Dan Zettwoch Drawn and Quarterly ($19.95) by David Kennedy-Logan There’s an elderly man who lives in my neighborhood named Wally. He’s slow-moving, meticulous, set in his ways, and tends to be mildly grumpy. When I chat with him, he gives the distinct impression that all of the changes he’s witnessed in the 40-plus years he’s […]
Choose Your Poison Jon Lewis Uncivilized Books ($19.95) by John Pistelli “I dreamed of a swamp the way the Romantics dreamed of ‘the East,’” writes Jon Lewis in an autobiographical afterword to this sturdy, beautifully designed volume that collects the first four issues of his cult classic mid-1990s indie comic True Swamp. Raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, […]
Two Plays in Verse Denis Johnson Farrar, Straus and Giroux ($20) by Robert Martin Prior to the publication of Soul of a Whore and Purvis, Denis Johnson fielded a question at a reading I happened to attend. The questioner asked if Mr. Johnson ever felt like returning to poetry—his first three publications were collections, and he […]
Peter Geye Unbridled Books ($15) by Amy Henry Despite their brief time together as mother and son, Thea and Odd Eide’s lives run nearly parallel courses. Odd (pronounced Owed) is orphaned soon after birth, while Thea was orphaned years before when she arrived in America from Norway. Both are fiercely independent, yet in the unenviable […]
Lyn Di Iorio Arte Publico ($16.95) by Peter Grandbois The high octane, hilarious, sexy, and strikingly original voice in Lyn Di Iorio’s Outside the Bones will take you for a ride you will not soon forget. The voice beautifully matches the passion and energy of the main character, Fina Mata, a Puerto Rican living in Manhattan and […]
Dung Kai-cheung Translated by Dung Kai-cheung, Anders Hansson, and Bonnie S. McDougall Columbia University Press ($24.50) by Lucas Klein "No one, wise Kublai,” says Marco Polo in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, “knows better than you that the city must never be confused with the words that describe it.” In Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City, Hong […]
Edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer Tor ($34.99) by Kris Lawson The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories is the ultimate companion for readers who relish strange, luminous, decadent tales of the “other.” An essential addition to any bookshelf, the aptly named compendium contains 110 stories; it recently won the 2012 World Fantasy Award […]
Elizabeth Hand Small Beer Press ($16) by Will Wlizlo It’s a shame we’re not often genuinely baffled, not often presented with inexplicable scenarios or esoteric information to which we’re ill equipped to respond. But the enigmatic stories in Elizabeth Hand’s new collection,Errantry, all arouse the vertiginous feeling of being confronted with the incomprehensible. Jeffrey, a […]
Lavie Tidhar Solaris ($9.99) by Kris Lawson Winner of the 2012 World Fantasy Award, Osama is a mix of crime fiction, pulp noir, science fiction, and history. With Osama, Lavie Tidhar has created a dreamy, disturbing mish-mash of genres and tones. The book has many beginnings and layers, some of which move the reader sideways, slipping a little […]
J. R. Moehringer Hyperion ($15.99) by John Cussen Of any two thieves, one is likely good—or so scripture recommends, and more or less, so we believe. Also, of late the feeling circulates that those who manage the banks are a worse bunch of crooks than those who stick them up. Both of these attitudes bode […]