERDRICH
Published by HARPER
“I have vanished from honorable view and am ghosting along here in my cluttered rooms.…” Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2020, Erdrich brings her scintillating prose to these thirteen stories—whether in tales (some magical or speculative) of families, or deep character studies. Some feature children and beloved animals, as in the title story. The book is dedicated to her daughter Aza, whose beautiful woodcuts grace the pages. One of the best stories, “The Hollow Children,” takes place during a Minnesota blizzard that threatens a school bus driver and his passengers, “…the wind […] reached below the hood and shook the engine like a baby’s toy rattle.” Her first collection since 2009, this is a must-have volume.
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Sisters in Yellow
By MIEKO KAWAKAMI
Published by KNOPF
Translated by Laurel Taylor and Hitomi Yoshio
What at first seems like a recognizable quirky novel by the celebrated author of Breast and Eggs and Heaven becomes a captivating noirish story set in working-class 1990s Tokyo. Hana is fifteen and trapped by her poverty-ridden upbringing. When she meets Kimiko, she gets a taste of friendship and a possible future that lifts her out of her funk. They open a dive bar together called Lemon (everything in it is yellow). Soon, though, we find ourselves in the criminal underworld. Tension builds as the money pours in, despite a vague awareness of illegal activity, and Hana’s world threatens to fall apart. It is a leap forward for Kawakami’s social and cultural criticism as she investigates sisterhood and the challenges for women in modern Japan with a laser eye.
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The Natural Way of Things
By CHARLOTTE WOOD
Published by RIVERHEAD
Wood, a prize-winning Australian writer, earned critical praise in the U.S. for her breakout, Stone Yard Devotional. First published in 2016 and reminiscent of Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale) or Miriam Toews (Women Talking), this novel follows a group of young women who, after being drugged, awaken to find themselves inexplicably imprisoned in the Australian Outback. As in Women Talking, the women share a history of sexual abuse. Wood’s language is lush, and the book feels perhaps even more resonant now than a decade ago. The creeping dread that hangs over the novel—which has been called a “masterpiece of feminist horror”—will make you shiver, but you won’t be able to stop reading.
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In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man
By TOM JUNOD
Published by DOUBLEDAY
Junod’s fascinating portrait begins as he speaks at his charismatic father’s memorial service: “My father—Dad, Pop-Pop—was not like other fathers…. He was not like other people, period.” What follows is his search for the real story behind the secrets and lies in order to make sense of his own life. Lou Junod from Wantagh, Long Island, was one of a kind, a notorious Casanova with multiple secret lives who regaled everyone with his stories of meeting celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor at El Morocco. Being his son was sometimes exciting, but never easy. This memoir, encapsulated by the title’s Led Zeppelin lyric, brings a colorful, difficult figure to vivid life on the page.
