Contemporary

Terraform, Brian Merchant and Claire L. Evans

I just read about this upcoming anthology from one of its author’s, Jeff VanderMeer’s twitter feed. It’s coming from MCD Books in August 2022 and is chock full of an assembly of authors I absolutely admire: Sam Biddle, James Bridle, Jennifer Marie Brissett, Tori Cárdenas, Shannon Chamberlain, Chloe Cole, Nan […]

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Spotlight – Erica Ferencik

Click here to return to the series About the Book This month we travel to the Arctic—Greenland, specifically—with author Erica Ferencik, via her novel Girl in Ice (March 1, 2022, Scout Press/S&S). I’m absolutely floored after chatting with Erica about her firsthand experiences when writing. Valerie “Val” Chesterfield is a […]

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Indie Corner – Sonia Myers

Back to the Indie Corner series It was great to talk with Sonia Meyers about her first novel, We Have Something to Say!, a children’s book. Sonia Myers started her writing career at the Half Moon Bay Review newspaper, contributing articles and reporting on sports. She is currently a middle-school […]

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Vultures of Paradise, Atulya Misra

From Rupa, the publisher: A story of greed, love and sacrifice narrated in the backdrop of a crippling human tragedy. Acclaimed author Atulya Misra tells a gripping and powerful story that traverses numerous cultures and geographies. The story follows the life of Neha, who, at first, is driven by blind […]

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Skyseed, Bill McGuire

‎Thanks so much to the author for letting me know about his novel Skyseed. Skyseed is an eco-thriller about climate engineering gone wrong, and the awful consequences for humanity and our world. Reviews: ‘Skyseed has what good thrillers always need…..a world to save, characters with a bit of go in […]

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Riverflow, Alison Layland

After a beloved family member is drowned in a devastating flood, Bede and Elin Sherwell want nothing more than to be left in peace to pursue their off-grid life. But when the very real prospect of fracking hits their village, they are drawn in to the front line of the […]

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Kesterson, Craig Wilson

Is corporate greed powerful enough to coverup an environmental disaster of epic proportions? Probably not now but what about in the 1980’s. Kesterson is a fast paced environmental thriller that examines that question. The novel is a fictional account of the Kesterson Reservoir saga, a real life horror story involving […]

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Milk Teeth, Helen Bukowski

Beautifully written in immersive, spare prose, Helene Bukowski’s debut novel is about what it means to be a mother at the end of the world, about living with the impacts of climate change, and the way we view “outsiders.” Jen Calleja’s translation from German is a lively rendition of this […]

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The Listeners, Jordan Tannahill

“The Listeners is at once a revery for the sublime, for the innocuous tapestry of sounds that make up the rhythms of our lives — and the pollution of sounds that can tear and devour. It is at once a masterful interrogation of the body, as well as the desperate […]

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Dew in the Morning, Shimmer Chinodya

Dew in the Morning is a tender, evocative novel of growing up, but in it we see the seeds of many issues which Chinodya will dwell on in his later novels: familial tensions, the taut interplay of tradition and modernity, ancestral beliefs and Christianity…A Bildungsroman, Chinodya captures the centrality of […]

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Mahanadi, Anita Agnihotri

Translated by Nivedita Sen, with the subtitle: A novel about the river. In this novel, the tale of the river is entwined with the people through vignettes of their dynamic lives that are infused with myths, legends and archaeological anecdotes. Characters like Malati Gond, Neelkantha, Kuber, Bhanu Shitulia, Parvati and […]

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Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr

In Cloud Cuckoo Land, the world may be falling apart but everything and everyone must come together…This novel of performative storytelling that is also a novel about storytelling is dedicated to “the librarians then, now, and in the years to come.” Two anxieties, reinforcing each other, are at play: the […]

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Spotlight – Bijal Vachharajani

Click here to return to the series I virtually met author Bijal Vachharajani this past summer at Scotland’s CYMERA Festival of Science-Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Writing. We talked with host and author Lauren James, along with author James Bradley, about how we were motivated to write stories that focus around […]

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Beautiful World, Where Are You, Sally Rooney

Rooney is back with another bookish, epistolary novel — this time following two intelligent young adults navigating their personal lives amid the backdrop of environmental and social upheaval. –New York Times Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to […]

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