Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

A sweeping, gorgeously written debut novel of duty to family and country, passion, and blood ties that unravel in the charged political climate of Berlin between the wars.

Lev Pearlmutter, an assimilated, cultured German Jew, enlists to fight in World War I, leaving behind his gentile wife Josephine and their children, Franz and Vicki. Moving between Lev's and Josephine's viewpoints, Part I of the novel focuses on Lev's experiences on the Eastern Front—both in war and in love—which render his life at home a pale aftermath by comparison.

Part II picks up in Berlin in 1927–1928: the Pearlmutter children, now young adults, grapple with their own questions: Franz, drawn into the Brown Shirt movement, struggling with his unexpressed homosexuality; and Vicki, seduced by jazz, bobbed hair, and falling in love with a young man who wants to take her to Palestine.

Unlike most historical novels of this kind, The Empire of the Senses is not about the Holocaust but rather about the brew that led to it, and about why it was unimaginable to ordinary people like Lev and his wife. Plotted with meticulous precision and populated by characters who feel and dream to the fullest, it holds us rapt as cultural loss and ethnic hatred come to coexist with love, passion, and the power of the human spirit.

The Story Behind The Empire of the Senses

Write Start: Alexis Landau on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Writers

Praise for the book:  
“Vivid . . . Landau evokes the Weimar Republic era with spellbinding detail and nuance, deftly capturing the zeitgeist in the characters’ colorful pursuits . . . . Lev’s struggle with his Jewish identity is also fascinating.” ~Publishers Weekly
“A top-notch literary saga with a gripping plotline . . . Each perfectly crafted individual is fully involved in the surrounding world. In Landau’s hands, even a simple trip to the barber becomes meaningful and illustrative of the novel’s themes. The characters’ actions and thoughts are so three-dimensionally human that readers may forget they’re reading fiction.” ~Booklist

“Landau’s debut is lush, smart, sexy, affecting, interesting, beautifully researched, and well made. Spending time in the world of this novel is an absolute pleasure.” ~Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

“A gripping, beautifully written saga of an ordinary German family’s slow immersion into the simmering cauldron that is Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. Like most of us, the characters in this novel make choices determined by love and desire; their personal secrets and preoccupations often loom larger than the encroaching danger. Ultimately, their fates are determined as much by their passions as by history. As the novel builds toward its riveting conclusion, Landau explores how the unimaginable can become real—and in the process offers a fresh and moving perspective on a piece of history we thought we already knew.” ~Christina Baker Kline,  author of Orphan Train

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds "'POXL' a lovely novel sentence-to-sentence, and it gets at something deep about how we're all frauds, and all worthy of love." -John Green

Poxl West fled the Nazis' onslaught in Czechoslovakia. He escaped their clutches again in Holland. He pulled Londoners from the Blitz's rubble. He wooed intoxicating, unconventional beauties. He rained fire on Germany from his RAF bomber.

Poxl West is the epitome of manhood and something of an idol to his teenage nephew, Eli Goldstein, who reveres him as a brave, singular, Jewish war hero. Poxl fills Eli's head with electric accounts of his derring-do, adventures and romances, as he collects the best episodes from his storied life into a memoir.

He publishes that memoir, "Skylock", to great acclaim, and its success takes him on the road, and out of Eli's life. With his uncle gone, Eli throws himself into reading his opus and becomes fixated on all things Poxl.

But as he delves deeper into Poxl's history, Eli begins to see that the life of the fearless superman he's adored has been much darker than he let on, and filled with unimaginable loss from which he may have not recovered. As the truth about Poxl emerges, it forces Eli to face irreconcilable facts about the war he's romanticized and the vision of the man he's held so dear.

Daniel Torday's debut novel, The Last Flight of Poxl West, beautifully weaves together the two unforgettable voices of Eli Goldstein and Poxl West, exploring what it really means to be a hero, and to be a family, in the long shadow of war.

 

 

Book Review Podcast: ‘The Last Flight of Poxl West’ 

 

The Monster Scale 

 

Praise for the book:

"While Torday is more likely to be compared to Philip Roth or Michael Chabon than Gillian Flynn, his debut novel has two big things in common with Gone Girl--it's a story told in two voices, and it's almost impossible to discuss without revealing spoilers. A richly layered, beautifully told and somehow lovable story about war, revenge and loss." ~Kirkus

"A wonderful accomplishment of storytelling verve: tender, lyrical, surprising, full of beautifully rendered details. Torday is a prodigiously talented writer, with a huge heart." ~George Saunders, author of Tenth of December

"According to Tim O'Brien, 'A true war story, if truly told, makes the stomach believe.' Daniel Torday knows how to tell a true war story, and The Last Flight of Poxl West is a stunning debut. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, The Last Flight of Poxl West resurrects a chapter of World War II that was a complete surprise to me. It's the viscerally-gripping, eye-wateringly moving first-person account of a young Czech Jew who flew missions for the RAF during World War II; it's also a profound and timely meditation on the desire for justice, retribution, and redemption. This book is unputdownable, wise, and unbelievably generous. Its ending left me speechless." ~Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!

"The Last Flight of Poxl West is a beautifully told and moving story of love, loss, and growing up. Daniel Torday is a stunning writer, and his first novel is full of elegant, thought provoking surprises." `~Edan Lepucki, author of California

"The Last Flight of Poxl West is a love story, a war story, a family saga, an intimate view of vast Twentieth Century events, a treatise on the telling of stories, and a damned good read as well. Torday's language is precise and it is grand; and he uses it to describe scenes you will swear he was witness to himself. The details, the insights, the knowledge, the writing, and the unmistakable empathy-- these elements add up to a stellar, memorable book." ~Robin Black, author of Life Drawing

"Love, lust, war, revenge, betrayal: I was inclined to like this book before I opened it. Daniel Torday's gorgeous prose and moral candor made me love it. A spectacular debut. Torday is quickly making a name for himself as one of our finest young novelists." ~Daniel Smith, author of  Monkey Mind

"OMFG! What a book! Eli Goldstein has the retrospective candor of Roth's Zuckerman and the sensitivity of a Harold Brodkey narrator, and Poxl West is an unforgettable creation. Plus, things happen in this book, big things like the world wars. A delight!" ~Gary Shteyngart, author of Little Failure

"A brilliant--and perhaps even more importantly, hilarious--book about what we make of our heroes, and what our heroes make of us. It's all here: the crime of storytelling, the joy of storytelling, the story hidden not so well in history, and the pleasures and problems of one word placed so well after another." ~Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances

"Daniel Torday's The Last Flight of Poxl West interweaves a powerful war story with a profound meditation on the need such stories fill in us, and the truths they can sometimes obscure. Eli Goldstein's relationship with Poxl West is strange and moving, and the book's final pages present a deep and revealing pathos. Really good stuff." ~Phil Klay, author of Redeployment

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

"But here is the strangest part. Now in the mornings when I wake from the dream, for an instant it's as if there are two of me. The one that will rise and go off to work and come home again to Mrs. Eberline. And the one that awakes from the dream of the van and feels something inside of her rising. Quickening, yearning, keening."

