This daring and delightful historical novel from Christensen (Azorno) boldly reimagines day-to-day life within the Gonzaga palace in Renaissance Italy. The focus is on the small details and soap-opera intrigues within the palace, which are as intricate as the detail in the frescoes by Andrea Mantegna that adorn the walls: “There is more life in the paintings than in all of these lively and rapturous spectators who simply put on airs because they are afraid of the pictures’ souls which is their own.” Among the deliciously surprising cast of characters is Prince Lodovico, Mantegna’s patron, who keeps a secret lover locked away in a garden, and his daughter Nana, a dwarf, who falls into a complicated and possibly miraculous marriage with Piero, Pope Pius II’s illegitimate unclaimed son. There’s also Marsilio, the royal secretary, whose diary makes up the first section of the novel, and whose love for Mantegna’s wife threatens to interfere with his duties and loyalties; and Bernadino, Mantegna’s young son, who imagines a life for himself within the vast and mysterious realms of his father’s paintings. Christensen, who died in 2009, casts her strange visions with stunning clarity. It’s as much a worthy introduction to the author as a treat for her fans. (May)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

Smith (Salvage This World) unspools an atmospheric and spare Southern gothic of two unsavory men on a mysterious criminal odyssey and their encounter with a mystical young girl. At the story’s center are the brutal Burdean and the haunted Keal, the latter of whom has premonition-filled dreams. Together, they travel through a blasted landscape of kudzu and wildfire embers. As Burdean explains to Keal, their mission is to enter the cellar of a particular church, where their task will reveal itself to them: “Whatever it is we’ll know it when we see it.” They find the church at the edge of a swamp, with the bodies of four dead men propped against the door. Inside, they retrieve what proves to be their quarry: a young girl who Keal senses is the one “responsible for the lighting of his dreams.” With the girl in tow, the men continue on until they’re tracked down by a woman named Cara, who understands the girl’s power. As more betrayals and uncanny events ensue, the body count rises to an apocalyptic level. Smith sustains a feeling of slow-burning dread, shot through with vivid bursts of biblical imagery. This bracing fever dream is worth a look. Agent: Ellen Levine, Trident Media Group. (May)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

Attorney Suthammanont blends elements of Presumed Innocent and Serial for his intricate debut, about two siblings who investigate whether their father committed the murder he was acquitted of 30 years earlier. The dual timeline narrative begins with young father John Lo, the only Asian American partner at his New York City law firm, on trial for the murder of Jessica DeSalvo, a coworker with whom he was having an affair. Three decades later, his daughter Brennan is following in his footsteps, working as a lawyer and entangled in an affair with a partner at her firm, and she’s convinced John did not kill Jessica. Her brother, Hunter, a war correspondent, is equally certain of John’s guilt, and their long-held disagreement has made them estranged. After they reunite upon learning that their mother has cancer, they conduct interviews with people involved in the case and discover that the police and prosecutor withheld evidence of another potential suspect. Their digging prompts threatening anonymous phone calls, and Suthammanont keeps the reader guessing as to whether John really did it and who’s trying to intimidate the siblings. Flashbacks to John’s affair with Jessica and his struggles with holding down a job after the trial add to the intrigue and build a complex portrait of a broken man. It adds up to a well-plotted human drama. Agent: Ellen Scordato, Stonesong. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

In Rossi’s alluring debut, an aging former fashion model reflects on her career and her troubling relationship with an older rock star when she was in her teens in the 1970s. Harriet Goldman, a modeling agent with an eye for young talent, discovers Birdie when she’s 13. Birdie enjoys a few years of success, including her first runway show, and at age 15 she poses for the cover of an album by a famous rocker in his 30s. They have sex, and he convinces her parents to sign over custody so he can bring Birdie on tour. During their four years together, Birdie fails to become the breakout star Harriet promised she would be, and instead is relegated to catalog work and shoots where she’s seen merely as a pair of legs. In a parallel narrative set in 2018, Birdie grapples with an invitation to a gala celebrating Harriet’s long career and considers talking to a journalist for a story, all of which causes her to take a fresh look at the past from the perspective of the #MeToo-era. As Birdie reevaluates her relationships with the rock star and Harriet, the book rides the razor’s edge of dramatic irony. Readers will root for Rossi’s searching protagonist as she finds her strength. Agent: Penelope Burns, Gelfman Schneider Literary. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

In Pennebaker’s uplifting if thinly plotted debut, a young Georgia woman attempts a fresh start in New York City after losing her sister, mother, and grandmother. Alison finds work as a host at a chic hotel restaurant “where celebrities sometimes maybe ate” and tells herself she “would be fine.” Soon, her late sister appears in the form of a ghostly fish, “like a scrap of fog or a shadow, silver and hazy and floating near the door of my building.” Not knowing what else to do, Alison lets the ghost swim into an old pickle jar and sets her on the windowsill in her tiny East Village bedroom. It’s an arresting premise, but for much of the novel Pennebaker seems unsure how to capitalize on it. No one else can see Alison’s ghost sister, so the apparition only serves to make Alison appear inward and strange. Her roommates wonder who she’s talking to when she’s alone in her room, and her friends and coworkers are constantly asking her what’s wrong. A later section set in Key West, where Alison goes with a friend from the restaurant, is more successful, as she is at last able to unburden herself of the grief of her sister’s death. The novel tests the reader’s patience, but those who go the distance will be rewarded. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this poignant and evocative sequel to The Lesser Bohemians, McBride continues the story of Irish drama student Eily and older actor and filmmaker Stephen, who have moved in together in London. In the summer of 1995, Stephen travels to Vancouver to spend time with his estranged daughter, Grace, who’s only two years younger than Eily. When Grace visits London that winter, the three struggle to adjust to their new roles, with Stephen afraid that the abuse he suffered as a child will affect his parenting, and Eily having trouble getting used to Grace’s presence and claim on her father. A year later, in sections labeled “Now,” Stephen labors over an autobiographical film, Eily tries to figure out her personal and professional future, and the couple approaches a cataclysm that seriously threatens their relationship. McBride is slow to dole out key information across the alternating timelines (“Now,” “First Summer,” “First Winter”, “Now, Imagined Earlier,” etc.), which can be frustrating, but her lyricism is on full display in Eily’s breathless and captivating narration, which dances between thought and action: “Thinking of your fingers, I arrived at my body’s burning to smoke and went from there to cigarettes.” Readers will be swept along by this entrancing tale of love and its many challenges. Agent: Tracy Bohan, Wylie Agency. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

