Literary Fiction
decade from an original writer hailed by
Michael Chabon as “the most darkly playful voice in American fiction.”
Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum
(Mar. 17, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0-
8129-9753-8). A wife and mother’s life
looks perfect from the outside, but she is
falling apart inside in this debut novel
about marriage, sex, fidelity, morality, and
most especially, self. PW’s starred review
RANDOM/SPIEGEL & GRAU
At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen
(Mar. 31, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-
385-52323-3) returns to the kind of storytelling Gruen excelled at in Water for Elephants. It’s a historical time frame in an
unusual setting with a moving love story:
think Scottish Downton Abbey.
RIVERHEAD
Funny Girl by Nick Hornby (Feb. 3,
hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-59420-
541-5). From the bestselling author of
High Fidelity, About a Boy, and A Long Way
Down comes a novel set in 1960s London.
SCRIBNER
The Children’s Crusade by Ann Packer
(Apr. 7, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-
4767-1045-7). The New York Times
best-selling and award-winning author of The
Dive from Clausen’s Pier explores the secrets
and desires, the remnant wounds and
saving graces of one California family over
the course of five decades.
SIMON & SCHUSTER
Soil by Jamie Kornegay (Mar. 10, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-4767-5081-1) is
a darkly comic debut novel by an independent bookseller about an idealistic young
farmer who moves his family to a Mississippi flood basin, suffers financial ruin, and
becomes increasingly paranoid that he’s
being framed for murder.
SOHO
Burning Down George Orwell’s
House by Andrew Ervin (May 5, hardcover,
$25.95, ISBN 978-1-61695-494-9). Set
partly in Chicago, but mostly on the remote
Scottish Isle of Jura, Andrew Ervin’s debut
is a darkly comic tale of advertising, truth,
single malt, Scottish hospitality-or lack
thereof, and George Orwell’s Nineteen
Eighty-Four. There’s also a werewolf. Maybe.
SOURCEBOOKS LANDMARK
The Orphan Sky by Ella Leya (Feb. 3,
paper, $14.99, ISBN 978-1-4022-9865-3).
A semiautobiographical debut by an Azerbai-jani-American is set at the crossroads of Asia
and Europe under the red flag of communism
in the late 1970s, revealing the ancient soul
of 20th-century Azerbaijan as a young pianist
searches for her identity and freedom.
ST. MARTIN’S
A Fireproof Home for the Bride by
Amy Scheibe (Mar. 10, hardcover, $26.99,
ISBN 978-1-250-04967-4). The coming-of-age story of 18-year-old Emmy Nelson,
who’s swept up in a family secret when she
attempts to step outside of her parents’
strict world and strike out on her own.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
(Feb. 3, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-
312-57722-3). The New York Times best-selling author offers an epic novel of love
and war, from the 1940s to the present day,
and the secret lives of those who live in a
small French town.
TWO DOLLAR RADIO
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The Only Ones by Carola Dibbell (Mar.
17, paperback, $16.99, ISBN 978-1-
937512-27-9). Wandering a post-pandemic
world where she is strangely immune to a
succession of killer diseases, Inez Fardo is
hired to provide genetic material to a wealthy,
grief-stricken mother. When complications
arise, Inez is left responsible for a baby girl.
UNIV. OF CHICAGO
Portrait of a Man Known as Il Condottiere by Georges Perec, trans. by David Bellos (Apr. 6, hardcover, $20, ISBN 978-0-
226-05425-4). Georges Perec’s first novel,
long thought lost and never before published, reveals the puckish, playful writer at
the outset of his career, already interested in
themes and ideas (art, forgery, murder) that
preoccupied him throughout his career.
616-0). In this kaleidoscopic novel, which
PW starred, a love-struck radio operator
discovers a secret society offering mind-bending performance art in war zones
around the world.
The Shadow of the Crescent Moon by
Fatima Bhutto (Mar. 24, hardcover, $25.95,
ISBN 978-1-59420-560-6). Long-listed
for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction,
this lyrical novel is set over the course of one
morning in a small town in Pakistan.
PICADOR
The Last Pilot by Benjamin Johncock
(July 7, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-250-
06664-0). A gripping debut novel of the
space race explores the inner life of a national
hero—and asks what it means to be courageous in the face of unthinkable loss.
PUSHKIN
The Librarian by Mikhail Elizarov, trans.
by Andrew Bromfield (Feb. 10, paper,
$18.95, ISBN 978-1-78227-027-0). If Ryu
Murakami had written War and Peace, it
might look like Elizarov’s novel about Gro-mov, an obscure and long forgotten propaganda author of the Soviet era, and the supernatural effects his books have on readers.
PUTNAM
My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh
(Feb. 10, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-0-
399-16952-6). Walsh’s debut unfolds in a
Baton Rouge neighborhood best known for
cookouts on sweltering summer afternoons,
cauldrons of spicy crawfish, and passionate
football fandom. But in the summer of
1989, 15-year-old Lindy Simpson—free
spirit, track star, and belle of the block—is
raped late one evening near her home.
RANDOM HOUSE
Among the Ten Thousand Things by
Julia Pierpont (July 7, hardcover, $26,
ISBN 978-0-8129-9522-0). A debut novel
about the breakup of a family over one
summer reveals piercing, unforgettable
understanding of the bonds of family life,
how brittle they can be, and how resilient.
Get in Trouble by Kelly Link (Feb. 3,
hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-0-8041-7968-
3). The first new collection in almost a