Channeling the emotional intensity of Susan Minot and Amy Bloom—and infused with a witty, dream-like surrealism reminiscent of Margaret Atwood—this mesmerizing debut takes us inside the unsettling world of Margaret Lydia Benning, which turns upside down when she falls in love…and then unravels before our eyes.

“What I have to tell Ben is just this. At last I am certain. All the signs, all the dreams are in. And I know now I have made a terrible mistake. I was wrong, it turns out, about us.”

Margaret Lydia Benning lives adrift in the same Midwest town where she went to college. By day, she works at a low-level job for the Project, a university-sponsored educational publisher housed in a former sanatorium. There she shares the fourth floor with a squadron of eccentric editors and a resident ghost from the screamers’ wing. At night, Margaret returns to her small house on Mott Street, resigned to the disturbing overtures of her strange neighbor, Mrs. Eberline.

Emotionally sleepwalking through the days is no way to lead a life. But then Margaret meets Ben Adams, a visiting professor of art at the university. Despite the odds—and their best intentions—Margaret and her professor become lovers, and she glimpses a future she had never before imagined. For the first time, she has hope…until Ben inexplicably vanishes. In the wake of his disappearance, Margaret sets out to find him. Her journey will force her to question everything she believes to be true.

Told through intertwined perspectives, by turns incandescent and haunting, Some Other Town is an unforgettable tale, with a heart-breaking twist, of one woman’s awakening to her own possibility—and her ability to love, and love well.

Read some of her short stories HERE.

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

Funny, clever, surreal, and thought-provoking, this Kafkaesque masterpiece introduces the unforgettable Bjorn, an exceptionally meticulous office worker striving to live life on his own terms.

Bjorn is a compulsive, meticulous bureaucrat who discovers a secret room at the government office where he works--a secret room that no one else in his office will acknowledge. When Bjorn is in his room, what his co-workers see is him standing by the wall and staring off into space looking dazed, relaxed, and decidedly creepy. Bjorn's bizarre behavior eventually leads his co-workers to try and have him fired, but Bjorn will turn the tables on them with help from his secret room.

Debut author Jonas Karlsson doesn't leave a word out of place in this brilliant, bizarre, delightful take on how far we will go--in a world ruled by conformity--to live an individual and examined life.

Read an excerpt HERE.

'The Room' Offers An Escape From The Office — Or Does It?


Praise for the book: 
“The Room is the most effective chapbook on workplace comportment since Glengarry Glen Ross. Hats off!” ~Nick Offerman, author of Paddle Your Own Canoe

“A gripping, tense, demonic fable in which the unease is precision-tooled and the turns of the screw wholly unexpected.” ~Neel Mukherjee, author of The Lives of Others

“The daily grind got you down? Escape into this Swedish dark comedy about a scaldingly contemptuous office drone who discovers a secret room in his workplace.” ~O, the Oprah Magazine

“Karlsson deftly captures individual voices, which he conveys directly (as Björn reveals his obsessions) and indirectly (as Björn describes interactions with coworkers). Using Björn’s voice to draw characters and build dramatic tension, Karlsson exposes the gifts and gaffes, visions and delusions, and the rise and fall of a seemingly ordinary civil servant.” ~Publishers Weekly

“A contemporary tale worthy of comparison to Franz Kafka’s works, Amélie Nothomb’s Fear and Trembling, and Herman Melville’s classic Bartelby, the Scrivener, while the antics of Björn’s fellow workers recall Terry Gilliam’s film 'Brazil'. Enjoyable reading, extremely well executed, this fable should become mandatory reading for cubicle and office workers everywhere.” ~Library Journal


“Provocative…Karlsson’s deft jab at dead-end workplaces keeps you agreeably off-balance and eager for more of his work.” ~Kirkus Reviews

“Part psychological drama documenting a disturbed man’s possible descent into madness and part satirical take on corporate culture and the alienated workers it produces, Karlsson succeeds admirably in creating the perfect combination of funny, surreal, and disturbing.” ~Booklist

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

The debut novel everyone is talking about... “The last page is as satisfying as the first.”(Kathryn Stockett) “I really loved this book... I can't praise it enough.” (Anne Rice) “It's a book to read and reread, one that will only get better with time.”(Tom Franklin) 

 It was the summer everything changed.…  

My Sunshine Away unfolds in a Baton Rouge neighborhood best known for cookouts on sweltering summer afternoons, cauldrons of spicy crawfish, and passionate football fandom. But in the summer of 1989, when fifteen-year-old Lindy Simpson—free spirit, track star, and belle of the block—experiences a horrible crime late one evening near her home, it becomes apparent that this idyllic stretch of Southern suburbia has a dark side, too.

In My Sunshine Away, M.O. Walsh brilliantly juxtaposes the enchantment of a charmed childhood with the gripping story of a violent crime, unraveling families, and consuming adolescent love. Acutely wise and deeply honest, it is an astonishing and page-turning debut about the meaning of family, the power of memory, and our ability to forgive. 

My Sunshine Away: A Talk With M.O. Walsh 

Book Notes - M.O. Walsh "My Sunshine Away" 

The Southern Man, with a special essay.

The Kirkus Interview with the author. 

Check out the author talking about his debut book. 

Praise for the book: 
"M.O. Walsh has written one of the best books I've read in a long while. An outstanding examination of our past and the way the weight of our memories shapes us, My Sunshine Away, thanks to Walsh's verve and total control of the narrative, feels utterly original."
~Kevin Wilson, author of The Family Fang

"The magic of My Sunshine Away is in M.O. Walsh’s extraordinary ability to make us long for the heartache of youth and its inevitable sins. This is an awe-inspiring debut." ~Hannah Pittard, author of Reunion

"Q: When is it a thrill to feel gutted? A: When you start reading the book you hold in your hands. M. O. Walsh's My Sunshine Away reminds us that art can be wrenching and a delight, that pain -- if examined through wit, intimacy, and wisdom -- can be a salve. This novel is great."~Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life

"If I were asked to list the qualities the ideal novel would offer, I'd start by demanding beautiful sentences. I'd want the opening to grab me and I'd want the ending to refuse to let go. I'd ask for characters who consistently surprise by being somehow deeper and less predictable than we could ever have guessed they'd be. I'd want Place to be written with a capital P. I'd want a mystery at the heart of story, and a mystery or two in every heart. And when I finished reading the book, I'd want to be both wiser and sadder than when I started. M. O. Walsh's magnificent novel My Sunshine Away afforded me all these pleasures and more. This is one of the best novels I've read in ages." ~Steve Yarbrough, author of Safe from the Neighbors

"If you start this novel, you will not put it down. My Sunshine Away is a riveting, suspenseful and page turning mystery. it is also a wise, insightful, and beautifully written novel. This is an extraordinary debut." ~Jill McCorkle,  author of Life after Life

