The measure of an approaching year鈥檚 cultural impact can be difficult to predict, but forthcoming books can give indications of the thematic concerns and narrative trends that will soon be foremost in readers’ minds.
Whether it’s a predatory standup comedy circuit, the rehabilitation of ISIS brides or the ways that food scarcity will alter population ecology, such subjects stand a good chance of being conversation topics in future reading groups and social mixers alike.
The following 15 titles (plus a list of 10 honourable mentions) will likely be of interest to savvy readers possessing a diverse range of tastes and literary sensibilities.听
1. The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You
Neko Case
Grand Central, Jan. 28
American musician Neko Case practically became a household name in Canada owing to her tenure in Vancouver indie-rock band the New Pornographers. In her debut memoir, she casts a wide recollective net across her past, blending ruminations of a latchkey childhood in the woods of Tacoma, Wash., with thoughts on the music industry and a life committed to an unpredictable artistic path.
2. Fundamentally
Nussaibah Younis
Tiny Reparations Books, Feb. 25
In this debut comedic novel, Dr. Nadia Amin secures her dream job with the UN after she publishes an article about rehabilitating ISIS brides, the women recruited by the Islamic State to marry jihadi fighters. Content to leave England for Iraq after a disastrous breakup, Nadia feels a strong urge to help one of the women reintegrate into civilian life, particularly because the hard-headed former bride also once called East London home.
3. R.I.P. Scoot
Sara Flemington
Nightwood Editions, March 11
In 海角社区官网author Flemington’s strange mystery, Austin鈥檚 isolation is having a detrimental effect on his quality of life, but when he adopts a stray cat who likes to munch on chewed-off squirrel tails, his living situation improves. After Scoot the cat dies three weeks later, Austin is surprised to find that a substantial reward is being offered for his safe return. This missed opportunity gnaws at Austin, who becomes obsessed with unravelling the connections Scoot formerly held with Walmart squatters and Japanese muralists.
4. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
Stephen Graham Jones
Simon & Schuster/Saga Press, March 18听
An unearthed Lutheran pastor鈥檚 diary from 1912 contains transcriptions of a confession from a member of the Blackfeet Nation named Good Stab. The secret chronicle of a massacre of 217 Blackfeet has wide implications for the present, and is the latest offering from Stephen Graham Jones, a rising star of the Indigenous horror genre.
5. Quietly, Loving Everyone
Curtis John McRae
Vehicule Press/Esplanade Books, March 20听
In his debut collection of stories, Yolk Literary Journal co-founder Curtis John McRae writes about humans on the cusp of profound realizations, whether they are contending with critical medical diagnoses or witnessing neighbourhoods metamorphose into unrecognizable husks of their former selves.
6. Barbara
Joni Murphy
Book*hug Press, March 25
Barbara, the daughter of a Manhattan Project engineer, is trying to survive the tragedy of her mother鈥檚 suicide; while she carries this trauma with her, it does not impede her rise to becoming one of the silver screen鈥檚 most prominent actors from the 1950s to the ‘70s. In the same way that a bomb can reduce human lives into mere statistics, Barbara must contend with how her films can sometimes amount to hollow representations of the feminine mystique.
7. Devouring Tomorrow
Edited by A.G. Pasquella and Jeff Dupuis
Dundurn Press/Rare Machines, March 25
An anthology of speculative writing engaging with the subject of food scarcity, 鈥淒evouring Tomorrow鈥 features stories 鈥 by Gary Barwin, Ji Hong Sayo, Anuja Varghese, A.G.A. Wilmot and others 鈥斕齛bout lab-grown meat gaining consciousness, airborne pathogens wreaking havoc on crop species, and the end of insect-pollination cycles.
8. Nobody Asked for This
Georgia Toews
Doubleday Canada, March 25
From 海角社区官网novelist Toews comes a serious tale set in the world of comedy. Between performing late-night standup sets and grieving the death of her mother, Virginia is adrift in a world of emotional imbalances. A sliver of hope opens when a fellow comic expresses an interest in her. But when their date leads to a devastating sexual assault, Virginia must confront her industry鈥檚 lack of accountability and the comedian鈥檚 impulse to find material in even the darkest moments of trauma.
