Here’s a quick look at some of the great books out the week of October 9.
Happy pub day to all!

 

Marian Crotty, What Counts as Love
University of Iowa Press

From Publishers Weekly: “Crotty’s impressive debut collection is somehow both varied and cohesive. She never writes the same story twice. Her protagonists are women, mostly young and mostly single, but distinct from one another. This distinction is achieved largely through the specificity of detail Crotty brings to these characters and the worlds they inhabit… These 10 sublime stories are reminiscent of Bobbie Ann Mason and Ann Beattie, thoroughly surprising and memorable.”

 

Emily Fridlund, Catapult
Sarabande Books

From Publishers Weekly: “Fridlund (History of Wolves) centers her sharp and startling collection around characters who face acute but everyday struggles in relationships that feel stifling and realistic… Fridlund’s ability to conjure humor in the darkest moments is clear in her blending of sitcom set-ups with bleak undercurrents. Her breathtaking prose and sly expressions make for compulsive reading.”

 

Cristina Garcia, Here in Berlin
Counterpoint Press

From Kirkus Reviews: “When a nameless traveler comes to contemporary Berlin, to learn about the city and about herself, she confronts first the challenge of language and then, once that is conquered, the challenge of understanding. As she meets more people, walks more streets, her diligent recording illustrates how an interloper can learn by listening, observing, asking. As one character astutely and elegantly notes, ‘When one no longer belongs to a tribe—or is a newcomer, a visitor, like you—everything reveals itself.’”… It is beautifully written in a fluent and evocative prose. It is the story of how people live with their pasts.”

 

Nicola Lagioia, Ferocity
Europa 

From Publishers Weekly: “In Lagioia’s powerful novel, Clara Salvemini’s violent death is ruled a suicide, causing her estranged brother, Michele, to return to the family villa to investigate… Lagioia drifts between timelines as Clara’s family, lovers, and acquaintances slowly reveal how she drew them into the web of the Salveminis and how they witnessed her unraveling. This oblique kaleidoscopic approach allows the mystery to slowly and captivatingly resolve while offering a layered portrait of contemporary Italian life and the abuses of power that money can excuse.”

 

 Joan Sales, Uncertain Glory
New York Review of Books

From Kirkus Reviews: “Catalan writer Sales tells a multilayered story of loves, faith, friendships, and ideals tested by the Spanish Civil War in this novel banned by Franco’s censors, then published in 1956 after the author’s return from exile. Former school friends Lt. Lluís Ruscalleda and Juli Soleràs are reunited in a republican brigade on the Aragon front, fighting “for hygiene and culture” against the fascist forces… Philosophical and earthy, tragic and funny, honest, raw, superb: Sales makes Hemingway seem thin, even anemic, in comparison. This book is a rich and highly recommended feast.”