"Recalls the best of Pat Conroy: the rich Southern atmosphere, the interplay of darkness and light in adolescence, the combination of brisk narrative suspense with philosophical musings on memory, manhood, and truth...Celebrate, fiction lovers: The gods of Southern gothic storytelling have inducted a junior member." ~Kirkus Reviews
"Suspenseful, compassionate, and absorbing, Walsh's word-perfect rendering of the doubts, insecurities, bravado, and idealism of teens deserves to be placed in the hands of readers of Tom Franklin, Hannah Pittard, and Jeffrey Eugenides." ~Booklist

"Much more than a simple coming of age story, this is a rumination on how the events in one's lfe can change depending on where and when they are recalled...Rarely does a new author display the skill to develop a page turner with such a literary tone. Readers of both popular and literary fiction will get their fixes from this novel." ~Library Journal

"This is literature of the highest order. Although the book snaps with the tautness of a thriller-and Walsh keeps the reader guessing until the end, as the best mystery writers do-My Sunshine Away also asks essential questions, like how much responsibility we have to each other, and whether we can ever fully reassemble the pieces of broken lives. And while Walsh hints at answers, it's his willingness to engage such ideas that makes My Sunshine Away an important work of fiction. We need more novelists with the guts and clarity of M.O. Walsh." ~Matthew Thomas, author of We Are Not Ourselves

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

Mrs Featherby had been having pleasant dreams until she woke to discover the front of her house had vanished overnight

On a seemingly normal morning in London, a group of people all lose something dear to them, something dear but peculiar: the front of their house, their piano keys, their sense of direction, their place of work.

Meanwhile, Jake, a young boy whose father brings him to London following his mother s sudden death in an earthquake, finds himself strangely attracted to other people s lost things. But little does he realise that his most valuable possession is slipping away from him. Of Things Gone Astray is a magical fable about modern life and values. Perfect for fans of Andrew Kaufman and Cecelia Ahern.

Guest Post from Janina Matthewson, debut author of  Of Things Gone Astray

 Janina Matthewson on Writing Of Things Gone Astray

The Magic In The Real by Janina Matthewson

Read an interview with the author HERE.


Praise for the book:
“A brilliant novel that redefines the boundaries of where our lives begin and where they end." ~Simon Van Booy, author of The Illusion of Separateness

"Of Things Gone Astray may be Janina Matthewson’s first novel, but it marks her out as a writer to follow … Reality, fantasy and imagery intermingle to create a beautiful whole." ~We Love This Book

"Refreshing and spare, like a bittersweet melody echoing in an empty hallway, Matthewson's debut novel will linger in the reader's memory." ~Kirkus Reviews

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

Set at the crossroads of Turkish, Persian and Russian cultures under the red flag of Communism in the late 1970s, The Orphan Sky reveals one woman's struggle to reconcile her ideals with the corrupt world around her, and to decide whether to betray her country or her heart.

Leila is a young classical pianist who dreams of winning international competitions and bringing awards to her beloved country Azerbaijan. She is also a proud daughter of the Communist Party. When she receives an assignment from her communist mentor to spy on a music shop suspected of traitorous Western influences, she does it eagerly, determined to prove her worth to the Party.

But Leila didn't anticipate the complications of meeting Tahir, the rebellious painter who owns the music shop. His jazz recordings, abstract art, and subversive political opinions crack open the veneer of the world she's been living in. Just when she begins to fall in love with both the West and Tahir, her comrades force her to make an impossible choice.

Read an excerpt HERE.

Check this out, Leya is a composer and a singer as well.

Praise for the book:
"The Orphan Sky is a heady mix of Soviet politics, artistic temperament and historical destiny. Leila's journey from naïve school girl parroting Communist propaganda to passionate musician determined to gain personal freedom is poignant and impressive." ~Tracy Chevalier author of Girl with a Pearl Earring

"I could hear the music while reading this extraordinary book. The Orphan Sky has everything a reader could want: the thrill of young romance, the tension of spying, and a window into a fascinating culture along with a glimpse into the captivating past of Azerbaijan." ~ Deborah Rodriguez, author of Kabul Beauty School

"An intriguing mix of romance, spying and hope – unforgettable reading." ~Scott Turow, author of Presumed Innocent

"The Orphan Sky is a compelling Cold War novel that showcases the power of music as a force for change and breaking down barriers both spiritually and politically." ~Quincy Jones, Music Impresario, Humanitarian

"The Orphan Sky is a culturally intoxicating, emotionally gripping, and dazzlingly original book, filled with mythology, artistic metaphors, and masterful storytelling. It is Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto 3 meets Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. I loved it!" ~Mona Golabek,  author of The Children of Willesden Lane

"Set amidst the backdrop of the Cold War, rich with culture and lyricism, The Orphan Sky is the moving story of one young woman's rare talent, difficult lessons, and hard-won courage. Gripping and emotionally powerful." ~Shilpi Somaya Gowda, author Secret Daughter
"This is one of those timeless stories of love, betrayal, and redemption that stay with you for years. The great theme of music transcending the darkness is at the heart of this powerful novel, with its soaring lyricism rooted deep in moral complexity." ~Maxim Vengerov,  Professor at the Royal Academy of Music

"A fascinating look at the oppression of creative artists in Azerbaijan in the Soviet era, based on the author's own experiences, The Orphan Sky also beguiles with its atmospheric descriptions of the country's enthralling ancient culture and legends." ~Helen Rappaport, author of The Romanov Sisters

"Born in Baku, composer and singer turned first novelist Leya successfully depicts the grim realities of her birth city's Soviet era as she depicts a harsh coming-of-age." ~Booklist

"The Orphan Sky is a timeless story of redemption and destiny, as authentic, disturbing, and brilliant as The Kite Runner. " ~Los Angeles Review of Books

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

Good wife, good mother. That's all Claire Spruce is trying to be, but the never-ending snow in this new town and her workaholic husband are making her crazy. Even the sweet face of her toddler son can't pull her out of the dark places in her head.

Feeling overwhelmed and alone, she reconnects with her long-lost high school boyfriend, Dean, who offers an intoxicating, reckless escape. But Dean's reappearance is not a coincidence. He wants something from Claire-and she soon finds that the cost of repaying an old favor may lead to the destruction of her entire life.

What Burns Away is a story of loyalty, family, and the consequences of the past's inevitable collision with our future.

