Click here for additional new Prepub Alert columns  

Akbar, Kaveh. Martyr! Knopf. Jan. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9780593537619. $28. lrg. prnt. LITERARY

Cyrus Shams, an Iranian American poet and recovering alcoholic/addict (like his remarkable creator), seeks to untangle mysteries of his past that include an uncle who dressed as the Angel of Death to comfort the mortally wounded on Iran’s battlefields and a mysterious mother killed when her plane was shot down over the Persian Gulf. He’s guided by the voices of artists and kings to a terminally ill artist dwelling at the Brooklyn Museum. The award-winning Akbar is poetry editor of the Nation.

Blackburn, Venita. Dead in Long Beach, California. MCD: Farrar. Jan. 2024. 240p. ISBN 9780374602826. $27. Downloadable. LITERARY

When Coral discovers her brother Jay dead by suicide in his shabby California apartment, she’s sufficiently undone by grief to do something unwise; she grabs his phone and starts responding to his texts as if he were still alive. Then she must keep up the charade. A debut novel following two story collections, including Black Jesus and Other Superheroes, an NYPL Young Lions finalist.

Chan, Vanessa. The Storm We Made. Marysue Rucci: Scribner. Jan. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781668015148. $27. LITERARY

In 1930s British-colonized Malaya, frustrated housewife Cecily Alcantara has a chance encounter with General Fujiwara and is persuaded to support what he calls the dream of Asia for Asians by spying for the Japanese. By 1945, with her son vanished, her younger daughter hidden in the basement, and her older daughter furious about the drunken Japanese soldiers she serves at the teahouse, Cecily recognizes that she made a dreadful choice. A frequently published short story writer goes longform.

Miller, Suzie. Prima Facie. Holt. Jan. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9781250292209. $27.99. Downloadable. LITERARY

A tough-minded young woman who attended Cambridge on full scholarship, Tessa Ensler has triumphed at the bar, winning cases that include freeing men accused of rape or sexual assault. Then she kicks off a lighthearted relationship with a coworker from a posh family and ends up being raped herself. Does she take the stand, knowing full well the law is stacked against the victim? The author’s adaptation of her Olivier Award–winning play.

Rey Lescure, Aube. River East, River West. Morrow. Jan. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9780063257856. $30. LITERARY

In 1985 Qingdao, China, unassuming clerk Lu Fang, his dreams shredded by political realities, finds his world opening up when he meets a woman from the United States who challenges his assumptions. In 2007 Shanghai, teenaged Alva, raised by her ex-pat mother and unaware of her Chinese father, finds her world opening up when she enters the American School in Shanghai. The author's short fiction has achieved finalist and semifinalist status in numerous contests.

Roberts, Tara Karr. Wild and Distant Seas. Norton. Jan. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781324064886. $27.99. LITERARY

Evangeline Hussey has a gift for reshaping the recent memories of those around her, which comes in handy when she’s left managing a Nantucket inn when her husband is lost at sea. Then a dreamy sailor named Ishmael shows up, and after he heads off after a white whale, the narrative unfolds from Nantucket to Boston, Brazil, Florence, and Idaho to visit four women touched by Evangeline’s story. One of the publisher’s top books for the spring.

Zarin, Cynthia. Inverno. Farrar. Jan. 2024. 144p. ISBN 9780374610135. $25. LITERARY

A Los Angeles Times Book Prize–winning poet who also writes essays and children’s books, Zarin turns to adult fiction about a woman waiting in a snowy Central Park, New York, for Alastair, who may or may not come. As long as he doesn’t, anything could happen, and we revisit the pasts of both characters. With a 30,000-copy first printing.

Click here for additional new Prepub Alert columns