New Book Releases to Read During Shelter in Place

ZYZZYVA Staff

Readers and friends, we hope you are staying safe during these trying times. We are all adjusting to the societal changes that are taking place due to the impact of COVID-19. It occurs to us that many new book releases have not received the coverage they would have during a normal news cycle, and their authors’ book tours have been cancelled due to safety concerns. As such, we thought we would collect a list of such books here in the hopes of giving them their due attention, with a reminder that you can order from Bookshop.org to support your local independent bookstores while their doors are closed.

Deceit and Other Possibilities

Deceit and Other Possibilities: StoriesVanessa Hua: In her powerful collection, first published in 2016 and now featuring new stories, Vanessa Hua gives voice to immigrant families navigating a shifting America…This all-new edition of Deceit and Other Possibilities marks the emergence of a remarkable writer. (out now; Counterpoint)

The GringaAndrew Altschul: In this powerful and timely new novel, Andrew Altschul maps the blurred boundaries between fact and fiction, author and text, resistance and extremism. Part coming-of-age story and part political thriller, The Gringa asks what one person can do in the face of the world’s injustice. (out now; Melville House)

Where You Are GoingJoan Frank: In her quartet of novellas, Joan Frank invites readers into the inner lives of characters bewildered by love, grief, and inexplicable affinities…Witty and humane, Frank taps the riches of the novella form as she writes of loneliness, friendship, loss, and the filaments of intimacy that connect us through time. (out now; Sarabande Books)

Barn 8Deb Olin Unferth: Deb Olin Unferth’s wildly inventive novel is a heist story of a very unusual sort…Funny, whimsical, philosophical, and heartbreaking, Barn 8 ultimately asks: What constitutes meaningful action in a world so in need of change? Unferth comes at this question with striking ingenuity, razor-sharp wit, and ferocious passion. (out now; Graywolf Press)

Kept Animals: A NovelKate Milliken: A bold, riveting debut novel of desire, betrayal, and loss, centering on three teenage girls, a horse ranch, and the accident that changes everything. (April 21st; Scriber)

Edie on the Green ScreenBeth Lisick: New York Times bestseller Beth Lisick’s first novel Edie on the Green Screen chronicles Silicon Valley’s rapidly changing culture with biting observational humor, an insider’s wisdom, and disarming pathos, while asking, “What comes after It?” (March 26th; 7.13 Books)

I Couldn’t Even Imagine That They Would Kill Us: An Oral History of the Attacks Against the Students of AyotzinapaJohn Gibler: Harrowing personal narratives describing how Mexican authorities disappeared, killed, and injured scores of students and others in a still-unsolved crime. (out now; City Lights Publishers) 

New Waves novel

New WavesKevin Ngyuen: A wry and edgy debut novel about race and startup culture, secrecy and surveillance, social media and friendship. (out now; One World)

The Memory EatersElizabeth Kadetsk: At turns lyrical, poignant, and alluring, The Memory Eaters tells the story of a family’s cyclical and intergenerational incidents of trauma, secret-keeping, and forgetting in the context of 1970s and 1980s New York City. (March 27th; University of Massachusetts Press)

TemporaryHilary Leichter: In Temporary, a young woman’s workplace is the size of the world…This riveting quest, at once hilarious and profound, will resonate with anyone who has ever done their best at work, even when the work is only temporary. (out now; Coffee House Press)

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