Six New Books Hit Shelves as Voters Return Home
Publishers release a diverse lineup of fiction and nonfiction this month, ranging from a novel about Amazonian poison to a hockey memoir written by a famous American under a pseudonym.
By Chloe Martin ·
Election Day dominates the news cycle, but the publishing industry moves on with its standard November release schedule. Six new titles arrive in bookstores this month, offering readers a shift in focus from polling data to personal narratives and historical investigations.
The list includes four novels, one history, and one memoir. The releases cover a wide range of settings, from a river island in Bangladesh to the forests of the Amazon, and span genres from literary fiction to comedic nonfiction.
Louise Kennedy, a Northern Irish author, publishes her second novel, Stations. The book follows the fallout of a young romance complicated by family history. Kennedy, who worked as a chef for nearly 30 years before writing, called the transition to literature strangely liberating during a 2022 interview.
Mary Beth Keane releases Whale Harbor, a novel about an Irish father and his sons. The story spans years, seas, and continents. In 2019, Fresh Air critic Maureen Corrigan compared Keane to Ann Patchett, noting their ability to transform domestic tales into universal stories.
Matt O'Hara, a history professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, publishes The Flying Death. The book details the pursuit of curare, a lethal poison used in Amazonian blowdarts. O'Hara traces the medicinal and commercial history of the substance, a quest that began in the 1930s and impacted local tribes whose roles are often overlooked.
Daisy Johnson, the youngest Booker Prize finalist at age 27, releases Long Wave. The novel features women carrying family bonds described as broken glass. The book continues Johnson's style of spare prose and foreboding atmosphere established in her debut, Everything Under.
Tahmima Anam publishes Uprising, set on a river island in Bangladesh. The story is told largely from the perspective of children born to women trapped in prostitution. The narrative addresses the impact of climate change and the arrival of a new girl who sets events in motion. The final release is Amazons, a hockey memoir by Cleo Birdwell. The name is a pseudonym for American novelist Don DeLillo, who acknowledged the book in 2020. DeLillo approved its republication earlier this year with a preface consisting of a business card and the statement: I don't want to talk about it.
Source: WVIZ