Castillo’s masterful latest (after the essay collection How to Read Now) follows the vagaries of a social media content moderator’s work and love lives. The protagonist is known only by her workplace handle Girlie Delmundo—Reeden, her employer, “forcefully suggested” that she and her coworkers use fake names “for the employee’s protection—which meant, of course, for the company’s protection.” Most of them are fellow Filipinas, “people who knew about the job through that reliable job network still unmatched by LinkedIn, otherwise known as family.” (Employees of color prove tougher in the face of troubling subject matter.) Girlie specializes in flagging videos of child sexual abuse, and her exemplary work gets her recruited for a position with Reeden’s newest acquisition, a virtual reality endeavor called Playground. She develops a rapport with her new boss, William Cheung, and tries to stamp out her burgeoning feelings for him, determined to stay focused on work despite sensing something more than mutual attraction: a “recognition,” “alien to alien.” As Girlie flags objectionable content in Playground’s VR historical theme parks, which include a Gauls vs. Romans battle and the St. Louis World’s Fair, she learns more about the original medical applications of Playground’s tech, and the fate of its founder, Edison Lau. Castillo shifts seamlessly in scale and tone, from a wide-angled systems novel to a love story, and from barbed satire to staggering emotional depth. It’s a triumph. Agent: Emma Paterson, Aitken Alexander Assoc. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

Backman (The Winner) delivers a wistful story about the power of friendships. The day before her 18th birthday, Louisa sneaks into an auction house to see The One of the Sea, the first painting by a famous artist who goes by C. Jat. After a guard chases her out, she has a brief encounter in the alley with the artist, whom she initially mistakes for a homeless person. The painter, whose real name is revealed later in the story, has been dealing with a long illness, and just before he dies, he tasks his friend Ted, one of four boys depicted in the 25-year-old painting, with tracking down Louisa to gift it to her. Louisa has just aged out of foster care and is reeling from the recent death of her close friend from an overdose. Though she worries she’s not capable of taking responsibility for the painting, she finds comfort in the story Ted tells her of the summer the painting was made, when the friends were 14 and they were all dealing with upheaval. Ted’s father had died that summer, and the artist’s unstable single mother was urging him to “just try to be normal.” Louisa and Ted’s interactions feel genuine, which makes the effect of his story on her all the more moving. The author is at the top of his game. (May)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

A 20-year-old Irish American woman tries to break free from her immigrant parents’ expectations in the undercooked latest from Butler (The Skin Above My Knee). On the eve of 9/11, Peppa Ryan helps to run her family’s construction business in Queens. Her parents expected her to take it over, so they feel betrayed when she begins commuting to a finance job in the World Trade Center, where she works as an assistant for striving Russian immigrant Ivan Scherbo. Soon her parents attempt to control another part of her life, by scheming to match her with Brendon, an Irish plumber who lives in the neighborhood. She’s initially dismissive of Brendon, but they bond over their shared love of Virginia Woolf. Most of the plotlines feel rushed (especially Peppa and Brendon’s relationship), and some are left unresolved, including Peppa’s rocky relationship with her parents and her mental health issues (she is guided by a voice that sounds to her like Woolf’s, which plays a fateful role on the morning of the terror attacks). Butler is better when focusing on Peppa at work, where she finds genuine and much-needed encouragement from Ivan. This has plenty of heart, but it leaves readers wanting more. Agent: Murray Weiss, Catalyst Literary. (May)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

The hypnotic debut from Elegant chronicles a Chinese American woman’s watershed friendships in Philadelphia. Penelope Lin, 25, prefers to lead a quiet and solitary life. During an errand for her museum job, she meets cancer researcher Hoang Dinh, who tells her he’s about to be fired for freeing his lab’s mice instead of euthanizing them. The pair develop an immediate connection punctuated by witty banter. They run into each other again at a hotel bar, where Hoang’s now working as a bartender. Following these initial encounters, Penelope can’t get Hoang off her mind, so her college friend Apple, who has begun dating Hoang’s coworker Gus, hatches a plan for Penelope to see him again. The nascent romance seems like a sure thing, except that Penelope’s still getting over a heartbreak in college, and her feelings for Hoang are complicated when she unexpectedly reconnects with her ex. The author sustains the tension between Penelope and Hoang while broadening the novel’s scope with intriguing subplots, such as Penelope’s involvement with Gus and Hoang’s attempt to unionize his workplace. It’s a charming tale of a young woman’s blossoming. (May)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink