THE ALPHABETICAL DIARIES de Sheila Heti

A habitual diarist radically compresses and reorders ten years of life, asking not how a person should be, but how a person is.

THE ALPHABETICAL DIARIES
by Sheila Heti
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Spring 2024
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

“A little more than 10 years ago, I began looking back at the diaries I had kept over the previous decade. I wondered if I’d changed. So I loaded all 500,000 words of my journals into Excel to order the sentences alphabetically. Perhaps this would help me identify patterns and repetitions. How many times had I written, I hate him, for example? With the sentences untethered from narrative, I started to see the self in a new way: as something quite solid, anchored by shockingly few characteristic preoccupations. As I returned to the project over the years, it grew into something more novelistic. I blurred the characters and cut thousands of sentences, to introduce some rhythm and beauty. When I was asked about a work of fiction that could be serialized, I thought of these diaries: The self’s report on itself is surely a great fiction, and what is a more fundamental mode of serialization than the alphabet? After some editing, here is the result.” —Sheila Heti

Sheila Heti is the author of several books of fiction and nonfiction, including How Should a Person Be?, which New York Magazine deemed one of the “New Classics of the 21st century.” She was named one of “The New Vanguard” by The New York Times book critics, who, along with a dozen other magazines and newspapers, chose Motherhood as a top book of 2018. Her books have been translated into twenty-one languages.

HAPPINESS FALLS d’Angie Kim

The ingenious, twisty, emotionally absorbing story of a father who goes missing and his family’s desperate search to find him—a novel as suspenseful as it is moving—by the Edgar and International Thriller Writers Award-winning author of Miracle Creek.

HAPPINESS FALLS
by Angie Kim
Random House, Fall 2023
(via Writers House)

We didn’t call the police right away. When Adam Parkson doesn’t come home from a walk in the local nature reserve, his family doesn’t think much of it. He must’ve turned off his phone. Or his battery died. Or he probably stopped for an errand—but doing what exactly? Soon more questions arise and it becomes clear to Adam’s wife and children that he is missing. Or is he?
What follows is a ticking-clock story of shocking twists and fascinating questions about what defines us and who we really are. A mystery, a family drama, a novel of profound philosophical inquiry, HAPPINESS FALLS updates and expands the missing person story, turning inside out our expectations of the crime novel.

“Angie Kim has written that rare book that can change your entire outlook on the world. Part page-turning mystery, part meditation on the power of expectation, HAPPINESS FALLS will both open your eyes and tear your heart apart.” —Janelle Brown, bestselling author of I’ll Be You, Pretty Things, and Watch Me Disappear

“Angie Kim’s HAPPINESS FALLS is an exhilarating literary tour de force—one part mystery, one part family drama, one part interrogation of the meaning of happiness, it will introduce you to extraordinary characters whose lives will leave you forever changed. An incredible achievement.” —Danielle Trussoni, bestselling author of Angelology

“Angie Kim’s HAPPINESS FALLS is a sublime literary mystery that is a mesmerizing update to the missing person story, a layered and innovative exploration of family, love, happiness and race. With dazzling intellectual range and tremendous warmth, Kim makes us fall in love with this close-knit family while spinning her suspenseful and twisty tale. A gorgeous read that grips both heart and mind.” —Jean Kwok, bestselling author of Girl in Translation, Mambo in Chinatown, and Searching for Sylvie Lee

Angie Kim is a Korean immigrant, former editor of the Harvard Law Review, and debut author of the international bestseller and Edgar winner Miracle Creek, named a “Best Book of the Year” by Time, The Washington Post, Kirkus, and The Today Show, among others. She has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Vogue, Glamour, and numerous literary journals.

GOODBYE EARL de Leesa Cross-Smith

Four women take fate into their own hands in this big-hearted story of friendship, resilience, and revenge on monstrous men, from the award-winning author of Half-Blown Rose.

GOODBYE EARL
by Leesa Cross-Smith
Grand Central, July 2023
(via Writers House)

Taking inspiration from The Chicks’ infamous, empowering song, GOODBYE EARL follows four best friends through two unforgettable summers, fifteen years apart.
In 2004, Rosemarie, Ada, Caroline, and Kasey are in their final days of high school and on the precipice of all the things teenagers look forward to when anything in life seems possible . . . from falling in love, to finding their dream jobs, to becoming who they were meant to be.
In 2019, Kasey has returned to her small Southern hometown for the first time since high school—and she still hasn’t told even her closest friends the truth of what really happened that summer after graduation, or what made her leave so abruptly without looking back. Now reunited with her friends in Goldie for a wedding, she’s determined to focus on the simple joy of being together again. But when she notices troubling signs that one of them might be in danger, she is catapulted back to that fateful summer. This time, Kasey refuses to let the worst moments of her past define her; this time, she knows how to protect those she loves at all costs.
Uplifting, sharp-edged, and unapologetic, GOODBYE EARL is a funeral for all the “Earls” out there—the abusive men who think they can get away with anything, but are wrong—and a celebration of enduring sisterhood.

