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May’s Best Fiction: 10 Books to Put Spring in Your Stack
This month we're reading Ali Smith's follow-up to the Seasonal Quartet, a retelling of "Rebecca" set in Mexico and a new fantasy from Guy Gavriel Kay / BY Nathalie Atkinson / April 27th, 2022
Family sagas, dystopian dramas, and genre-bending fiction are among the 10 books we’re most looking forward to this month.
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1Companion PieceFresh from her Seasonal Quartet series, Smith’s latest is another up-to-the-minute novel, a companion (as the title suggests) to those previous four books, set during the COVID-19 pandemic. The tale of friction between parents and their millennial children covers contemporary ground, with all the usual suspects, plus xenophobia, healthcare policy and gender fluidity. As before, the celebrated British author’s palpably anguished, angry and, at times, surreal novel embodies the expression “fingertip history,” coined by a historian to describe an age so close you can just about touch it. (May 3)
Fresh from her Seasonal Quartet series, Smith’s latest is another up-to-the-minute novel, a companion (as the title suggests) to those previous four books, set during the COVID-19 pandemic. The tale of friction between parents and their millennial children covers contemporary ground, with all the usual suspects, plus xenophobia, healthcare policy and gender fluidity. As before, the celebrated British author’s palpably anguished, angry and, at times, surreal novel embodies the expression “fingertip history,” coined by a historian to describe an age so close you can just about touch it. (May 3)
2PoguemahoneTo set the scene: While Dan visits his sister Una (who suffers from dementia) at her nursing home in Margate, on England’s southeast coast, he recounts their memories, grudges and family saga as an epic and psychedelic free-verse monologue, complete with allusions to The Waste Land, E.E. Cummings, and W.B. Yeats. A swirling tale nearly 600 pages long, the latest modernist-meets-Beat-poetry novel from the Booker-shortlisted Irish writer of The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto is, naturally, being called this century’s Ulysses. (May 3)
To set the scene: While Dan visits his sister Una (who suffers from dementia) at her nursing home in Margate, on England’s southeast coast, he recounts their memories, grudges and family saga as an epic and psychedelic free-verse monologue, complete with allusions to The Waste Land, E.E. Cummings, and W.B. Yeats. A swirling tale nearly 600 pages long, the latest modernist-meets-Beat-poetry novel from the Booker-shortlisted Irish writer of The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto is, naturally, being called this century’s Ulysses. (May 3)
3Remarkably Bright CreaturesTo stave off her loneliness, the recently widowed Tova, 70, works as a night janitor at the local aquarium. Here she forms a bond with wily Marcellus, the grumpy resident octopus who longs for his freedom and return to the sea. Alternately told from Tova’s point of view and that of both Cameron (the young maintenance worker she mentors) and yes, the clever and intuitive giant octopus, together they piece together the truth of their past losses, which turn out to be related. It’s a quirky debut by a Chicago-based writer that, like A Man Called Ove, is great reminder of how hope for the future can come from unlikely connections. (May 3)
To stave off her loneliness, the recently widowed Tova, 70, works as a night janitor at the local aquarium. Here she forms a bond with wily Marcellus, the grumpy resident octopus who longs for his freedom and return to the sea. Alternately told from Tova’s point of view and that of both Cameron (the young maintenance worker she mentors) and yes, the clever and intuitive giant octopus, together they piece together the truth of their past losses, which turn out to be related. It’s a quirky debut by a Chicago-based writer that, like A Man Called Ove, is great reminder of how hope for the future can come from unlikely connections. (May 3)
4Love MarriageFor her first novel in a decade (soon to be a BBC drama), the acclaimed Booker-nominated British author of Brick Lane explores the nature of identity in multicultural modern Britain through the engagement between two young Londoners. Doctor-in-training Yasmin learns the truth about her Indian-born parents’ so-called love marriage in this warm and engaging novel, which looks at the culture clash and generational tensions around her impending nuptials and fiancé’s family of upper-class literati. (May 3)
For her first novel in a decade (soon to be a BBC drama), the acclaimed Booker-nominated British author of Brick Lane explores the nature of identity in multicultural modern Britain through the engagement between two young Londoners. Doctor-in-training Yasmin learns the truth about her Indian-born parents’ so-called love marriage in this warm and engaging novel, which looks at the culture clash and generational tensions around her impending nuptials and fiancé’s family of upper-class literati. (May 3)
5The HaciendaCañas, a Mexican-American writer working on her PhD in medieval Islamic literature, reimagines Daphne du Maurier’s haunted house and malevolent housekeeper in the novel Rebecca, and transposes it to 19th-century Mexico. An enthralling addition to the growing genre of post-colonial gothic suspense, the setting just after the War of Independence allows it to address issues of class and colourism, and include elements of witchcraft – in this case, invoking the Aztec gods of death and sorcery. (May 3)
Cañas, a Mexican-American writer working on her PhD in medieval Islamic literature, reimagines Daphne du Maurier’s haunted house and malevolent housekeeper in the novel Rebecca, and transposes it to 19th-century Mexico. An enthralling addition to the growing genre of post-colonial gothic suspense, the setting just after the War of Independence allows it to address issues of class and colourism, and include elements of witchcraft – in this case, invoking the Aztec gods of death and sorcery. (May 3)
