Archives de catégorie : Fiction

HOW TO CARE FOR A HUMAN GIRL de Ashley Wurzbacher

From “a writer at the top of her game” (The New York Times) comes a bighearted and sharply funny debut novel about two estranged sisters and the crossroads they face after becoming unexpectedly pregnant at the same time.

HOW TO CARE FOR A HUMAN GIRL
by Ashley Wurzbacher
Atria, August 2023
(via Frances Goldin Literary Agency)

Two years after the death of their mother, Jada and Maddy Battle both face unplanned pregnancies. Jada, a thirty-one-year-old psychology PhD student living in Pittsburgh, quietly obtains an abortion without telling her husband, but the secret causes turmoil in her already shaky marriage. Back home in rural Pennsylvania, nineteen-year-old Maddy, who spends her time caring for birds at a wildlife rehabilitation center, is paid off by the man who got her pregnant to get an abortion. But an unsettling visit to a crisis pregnancy center adds to her doubts about whether to go through with it.
Although Maddy still hasn’t forgiven Jada for a terrible betrayal, she goes to her for support, only to discover the cracks in the façade of her sister’s seemingly perfect life. As their past resentments boil over, the sisters must navigate the consequences of their choices and determine how best to care for themselves and each other.
With luminous prose and laser-sharp psychological insight, HOW TO CARE FOR A HUMAN GIRL is a compassionate and unforgettable examination of the complexities of choice, the special intimacy of sisterhood, and the bizarre ways our heated political moment manifests in daily life.

Ashley Wurzbacher is the author of the story collection Happy Like This, which won the 2019 Iowa Short Fiction Award and was named a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree and a NYT Editors’ Choice. Born and raised in Western Pennsylvania, she currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama and teaches at the University of Montevallo.

THESE BURNING STARS de Bethany Jacobs

A sweeping portrait of an empire on the verge of collapse, a braided narrative with secrets and revelations around every corner, and a spectacular inversion of expectations. This thrilling new space opera is perfect for fans of Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire and Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit.

THESE BURNING STARS
by Bethany Jacobs
Orbit, March 2023
(via JABberwocky Literary Agency)

Jun Ironway, hacker, con artist, and only occasional thief, has gotten her hands on a piece of contraband that could set her up for life: a video that implicates the powerful Nightfoot family in a planet-wide genocide seventy-five years ago. The Nightfoots control the precious sevite that fuels interplanetary travel through three star systems. And someone is sure to pay handsomely for anything that could break their hold.
Of course, anything valuable is also dangerous. The Kindom, the ruling power of the three star systems, is inextricably tied up in the Nightfoots’ monopoly-and they can’t afford to let Jun expose the truth. They task two of their most brutal clerics with hunting her down: preternaturally stoic Chono, and brilliant hothead Esek, who also happens to be the heir to the Nightfoot empire.
But Chono and Esek are haunted in turn by a figure from their shared past, known only as Six. What Six truly wants is anyone’s guess. And the closer they get to finding Jun, the surer Chono is that Six is manipulating them all-and that they are heading for a bloody confrontation that no one will survive unscathed.

Bethany Jacobs is a former college instructor of writing and science fiction, who made the leap to education technology and now teaches tech heads how to write. She lives in Buffalo, New York with her wife and her dog and her books. THESE BURNING STARS is her debut novel.

UNDER FORTUNATE STARS de Ren Hutchings

A captivating debut space opera perfect for fans of Alex White and Becky Chambers, about two ships that fall into a space-time rift and discover they are from each other’s past and future. With their ships’ power running out, they have only once chance to escape the rift and save the future.

