Hot News This Week
December 12, 2024
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December 6 marked one year since Alareer, a renowned Palestinian poet and professor, was killed by an Israeli airstrike, and his posthumous collection, compiled with an introduction by Yousef M. Aljamal, was published on Tuesday by OR Books. The book takes its title from Alareer’s viral poem “If I Must Die,” which Current Affairs notes “has become one of the most widely read of the 21st century.”
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| A New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2024
A Day with Mousse by Claire Lebourg is one of the New York Times Book Review’s best children’s books of 2024: “For Mousse, Lebourg’s green-striped titular creature, living happily alone by the sea, every day is full of sweet rituals,” says NYTBR children’s books editor Jennifer Krauss, “until one day a walrus named Barnacle washes up and disturbs his solitary bliss.”
A Day With Mousse
by Claire Lebourg, trans. Sophie Lewis
Transit Children’s Editions • October 2024 • 9798893389067
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| Dua Lipa Recommends Charco Press
“This publisher, Charco Press, they translate a lot of Latin American authors, contemporary Latin American authors, and so I’m always really interested in what they’ve got.” Singer Dua Lipa gave a nice shout-out to our friends at Charco in a recent interview for Vogue’s “In the Bag” series. Browse the press’s upcoming releases in our Spring/Summer 2025 catalog.
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| Best Books of the Year
- Trigger by C.G. Moore (Little Island Books)
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“One of the most exciting works of speculative fiction I’ve read. . . . This novel will stick with me for a long time.” — Alyson Podesta, Third Place Books (Seattle, WA)
“This timeless, bleakly beautiful work . . . will be appreciated by readers of Atwood, Le Guin, McCarthy, and Beckett.” — Annie Metcalf, Magers & Quinn Booksellers (Minneapolis, MN)
“I’m very rarely at a loss for words, but this book left me speechless. I recommend going into it blind. Trust me on this one, it is freaky and phenomenal.” — Quinn, McNally Jackson Books (New York City)
“A dark, dystopian novel perfect for the dark, dystopian times we are currently experiencing.” — Nicole Meyers, WORD Bookstores (Brooklyn, NY)
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| | Of Beasts and Fowls
by Pilar Adon, trans. Katie Whittemore
Open Letter • November 2024 • 9781960385178
“With all the setup of a horror story, this book exudes calmness and even as the creepiness unfolds, an overwhelming peace abounds. Not to say this is cozy horror, no, it’s unsettling through and though, just . . . chill.” — Ian McCord, Avid Bookshop (Athens, GA)
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★ “Mind-expanding fantasy and SF. . . . There are similarities to Stephen King’s epic Dark Tower series (though without anything near the marathon page count) as well as to Ursula K. Le Guin’s Lathe of Heaven.” — Kirkus Reviews
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★ “A magically transcendent adventure that blends climate concerns with Celtic lore. . . . A young teen’s hasty bargain with a Celtic deity jeopardizes the natural order of an island community.” — Kirkus Reviews
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★ “The showstopping poem from which the collection takes its title will leave few readers with dry eyes (‘If I must die/ let it bring hope/ let it be a tale’). Offering a deeply personal window on Israeli violence in Gaza, this shouldn’t be missed.” — Publishers Weekly
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“Fourth-generation Japanese American poet Brandon Shimoda’s The Afterlife Is Letting Go, a well-researched, intriguing essay collection, reappraises not only the official narratives but also the supposedly ameliorative efforts made subsequently.” — Los Angeles Times
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| | Sand-Catcher
by Omar Khalifah, trans. Barbara Romaine
Coffee House Press • December 2024 • 9781566897334
“Through its polyvocal structure, Sand-Catcher refutes the demand for one Palestinian story to be told (and sold), instead offering many stories, about many kinds of people, with many different relationships to Palestine.” — The Atlantic
“Sand-Catcher exemplifies why translated literature is important. An exuberant and thought-provoking tale.” — Boston Globe
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| | Pontiac
by Jim Schutze
Deep Vellum Publishing • September 2024 • 9781646053483
“Pontiac evokes the voyeuristic psychological styles of Richard Yates, Evan S. Connell and Fleur Jaeggy in its unsentimental dissection. Schutze writes in minimalistic prose, capturing emotional detail with a journalistic eye.” — Financial Times
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| | Spina Americana
by Richard Sharum
Global Book Sales / GOST Books • November 2024 • 9781915423511
“This is flyover country seen at ground level. . . . There are nudists and Mennonites; little kids, high-school kids and college students; convicts and cops; farmers and all sorts of mechanics; pole dancers and the governor of South Dakota.” — Wall Street Journal
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| | New Digital Review Copies
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