9. A Mouth Full of Salt
Reem Gaafar
Invisible Publishing, April 1
The lives of three women questioning the value of tradition intersect at a time of impending civil war, and their journey takes them to haunted Sudanese farming villages as well as the metropolitan bustle of Khartoum. Sudanese writer and physician Reem Gaafar now calls Canada home, and this will be the first time that her Island Prize-winning debut novel will be available in this country.
10. Everything Is Fine Here
Iryn Tushabe
House of Anansi, April 22
In Ugandan-Canadian writer Tushabe’s new novel, Aine Kamara fears for her sister Mbabazi鈥檚 safety while living under Uganda’s draconian anti-homosexuality laws. Realizing that her mother’s Orthodox Christian household is just as restrictive an environment, Aine takes refuge in Mbabazi and her partner鈥檚 home in the city of Kampala, where acts of homophobic violence are on the rise.
11. Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves
Sophie Gilbert
McClelland & Stewart, April 29
In a consideration of feminism鈥檚 waning currency, cultural critic Gilbert traces the erosion of women鈥檚 rights to a moment at the turn of the last century when female self-affirmation gave way to cynical collusion with the male gaze. Not merely a historical excavation of the last 20 years of popular media, the book also looks to the dreary future that might lie ahead if an ideological course correction proves impossible.
12. The Book of Records
Madeleine Thien
Knopf Canada, May 6
In the metaphysical migrant housing complex known as 鈥淭he Sea,” Lina鈥檚 upbringing is entrusted to neighbours whose lives mirror notable historical personages like Hannah Arendt and Baruch Spinoza. Lina鈥檚 desire to understand the true nature of her surroundings tests her relationship with her father, and might come at the cost of her own security.
13. The River Is Waiting
Wally Lamb
Simon & Schuster/Marysue Rucci Books, May 6
In this fictional look into the state of the American prison system, bestselling author Lamb exposes how one mistake can permanently upend a life. Convict Corby Ledbetter trades in a marriage, a job, and a newborn baby for the cruelty of his fellow inmates, though a burgeoning friendship with a prison librarian offers small consolation.
14. A Song for Wildcats
Caitlin Galway
Dundurn Press/Rare Machines, May 6
In this collection of five novelettes by 海角社区官网writer Galway, historical upheavals create profound intimacies between lost souls. Two girls become infatuated with each other in the Australian wilderness following a devastating war, an orphan and his aunt grow close during the height of the Troubles in Ireland, and the May 1968 student revolts compel two men to start an inquiry into the nature of queer love.
15. Warhol鈥檚 Muses: The Artists, Misfits, and Superstars Destroyed by the Factory Fame Machine
Laurence Leamer
G.P. Putnam鈥檚 Sons, May 6
The author of “Capote’s Women” delves into the lives of 10 women drawn to Andy Warhol鈥檚 glamorous and happening Factory studio. A master at media manipulation, Warhol gave little thought to the actors and models who orbited his rising star, and Leamer does not shy away from the ways that the artist had 鈥渘o regard for their safety, their dignity, or their lives.鈥
ALSO OF INTEREST:
“Three Days in June,” by Anne Tyler (Bond Street, Feb. 11); “The Antidote,” by Karen Russell (Knopf, March 11); “The Paris Express,” by Emma Donoghue (Simon & Schuster/Summit, March 18); “Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life,” by Dan Nadel (Scribner, April 15); “Matriarch,” by Tina Knowles (One World, April 22); “The Fun Times Brigade,” by听Lindsay Zier-Vogel (Book*hug Press, May 1); “The Exclusion Zone,” by Alexis Von Konigslow (Wolsak & Wynn, May 6); “Milktooth,” by听Jaime Burnet (Vagrant Press, May 6); “Fox,” by Joyce Carol Oates (Hogarth, June 17); “Vera, or Faith,” by Gary Shteyngart (Random House, July 8)
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