UNDER FORTUNATE STARS
by Ren Hutchings
Solaris/Rebellion Publishing, May 2022
(via JABberwocky Literary Agency)

Two Ships. One chance to save the future. Fleeing the final days of the generations-long war with the alien Felen, smuggler Jereth Keeven’s freighter the Jonah breaks down in a strange rift in deep space, with little chance of rescue—until they encounter the research vessel Gallion, which claims to be from 152 years in the future.
The Gallion’s chief engineer Uma Ozakka has always been fascinated with the past, especially the tale of the Fortunate Five, who ended the war with the Felen. When the Gallion rescues a run-down junk freighter, Ozakka is shocked to recognize the Five’s legendary ship—and the Five’s famed leader, Eldric Leesongronski, among the crew.
But nothing else about Leesongronski and his crewmates seems to match up with the historical record. With their ships running out of power in the rift, more than the lives of both crews may be at stake…

Ren Hutchings is a speculative fiction writer, writing mentor, and history grad. She spent most of the past decade working in game dev while also plotting twisty space novels. She loves pop science, unexplained mysteries, 90s music, collecting outdated electronics, and pondering about alternate universes. Ren always drafts out of order, and almost everything she writes ends up involving a dash of time travel. You can find Ren online at renhutchings.com, and on social media as @voidcricket.

THE SLEEPLESS de Victor Manibo

Perfect for fans of Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon series, about a mysterious pandemic that causes people to become insomniacs and a man caught in a conspiracy at his workplace.

THE SLEEPLESS
by Victor Manibo
Erewhon, August 2022
(via JABberwocky Literary Agency)

A mysterious pandemic causes a quarter of the world’s population to permanently lose the ability to sleep—without any apparent health implications. The outbreak creates a new class of people who are both feared and ostracized, and most of whom optimize their extra hours to earn more money.
Journalist Jamie Vega is one of the Sleepless. When his boss Simon dies in an apparent suicidal overdose, Jamie is suspicious, given that their company is in the middle of a corporate takeover—and begins to investigate.
When Jamie discovers that he was the last person who saw Simon alive, Jamie realizes he can’t remember that night. Now a suspect to the police, Jamie worries his memory loss is related to the illegal procedure he underwent to become a Sleepless. As Jamie delves deeper into Simon’s final days, he is forced to confront past traumas, and the consequences of his decision to biohack himself. Along the way he uncovers a terrifying truth about what it means to be Sleepless.

• Featured on Polygon’s Summer 2022 “Most Anticipated” list

“Victor Manibo’s The Sleepless is a thrilling debut with a fresh edgy voice.”
—Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Manibo neatly dissects the drawbacks of capitalist demands on society in this taut near-future procedural. It’s smart, high-tech noir.” —Publishers Weekly

Victor Manibo is a speculative fiction writer living in New York City, and his writing is influenced by his experiences as an immigration and civil rights lawyer. As a queer immigrant and a person of color, he also writes about the lives of people with these identities.

GOLDEN DAYS de Caroline Barron

A gripping drama about friendship, grief and nostalgia, set in the 1990s Auckland club scene. Debut fiction from award-winning New Zealand author of Ripiro Beach, Caroline Barron.

GOLDEN DAYS
by Caroline Barron
Affirm Press, March 2023
(via Kaplan/Defiore Rights)

Becky thought she’d left Zoe Golden and that summer far behind. Until now. Set in 1995 against the backdrop of Auckland’s burgeoning party scene, GOLDEN DAYS is the story of an intense late-teens friendship between bookish Becky and star-dusted Zoe Golden, and what happened when one terrifying night changed their lives and destroyed their friendship forever.
After finding out that her husband has been cheating on her, Becky is mourning the end of her picture-perfect marriage at the bottom of a bottle. She thought she’d left that summer far behind, but the trauma of her present day brings back memories of one horrific night.
With Zoe’s reappearance, Becky is forced to reconsider her interpretation of events, as well as where blame lies, her true nature and her place in the world. Music, clubs, art, collaboration, spirituality, sex — GOLDEN DAYS is a thrilling and nostalgic ride into the past, where nothing is as it seemed.
For fans of Daisy Jones & The Six.

Caroline Barron is an award-winning author, manuscript assessor and book coach, book reviewer and writing teacher. Her devastating memoir Ripiro Beach won the New Zealand Heritage Literary Award for Best Non-fiction Book in 2020. She holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Auckland plus a journalism degree and, in a previous life, owned and ran Nova—a leading model and talent agency. Caroline resides between Auckland and Northland’s Ripiro (Baylys) Beach, with her husband and two young daughters. GOLDEN DAYS is her first work of fiction.