July 22, 2023
Sometimes high summer zaps all your energy except the ability to be prone and read a page-turning novel. This week, reunions abound between family members and friends, bringing intense explorations of youth and sense of place. Two of the writers appear at The Center, both revisiting characters from previous decades: unforgettable residents in an indelible American town, and a glorious investigation of Cuban family roots. There is a propulsive crime story from an Irish writer; an Israeli writer’s examination of the boundaries of mothering; and a British Ghanaian writer who brings a lush musicality to his sophomore effort.
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
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Somebody's Fool
By Richard Russo
Published by Knopf
We are back in upstate New York with Russo’s memorable small-town characters that populated Nobody’s Fool and Everybody’s Fool. Peter, son of the late, cantankerous Sully, has begrudgingly returned to town with his family (“Sure, he’d be stuck in Bath for the time being, but he’d made it clear he wouldn’t be staying a moment longer than necessary.” Famous last words!) Two additional events drive the narrative: the annexation of North Bath into the adjacent town, and the discovery of a dead body. Russo’s trademark humor and his uncanny ability to create a realistic slice of Americana has entertained us since the first installment with Sully and company almost thirty years ago.
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Small Worlds
By Caleb Azumah Nelson
Published by Grove
Azuma Nelson’s debut novel Open Water was a love story featuring a Ghanaian immigrant in London. In his new novel he also explores love—of music, of dancing, of friends and family. His protagonist Stephen observes, “I see my father up ahead, among the congregation, his body free and flailing and loose…. The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing.” Stephen must come to terms with his place in two worlds: the small community of Peckham in southeast London and the place his parents called home, Ghana. Convinced that music will save him, his journey is enhanced by the author’s signature melodic prose.
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Vanishing Maps
By Cristina García
Published by Knopf
We met three generations of women in the del Pino family in 1992 (Dreaming in Cuban). At that time García was one of the early Latina writers, like Sandra Cisneros and Julia Alvarez, to break through to a larger audience. Twenty years hence, the family’s matriarch remains in Cuba; one sibling is a drag queen in Berlin; one is a sculptor in L.A.; a cousin is a businesswoman in Moscow. Will these disparate souls find peace in the family once again? García’s poetic prose is informed by music, art, and nature. As she says, “everything is text,” which she’s continually bringing to the page.
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How to Love Your Daughter
By Hila Blum
Published by Riverhead
Translated by Daniella Zamir
Is there such a thing as too much motherlove? Blum, in her first English translation, takes us into murky territory. You don’t have to have a child to be drawn into Yoella’s world of memory and regret as she pours over the choices made raising her daughter, Leah. When we meet her, they are estranged; the novel backtracks to show us how and why. Yoella often refers to novels or movies by recounting the plots—it’s a bonus to guess what they are (Elizabeth Strout? Force Majeure?). You’ll find it completely engrossing to be in Yoella’s busy mind in this psychologically mesmerizing portrait of parenthood.
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Kala
By Colin Walsh
Published by Doubleday
This is perfect summer reading that begins with a reunion of estranged friends in a small town. Walsh sets his debut on the Irish coast and these three characters have not seen each other in two decades. One of their original gang was a troubled teen who went missing. Now there is a grisly discovery of human remains, and the action and suspense begin to build. The familiar tropes of this story are handled with great finesse by this young writer who describes his novel as “marrying the emotional and psychological complexity of literary fiction… with a slow-burn mystery… as the darkness threatens to swallow the characters… trapped in the amber of their teenage years.” Bravo Walsh!
