Archives par étiquette : Writers House

THIS IS AN ACTUAL TRAGEDY de Natalie Rose Richardson

A mesmerizing debut that combines the transformative friendships of Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, the suspense of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, and the varying vocal registers of Tess Gunty’s The Rabbit Hutch.

THIS IS AN ACTUAL TRAGEDY
by Natalie Rose Richardson
Knopf, May 2027
(via Writers House)

Two weeks before freshman orientation, four soon-to-be (unlikely) friends arrive at the University of Chicago as part of its token Scholars of Color (SOC) program: there’s Darwin, an insecure physics geek on a quest to lose his virginity; Nat, an elusive aspiring writer who starts secretly dating her much older mentor; Jordan, the would-be campus all-star who’s too stuck in his head to fulfill his potential, and Stephanie, the undisputed hottest girl on campus, who’s carrying a shocking secret.

Four years later, they combine their strengths to stage a protest as part of Scav – a notorious campus secret society that organizes a yearly competition, one that often spawns dark, borderline illegal situations that the school pays good money to cover up. This year’s prompt: to dramatically reenact “an actual tragedy.” Fifty-five students from SOC don shabby costumes and pitch tents in a Chicago park that, only days prior, was purged of real asylum seekers. But when the cops arrive at the scene, performance becomes reality when tragedy strikes.

Told in four parts, the novel dives into the life of each irresistibly compelling protagonist during one year of college. Their relationships to each other and themselves are tested as they each weather their own individual tragedies. It’s these friends’ complicated ties and devotion to each other that lead them to organize the asylum seeker reenactment—the consequences of which will mark the survivors forever.

With an irreverent, razor-sharp voice that dips into the serious, THIS IS AN ACTUAL TRAGEDY probes loneliness and belonging, race, class, sex, friendship, and the absurdities of American higher education, and marks the arrival of a bril­liant young talent.

Natalie Rose Richardson is a writer from Oak Park, Illinois with degrees from the University of Chicago (BA), Northwestern University (MA & MFA in Poetry), and the NYU Creative Writing Program (MFA in Fiction). The manuscript was closely advised by Jonathan Safran Foer, who writes: “Natalie Rose Richardson arrives with a vibrant, irreverent, singular voice. THIS IS AN ACTUAL TRAGEDY is an actual joy.” Her work has appeared in Narrative, Orion Magazine, Poetry Magazine, and more.

HABILA de Wayétu Moore

From the acclaimed author of She Would Be King, a dazzling and daring work of magical realism that weaves through the lives of a Liberian immigrant family and the water goddess who haunts them.

HABILA
by Wayétu Moore
Viking, January 2027
(via Writers House)

In this ambitious new novel, the bestselling and prize-winning writer Wayétu Moore delivers us into the lives of a young girl, Melanctha, and her family amid the loss of their patriarch, Tokpa. In search of a fresh start, they relo­cate from Liberia to the backwater town of Hunt, Texas, a land that proves hostile to them—until one day, when a school bully pushes Melanctha into a lake, and she finds that she can breathe underwater. Melanctha discovers that her newfound power comes from Habila, a gorgeous, beguiling half woman half sea deity who bestows on her a gift: a comb that, if touched, can lure people into the water and make them disappear for good.

But Melanctha’s connection to Habila has not come without a price. Habila has languished alone for millennia, blaming men for her loneliness. She harbors a hatred so potent that she has committed her existence to ridding the world of them. As Melanctha’s ties to Habila deepen, a family mystery unravels, and she learns that the siren may have secrets, too.

Inspired by the African legend of Mami Wata, HABILA is a kaleidoscopic tale tracing a family and a woman through the years as they navigate the supernatural forces and long-buried truths that shape their lives. In her signature lush, lyrical prose, Moore crafts an elegant story that probes the corners of womanhood and mother­hood, immigrant identity, and the legacies wrought by men who take but never give back.

“A spellbinding epic about a fractured family haunted by a vengeful spirit, HABILA weaves mythology into a modern-day story about sacrifice, grief, and the costs of striving toward the American dream. A fero­cious novel.” —Brit Bennett

Wayétu Moore is the author of the novel She Would Be King and the memoir The Dragons, the Giant, the Women. She is the recipient of the 2019 Lannan Literary Fellowship for Fiction and the 2022 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Moore is a graduate of Howard University, the University of Southern California, and Columbia University.

FOR EVERY PERSON YOU KILL de Sahar Delijani

The highly anticipated follow-up to Sahar Delijani’s internationally bestselling debut, Children of the Jacaranda Tree, which was inspired by her parents’ political persecution and subsequent imprisonment in post-revolutionary Iran. Now, in her sophomore novel, FOR EVERY PERSON YOU KILL, Sahar turns her attention to life after prison, examining the intergenerational legacy of trauma born of incarceration.

FOR EVERY PERSON YOU KILL
by Sahar Delijani
Melville House, April 2027
(via Writers House)

Set between the violent aftermath of the 1979 Iranian revolution and the recent Woman Life Freedom uprising in 2022, this novel also explores both the power and the limits of storytelling to grapple with that trauma: what happens when we metabolize our personal suffering through writing? What does it mean when that intimate story becomes part of a larger collective memory? And does the act of telling that story hold the power to stop history from repeating itself?