Melissa Falcon Field and the risks of social media

Praise for the book:
“What Burns Away manages to be many things at once: an elegy for a lost girlhood, a study of geographical and cosmic displacement, a portrait of a waning marriage, and a portrayal of a heroine whom readers will find both surprising and relatable. In extraordinary sleight of hand, Melissa Falcon Field blazes through this debut novel with a big-hearted sensuality and a bull’s-eye precision on a par with our best working writers today. A must-read debut.” ~Jan Elizabeth Watson, author of What Has Become of You

“Swiftly paced and utterly engrossing, What Burns Away is the searing portrait of a devoted mother undone by isolation, grief and her own darkest impulses. Melissa Falcon Field writes with such honesty and empathy, it was impossible not to see myself reflected on the page. A brave, textured, emotionally complex book that haunts me still.” ~Jillian Medoff, author of I Couldn’t Love You More

“What Burns Away is captivating. I picked it up expecting to read a chapter and didn’t put it down until the final sentence. It moves fast, doesn’t let you catch your breath, and leaves you shaken. Melissa Falcon Field has a knack for bringing her settings to life: in her hands, landlocked Wisconsin and the Connecticut shoreline are themselves indelible characters, full of secrets and longings, at once familiar and utterly strange.” ~Sarah Braunstein, author of The Sweet Relief of Missing Children

“What Burns Away is a study of safety, loyalty, and heart. But it’s also the story of what happens when those things run up against boredom, when they gaze in the smoky glass of lost mirrors and see soulful shadows of passion, freedom, and risk. A new mom’s fiery first love is back, and he challenges all she’s built for herself, reveals the fragility of suburban dreams. In scorching prose, Melissa Falcon Field reminds us that when trouble flies out to the far reaches of the solar system, we’d best not forget it’s coming back.” ~Bill Roorbach, author of The Remedy for Love

“Melissa Falcon Field’s thrilling, perceptive debut novel is about the deep dive that is falling in love with a baby, a husband, an old flame—and also a fearless look at the ways we risk, and even seek, its destruction. I sat down with What Burns Away and didn’t stand up till it was over.” ~Michelle Wildgen, author of Bread and Butter

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

An irresistible debut novel about the wisdom of the very young, the mischief of the very old, and the magic that happens when no one else is looking

Millie Bird, seven years old and ever hopeful, always wears red gumboots to match her curly hair. Her struggling mother, grieving the death of Millie’s father, leaves her in the big ladies’ underwear department of a local store and never returns.

Agatha Pantha, eighty-two, has not left her house—or spoken to another human being—since she was widowed seven years ago. She fills the silence by yelling at passersby, watching loud static on TV, and maintaining a strict daily schedule.

Karl the Touch Typist, eighty-seven, once used his fingers to type out love notes on his wife’s skin. Now that she’s gone, he types his words out into the air as he speaks. Karl’s been committed to a nursing home, but in a moment of clarity and joy, he escapes. Now he’s on the lam.

Brought together at a fateful moment, the three embark upon a road trip across Western Australia to find Millie’s mother. Along the way, Karl wants to find out how to be a man again; Agatha just wants everything to go back to how it was.

Together they will discover that old age is not the same as death, that the young can be wise, and that letting yourself feel sad once in a while just might be the key to a happy life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q&A with Author Brooke Davis

Q&A with Author Brooke Davis

Q&A with Author Brooke Davis

Q&A with Author Brooke Davis

The Masterpiece - Brooke Davis

 

How do you live when people we love could die at any moment? 

 

The story of my book: Lost & Found 

 

Brooke Davis, author of Lost & Found, answers Ten Terrifying Questions 

 

Praise for the book:

“A whimsical and touching debut [and an] “ultimately powerful exploration of grief from a skillful and original new voice.”  ~Kirkus

“The same feel-good word of mouth as last year’s bestseller, The Rosie Project.” ~The Sydney Morning Herald

“A novel that dances on the wire between heartache and joy, a delight to the reader in its explorations.” ~Yahoo News

“Everything about the characters and the writing feels right, and the result is a book that’s heartbreaking, funny and brilliant.” ~Courier Mail

“Lost & Found is informed by Davis’s personal heartache but it is buoyed by something more universal – our need to love and be loved, regardless of the risk.” ~Newcastle Herald

“If at first the reasons why this tale of love and loss, grief and great mates sparked a bidding war among publishers aren’t obvious, as the characters unfold, it becomes clear that this is storytelling at its purest.”  ~Weekend Post

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

A highly charged fiction debut about a young woman in India, and the love that both shatters and transforms her

She is twenty, restless in New Delhi. Her mother has died; her father has left for Singapore.

He is a few years older, just back to India from New York.

When they meet in a café one afternoon, she—lonely, hungry for experience, yearning to break free of tradition—casts aside her fears and throws herself headlong into a love affair, one that takes her where she has never been before.

Told in a voice at once gritty and lyrical, mournful and frank, A Bad Character marks the arrival of an astonishingly gifted new writer. It is an unforgettable hymn to a dangerous, exhilarating city, and a portrait of desire and its consequences as timeless as it is universal.

Read an excerpt HERE. 

Wild at heart

Read more at: http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/RXwy0A4oyU3t5bdQA9uWOO/Wild-at-heart.html?utm_source=copy

 

Wild At Heart

Shelfie with Deepti Kapoor, author of A Bad Character 

Deepti Kapoor's  Book Notes Playlist for Her Novel A Bad Character


Praise for the book:
“Riveting . . . Kapoor’s debut novel is a coming-of-age tale as complex, gritty and frankly terrifying as Delhi, the city that forms its backdrop. A 19-year-old college student leads a relatively unexciting life in Delhi, where her father sent her to live with a wealthy aunt after the death of her mother and his own absconding to Singapore. It’s here, in the city of her exile, that she meets her nameless boyfriend: American-accented and charismatic—we’re told from the beginning that he dies by her 21st birthday; she becomes addicted to him and his doomed promises of adventure. The non-linear story takes cues from moody European New Wave cinema and Baudelaireian prose poetry, but its mongrel influences makes for a cohesive, and thoroughly modern, tale.” ~Bustle

“The narrator of Kapoor’s debut novel is young and middle-class. Her car allows a measure of freedom, but not enough, and when she meets a somewhat unsuitable older man, the temptation to capsize her life with an affair is irresistible. Both a coming-of-age story and a portrait of New Delhi.” ~The Millions

“Riveting . . . Kapoor’s debut follows a young woman’s personal journey amid the shifting, often gritty landscape of modern-day Delhi. At a café one day, the beautiful 20-year-old protagonist—a self-described loner—is approached by an unnamed man to whom she is inexplicably drawn despite his unattractive physical features. Thus sparks an intense, at times discomfiting relationship that begins to pull the narrator away from her conventional life, as she becomes increasingly exposed and lured to the darker recesses of the city and its inhabitants. An intimate, raw exploration of [a] profound transformation.” ~Booklist

“Haunting . . . a beguiling, hallucinatory experience, at once unsettling and intimate. This is a novel about sexuality and escape, belonging and emptiness. It is about a man and woman who drive around the intestines of Delhi—eating, making love, falling apart. It is also about disenfranchisement, about how a woman might feel in Delhi regardless of her privilege or access. A Bad Character is an astounding book: read it with the scent of diesel in your nostrils and red dust in your mouth.” ~The New Indian Express

“The meeting between a restless young woman and a manipulative, worldly man in Delhi ignites a volatile, ill-fated love story. The nameless female narrator meets a man in a café. Ugly he may be, and a liar too, it emerges, but the man knows Delhi inside out, has wealth, confidence and a wild streak, and woos her slowly but thoroughly. Kapoor boosts her slender coming-of-age story with flashes of Delhi in 2000, a place of economic ferment in some quarters, while elsewhere, the teeming centuries-old ways continue. This novel is at its most impressive in its evocation of a dazzling, dangerous cityscape.”  ~Kirkus

