May book preview: Blockbuster season is here
Plus, exclusive conversations with Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and Luis Alberto Urrea.
Like Hollywood, book publishing has a summer blockbuster season and a fall awards season. This week we’re entering the former, when imprints bring out some of their highest-concept novels and big-hook nonfiction titles for summer travelers.
I spoke with the authors behind two of May’s biggest books: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and Luis Alberto Urrea. This month also marks the release of much-hyped new titles from Samantha Irby, Brandon Taylor, Abraham Verghese, Justin Cronin, Martha Wells, and…Tom Hanks.
May book preview
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Grove Press, May 2). The novelist behind 2009’s Cutting for Stone is back with another century-spanning family saga and a gorgeous cover.
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Pantheon, May 2). One of the biggest speculative fiction releases of the year, from the author of Friday Black. I spoke with Nana below, so keep scrolling!
The Night Flowers by Sara Herchenroether (Tin House, May 2). A librarian and a detective team up to solve a cold case in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest? Yes, please.
The Ferryman by Justin Cronin (Ballantine, May 2). I loved The Passage enough to try everything Cronin ever writes.
The Other Renaissance by Paul Strathern (Pegasus, May 2). I’m a big fan of history books that run less than 400 pages.
Shy by Max Porter (Graywolf Press, May 2). This is going to be weird!
The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks (May 9). His short story collection was adorable. How will his first novel stack up?
Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby (Vintage, May 16). Samantha Irby is hilarious and every books of hers is “event reading.”
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (William Morrow, May 16). A ripped-from-the-headlines novel about a novelist who pretends to be Asian American to sell more books.
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig (FSG, May 16). Eig is one of our greatest living biographers.
The Great American Everything by Scott Gloden (Hub City Press, May 16). A powerful short story collection about love and grief in the South from one of my favorite independent presses.
The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor (Riverhead, May 23). “Brandon Taylor wrote a novel about Iowa City” is a good hook for me.
Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea by Rita Chang-Eppig (Bloomsbury, May 30). Chang-Eppig brings a legendary Chinese pirate queen to life in this historical fantasy adventure, alongside myths of the ocean goddess Ma-zou.
Witch King by Martha Wells (Tordotcom, May 30). The author of the Murderbot Diaries novellas switches back to fantasy mode for this full-length novel starring a demon named Kai who wakes up after his mortal form was assassinated.
Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea (Little, Brown, May 30). See below!
Exclusive: Luis Alberto Urrea on his mother’s forgotten WWII story
Urrea’s previous novels (all 17 of them) have been inspired by his father’s side of the family. But Good Night, Irene is based on the incredible story of his mother, who served as one of the all-women Red Cross Clubmobile volunteers in World War II, delivering coffee and donuts to Allied troops on the front.
What drew you to the story of your mother? When did you know it had to be a novel?
My mother's nightmares and my mother's war chest haunted me since childhood. I needed to find her story and I felt compelled to give her a better ending. I didn't know it could be a book until I told my reporter wife the story and she started researching. I didn't know it had to be a novel until we found how little was in the historical record about the Clubmobile volunteers. And then we found the last surviving WWII Clubmobiler, and I knew the stories these women told had to be a novel. As I have said before, sometimes the truer story is in fiction.
How does the novel open, and why did you choose to begin the story that way?
It starts with the word "Then." Hemingway was my mother's favorite author, and one of my favorite Hemingway books — which she also loved — begins with the word "Then" (A Moveable Feast). More to the point, however, is that the opening pages of Good Night, Irene are exactly how my mother left New York on her way to the war. She essentially slipped the bonds of an unworkable life in her patriotic decision to go to war.
What was the most difficult part of Good Night, Irene to write?
Without giving away too much, the last third of the book was the most difficult. In that section of the book, there were brutally painful true things for me (and my mother). But I also felt the challenge of landing the ending. And I have to say the thing I found difficult at all times was trying to live up to the responsibility of these forgotten women and their service and carry the stories of these 140 women — and especially my mother and Miss Jill — through my fictional characters. It's not only a novel, it's intended as a testimonial.
What I’ve been writing
For Esquire, I traveled to Utah to visit the bestselling fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson in his underground lair. We talked about why he wants to make book publishing more like the video game industry.
For Inverse, I got my 90s on and spoke with the creators of Myst and Riven for an oral history of the oldest surviving independent game studio in America.
Also for Esquire, I had a dad-to-dad conversation with Clint Smith about his new poetry collection on parenthood, Above Ground.
Exclusive: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah on reality TV and the prison industrial complex
Friday Black was easily one of the biggest books of 2017, a vivid short story collection set in alternate realities and futures. This month, Adjei-Brenyah’s returns with his first novel, Chain-Gang All-Stars, a brutal and insightful action thriller about a reality TV series where imprisoned gladiators mutilate one another for a chance at freedom.
Your short fiction is full of horrific dystopias. What made “Criminal Action Penal Entertainment” (CAPE) the right story for your first novel?
I think the depth of the horror of our carceral state and the prison industrial complex sort of forced my hand. I tried to make it a short story but it just was too much. I felt like I needed the space to really sink my teeth in. Also, when I created Thurwar, I really felt connected pretty quickly and I wanted to know more about her.
Did you watch any real-life reality shows to inform your fictional ones?
Not with the explicit desire to do research but I've already, naturally, watched tons of reality TV. My family watched Survivor and Big Brother when it first came out. I watched The Real World and Road Rules. I've watched many seasons of The Challenge. I've watched Flavor of Love and many others.
What was the hardest part of writing Chain-Gang All-Stars?
Trusting that like four years in and no end in sight that I could shepherd this story to life. It was hard just keeping the flame of belief up through so many life changes. It took me about seven years [to write] and my life changed dramatically over that time so keeping that hope was important. I also think having a work with so many different voices [and making them] feel like part of a cohesive choir was extremely tough.