Tehran, 1980s. The daughter of political dissidents, Neda is born inside the walls of the notorious Evin Prison. She doesn’t meet her parents again until they are released when she is four years old, but their estrangement doesn’t end with their long-awaited embrace. Neda feels shy and awkward around Azar and Ismael, who in turn wrestle with how to be parents as they process the brutality they have been subjected to and struggle to rebuild their shat­tered lives…

Manhattan, 2022. Neda, now in her forties, and on her way to a reading for her second novel, grapples with the weight of her literary success. As a renewed wave of violent crackdowns on protesters fighting the same regime that once persecuted her family takes hold of the country of her birth, Neda struggles to prepare herself mentally and emotionally to face an audience. She is so weary of walking the tightrope between public and private, spokes­woman and survivor, and increasingly aware that she has made a career of writing about the trauma of others without fully examining her own…

As warm-blooded and intimate as it is politically engaged, FOR EVERY PERSON YOU KILL is a work of autobio­graphical literary fiction for readers of Homeland Elegies and In the Shadow of the Banyan. It joins the canon of lit­erature about the act of writing literature, alongside such works as the Neapolitan Novels and The Book of Goose.

Sahar Delijani is the author of Children of the Jacaranda Tree an autobiographical novel which has been trans­lated into 30 languages and published in more than 75 countries. It was a Women’s National Book Association’s Great Group selection, an Indie Next Pick, a CBS Local Best Book Club Pick, a finalist for Italy’s Elle Gran Premio, one of Vogue India’s Top 10 Big Reads, and a candidate for France’s Prix des Lecteurs Sélection by Le Livre de Poche. Born in Iran in 1983, she grew up in California, lived for many years in Italy, and currently resides in New York City.

IMMORTAL ROSE d’Alexandra Bracken

From Alexandra Bracken, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lore comes a stunningly original adult fantasy. Set in a sumptuous world ruled by magical perfume, this achingly romantic, slow-burn love story will shatter your heart and leave you breathless.

IMMORTAL ROSE
by Alexandra Bracken
Avon, August 2026
(via Writers House)

Members of the ancient Rosebourne family have a strange gift born of a fairy ancestor: the ability to infuse fragrance with magic capable of manipulating mind, body, and emotion.

When a shocking murder leaves the kingdom of Albion vulnerable to a coup, royal spymaster Hugh Thornton seeks the one person who can help: Viola Lockwood, the last living Rosebourne and secret heir to a fraught legacy.

Livid at the silver-eyed aristocrat who had her thrown in jail to force her compliance, Viola nevertheless comes to an agreement with him. In exchange for crafting Immortal Rose, the singular perfume capable of saving Albion, illegitimate Viola can seize the life–and fortune–that should have been hers.

As Hugh and Viola race to find the perfume’s lost fairy ingredient, hidden deep in Albion’s dark underbelly, neither can deny the scorching attraction building between them–especially as the attempts on Viola’s life grow increasingly brazen.

But a terrible truth lurks in the heart notes of their kingdom–and while every bargain has a cost, Immortal Rose may demand more than Hugh and Viola can ever pay.

Alexandra Bracken was born in Phoenix, Arizona. The daughter of a Star Wars collector, she grew up going to an endless string of Star Wars conventions and toy fairs, which helped spark her imagination and a deep love of reading. After graduating high school, she attended The College of William & Mary in Virginia, where she double majored in English and History. She sold her first book, Brightly Woven, as a senior in college, and later moved to New York City to work in children’s book publishing, first as an editorial assistant, then in marketing. After six years, she took the plunge and decided to write full time. She now lives in Arizona with her tiny pup, Tennyson, in a house that’s constantly overflowing with books. Alex is a #1 New York Times, USA TODAY, and internationally bestselling author. Her work has been adapted for feature film and is available across the world in over 20 languages.

KENNEDY JONES HAS A PROBLEM de Liz Kay

KENNEDY JONES HAS A PROBLEM
by Liz Kay
(via Writers House)

Kennedy Jones has a problem. She has a lot of problems actually. One, she has aphids in her garden again this year. Two, she has buried a lot of bodies under her garden, and after the last one, there is the distinct possibility that police are closing in. Three, the secluded property she lives on is being developed into an artists’ colony and the (admittedly hot) general contractor seems a little too interested in whether Kennedy had anything to do with his dead cousin.

Kennedy tries lying low and keeping tabs on the case by dating a sweet but dumb deputy, but when the police throw out the words “serial killer” and start connecting victims that aren’t even hers, Kennedy realizes she’s not the only murderer in town. Recruiting the help of one of the artists at the colony—a failing novelist turned true-crime writer, Kennedy races to uncover her competition before they can pin their crimes on her—or do something much worse.

The novel combines Liz’s trademark wit with a highly propulsive mystery and a darkly charismatic protagonist. It marries the hijinks of Finlay Donovan is Killing It and You’d Look Better As a Ghost with the darkly comic horror of Final Girl Support Group, This Girl’s a Killer, and My Sister, the Serial Killer.

Liz Kay holds an MFA from the University of Nebraska, where she was the recipient of both an Academy of American Poets Prize and the Wendy Fort Foundation Prize for exemplary work in poetry. Her poems have appeared in such journals as Beloit Poetry Journal, RHINO, Nimrod, Willow Springs, The New York Quarterly, Iron Horse Literary Review, Redactions, and Sugar House Review. She is the author of the Something to Help Me Sleep {dancing girl press}, The Witch Tells The Story And Makes It True (Quarter Press), Monsters: A Love Story (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and Fallout (Red Hen Press, forthcoming). Liz teaches and directs the Creative Writing Program at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Nebraska.