PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ AUGUST 28, 2017 100
Never Coming Back
Alison McGhee. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,
$26 (256p) ISBN 978-1-328-76756-1
In this poignant meditiation on the
relationship between a mother and
daughter from McGhee (Shadow Baby),
Clara Winter is 31 when she first notices
that her almost-50-year-old mother,
Tamar, seems to be more forgetful than
usual. After learning that her mother has
been diagnosed with early-onset
Alzheimer’s, Clara moves from her home
in Florida back to the Adirondacks where
she grew up. Clara’s fear of facing her
mother’s deteriorating health is coupled
with her own concern that there is a 50-50
chance she has inherited the gene that
causes early-onset Alzheimer’s. She also
wants to find out why her mother so adamantly pushed her to attend college far
away but fears that, due to her mother’s
condition, she may never find out.
Though this well-written story will
appeal to a broad range of readers for its
rich characterization, mothers and daughters will especially find Clara’s and
Tamar’s story moving and memorable.
(Oct.)
Infinite Ground
Martin MacInnes. Melville House (PRH, dist.),
$25.99 (272p) ISBN 978-1-61219-685-5
“If it were up to me I would spend my
whole life digging up the lost civilization
of a single vanished person,” one character
says in MacInnes’s invigorating metafic-tional debut. “There would be no end to
the project.” The novel explores the
bewildering, perilous progress of one such
project: an unnamed detective’s attempt
to track down a missing young man,
Carlos, who works for a shadowy corporation. Complicating the search, some of
Carlos’s family members and coworkers
are actually actors, who can be hired by
relatives looking to discharge tiresome
familial duties or by companies looking to
create “an appearance of optimal efficiency and hard work” in their offices.
her marriage. The author skillfully interweaves both characters’ feelings of isolation, setting up a number of strong reveals
with impressive restraint and control.
Once Easter goes down with a devastating
leg injury, the disintegration of his and
Leah’s marriage dovetails with Tom’s burgeoning relationship. The resolution of
both stories is suitably heartbreaking, but
the implications resolve themselves too
quickly in a rushed ending that feels out
of place in a novel whose power resides in
authorial deliberateness. Nevertheless,
this is a worthwhile sports novel with
winning characters. (Oct.)
The Last Ballad
Wiley Cash. HarperLuxe, $26.99 (432p)
ISBN 978-0-06-267073-1
Cash (A Land More Kind than Home)
transports readers into the world of real-life ballad singer Ella May Wiggins, a
central figure in workers’ battle for union-ization in North Carolina textile mills,
who was shot and killed on Sept. 14,
1929. Alone, pregnant, caring for six sick
children, and frightened of losing her job
if she takes another day off, Ella uses her
Sunday to hitch a ride to a union gathering. Quickly recognized for her courage
after fighting off anti-union attackers,
she’s asked to share a song with the
crowd: “We leave our homes in the
morning,/ We kiss our children good-bye./ While we slave for the bosses,/ Our
children scream and cry.” Her message
connects, and she instantly becomes a
sensation. With this unlikely platform
and her unexpected power, Ella May
attempts to integrate unions across
North Carolina mills, attracting the
wrath of union busters, segregationists,
and the powerful wealthy class. This suspenseful, moving novel is a story of
struggle and personal sacrifice for the
greater good that will resonate with
readers of John Steinbeck or Ron Rash.
(Oct.)
Brooklyn and upstate New York, the book
opens with a minor car collision between
Richard and Evelyn Ortega—an undocumented immigrant working for an overbearing employer. Shaken and terrified
because she borrowed her employer’s
Lexus without his permission, Evelyn
comes to Richard’s apartment. Unable to
calm her, Richard solicits Lucia to come
help and, with a snowstorm raging outside, the three nibble on pot brownies and
share stories: Evelyn’s harrowing, tortured
childhood at the hands of the MS- 13
gang, Lucia’s youth amid the violence of
the 1973 Chilean coup. Upon sobering
up, Evelyn explains that she cannot return
the Lexus, and that there is a dead body in
the trunk, presumably murdered by her
employer. Richard, having grown up
hearing of his father’s escape from the
Nazis, has “the idea etched on his mind
that to help the persecuted is an inescapable duty.” With the threat that Evelyn
could be deported if they notify the
authorities, the three quickly plan to dispose of the body in upstate New York,
launching a suspenseful, icy adventure.
Filled with Allende’s signature lyricism
and ingenious plotting, the book delves
wonderfully into what it means to respect,
protect, and love. (Oct.)
A Natural
Ross Raisin. Random House, $27 (400p)
ISBN 978-0-525-50877-9
This slow-building novel examines the
unique pressures and trappings of the
hypermasculine world of professional
English soccer. After being cut from the
national youth team, 19-year-old Tom
reluctantly signs with Town, a middling
squad floundering at the bottom of its
division. There, Tom still fights for
playing time alongside Easter, the team’s
underperforming captain, who has a bad
habit of reading message boards after
losses. Most of the narrative bounces back
and forth between Tom and Easter’s wife,
Leah, a young mother painfully alone in
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Henry Carrigan
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Donna Chavez
Lynda Brill Comerford
Sue Corbett
Katie Cortese
Stefan Dziemianowicz
Scott Eagan
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Lila Garrott
Rebecca George
Sara Grochowski
Siri Gusdal
Patricia Guy
Bob Hahn
Eric Kuntzman
Michael Kurland
Alice McClintock
Victoria McManus
Jordan Maison
Diane Molleson
Theo Mondakis
Libby Morse
Melissa Munro
Julie Naughton
Eric Norton
Joy Parks
Leonard Picker
Emily Poore
Eugene Reynolds
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Antonia Saxon
Liz Scheier
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Tara Shepersky
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Monica Whitebread
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