Great writing, even when the author tells a story set in early 20th-century Maine or during ancient rebellions, often sheds light on our era. From a novel starring sentient hurricane winds to a memoir by a leading African American writer, this month's titles shed light on how we're losing daylight.
FICTION
Chelm: A Novel
Sarah Hall
Mariner Books: 368 pages, $30.
(November 4)
The British people of Hall's home region of Cumbria have battled the wind known as “The Helm” for centuries. In different eras it was considered a measure of divine wrath or human sin, and more recently – one of the vital signs of the earth. Helm's narrative alternates with chapters presenting the perspectives of an astrologer, an astronomer, a crusader, an herbalist, and a climatologist, each reinforcing the power of the immortal force.
Palaver: A Novel
Brian Washington
Farrar, Straus and Giroux: 336 pages, $28.
(November 4)
As in his first two novels, Memorial and Family Dinner, Houston's Washington interweaves scenes of American life at home and in Japan, with a focus on both queer culture and emotion. “Mother” and “son” are never referred to by name; her Jamaican heritage influences his upbringing as well as his personality. When she visits him unannounced in Japan, the gentle irony of the title becomes apparent.
Queen Esther: A Novel
John Irving
Simon & Schuster: 432 pages, $30.
(November 4)
Readers will remember Dr. Wilbur Larch from The Cider House Rules. Here he is in 1919 as a go-between for Esther Nacht, a 14-year-old Jewish refugee whom he places with the Winslow family as an au pair. Like many women over the centuries, this role turned into a different kind of work for her, one that turned this Irving-esque book (wrestling! sex!) into the origin story of writer Jimmy Winslow.
The Silver Book: A Novel
Olivia Lang
Farrar, Straus and Giroux: 256 pages, $27.
(November 11)
The murder of Italian subversive director Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1975 forms the tortured heart of Lang's first historical novel. In 1974, the main character Nicholas Wade leaves England and lands in Venice, where he meets Danilo Donati, costume designer for Pasolini, as well as Fellini and others. Their relationship reflects the themes of these authors, especially the theme of the revival of fascism in Pasolini's Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom.
White Hot: A Romance
Kiara Alegria Hudes
One World: 176 pages, $26.
(November 11)
Acclaimed playwright Hudes writes a stunning debut novel that challenges traditional ideas about motherhood. Years after her child's disappearance, April Soto writes her daughter Noelle a letter to read on her 18th birthday. Fewer apologies than explanations, and less explanations than introspection, this novel has a huge voice, a woman's attempt to create meaning from the depths of family trauma.
NUNFICTION
The Book of Lives: A Memoir of sorts
Margaret Atwood
Doubleday: 624 pages, $35.
(November 4)
Only Margaret Atwood could write a debut memoir at the age of 85 and differentiate it significantly from her previous works, while at the same time infusing it with her droll wit and multiple passions, literary, environmental and familial. Although she has always combined the public and the private in her celebrated and groundbreaking novels, essays, and poems, this collection beautifully combines Atwood the man and Atwood the writer.
Front Street: Resistance and Resurgence in the Tent Cities of Techland
Brian Bart
Astra House: 304 pages, $29.
(November 11)
Barth, a freelance journalist, has spent time in three different homeless encampments in the Bay Area, including Oakland's Wood Street Commons, and as Gov. Gavin Newsom pushes a new task force aimed at rehousing those neighborhoods, he argues that solutions to homelessness must come from the ground up, with input from those hit hardest.
Without Consent: The Landmark Trial and Ten-Year Fight to Make Marital Rape a Crime
Sarah Weinman
Ecco: 320 pages, $32.
(November 11)
Until the 1970s, in most states, a married woman could not legally refuse sex with her husband. The 1978 trial of John Rideout in Oregon for marital rape of his wife Greta—despite his then acquittal—raised awareness of the law and led to Rideout's conviction for rape and sodomy nearly four decades later in a case involving two other partners. Weinman (“The Real Lolita”) writes energetically about a case with today's implications.
Revolutions: a new history
Donald Sassoon
Verso: 432 pages, $40.00.
(November 18)
You say you want a revolution, and the historian Sassoon says: “Think of your predecessors.” Although we focus on acute moments, the long history of these uprisings can lead to long-term instability and injustice (for example, the young United States decided to continue enslavement). What is the real cost of transformation? Is it worth wondering when people unite against tyranny and oppression?
Home Languages: Essays on Writing, Hooping, and American Life 1975–2025.
John Edgar Wideman
Scribner: 400 pages, $29.
(November 18)
Wideman's 1985 essay “The Language of Home” was about the power of words to reflect our foundations, so it's fitting that his new collection, spanning 50 years of his powerful prose, mimics that essay's title. The plural in the new title refers to the author's recurring themes, which is not surprising. What's truly surprising is his anticipation of still-present issues, from the disappearance of the middle class to police brutality.
