Archives par étiquette : KT Literary

PORTRAIT OF A THIEF de Grace D. Li

Ocean’s Eleven meets The Farewell in this lush, lyrical heist novel inspired by the true story of Chinese art vanishing from Western museums; about diaspora, the colonization of art, and the complexity of the Chinese American identity.

PORTRAIT OF A THIEF
by Grace D. Li
‎ Tiny Reparations Books, April 2022
(via KT Literary)

History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now.
Will Chen plans to steal them back.
A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son who has always been his parents’ American Dream. But when a mysterious Chinese benefactor reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago. 
His crew is every heist archetype one can imagine—or at least, the closest he can get. A con artist: Irene Chen, a public policy major at Duke who can talk her way out of anything. A thief: Daniel Liang, a premed student with steady hands just as capable of lockpicking as suturing. A getaway driver: Lily Wu, an engineering major who races cars in her free time. A hacker: Alex Huang, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer. Each member of his crew has their own complicated relationship with China and the identity they’ve cultivated as Chinese Americans, but when Will asks, none of them can turn him down. 
Because if they succeed? They earn fifty million dollars—and a chance to make history. But if they fail, it will mean not just the loss of everything they’ve dreamed for themselves but yet another thwarted attempt to take back what colonialism has stolen.
Equal parts beautiful, thoughtful, and thrilling, PORTRAIT OF A THIEF is a cultural heist and an examination of Chinese American identity, as well as a necessary critique of the lingering effects of colonialism.

Named A Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by Marie Claire, Veranda, PopSugar, Paste, The Millions, Medium, Crimereads, Goodreads, Bookbub, Boston.com

Grace D. Li grew up in Pearland, Texas and is a graduate of Duke University, where she studied biology and creative writing. She lives in Northern California and attends medical school at Stanford University. PORTRAIT OF A THIEF is her debut novel and is currently in development at Netflix, with Grace serving as an executive producer for the series.

A SHOT AT NORMAL de Marisa Reichardt

A powerful and timely novel about justice, agency, family, and taking your shot, even when it seems impossible.

A SHOT AT NORMAL
by Marisa Reichardt
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, February 2021

Dr. Villapando told me to get a good attorney. He wasn’t serious. But I am. I’m going to sue my parents.
Juniper Jade’s parents are hippies. They didn’t attend the first Woodstock, but they were there for the second one. The Jade family lives an all-organic homeschool lifestyle that means no plastics, no cell phones, and no vaccines. It isn’t exactly normal, but it’s the only thing Juniper has ever known. She doesn’t agree with her parents on everything, but she knows that to be in this family, you’ve got to stick to the rules. That is, until the unthinkable happens.
Juniper contracts the measles and unknowingly passes the disease along, with tragic consequences. She is shell-shocked. Juniper knows she is responsible and feels simultaneously helpless and furious at her parents, and herself.
Now, with the help of Nico, the boy who works at the library and loves movies and may just be more than a friend, Juniper comes to a decision: she is going to get vaccinated. Her parents refuse so Juniper arms herself with a lawyer and prepares for battle. But is waging war for her autonomy worth losing her family? How much is Juniper willing to risk for a shot at normal?

Marisa Reichardt lives in Southern California with her family. Underwater was her debut novel.

THE WOODS ARE ALWAYS WATCHING de Stephanie Perkins

Another blood-chilling contemporary horror novel, the perfect companion to her New York Times bestseller There’s Someone Inside Your House, available now on Netflix.

THE WOODS ARE ALWAYS WATCHING
by Stephanie Perkins
Dutton, August 2021

Best friends Neena and Josie spent high school as outsiders, but at least they had each other. Now, with college and a two-thousand-mile separation looming on the horizon, they have one last chance to be together—a three-day hike deep into the woods of the Pisgah National Forest. Simmering tensions lead to a detour off the trail and straight into a waking nightmare … and then into something far worse. Something that will test them in horrifying ways.
Stephanie Perkins, the bestselling author of There’s Someone Inside Your House, returns with a heart-stopping, gut-wrenching novel about friendship, survival, and navigating unmarked paths even as evil watches from the shadows.

Stephanie Perkins is the New York Times bestselling author and anthology editor of multiple books, including There’s Someone Inside Your House, Anna and the French Kiss, Lola and the Boy Next Door, and Isla and the Happily Ever After. She has always worked with books—first as a bookseller, then as a librarian, and now as a novelist. Stephanie lives in the mountains of North Carolina with her husband. Every room of their house is painted a different color of the rainbow.

SWASHBUCKLERS de Dan Hanks

When Cisco Collins returns to his home town thirty years after saving it from being swallowed by a hell mouth opened by an ancient pirate ghost, he realises that being a childhood hero isn’t like it was in the movies. Especially when nobody remembers the heroic bits – even the friends who once fought alongside him..

SWASHBUCKLERS
by Dan Hanks
Angry Robot, November 2021

Struggling with single parenting and treated as bit of a joke, Cisco isn’t really in the Christmas spirit like everyone else. A fact that’s made worse by the tendrils of the pirate’s powers creeping back into our world and people beginning to die in bizarre ways. With the help of a talking fox, an enchanted forest, a long-lost friend haunting his dreams, and some 80s video game consoles turned into weapons, Cisco must now convince his friends to once again help him save the day. Yet they quickly discover that being a ghostbusting hero is so much easier when you don’t have schools runs, parent evenings, and nativity plays to attend. And even in the middle of a supernatural battle, you always need to bring snacks and wipes…
SWASHBUCKLERS is a middle-aged, parenting Ghostbusters at Christmas tale, which blends British folklore and a tiny bit of time travel into the mix too. It explores what happens when those childhood heroes like the Goonies grow up. Do they ever get over what happened? Do some of them hang onto those adventures too much and forget to live in the present? And what happens when they’re forced back together to save the day again?

Dan Hanks is a writer and editor based in the rolling green hills of the Peak District with his human family and fluffy sidekicks Indy and Maverick. One of the co-founders of the OcTBR Challenge and a a long-time reviewer for Fantasy Faction, he writes books, screenplays and comics when he’s not wasting time on Twitter.

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.