Things are heating up here in Chicago and in the literary world overall!
July sees a collection of books that are sure to delight, including new releases from some of our team's favorite authors such as Halle Butler, Joy Williams, and Laura van den Berg. There's plenty to dig into as you try to beat the mid-summer heat, so check out the 12 books we've marked as can't miss!
Banal Nightmare
By Halle Butler
Random House
Chicago author Halle Butler follows up her 2019 landmark novel The New Me with Banal Nightmare, which follows a woman who moves back to her hometown following the dissolution of a long-term relationship. As she begins to readjust to her past life and old friends, the arrival of a mysterious East Coast artist who has taken up residency at the local university forces her to confront her past demons and reckon with the path she's taken in her life. As always, Butler's work thrives in its uncertainty, as her characters are unabashedly complicated and frustrating in their decision making. The result is a biting and surreal novel that prods at the absurdity of what it means to make a life in our modern world.
Best of the Rust Belt
Edited by Anne Trubek
Belt Publishing
We have a deep admiration for the Belt Publishing team for all they have done to bring the diversity and beauty of Rust Belt cities to the page over the years. Best of the Rust Belt is a glorious celebration of the press's 10 year anniversary, featuring the best personal essays that strike at the heart of what it means to live in this region. Featuring intimate stories about cities including Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and more, this collection serves as a powerful reminder about the complexity of the nation's heartland and looks forward to the future of the Rust Belt.
State of Paradise
By Laura van den Berg
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
If you needed another reason to celebrate the arrival of July, this month brings us the latest release from Laura van den Berg, one of the leading writers in Florida's ongoing literary renaissance. State of Paradise follows a ghostwriter living in her mother's house in a small Florida town that is experiencing an influx of missing citizens. But when her own sister goes missing only to return a few days later and begins speaking of another dimension, the ghostwriter begins to uncover the connections between the disappearances and ELECTRA, a tech company building world-bending virtual reality devices. This propulsive novel delivers a compelling mystery and the prosaic prowess of an extremely talented writer.
A Map of My Want
By Faylita Hicks
Haymarket Books
We've long been looking forward to Faylita Hicks's new poetry collection, and for good reason. A Map of My Want is a dynamic continuation of her 2019 debut Hoodwitch that brews history, astrology, and desire to create a new vision of sexual liberation and identity. Emerging from the lessons of Audre Lorde's essay "Uses of the Erotic," the collection follows a nonbinary femme as they explore the sensual intersection of the personal and the political following their escape from a religious cult. Hicks's poems delight and conjure ecstasy at every word.
Concerning the Future of Souls
By Joy Williams
Tin House Books
Joy Williams is a master of the form of fiction no matter the length, but we're thrilled to see that she's returning to short fiction in her latest collection. And when we say short, we mean it: 99 stories in total that follow Azrael, the angel of death and transporter of souls, who confronts the holy impossibility of his task and processes his uneasy relationship with Death and the Devil. Williams's latest is a profound meditation on the sorrow and sanctity of death, written by one the most thoughtful writers of our time.
Toward Eternity
By Anton Hur
HarperVia
In the near-future world, a new tech therapy is quickly eradicating cancer by replacing a body's cells with nanites, which also effectively makes its patients immortal. Toward Eternity follows one of these patients, Yonghun, and his poetry-trained AI android Panit, whose connection to this new miracle therapy leads them to an existential crossroads. Translator and author Anton Hur has created an ambitious and philosophical sci-fi epic that challenges what it truly means to be human and whether love can survive the end of humanity.
Carrie Carolyn Coco: My Friend, Her Murder, and an Obsession with the Unthinkable
By Sarah Gerard
Zando
On the night of September 28, 2016, twenty-five-year-old poet Carolyn Bush was brutally stabbed to death in her New York City apartment by her roommate Render Stetson-Shanahan. In this impressive work of journalism and memoir, Sarah Gerard illuminates thousands of hours of interviews with family and friends, court documents, news media, and internet posts in her exploration of the life and death of Carolyn. With the thrilling turns of a crime drama and the deep emotional reckonings of a memoir, Carrie Carolyn Coco is a powerful testimony of Carolyn's life and the author in pursuit to reclaim and honor her story.
The God of the Woods
By Liz Moore
Riverhead Books
Teenager Barbara Van Laar vanishes from her Andirondack summer camp fourteen years after the disappearance of her older brother, sparking a panicked search that unveils a long history of secrets in the community. Liz Moore's The God of the Woods is a thriller in every sense of the word: a page-turning mystery that peels away into layers upon layers of intrigue, deep emotional trauma, and the beauty and danger of the mountains.
Goodnight Tokyo
By Atsuhiro Yoshida
Europa Editions
Set over several nights between the hours of 1:00 AM and 4:30 AM, Goodnight Tokyo explores the vibrant lives of human nocturnal existence. Kaleidoscopic and surreal as many late night and early morning experiences can be, Atsuhiro Yoshida's novel brings us an unforgettable cast of characters whose lives briefly converge in the neon-lit streets and quiet alleyways of Tokyo. Goodnight Tokyo is a brilliant English language debut for Yoshida, translated by the formidable Hadyn Trowell—a loud announcement of an exciting writer amidst the quiet hours of our existence.
Beep
By Bill Roorbach
Algonquin Books
Add to your canon of iconic literary animals with Beep, which follows a personable squirrel monkey who meets a kindly American tween Inga in the Costa Rican rain forest and inadvertently travels with her back to Manhattan. Filled with humor and positivity, Bill Roorbach has created a wholly original novel that is as much a clear-eyed look at our path out of environmental crisis as it is an undeniably entertaining read.
Lo Fi
By Liz Riggs
Riverhead Books
Set in the sweaty music clubs and late-night house parties of Nashville, an aspiring songwriter Alison Hunter finds herself in a perpetual cycle of late nights, new flings, and old flames when her lead singer ex-boyfriend shows up at the door following a once-in-a-century storm. The characters of Lo Fi are messy in the finest way, filled with yearning and lust as they navigate the hurdles of creative life.
Loving Sylvia Plath: A Reclamation
By Emily Van Duyne
W.W. Norton & Company
Sylvia Plath has become a literary flashpoint, known often as the troubled patron saint of confessional poetry and the quintessential literary sad girl. In Loving Slyvia Plath, Emily Van Duyne sets out to radically reimagine the last years of Plath's life and recontextualize her legacy by undoing her silencing and exploring the brilliance of her work. This book is perfect for lovers of poetry and literary history alike.
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