The first week of November 2021 brings a winning bounty of new books, including titles from Asian American, Latinx, and Nigerian writers, with a healthy infusion of small-press love.
New Books Published November 2nd, 2021
Win Me Something by Kyle Lucia Wu
Win Me Something is the first novel from Kyle Lucia Wu, who received the Asian American Writers’ Workshop Margins Fellowship and has taught writing at Fordham and The New School.
Lit Hub listed it among its most anticipated books of 2021 and said:
“This quiet but piercing debut novel of identity and isolation...is the story of Willa Chen, a young biracial Chinese American woman from New Jersey who takes a job as a live-in nanny for a wealthy Tribeca family in the hope discovering the belonging and familial acceptance she’s always craved. Wu’s beautifully observed coming-of-age tale is a poignant and lyrical meditation on navigating the world with a fragmented sense of self.”
Eternal Night at the Nature Museum by Tyler Barton (LOL)
Eternal Night at the Nature Museum is the first full-length story collection from Tyler Barton, whose Instagram handle @tylerbartonlol makes me laugh out loud. Wendy J. Fox at Buzzfeed included it in her 18 Books from Small Presses You'll Love:
"Eternal Night at the Nature Museum is a collection packed with stories that cut to the heart of living in contemporary America. In each story, Barton draws out empathy and imagination. A debut that is both gritty and hopeful."
Karl: No Regrets by Patrick Hourcade
Karl: No Regrets tells the story of the late iconic designer Karl Lagerfeld through the eyes of his close friend, former Vogue Paris artistic director Patrick Hourcade. The two met in 1976, and this beautifully assembled book documents some of their complicated journey and provides a unique glimpse at Lagerfeld's life and the people who helped make it full. WWD calls it a book that will "make your coffee table fashionable this fall" and writes:
"In the form of chronological vignettes organized in three sections dedicated to the happy times, the heights of extravagance and the pair’s falling out, the book meanders between houses, characters and topics...to retrace a friendship sparked by a shared love for 18th-century art."
All Shades of Iberibe by Kasimma
All Shades of Iberibe is the debut story collection from Nigerian writer Kasimma, published by Sandorf Passage. Read more about this book in our interview between Kasimma and E.C. Osondu.
Flight Risk by Joy Castro*
Flight Risk is a “deftly intelligent literary thriller" (S.J. Watson) from Joy Castro, the Willa Cather Professor of English and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska.
From Melissa Sholes Young's intro to her Joy Castro interview in Fiction Writers Review:
"Protagonist Isabel Morales, a successful sculptor, is accustomed to creating art and life from nothing, but it’s her sudden reckoning with family secrets following her estranged mother’s death that forces her to return to her past before moving forward in her future. Joy Castro invites readers to take Isabel’s hand through the nuance of poverty and the Latina experience in West Virginia, and through this compassionate, gritty journey, humanity prevails."
*actual pub date November 1.
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