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New springtime books include historical fiction from World War II and the American South, an egg-related crime mystery, contemporary and futuristic fiction and sci-fi, and compelling memoirs from both a Canadian-Chinese daughter of immigrants and a Ukrainian soldier. ‘Gifted and Talented,’ by Olivie Blake Their father’s sudden death leaves Meredith, Arthur and Eilidh Wren wondering who will inherit the family’s massive fortune and control the future of Wrenfare Magitech; the revolutionary company harnessed the channeling of unusual electromagnetic waves – some might call it magic – as a power source for modern technology. Prickly striver Meredith is qualified to take over as CEO: Her life’s work, backed by her father’s competitor, has resulted in the world’s first neuromancy transmitter that promises to keep users happy.
Arthur, failing upward as an unaccomplished U.S. congressman, is looking to make a change.
Eilidh, the favored child and current Wrenfare insider, is regularly underestimated by her siblings. As the self-involved but engaging trio compete for control, they also come to terms with their rivalries and the circumstances that encouraged their divisions. (Tor) ‘Restaurant Kid: A Memoir of Family and Belonging,’ by Rachel Phan When she was 3, Phan’s parents opened the May May Inn, a Chinese restaurant in suburban Ontario.
The venture was a measure of their success after fleeing Vietnam for snowy Canada a decade earlier, but to Phan, the restaurant was like a needy younger sibling, taking away her parents’ time and attention. While her family worked 12-hour shifts, she entertained herself and found that staying in the background also helped her assimilate into Canadian culture as an Asian person, where she felt like she belonged everywhere and nowhere at the same time. A trip to Vietnam with her parents as an adult allowed her to more fully grasp what they endured to bring their family to safety and gave context to the ways her parents demonstrated love.
(Pegasus) ‘All That Life Can Afford,’ by Emily Everett This debut novel follows Anna, a Massachusetts girl raised on food stamps and hand-me-downs who dreams of escaping poverty. After winning a scholarship to Queen Mary University, she moves to London, but her solvency problems persist, and Anna must cobble together enough bartending shifts and tutoring gigs to barely cover rent. When a client offers to fly her to St.
Tropez to tutor their teenage daughter, the opportunity takes Anna into a heady world of luxury. She is welcomed into a jet-setting lifestyle of parties and wealth, and she meets two privileged young men with different reactions to her strivings. The pressure of maintaining her newfound lifestyle escalates, forcing her to define herself on her own terms.
(Putnam) ‘The Ephemera Collector,’ by Stacy Nathaniel Jackson As a Los Angeles museum archivist in the near future, Xandria Brown relies on health bots to keep her worsening long-covid symptoms in check as she works to complete an assemblage of African American ephemera known as the Diwata Collection, a project with ties to a radical Black Panther-connected past and a climate separatist community with plans for the future. After a mysterious call from an unidentified colleague followed by an emergency lockdown, Xandria is no longer sure whom, or what, she can trust, and she must use her dwindling resources to preserve her life’s work for future generations. (Liveright) ‘The Impossible Thing,’ by Belinda Bauer Bauer’s enthralling mystery begins in 1926, when Celie, a malnourished farm girl, tries to secure her next meal by dangling from a rope to gather eggs from the seabird nests tucked in an overhang atop Yorkshire’s cliffs.
Instead, she finds a treasure that will change her life. A century later, Patrick Fort, an autistic young man – and a minor character in another Bauer mystery – discovers that his neighbors’ home has been robbed, but the only thing stolen is an ornate case containing a ruby-red egg. Patrick and his neighbor, Weird Nick, join forces on a quest to retrieve the stolen egg, which leads them to an underground world of obsessive oological collectors who will go to dangerous lengths to claim their prize.
(Atlantic Monthly, April 8) ‘These Days,’ by Lucy Caldwell Caldwell’s World War II-era novel paints a picture of war-torn Belfast through the eyes of the Bell family, who are awakened one night as bombs drop on their neighborhood. Philip, a doctor, is called out from the family’s shelter under the stairs to attend to the injured, while his wife maintains order at home despite secretly yearning for a lost love. Daughter Audrey, engaged to be married to a young doctor, starts to question her predictable future while the city around her is destroyed.
And her younger sister, Anna, in a new relationship with a woman, must find her own sense of purpose amid the chaos of repeated bombings. (SJP Lit, April 8) ‘Six Days in Bombay,’ by Alka Joshi Set in 1930s India during British colonial rule, Joshi’s engaging novel follows nurse Sona Falstaff, whose newest patient, renowned painter Mira Novak, is recovering at a Bombay hospital from what was rumored to be more than a straightforward miscarriage. The two young women find a connection through their shared dual Indian and European heritage, and Sona enjoys Mira’s free-spirited outlook.
When Mira dies under mysterious circumstances, suspicion falls on Sona. To prove her innocence, she must decipher an enigmatic note by taking four of Mira’s paintings to former friends and lovers across Europe, a journey which awakens Sona to a world of possibilities beyond her sheltered life. Joshi, author of “The Henna Artist,” was inspired by real-life 20th century artist Amrita Sher-Gil, an outspoken Hungarian Indian painter whose cause of death at age 28 has never been determined.
(MIRA, April 15) ‘Zeal,’ by Morgan Jerkins Upon his discharge from serving two years in the Union Army, Harrison, released as a free man, arrives in eerily silent Natchez, Mississippi, to discover the love of his life broke her vow to await his return. Meanwhile, Tirzah, now in Shreveport, Louisiana, wants to get back to Harrison, but traveling in the decimated South is dangerous, especially for a Black woman with no money. Jerkins follows the fortunes of the star-crossed lovers and intertwines the stories of their descendants over 150 years, navigating the legacy of slavery through the Great Migration and the civil rights era.
Another story unfolds in 2019 Harlem, where Ardelia and Oliver are hosting their engagement party and receive an artifact that reverberates across generations. (Harper, April 22) ‘The Lilac People,’ by Milo Todd In dual timelines, Todd thoughtfully portrays the plight of queer and transgender people in Germany before and after World War II. In 1932, Bertie and his friends are overjoyed to receive their official “transvestite cards,” allowing them to legally appear in public dressed in men’s clothing without fear of reprisal.
Working for Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the Institute of Sexual Science, Bertie has been on the front lines of the fight for queer rights, but as Hitler rises to power, he retreats with his girlfriend, Sofie, to an isolated farm where they pose as a heterosexual couple to stay safe. Near the war’s end, Bertie and Sofie find a trans man in prison clothing hiding on their land.
As they vow to safeguard him from Nazis, they realize that the Allied forces may also pose a threat to everyone’s security, and they are forced to look for protection in new places. (Counterpoint, April 29) ‘Ordinary People Don’t Carry Machine Guns: Thoughts on War,’ by Artem Chapeye As explosions shook the walls of his Kyiv apartment, Chapeye, his wife and their young sons prepared to flee to his western Ukrainian hometown. A leftist urban professional and theoretical pacifist, he had planned to run and hide from war when it came, but he realized he would be unable to respect himself unless he joined the fight for his country.
Chapeye’s musings on life as an enlistee after the Russian invasion reveal his philosopher’s heart as he poses questions without answers and examines his own biases against those who chose not to enlist. As he fights alongside older soldiers, who complain of lower back pain from carrying heavy equipment and knee pain from standing for long stretches, he realizes war is not what he expected. In the early days, he writes, the destruction felt unreal.
Now in his third year of service, he contends it is peace that seems “fictitious and fragile.” (Seven Stories, April 29) Comments are not available on this story. Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others.
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