“A tightly rendered story of a young woman’s awakening in contemporary India. The unnamed female narrator, ‘twenty and untouched’ when her mother dies, is sent by her absentee father to live with a relative in a modest Delhi apartment. One day she meets a rich, rebellious, darker-skinned young man from a different social class and subsequently begins a torrid affair with him. In clipped, haunting paragraphs, she tells of her discovery of a gritty, thrilling India that she never knew existed. The tension that the affair will be exposed becomes almost unbearable. [But] Kapoor takes the story in darker and tragic directions [even as] the prose becomes more ruminative and elliptical. The story and the style are reminiscent of Marguerite Duras’s The Lover, but when fused with the vivid Delhi scenes, Kapoor’s novel ventures into exciting and original territory.” ~Publishers Weekly

Wild at heart

Read more at: http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/RXwy0A4oyU3t5bdQA9uWOO/Wild-at-heart.html?utm_source=cop

Wild at heart

Read more at: http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/RXwy0A4oyU3t5bdQA9uWOO/Wild-at-heart.html?utm_source=cop

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

Deborah Harkness meets Preston & Child in this edge-of-your-seat debut thriller--a superb blend of mystery, fantasy, horror, and the supernatural

When Lauren's father dies, she makes a shocking discovery. The man she knew as John Reardon was once a completely different person, with a different name. Now she's determined to find out who he really was, even though her only clues are an old photograph and the name of a town: Gideon.

But someone--or something--doesn't want her to discover the truth. A strange man is stalking her, appearing everywhere she turns, and those who try to help her end up dead. Neither a shadowy enemy nor her own fear will prevent her from solving the mystery of her father--and unlocking the secrets of her own life.

Making her way to Gideon, Lauren finds herself more confused than ever. Nothing in this small midwestern town is what it seems, including time itself. Residents start going missing, and Lauren is threatened by almost everyone she encounters. Two hundred years ago, a witch was burned at the stake, but in Gideon the past feels all too chillingly present. . . .

Read an excerpt HERE. 

Read an interview with the author HERE. 

A chat with Alex Gordon


Praise for the book:
“A deliciously creepy paranormal thriller, Gideon sucks you in one step at a time until you are well and truly caught in the story. Highly recommended.” ~Anne Bishop,  author of the Black Jewels trilogy

“A seductive work of paranormal horror that will draw readers into its cold and gloomy world. …This novel will thoroughly satisfy readers looking for suspense, horror and a grisly good time.” ~Kirkus Reviews
“Crisp and shiveringly disturbing prose, a solid plot, and well-developed characters all make for a deeply satisfying read.” ~Publishers Weekly

“This debut supernatural tale does a solid job of portraying the menace of small-town evil. ... This will appeal to fans of books such as Katherine Howe’s The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane or Deborah Harkness’s A Discovery of Witches.” ~Library Journal

"Generations ago, the people of Gideon burned a witch at the stake, and that decision has haunted the town ever since….[T]he town itself is the real main character—a small, suspicious community of souls standing guard over the barrier between this world and the next….The twists and turns are entertaining enough, and there are a couple of strong surprises lurking near the end, but it’s the atmosphere that’s the real star here…In the end, the book is as much about life in a small, closed-off community that believes ‘blood tells’ and character can be inferred from a last name as it is about elemental magic and the struggle between good and evil. This novel will thoroughly satisfy readers looking for suspense, horror and a grisly good time.” ~Kirkus Reviews

 “Anchored by well-crafted prose that features a creepy-as-hell villain, Gideon feels like Arthur Miller’s The Crucible brilliantly re-conceived in a Neil Gaimanesque universe. Gordon hooks readers from page one ... making for a book that is impossible to put down.” ~RT Book Reviews

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

A captivating, absorbing, and suspenseful evocation of the spells of childhood.

In a timeless coming-of-age tale as charming and haunting as the movie "Stand By Me", Andrew Lovett’s Everlasting Lane tells the story of what happens when nine-year-old Peter’s father dies and his mother moves them from the city to a house in the countryside, for what seem to Peter to be mysterious reasons.

He’s soon distracted, though, by the difficulties of being the new, shy kid at school, and he befriends the other two kids who seem to be outcasts: overweight Tommie and too-smart-for-her-own-good Anna-Marie. Together they try to weather the storm of bullying teachers and fellow students, by escaping into explorations of the seemingly bucolic countryside.

There, though, they find other outcasts from society such as cranky Mr. Merridew, who won’t leave his cottage in the woods, and Scarecrow Man, who stands in the fields searching the skies. And meanwhile, Peter is disturbed by the growing awareness that his own mother may be some sort of outcast, too—and that she’s hiding something from him in a locked room in the attic, a room she’s expressly forbidden him from entering.

Written in beautiful prose, Everlasting Lane is a captivating, absorbing, and suspenseful evocation of the spells of childhood: sun-soaked, nostalgic, with the soft focus and warm glow of a Polaroid—but it’s darker than it seems. Will Peter and his mother find the light in that darkness?

FAQs from the author:

Up until now I’ve rarely been asked any question frequently – about my writing at any rate – but, in anticipation, here’s a few which I imagine people might ask in future (if anyone’s interested):

Where is Amberley? Is it based on anywhere in particular?
Amberley is an amalgam of various places I knew growing up. In my mind, the layout of the village is that of Aldenham in Hertfordshire where I went to college. Kirrins’ shop is inspired by a shop I used to visit during family holidays in Cornwall – the original may have been in St Blazey but I’m not sure. The name of The Copper Kettle comes from a café I knew in Camberley (Camberley obviously, was the source of the name Amberley). Dovecot School is a combination of Charlestown Junior which I attended at the age of ten and How Wood JMI where I taught for five years during the 1990s.

Where did the name Everlasting Lane come from?
Everlasting Lane is a real street in St Albans, Hertfordshire which I used to drive past when visiting one of the local secondary schools – I was a Year 6 teacher at the time.  I always thought it sounded like the title of a children’s book which is how I originally wrote it. I assume the name is ironic as the street itself is alarmingly short.

Are the characters in Everlasting Lane based on real people?
Peter’s parents are based on my own. Other than that, for legal reasons, the answer is, obviously, no, I just made them up.

Everlasting Lane is the first part of a trilogy. What are the next two volumes about?

Part 2 is called As if We Were Still and is set in a college in the mid-1980s. Part 3 is set in a primary school in the mid-1990s but I haven’t yet settled on a title. As to what they’re about, you’ll have to wait and see.

How long did it take to write Everlasting Lane?
The events which inspired it occurred around 1992 and I have been working on it pretty much since then (although I’ve done a lot of other things too). There have been a few finished drafts and several unfinished ones over the years.

