Archives de catégorie : London 2022 Fiction

THE BOYS de Katie Hafner

When introverted, eccentric Ethan Fawcett falls in love with the vivacious Barb, he has every reason to believe he will be delivered from a lifetime of solitude. But their relationship takes a turn for the worse when Ethan grows obsessed with providing the perfect life for their adopted 8-year-old twins, Tommy and Sam. A tour-de-force novel about love, the yearning for connection, and the ways in which childhood trauma plays out in adult life.

THE BOYS
by Katie Hafner
Spiegel & Grau, July 2022
(via Levine Greenberg Rostan)

When introverted Ethan Fawcett marries Barb, he has every reason to believe he will be delivered from a lifetime of solitude. One day Barb brings home two young brothers, Tommy and Sam, for them to foster, and when the pandemic hits, Ethan becomes obsessed with providing a perfect life for the boys. Instead of bringing Barb and Ethan closer together, though, the boys become a wedge in their relationship, as Ethan is unable to share with Barb a secret that has been haunting him since childhood. Then Ethan takes Tommy and Sam on a biking trip in Italy, and it becomes clear just how unusual Ethan and his children are—and what it will take for Ethan to repair his marriage. This hauntingly beautiful debut novel—a bold and original high-wire feat—is filled with humor and surprise.

Katie Hafner writes for The New York Times, covering health care, and is the author of six non-fiction books: the memoir, Mother Daughter Me; A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould’s Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano (which Kirkus called “the musical version of Seabiscuit”); The House at the Bridge: A Story of Modern Germany; Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet (with Matthew Lyon); The Well: Love, Death, and Real Life in the Seminal Online Community; and Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier (with John Markoff). THE BOYS is her first novel.

MERCURY RISING de R.W.W. Greene

A new science-fiction novel by the author of The Light Years.

MERCURY RISING
by R. W. W. Greene
Angry Robot, May 2022
(via KT Literary)

For the past 10 years, most of the folks on Earth have believed they are at war with the planet Mercury. Because of the distances involved, it’s largely been a cold war, lots of posturing with occasional blow ups and sneak attacks. In this alt-history, humans made it into space in the late ‘40s, with lots of flash and Buck-Rogers panache, thanks to the Oppenheimer Nuclear Engine. As a result, the planet was ready, in 1967 to fend off an initial invasion force. Most of the defenders were killed, but those that returned gave evidence and the world banded together for a common defense. But, war is profitable and there is more to the story about this so-called war than anyone knows.
Brooklyn Lamontagne is an entry-level thug who got into crime to support his Ma. When he gets in trouble with the law, he is given the option of time in prison or being deployed to the moonbase, part of the Earth defense against the Mercurian Menace. The truth will out and Brook is at the center of it all.

R.W.W. Greene is a New Hampshire USA writer with an MA in Fine Arts, which he exorcises in dive bars and coffee shops. He is a frequent panelist at the Boskone Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention in Boston, and his work has been in Stupefying Stories, Daily Science Fiction, New Myths, and Jersey Devil Press, among others. Greene is a past board member of the New Hampshire Writers’ Project. He keeps bees, collects typewriters, and lives with writer/artist spouse Brenda and two cats.

HOUSE OF TWELVE FINGERS de Lauren Francis-Sharma

From the acclaimed author of Book of the Little Axe, HOUSE OF TWELVE FINGERS is the harrowing story of a young Black girl’s genius and resilience in the face of a world that would render her invisible.

HOUSE OF TWELVE FINGERS
by Lauren Francis-Sharma
Atlantic Monthly Press, May 2023

Lauren Francis-Sharma’s debut novel ‘Til the Well Runs Dry was short-listed for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing and her second novel, Book of the Little Axe was praised as a “masterly epic” (Publishers Weekly) that spanned generations and continents. Now, she returns with HOUSE OF TWELVE FINGERS, a moving, richly imagined story of one family’s Great Migration and the foundations of Black Baltimore.
In 1904, the day the Great Baltimore Fire decimated the burgeoning city, William and Phyllis Battle welcome the arrival of their first child outside a whites-only hospital. The couple are recent arrivals in Baltimore, struggling to build for themselves the life they dreamed about down South. Phyllis, born with six fingers on each hand, has always been regarded with some suspicion by her community, but whether this suspicion is warranted or she’s simply misunderstood remains to be seen. Meanwhile, her daughter Margaret is coming of age, and demonstrates a keen intellect and photographic memory from a young age, but has never spoken a word. After William is injured in an industrial accident, Phyllis makes ends meet by teaching Margaret to use her extraordinary memory to count cards. However, the girl catches the eye of some unscrupulous characters who populate the gaming halls and dark alleyways of the city. And one day Margaret does not come home.
Set in the spring and Red Summer of 1919, a year whose racial terror incidents are now infamous, HOUSE OF TWELVE FINGERS is an evocative, suspenseful, and tenderly wrought story of an unforgettable family’s bitter fight to carve out a life on their own terms.

Lauren Francis-Sharma is also the author of the critically acclaimed novel ‘Til The Well Runs Dry, which was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize. She resides near Washington, DC with her husband and two children. She is the Assistant Director of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.

WITCH PLEASE d’Ann Aguirre

Gilmore Girls meets Practical Magic in a new witchy romcom, where a long-standing family feud stands in the way of true love.

WITCH PLEASE
(Fix-It Witches, Book 1)
by Ann Aguirre
Sourcebooks Casablanca, September 2021

Danica Waterhouse is a fully modern witch—daughter, granddaughter, cousin, and co-owner of the Fix-It Witches, a magical tech repair shop. After a messy breakup that included way too much family « feedback, » Danica made a pact with her cousin: they’ll keep their hearts protected and have fun, without involving any of the overly opinionated Waterhouse matriarchs. Danica is more than a little exhausted navigating a long-standing family feud where Gram thinks the only good mundane is a dead one and Danica’s mother weaves floral crowns for anyone who crosses her path. Three blocks down from the Fix-It Witches, Titus Winnaker, owner of Sugar Daddy’s bakery, has family trouble of his own. After a tragic loss, all he’s got left is his sister, the bakery, and a lifetime of terrible luck in love. Sure, business is sweet, but he can’t seem to shake the romantic curse that’s left him past thirty and still a virgin. He’s decided he’s doomed to be forever alone. Until he meets Danica Waterhouse. The sparks are instant, their attraction irresistible. For him, she’s the one. To her, he’s a firebomb thrown in the middle of a family war. Can a modern witch find love with an old-fashioned mundane who refuses to settle for anything less than forever?

Also available:
BOSS WITCH (Book 2), April 2022: A modern witch finds herself accidentally falling for a witch hunter determined to make a name for himself in her small Midwestern town.
EXTRA WITCHY (Book 3), October 2022: A modern witch and a slacker afraid to dream thought they would never find love…until they found each other.

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Ann Aguirre has been a clown, a clerk, a savior of stray kittens, and a voice actress, not necessarily in that order. She grew up in a yellow house across from a cornfield, but now she lives in Mexico with her family. She writes all kinds of genre fiction with more than forty novels to date, but she has an eternal soft spot for a happily ever after.