June 13, 2026
This week’s titles explore race, sexuality, and ethics: an upstate hamlet is unsettled by the return of a couple imprisoned for murder; a shapeshifting woman from the Pomo tribe searches for her identity; and a spy story is based on the author’s grandfather’s experiences during WWII. Two novels make for memorable Pride month picks—one about a girl’s coming-of-age set in sun-bathed Italy, and the other a tale of delirious bad behavior in the British midlands among a fractured family. Find a comfortable place to sit outside and dig in.
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
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The Fervent Whites
By De'Shawn Charles Winslow
Published by One World
Winslow, the 2019 winner of The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, is back. The Whites are a white couple just out of prison after being wrongfully incarcerated for eighteen months, returning to their small, predominantly Black upstate community of Fervent. Their reappearance makes residents uncomfortable, especially Sylvia Upshaw, a Black woman who was close to Morgan, their adopted Black son, who recently died. One of the incidents that haunts Sylvia is that, before his death, she told Morgan a secret she was sworn not to disclose. Winslow leans more intentionally into the thriller genre here, and the result is a compelling novel that reflects his expanding range and reinforces his growing reputation.
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A Sense of Occasion
By Brodie Crellin
Published by Riverhead
One can’t help but appreciate Crellin’s delectable novel featuring British upper-class characters whose constant misconduct will keep you turning the pages in glee. The ‘occasion’ is the funeral of Aunt Mary. The gathering family members include Cousin Jude, whose “new life… revolved around Italy, sex and the decadent logic of the fin de siècle.” Crellin is cringingly funny at depicting his players, including Mary’s daughter Patch, who has slept with Jude’s ex-girlfriend, and the estranged gay father, Robin. “I think there’s something really interesting about [family] as a structure,” says Crellin. She pushes the limits here, exploring not only grief but the myriad relationships within a family, always good fodder for fiction.
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The Fire Agent
By David Baerwald
Published by Spiegel & Grau
Baerwald is a successful musician and composer, but it took the inspiration of his Jewish grandfather’s diaries as a spy in Tokyo to pen his first novel. In it, the character Ernst Baerwald is faced with some of the most important moral decisions of his life amid some of the most important moments in our history—the rise of the Nazis, fascism, and chemical warfare among them. The backstory is totally gripping, and the extraordinary historical novel Baerwald has created, from the Nanjing Massacre to the Cold War, succeeds in his aim to write “an adventure story with serious underpinnings.” Perfect for Father’s Day.
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The Last Human Bear
By Greg Sarris
Published by Heyday
Mary Hatcher, a Native Pomo woman, tells us from the outset of Sarris’s novel that she is a poisoner—what we’d call a witch. Mary has also been taught the powers of being a shapeshifter, a ‘Human Bear,’ by her stepmother, who raised her. Because of her absent parents, she has spent her whole life trying to find out who she really is—good or bad. This lyrical novel tracks Mary’s life in California, from the Depression through her journey of self-discovery. Sarris, a member of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, was influenced by the stories he heard from the elders of his tribe, crafting an important addition to Native literature.
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Nymph
By Sofia Montrone
Published by Avid Reader Press
Leo and her brother Max spend countless summers at their grandmother’s declining agriturismo in Italy, listening to their charismatic father tell tales of Odysseus while their mother sleeps away most of the day with a mysterious illness. We meet them all when the siblings are nine and ten, then jump eight years with the arrival of the American girl, Dolores, who has come to the hotel seeking a job. Leo is smitten. The description of this first love is as languid as a summer’s day. But her blissful sexual awakening is countered by a family tragedy that rocks her world forever. Montrone’s debut is a tender balance of desire and grief.
