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Alam, Nigar. Under the Tamarind Tree. Putnam. Aug. 2023. 320p. ISBN 9780593544075. $27. LITERARY

Pakistan-born Alam revisits the horrors of Partition as she introduces us to Rozeena, thinking back on its consequences as she struggles to keep herself and her parents safe in 1960s Karachi even as her childhood friendships begin to crumble. Decades later, a request to watch after a friend’s teenage daughter brings back the past. Part of a surge of new books, fiction and nonfiction, addressing the Partition.

Binyam, Maya. Hangman. Farrar. Aug. 2023. 208p. ISBN 9780374610074. $25. LITERARY

A sub-Saharan immigrant who has been in the United States for a quarter century receives a mysterious call telling him to board a flight home, and the place he encounters when he lands seems entirely unfamiliar. While there, he ends up searching for his brother. A book about the impossibility of finding Black refuge; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Googins, Nick Fuller. The Great Transition. Atria. Aug. 2023. 352p. ISBN 9781668010754. $27.99. LITERARY

After a dozen climate criminals are assassinated in a dystopian near-future, Emi Vargas’s mother disappears—not surprisingly, as she’s a suspect in the killings. To find her, Emi and her father travel from Greenland to a climate change–wrecked New York City, but they aren’t alone in their hunt. A big promotional push.

Hertz, Kyle Dillon. The Lookback Window. S. & S. Aug. 2023. 288p. ISBN 9781668005873. $26.99. CD. LITERARY

For three years, Dylan was a victim of sex trafficking, with his abuser, Vincent, promising to marry him when he turned 18. As an adult, he’s managed to build a life for himself with his fiancé, Moans, but then the newly passed Child Victims Act grants him the right to sue Vincent. Is that the sort of justice he wants, and can he bear revisiting the past? Timely.

Khabushani, Khashayar J. I Will Greet the Sun Again. Hogarth: Crown. Aug. 2023. $27. ISBN 9780593243305. $27. LITERARY

K wants to live like any other kid in the United States, shooting hoops with his brother and tooling around the San Fernando Valley with his friends. Instead, he’s worried about being a good Iranian American son, trying to understand a father both tender and violent, and struggling with his own emerging sexuality. Key themes of immigration and queerness for readers today.

Zhorov, Irina. Lost Believers. Scribner. Aug. 2023. 320p. ISBN 9781668011539. $28. LITERARY

In the 1970s, young Soviet geologist Galina is sailing above Siberia in a helicopter, scouting for minerals, when she spots a little hut surrounded by a garden. Investigating further, she discovers a family descended from the Old Believers who fled persecution by the Russian Orthodox Church. Even as she befriends matriarch Agafia, Galina realizes that her mission could wreck Agafia’s home. From Uzbekistan-born, U.S.-based Zhorov, a story of friendship, Soviet politics, and environmental crisis.

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