Why did it take so long and how did you finally finish it?
I was never sure it was quite good enough or that I was quite good enough. I did try to get earlier drafts published but without success and I was too easily discouraged by failure. In the end, around 2005, having failed to find the time I started to make the time – early mornings, late nights – until it was done. The penultimate draft was finished around 2008/09.

That’s still a lengthy gap before publication!
Again, I couldn’t interest anyone in publishing the bloody thing so, in despair, sent it to the Writers’ Workshop for review, where it was read by Eloise Millar. Eloise’s comments were sufficiently positive to give me the courage and confidence to plough on; her criticisms helped me understand what I needed to do to make it more reader-friendly. I redrafted and Eloise read it again. This time she offered to publish the result through the company – Galley Beggar Press –that she was founding with her husband Sam Jordison and friend Henry Layte.

Which writers or books influenced you? Which writers do you like now?
My biggest literary hero is J D Salinger, both Catcher in the Rye and his short stories. My brother introduced me to him when I was fourteen and that’s when the bug bit. I also like Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories; James Joyce’s Dubliners; Jane Austen, William Trevor, Evelyn Waugh, Harper Lee, Graham Green, Arundhati Roy. Of contemporary writers, a big favourite is Aimee Bender.

The book is by ‘Andrew’ Lovett but you prefer to be called Andy. What’s that about?
Sheer masochism. I am at heart an Andrew who aspires to be an Andy – and I am grateful for everyone who goes along with the pretence – but, for the purposes of this book, Andrew is more honest. Painful but honest.

Read an interview with the author HERE.

The Three Rs: Andrew Lovett

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

Smart, poignant, funny, and totally original, Lillian on Life is as fresh and surprising as fiction gets. 

This is the story of Lillian, a single woman reflecting on her choices and imagining her future. Born in the Midwest in the 1930s; Lillian lives, loves, and works in Europe in the fifties and early sixties; she settles in New York and pursues the great love of her life in the sixties and seventies.

Now it’s the early nineties, and she’s taking stock. Throughout her life, walking the unpaved road between traditional and modern choices for women, Lillian grapples with parental disappointment and societal expectations, wins and loses in love, and develops her own brand of wisdom.

Lillian on Life lifts the skin off the beautiful, stylish product of an era to reveal the confused, hot-blooded woman underneath.

Lester on writing HERE.

20 Questions…. Alison Jean Lester

Praise for the book:
"In a remarkably confident debut, a woman’s life is revealed through fragments and meditations hinting at a life of great daring and unrealized dreams. ... A slim novel that feels just perfect—each thought measured, each syllable counted, a kind of haiku to an independent woman."~ Kirkus

"If the thought of reading about a post-menopausal woman’s one-night stands doesn’t sound all too appealing, you’re not alone. Yet first-time novelist Alison Jean Lester manages to make such an untraditional narrative seem endearing—even illuminating. The 24 vignettes found in Lillian on Life leap through the eras (‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s), touching on Lillian’s lifelong reflections and hopes for the future. The novel is a cleverly executed feminist bildungsroman that you could easily share with your mother, sister, friend, or, probably most appropriately, life coach." ~ NYLON

"Lester’s novel about a tenacious, well-traveled heroine of a certain age is replete with the profound and comical observations of a vivacious spirit." ~O, The Oprah Magazine

"Lillian on Life is a quirky book with a very deep heart and soul. I found it full of life and full of wisdom." - Erica Jong, author of Fear of Flying

"I absolutely loved Lillian on Life. It was a delight. The style of it so fresh and clever and subversive and there’s something very brave about it." - Kate Atkinson, author of  Life After Life

"In this remarkably mature first novel, Alison Jean Lester has channeled the worldly yet wistful elegance of Colette to portray an unforgettable heroine. Lillian's provocative reflections on love, vanity, sexual intimacy, and surviving as an independent woman over half a century are deeply moving." - Julia Glass, National Book Award Winner and author of Three Junes

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

Water for Elephants meets The Night Circus in The Magician’s Lie, a debut novel in which the country’s most notorious female illusionist stands accused of her husband's murder --and she has only one night to convince a small-town policeman of her innocence.

The Amazing Arden is the most famous female illusionist of her day, renowned for her notorious trick of sawing a man in half on stage. One night in Waterloo, Iowa, with young policeman Virgil Holt watching from the audience, she swaps her trademark saw for a fire ax. Is it a new version of the illusion, or an all-too-real murder? When Arden’s husband is found lifeless beneath the stage later that night, the answer seems clear.

But when Virgil happens upon the fleeing magician and takes her into custody, she has a very different story to tell. Even handcuffed and alone, Arden is far from powerless—and what she reveals is as unbelievable as it is spellbinding. Over the course of one eerie night, Virgil must decide whether to turn Arden in or set her free… and it will take all he has to see through the smoke and mirrors.

Read an excerpt HERE.

3Ws – Greer Macallister

Praise for the book:

"Smart and intricately plotted... a richly imagined thriller." ~People Magazine
“[A] well-paced, evocative, and adventurous historical novel… top-notch.” ~Publishers Weekly
"More bewitching than a crackling fire." ~Oprah.com

"Macallister is as much of a magician as her subject, misdirecting and enchanting while ultimately leaving her audience satisfied with a grand finale." ~ Columbus Dispatch

"Greer Macallister's haunting first novel is a compelling mystery.... [her] painstaking descriptions of the costumes, technique and trickery involved in Ada’s work as an illusionist are unparalleled." ~ BookPage

"Like her heroine the Amazing Arden, Greer Macallister has created a blend of magic that is sure to delight her audience. The Magician's Lie is a rich tale of heart-stopping plot turns, glittering prose, and a cast of complex, compelling characters. Reader beware: those who enter Macallister's delicious world of magic and mystery won't wish to leave!" -- Allison Pataki, author of The Traitor's Wife

"A suspenseful and well-researched tale of magic, secrets and betrayal that will keep you guessing until the end." -- J. Courtney Sullivan,  author of The Engagements

"The Magician's Lie is riveting, compelling, beautiful, frightening, evocative and above all magical. Don't miss this immersive novel of suspense and wonder from an exciting new voice in historical fiction!" ~ M.J. Rose

“A riveting read with suspenseful turns, The Magician's Lie takes you on an engaging and atmospheric journey through storytelling and illusion. Greer draws on raw emotion and leaves you questioning just how much is left behind the curtain." —Sarah Jio, author of Goodnight June

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

In this darkly imaginative debut novel full of myth, magic, romance, and mystery, a Princeton freshman is drawn into a love triangle with two enigmatic brothers and discovers terrifying secrets about her family and herself--a bewitching blend of Twilight, The Secret History, Jane Eyre, and A Discovery of Witches

For every world, there is an underworld.

Arriving at Princeton for her freshman year, Thea Slavin finds herself alone, a stranger in a strange land. Away from her family and her Eastern European homeland for the first time, she struggles to adapt to unfamiliar American ways and the challenges of college life--including a young man whose brooding good looks and murky past intrigue her. Drawn to the elusive Rhys and his equally handsome and mysterious brother, Jake, she ventures into a sensual mythic underworld as irresistible as it is dangerous.