6Siren Queen“No maids, no funny talking, no fainting flowers” is the deal that an ambitious Chinese-American starlet (inspired by the real-life Anna May Wong) strikes to avoid racist typecasting in in pre-code Hollywood, that brief period in talkies before the Motion Picture Production Code of moral censorship was adopted in 1934. The Wisconsin-based, Hugo Award-winning author of The Chosen and the Beautiful, last year’s sublime queer magical retelling of The Great Gatsby, works a similar spell here: Vo literalizes the metaphors commonly used to describe the magic of movies – stardust, selling one’s soul (including studio bosses as literal monsters) and silver screen immortality – for an enchanting novel of Golden Age Hollywood that’s equal parts fantasy and wistful revisionist history. (May 10)
“No maids, no funny talking, no fainting flowers” is the deal that an ambitious Chinese-American starlet (inspired by the real-life Anna May Wong) strikes to avoid racist typecasting in in pre-code Hollywood, that brief period in talkies before the Motion Picture Production Code of moral censorship was adopted in 1934. The Wisconsin-based, Hugo Award-winning author of The Chosen and the Beautiful, last year’s sublime queer magical retelling of The Great Gatsby, works a similar spell here: Vo literalizes the metaphors commonly used to describe the magic of movies – stardust, selling one’s soul (including studio bosses as literal monsters) and silver screen immortality – for an enchanting novel of Golden Age Hollywood that’s equal parts fantasy and wistful revisionist history. (May 10)
7Child ZeroStephen King endorses this speculative thriller by a former molecular biologist turned crime writer who also lives in Maine, saying it has a Michael Crichton vibe. It’s a thought-provoking ride about a near-future pandemic exponentially worse than COVID-19 – think an even more panicked and militarized Escape from New York after a bioterrorist attack, one where medicine fails to cope with existing disease. The novel reflects the societal upheaval and political instability of the current pandemic, and takes the consequences of biological disaster a few chilling steps forward. (May 10)
Stephen King endorses this speculative thriller by a former molecular biologist turned crime writer who also lives in Maine, saying it has a Michael Crichton vibe. It’s a thought-provoking ride about a near-future pandemic exponentially worse than COVID-19 – think an even more panicked and militarized Escape from New York after a bioterrorist attack, one where medicine fails to cope with existing disease. The novel reflects the societal upheaval and political instability of the current pandemic, and takes the consequences of biological disaster a few chilling steps forward. (May 10)
8All the Seas of the WorldReligion, war and family are evergreen subjects, whatever the century. In this stand-alone novel, the Toronto-based, World Fantasy Award-winning author revisits the near-Renaissance world of his international bestsellers, like Children of Earth and Sky. Related characters tread the same alternate Mediterranean world of 1450-1500 to deliver overlapping storylines rife with the signature combination of history, political intrigue (spies! attempted assassination!) and evocative world-building that has earned Kay a cult following. (May 24)
Religion, war and family are evergreen subjects, whatever the century. In this stand-alone novel, the Toronto-based, World Fantasy Award-winning author revisits the near-Renaissance world of his international bestsellers, like Children of Earth and Sky. Related characters tread the same alternate Mediterranean world of 1450-1500 to deliver overlapping storylines rife with the signature combination of history, political intrigue (spies! attempted assassination!) and evocative world-building that has earned Kay a cult following. (May 24)
9Yerba BuenaThis love story about Sara and Emilie, two women who struggle to find themselves, love and one another, is the adult novel debut of bestselling San Francisco-based YA author LaCour — and is on every most-anticipated book list that matters. The textured and quietly powerful novel has been likened to Patricia Highsmith’s Carol in its depiction of domestic and sensual pleasures, while also addressing the messiness of addiction, generational trauma and the cost of independence. (May 31)
This love story about Sara and Emilie, two women who struggle to find themselves, love and one another, is the adult novel debut of bestselling San Francisco-based YA author LaCour — and is on every most-anticipated book list that matters. The textured and quietly powerful novel has been likened to Patricia Highsmith’s Carol in its depiction of domestic and sensual pleasures, while also addressing the messiness of addiction, generational trauma and the cost of independence. (May 31)
10The Garden of Broken ThingsThe new novel from the Haitian-born, Oxford-educated, New York-based writer with a PhD in African and African diaspora literature (who Harper’s Bazaar has compared to Toni Morrison “at the height of her powers”) tracks the dynamics among three generations of women during a catastrophic disaster. Genevieve, a single mother from New York, is in Port-au-Prince with her troubled teenage son to reconnect with their heritage when the devastating 2010 earthquake hits, and surviving the aftermath becomes a living nightmare that tests familial bonds as they rebuild, in every sense of the word. (May 10)
The new novel from the Haitian-born, Oxford-educated, New York-based writer with a PhD in African and African diaspora literature (who Harper’s Bazaar has compared to Toni Morrison “at the height of her powers”) tracks the dynamics among three generations of women during a catastrophic disaster. Genevieve, a single mother from New York, is in Port-au-Prince with her troubled teenage son to reconnect with their heritage when the devastating 2010 earthquake hits, and surviving the aftermath becomes a living nightmare that tests familial bonds as they rebuild, in every sense of the word. (May 10)