Hot News This Week
June 2, 2026
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“I spent the first day of 2026 reading Richard Siken’s poetry collection I Do Know Some Things and was blown away by his intimate account of learning to write again after a stroke,” notes service editor Jennifer Harlan.
“BookTok made the Belgian novelist and Holocaust survivor Jacqueline Harpman a posthumous sensation for I Who Have Never Known Men,” writes senior editor Emily Eakin. “Now comes We Were Forbidden—three novellas, newly translated by Ros Schwartz and packaged as a single book, that promise more dystopian literary surrealism from a master who’s belatedly getting her due. Count me in!”
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| Two “Terrific” Mysteries on NPR’s Fresh Air
“If Khatibi shows us characters caught in the tragic flames of history, Fruttero and Lucentini look at human folly with a cool, almost ancient amusement at what strange, funny creatures we all are.” This week on NPR’s Fresh Air, critic John Powers recommended “two terrific novels” from Bitter Lemon Press in a segment on mysteries in translation.
The End of the Sahara is “a kaleidoscopic murder mystery by the Algerian writer Saïd Khatibi. . . . Superbly translated by Alexander E. Elinson, the book’s set in a provincial city on the edge of the Sahara in 1988 Algeria.”
By the “legendary” Italian team of Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini, An Enigma by the Sea is a “witty, erudite and socially astute” mystery that’s “deliciously translated by Gregory Dowling.”
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| Roger Rosenblatt on “How to Be Old”
“If you fail to follow these rules, I’m not saying that you are doing anything morally wrong. Only that you will suffer.”
Per BroadwayWorld, Rosenblatt celebrated his work at an event with Alan Alda and Joy Behar. He previously appeared on Alda’s podcast, Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda, for a conversation about aging well, and the episode re-aired this week to mark the upcoming publication of More Rules for Aging.
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| Consortium Publishers’ New Imprints
Consortium publishers have added several new imprints to their lists recently, and we’re thrilled to welcome their titles to our catalogs.
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CAEZIK / Showrunner Press
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Denpa / Glacier Bay Books
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Global Book Sales / Wilton Square
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“This was a fun book to look at on Big Digs. I showed the galley to my young son, and he really loved looking at this!” — Afton F., Waseca Public Library
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“I love plants and have been really into botany lately, so this was perfect. Learning about different species and why they went extinct was so interesting. Especially because some of the losses happened not that long ago, which is insane. Also loved that it covers preservation efforts too.” — Deja M., Howard County Library
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★ “O’Connor offers a lucid and chilling view into the rise of fascism in Germany with this story of a psychoanalyst and his Jewish wife. . . . [A] timely historical narrative. It’s a knockout.” — Publishers Weekly
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★ “A riotous crossover of literary fiction meets romantasy . . . Plastic, Prism, Void is a trans romance for fans of This Is How You Lose the Time War and other innovative fiction. Violet Allen is an engaging talent to watch.” — Shelf Awareness
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FICTION
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, trans. Ros Schwartz (Transit Books)
ABA, PNBA, MPIBA, SIBA, SCIBA, NCIBA, MIBA, NAIBA, and Indie Press Top 40 (#4) Bestseller
Riverwork by Lisa Robertson (Coach House Books)
Indie Press Top 40 (#38) Bestseller
NONFICTION
Dog Days by Emily LaBarge (Transit Books)
Indie Press Top 40 (#32) Bestseller
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From the author of Vampires at Sea, a LibraryReads pick, comes a spellbinding tale of mythology, bartending, and queer belonging.
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Digger, crane, and dump truck to the rescue! Filled with charm, humor, and warm storytelling, The Mole Construction Company shows the power of teamwork and problem-solving.
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Follwoing Vattu Book 1, this second volume of Evan Dahm’s popular webcomic widens the scope and raises the stakes with a bold new fantasy adventure.
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The Blanket
by Marie Dorleans, trans. Katy Lockwood-Holmes
Floris Books • September 2026 • 9781782509790
From the creator of The Night Walk, a New York Times/New York Public Library Best Book of 2021, this quirky picture book is a gentle and humorous story about facing our fears.
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