In this shadow world that seems to evoke Greek mythology and the Bulgarian legends of the samodivi, or "wildalones"--forest witches who beguile and entrap men--Thea will discover a family secret bound to transform her forever . . . if she can accept that dead doesn't always mean gone, and love doesn't always distinguish between the two.

Mesmerizing and addictive, Wildalone is a thrilling blend of the modern and the fantastical. Krassi Zourkova creates an atmospheric world filled with rich characters as compelling as those of Diana Gabaldon, Deborah Harkness, and Stephenie Meyer.

Read an excerpt HERE.

A Message from Krassi Zourkova


 

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

Twenty-seven-year-old Daisy already beat breast cancer three years ago. How can this be happening to her again?

On the eve of what was supposed to be a triumphant “Cancerversary” with her husband Jack to celebrate three years of being cancer-free, Daisy suffers a devastating blow: her doctor tells her that the cancer is back, but this time it’s an aggressive stage four diagnosis. She may have as few as four months left to live. Death is a frightening prospect—but not because she’s afraid for herself. She’s terrified of what will happen to her brilliant but otherwise charmingly helpless husband when she’s no longer there to take care of him. It’s this fear that keeps her up at night, until she stumbles on the solution: she has to find him another wife.

With a singular determination, Daisy scouts local parks and coffee shops and online dating sites looking for Jack’s perfect match. But the further she gets on her quest, the more she questions the sanity of her plan. As the thought of her husband with another woman becomes all too real, Daisy’s forced to decide what’s more important in the short amount of time she has left: her husband’s happiness—or her own?

Read a short bio of the author HERE.

"Before ‘I Go’ arrives, it appears Smyrna first-time novelist has a hit" (read the article HERE)

"My Scariest Moment in Publishing? All of Them" -read the piece written by the author HERE

"How I got my agent (and you can too!) – Colleen Oakley" (read the article HERE)

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

After witnessing the death of his younger brother in a terrible home accident, 14-year-old Kevin and his grieving mother are sent for the summer to live with Kevin's grandfather. In this peeled-paint coal town deep in Appalachia, Kevin quickly falls in with a half-wild hollow kid named Buzzy Fink who schools him in the mysteries and magnificence of the woods. The events of this fateful summer will affect the entire town of Medgar, Kentucky.

Medgar is beset by a massive Mountaintop Removal operation that is blowing up the hills and back filling the hollows. Kevin's grandfather and others in town attempt to rally the citizens against the 'company' and its powerful owner to stop the plunder of their mountain heritage. When Buzzy witnesses the brutal murder of the opposition leader, a sequence is set in play which tests Buzzy and Kevin to their absolute limits in an epic struggle for survival in the Kentucky mountains.

Redemptive and emotionally resonant, The Secret Wisdom of the Earth is narrated by an adult Kevin looking back on the summer when he sloughed the coverings of a boy and took his first faltering steps as a man among a rich cast of characters and an ambitious effort to reclaim a once great community.

Read the author's mini-bio HERE.

Read an excerpt HERE.

Read an interview with the author HERE.

What's next:"It's a completely different story, different time period, different setting. It takes place in 1875; two 13 year old Irish twin sisters emigrate to New York to live with their Aunt and work as domestics. After a few weeks in America they disappear without a trace. Their 19-year old sister comes over to try and find them and she follows their trail from New York, across the country and ultimately out west in an attempt to rescue them and bring them home. It's a great story and based on an actual series of events that happened in my family in the 1800s."

Fresh Ink: A Nice Pile of Debut Authors For Your Consideration

A woman’s corpse is discovered in a meadow. A strange combination of letters and numbers has been tattooed on the soles of her feet. Detective inspector Beatrice Kaspary from the local murder squad quickly identifies the digits as map coordinates. These lead to a series of gruesome discoveries as she and her colleague Florin Wenninger embark on a bloody trail – a modern-day scavenger hunt using GPS navigation devices to locate hidden caches.

The "owner" of these unofficial, unpublished geocaches is a highly calculating and elusive fiend who leaves his victims’ body-parts sealed in plastic bags, complete with riddles that culminate in a five-stage plot. Kaspary herself becomes an unwilling pawn in the perpetrator’s game of cat and mouse as she risks all to uncover the motives behind the murderer’s actions. Five is definitely not a book for the faint-hearted, but it delivers great suspense, unexpected plot twists, and multi-dimensional characters.

About the author:
Ursula Archer is a science journalist and an award-winning author of YA and children's books. Five is her first adult mystery. She lives in Vienna, Austria, with her family.

"Diane Lawson's amazing insight into the mysteries and witchcraft of psychoanalysis . . . combined with her extraordinary writing skills makes this a one-of-a-kind novel that I found impossible to put down."--Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone

Sigmund Freud would have liked Dr. Nora Goodman, a sexy forty-something psychoanalyst with her handful of neurotic patients who can't seem to allow themselves happiness, love, or success. She's not exactly a steady customer herself, born to a ranting bipolar Talmudic scholar and a mother with a heart as cold as a slaughterhouse on the Kansas prairie in January.
 But now she has two kids and an overbearing psychiatrist husband. She hates him. She hates his insular social world. Nora wants a new life sans husband, but what she gets is something terribly different.

It starts one Monday morning when her eight o'clock patient blows himself to smithereens. The following week, another patient dies. The police see the first as an accident, the second a straightforward suicide. Nora thinks her practice is being targeted by a killer. She hires private investigator Mike Ruiz, a tightly wound ex-cop who couldn't care less for Sigmund. "Oh, Freud," Mike says. "Isn't he dead?" Freud is always watching while the unlikely pair struggle to an unexpected end.

About the author:
Diane Lawson was born and raised in La Russell, Missouri (population 128). She did her undergraduate studies at the University of Missouri, her psychiatric residency at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, and her psychoanalytic training at the Institute for Psychoanalysis, also in Chicago. She has two children and lives and practices in San Antonio, Texas.

Josie O'Conner travels to San Francisco in 1951 to locate her gay brother, a private dick investigating a blackmail ring targeting lesbians and gay men. Jimmy's friends claim that just before he disappeared he became a rat, informing the cops on the bar community. Josie adopts Jimmy's trousers and wingtips, battling to clear his name, halt the blackmailers, and exact justice for the many queer corpses. Along the way she rubs shoulders with a sultry chanteuse running a dyke tavern called Pandora's Box, gets intimate with a red-headed madam operating a brothel from the Police Personnel Department, and conspires with the star of Finocchio's, a dive so disreputable it's off limits to servicemen -- so every man in uniform pays a visit.

Blackmail, My Love is an illustrated murder mystery deeply steeped in San Francisco's queer history. Established academic and first-time novelist Katie Gilmartin's diverse set of characters negotiate the risks of same-sex desire in a tough time for queers. Humor leavens the grave subject matter.

Set in such legendary locations as the Black Cat Cafe, the Fillmore, the Beat movement's North Beach, and the sexually complex Tenderloin, Blackmail, My Love is a singular, visually stunning neo-noir experience.

