Xiaolu Guo’s A LOVER’S DISCOURSE received a glorious review from Commonweal Magazine. The reviewer writes: “In Guo’s telling, we belong either to a world someone else speaks into being, or we are locked out of it… Where can we belong if we feel separated from ourselves, if language divides us from a shared reality with others? How real can we be without common ground? In the end, what holds Guo’s narrator together is not definition but negotiation—the linguistic clashes, corrections, and concessions that build her hybrid voice.” Grove Press published the novel on October 13, 2020.

Lucy Ives’s story collection COSMOGONY was chosen as a Paris Review Staff Pick. Reviewer Jane Breakell writes: “[The] stories acknowledge that yes, things that seem awful are only human, but also, knowing this intellectually doesn’t really make it any easier emotionally. What does make it bearable—for this reader—is a beautifully honed sense of the absurd, which kept me smiling throughout much of this collection.” Soft Skull published the book on March 9, 2021.

BookPage has awarded Vince Granata’s EVERYTHING IS FINE a starred review, calling it “riveting”: “Granata writes with compassion, reflection and unsparing honesty of not only his brother’s metamorphosis but also his own transformation after the crime—how he was finally able to find his way back to his life, memories and love of his brother.” Atria Books will publish the memoir on April 27, 2021.

Audrey Clare Farley’s biography of Ann Cooper Hewitt, THE UNFIT HEIRESS, received a stellar review from Lady Science. The reviewer raves: “The most indicting feature of Farley’s book is not America’s eugenic past but America’s eugenic present…We don’t live on the ruins of eugenics; we live within it, twisting its language when the talk of ‘race’ and ‘genes’ is no longer publicly popular. This is a reality that many institutions, scientists, and everyday people in the U.S. have not reckoned with. In drawing a throughline from past to present, Farley forces readers to do so.” Grand Central Publishing will publish the book on April 20, 2021.

Yaara Shehori’s AQUARIUM received a rave from the Jewish Book Council. The reviewer writes: “In her hauntingly surreal debut novel translated from Hebrew, Yaara Shehori questions what it means to hear when hearing is a perpetual source of silence and othering…AQUARIUM ultimately offers a fear-less translation of the elusiveness of human experience, illuminating those rare moments of being that escape our preconception of beauty, even if they can’t be clearly understood the instant they pass through us.” Farrar, Straus, and Giroux published the book on April 13, 2021.

Publishers Weekly praises Matt Bell’s APPLESEED in the novel’s first trade review, writing that it “is an excellent addition to the climate apocalypse subgenre, and the way it grapples with humanity’s dramatic influence on the planet feels fresh and bracing.” Custom House will publish the book on July 13, 2021.

Olivia Laing’s forthcoming EVERYBODY has earned yet another starred review, this time from Booklist. They write: "Intrepid cultural critic Laing conducts incisive inquiries into complex subjects by assembling a galaxy of innovators with whom to commune. Here she takes a tangible approach to freedom by focusing on how our bodies—from the color of our skin to gender, illness, and sexual orientation—determine our place in society…Laing's finely crafted blend of incisive memoir and biography vitalize this unique chronicle of the endless struggle ‘to be free of oppression based on the kind of body’ one inhabits, a work of fresh and dynamic analysis and revelation.” W.W. Norton will publish the book on May 4, 2021.

EVERYTHING NOW by Rosecrans Baldwin received a glowing review from Booklist. They write:
“Throughout this essay collection, [Baldwin] explores the history and make-up of this urban sprawl through interviews with fascinating and bizarre locals and draws on such LA luminaries as Joan Didion, Octavia Butler, and Jonathan Gold. Each essay circles around a theme, which he pursues on many tangents…Full of surprising facts and anecdotes, this is a compelling, thoroughly researched, and lovingly crafted chronicle of how Los Angeles came to be.” MCD will publish the book on June 15, 2021.

Jonathan Parks-Ramage’s YES, DADDY earned a starred review from Booklist. They praise: “Antigay crusaders and literary elite both prey on desperate [protagonist] Jonah Keller in this horror-filled tale of exploitation and its aftermath…surrounded by empathetic narration in a story that offers all extremes, from verisimilitude to despair and from a lust for revenge to a longing for home. Fear settles over the reader as they wait for the next blow, making Jonah's story akin to that of the victim in Roxane Gay’s AN UNTAMED STATE (2014).” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will publish the book on May 18, 2021.

Hermione Hoby’s sophomore novel, VIRTUE, received a stellar endorsement from STAKES IS HIGH author Mychal Denzel Smith: “With VIRTUE, Hermione Hoby marries her hallmark lyrical genius with propulsive storytelling, resulting in an engaging and beautiful novel. VIRTUE resists easy moralizing, yet delivers an elbow-sharp, incisive dissection of the seductive nature of the privileges afforded to those on the favored side of inequality. Where it is heady it is also heartfelt, where it is critical it is also compassionate, and it is all of these things presented in some the most resplendent language committed to the page. The clarity and beauty of VIRTUE'S writing is matched by its author's multi-layered thinking and ability to capture the tension of the not-too distant past.” Riverhead Books will publish the novel on July 20, 2021.