Leesa Cross-Smith is a homemaker and the author of Every Kiss a War, Whiskey & Ribbons, So We Can Glow, This Close to Okay, and Half-Blown Rose.

CUTTING TEETH de Chandler Baker

For fans of Big Little Lies and Nothing to See Here, a novel that asks: do we really have to give our children everything?

CUTTING TEETH
by Chandler Baker
Flatiron, July 2023
(via Writers House)

Rhea, Darby, and Mary Beth are on personal quests to reclaim aspects of their identities subsumed by motherhood—their careers, their sex lives, their bodies. But all three women are about to lose major ground when they realize their children, who all attend the same preschool, have developed an unsettling medical condition: the kids are craving blood.
It seems a little strange but relatively benign until a young teacher is found dead. And now, the only potential witnesses (and suspects) are ten adorable four-year-olds. Part murder mystery, part motherhood manifesto, the novel explores the standards society holds mothers to—along with the ones to which we hold ourselves—and the things no one tells you about becoming a parent.

“As brutal in its honesty as it is in its deceptions, CUTTING TEETH is a viciously sinuous whodunnit . . . an incisive and fearless exploration of motherhood and the self-inflicted wounds we hide up our sleeves as we each struggle to survive it.” —Elle Cosimano, USA Today bestselling author of Finlay Donovan Is Killing It

“With devourable writing and pitch-perfect humour, CUTTING TEETH is a sharp, original, wickedly astute look at the sting of modern motherhood. In this group of toddlers and parents out for blood (literally!), Chandler Baker nails the performance pressures of parenthood, and the unachievable standards to which we hold ourselves.” —Ashley Audrain, New York Times bestselling author of The Push

Chandler Baker is the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese Witherspoon book club pick Whisper Network as well as The Husbands, a Good Morning America Book Club Pick, and a number of YA novels. CUTTING TEETH is her third novel for adults.

PHOTOS IN THE ATTIC de Donna Fiechtner

One War. Two Worlds. Three People in Love. An compelling romance that follows the heart-wrenching story of a soldier caught between the love of two women, set amongst the backdrop of war on the western front in France. Soon to be a major motion picture.

PHOTOS IN THE ATTIC
by Donna Fiechtner
‎ Big Sky Publishing, December 2022
(via Randle Editorial and Literary)

The tale is brought to life with the discovery of the Thuillier photos that were taken in Vignacourt, France, during World War I. These images hold answers to some questions raised by a current-day character, Valerie Bernard, who is a village local.
In 1916, Rosie Marchand leaves her hometown of Albert on the Somme. A survivor of the war, she finds shelter in the home of her cousin, photographer Louis Thuillier, a shell-shocked veteran of Verdun, who with his wife Antoinette takes pictures of soldiers behind the lines.
For Australian Bill Foster, the war is a faraway adventure where he is driven to go and join his brother. Bill is in love with Isabella De Luca, a passionate Queensland woman, and promises to return to her. However, Isabella’s father vows to do all he can to ensure this doesn’t happen. Jimmy Walton, Bill’s Indigenous mate, enlists in the army also and they both go off to war together.
During a battle in the North of France, both Bill and Jimmy are injured and shipped to a Vignacourt field hospital. Bill is now on the verge of a complete breakdown, battle fatigued, injured and saddened by not hearing from his beloved Isabella since leaving. He cannot understand why she has not sent him any letters. He finds comfort and strength from Rosie a Nurse caring for him. Rosie had to leave her war-torn hometown on the Somme and found shelter with her cousin, photographer Louis, a shell-shocked veteran of Verdun. As time passes the feelings between Bill and Rosie deepen.
As the war ends, Bill makes a difficult decision to return to Australia, to Isabella. The news of Bills decision devastates Rosie. How will this love triangle end?

Already optioned, funded and in development for an Australian feature Film. From a celebrated writing team including a credited Hollywood screenwriter, published historians and award-winning Australian filmmakers.

Donna Fiechtner has co-authored an inspiring book on the WW 1 Graffiti on cave walls in Naours in Northern France and has written the most recent novel and screenplay for PHOTOS IN THE ATTIC. The story is set during WWI in Vignacourt, France and Childers, Queensland where principal screenwriter Donna Fiechtner and fellow creative collaborator and husband, Michael, are based. Both historians, it is told through their unique and insightful lens.