About the author:

"I valiantly tried to embody the anguished suffering artist, but chronic backsliding forced me to resign myself to a life of delight, abundance, and gusto. My checkered past includes stints as a buoyant union organizer, bona fide sex researcher, and deeply engaged college professor. I attended Oberlin College and Yale Graduate School, then for over a decade taught cultural studies with an emphasis on the histories of gender and sexuality. On an urgent quest to relocate pleasure, I took up printmaking and became utterly smitten with the medium as art and as craft. In 2000 I surrendered my academic life to assume care of Chrysalis Print Studio, where I now teach linocut and monotype classes." 

A compelling story of two intertwined journeys: a Jewish refugee family fleeing persecution and a young man seeking to reclaim a shattered past. In the twilight of the Cold War (the late 1980s), nine-year old Lev Golinkin and his family cross the Soviet border with only ten suitcases, $600, and the vague promise of help awaiting in Vienna. Years later, Lev, now an American adult, sets out to retrace his family's long trek, locate the strangers who fought for his freedom, and in the process, gain a future by understanding his past.

Lev Golinkin's memoir is the vivid, darkly comic, and poignant story of a young boy in the confusing and often chilling final decade of the Soviet Union. It's also the story of Lev Golinkin, the American man who finally confronts his buried past by returning to Austria and Eastern Europe to track down the strangers who made his escape possible . . . and say thank you. Written with biting, acerbic wit and emotional honesty in the vein of Gary Shteyngart, Jonathan Safran Foer, and David Bezmozgis, Golinkin's search for personal identity set against the relentless currents of history is more than a memoir—it's a portrait of a lost era. This is a thrilling tale of escape and survival, a deeply personal look at the life of a Jewish child caught in the last gasp of the Soviet Union, and a provocative investigation into the power of hatred and the search for belonging. Lev Golinkin achieves an amazing feat—and it marks the debut of a fiercely intelligent, defiant, and unforgettable new voice.

About the author:

Lev Golinkin came to the United States as a child refugee from the former Soviet Union. He is a graduate of Boston College (2004) who currently resides in New Jersey. This is his first book.

From YouTube sensation Zoella comes a debut coming-of-age novel that perfectly captures what it means to grow up and fall in love in today's digital world. Girl Online is the first book to be published by Keywords Press, an imprint under Simon & Schuster dedicated to today's digital stars.

"I have this dream that, secretly, all teenage girls feel exactly like me. And maybe one day, when we realize that we all feel the same, we can all stop pretending we're something we're not. That would be awesome. But until that day, I'm going to keep it real on this blog and keep it unreal in real life."

Penny has a secret.

Under the alias GirlOnline, Penny blogs her hidden feelings about friendship, boys, high school drama, her quirky family, and the panic attacks that have begun to take over her life. When things go from bad to worse at school, her parents accept an opportunity to whisk the family away for Christmas at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. There, she meets Noah, a gorgeous, guitar-strumming American. Suddenly Penny is falling in love--and capturing every moment she spends with "Brooklyn Boy" on her blog.

But Noah has a secret, too, one that threatens to ruin Penny's cover--and her closest friendship--forever.

Award-winning and influential YouTube vlogger Zoe Sugg delivers a heartfelt coming-of-age novel that perfectly captures the highs and lows of first love, friendship, and growing up in the digital age.

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

A stunning debut thriller about a code that threatens humanity - and the only man can crack it.

William Sandberg, once a well-respected military cryptologist pursuing cutting-edge research, is a ruined man. His career is in shambles, his marriage is over, and he's succumbed to a dark depression.

But William's talents haven't gone unnoticed. A nameless, top-secret organization abducts him and tasks him with a daunting mission: decode a message that will reveal the disastrous prophecies hidden in our DNA before it is too late.

Meanwhile, William's ex-wife Christina is haunted by his absence and suspects there is more to his disappearance than just the reclusive impulse of a depressed man. Driven by her hunch, she sets out to find him and joins an eclectic cast of characters all drawn to a mysterious chateau in the Alps where the secret organization is plotting something-but is it revenge? Or a rescue mission? What is the organization hiding? What does the code have to do with the potent virus suddenly spreading around the world? And can William uncover the truth before it's too late?

A thrilling novel about humanity on the verge of crisis, taking readers from the streets of Berlin and Stockholm to a chateau in the Alps, Chain of Events explodes and then reconfigures the ties that bind us to one another: marriage, politics, and our DNA.

Praise for the book:

"Olsson lines up a sympathetic and well-developed cast of characters, inserts them into some interesting places, and allows very few dull moments, especially once the action really gets rolling. An end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it thriller featuring two unlikely, but very likeable protagonists."~Kirkus Reviews

"Olsson's debut, a world-in-peril thriller, gets high marks for developing an original concept and building suspense." ~Publishers Weekly

Fresh Ink: Spotlight on Debut Books of All Kinds

When the greatest female mathematician in history passes away, her son, Alexander “Sasha” Karnokovitch, just wants to mourn his mother in peace. But rumor has it the notoriously eccentric Polish émigré has solved one of the most difficult problems in all of mathematics, and has spitefully taken the solution to her grave. As a ragtag group of mathematicians from around the world descends upon Rachela’s shiva, determined to find the proof or solve it for themselves—even if it means prying up the floorboards for notes or desperately scrutinizing the mutterings of her African Grey parrot—Sasha must come to terms with his mother’s outsized influence on his life.

Spanning decades and continents, from a crowded living room in Madison, Wisconsin, to the windswept beach on the Barents Sea where a young Rachela had her first mathematical breakthrough, The Mathematician’s Shiva is an unexpectedly moving and uproariously funny novel that captures humanity’s drive not just to survive, but to achieve the impossible.

Read an interview with the author HERE.

Listen to a radio interview HERE.

Read "A Scientist Makes Art" by the author HERE. 
Comedy Trumps Tragedy: A conversation with Stuart Rojstaczer, author of The Mathematician's Shiva

 

Praise for the Book: 
“A hugely entertaining debut.”~Publishers Weekly

“An enjoyable debut…distinguished by a fluid, lyrical style.”
–Kirkus

“There are rock stars; then there are math stars. Apparently, both have their groupies, and this debut novel may win Rojstaczer a few….[His] tale maintains a satisfying balance between humor and warmth.”~Booklist

“[Rojstaczer] has created a complex and chaotic rainbow of characters that makes his first novel both comedic and compelling.”~Library Journal 

“Stuart Rojstaczer writes with enormous wit, style and empathy, and The Mathematician’s Shiva is a big-hearted, rollickingly funny novel that’s impossible to put down. A tremendous debut.”–Molly Antopol, author of The UnAmericans

“I love The Mathematician’s Shiva. Who else will love it? Anyone who knows the manic world of the intellectually obsessed that Rojstaczer so perfectly captures, and anyone who loves dialogue that sparkles with wit, characters full of quirks and pathos, and a plot that fluctuates between hilarity and heartbreak.”
–Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex