In this witty and astute account, historian Goldstone (In the Shadow of the Empress) presents the turbulent and politically entwined lives of Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France. With their beauty and fashion sense, both became popular figures in the 19th century; thanks to their intelligence and grasp of statecraft, each also became instrumental in the development of their countries, according to Goldstone. In 1854, at the age of 15, Elisabeth, a “fearless outdoorswoman,” wed 24-year-old Franz Joseph I, emperor of Austria. Elisabeth’s difficult transition to married life was exacerbated by her imperious mother-in-law, a political conservative convinced of the natural superiority of the “Austrian race” who was dismissive of her Bavarian and politically egalitarian daughter-in-law. Meanwhile, in France, 44-year-old Louis Napoleon, in need of legitimate heirs, set his sights on the highly educated and self-possessed Eugénie de Montijo, a 27-year-old Spanish noble. They wed in 1853 despite the disapproval of French high society. Both Elisabeth and Eugénie “rebelled against traditional expectations,” influencing “a world that was fast becoming recognizably modern” with their “fearless, adventurous... athletic” and “fiercely independent” demeanors. With brio, Goldstone alternates between her subjects’ eventful life stories, which include a cursed diamond, a suicide pact, and a bevy of anarchists, fashion designers, and royals. It’s an illuminating and thoroughly enjoyable view of the highborn milieu at the center of a period of rapid modernization. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 06/20/2025 | Details & Permalink

Richards (Outpost), the host of the BBC Radio 4 show Only After Dark, offers an atmospheric chronicle of late-night activities, jobs, and other goings-on. Many of the most fascinating chapters focus on infrastructure that continues to require maintenance long after most people are in bed—shipping terminals, railway yards, mail-sorting centers. The jobs range from thrilling and dangerous—manning a rescue helicopter flying over the ocean at night, staffing the annual 24-hour auto race at Le Mans—to the mundane, like parenting a newborn (which involves the author reading, and hence analyzing, Tove Jansson’s Moominland Midwinter for its nocturnal themes) and working at a bakery. Later chapters begin to take on a bit of a recursive irony—in one, Richards tells the story of telling the story of a nighttime encounter during a different nighttime encounter; in another, he undergoes a sleep study to treat the insomnia that led him to make his career out of nighttime encounters in the first place. Richards combines exquisitely poetic ruminations (“3 a.m.’s the worst time—languishing at low tide, sad, soul out... oblivion o’clock”) with man-on-the-street reporting that gives the surreal impression one really could run into just about anybody at night (including a philosophical Michael Fassbender). Readers will be engrossed. (June)

Reviewed on 06/20/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this striking account, anthropologist Pandian (Anthropocene Unseen) travels the U.S. seeking to understand America’s growing racial and political divide. Through immersive encounters and ethnographic observations, he hopes to find “a life in common” with his fellow countrymen, but instead finds a “hardening of American life” via the literal and metaphorical walling-off of homes, vehicles, bodies, and minds. The major component of this walled-off life is the calcifying of “American views about others,” a fact he stumbles upon again and again—at a gated community in Florida where the director of security talks to him about residents’ “paranoia,” or a builder’s expo where attendees are focused on making the homes of the rich into “refuges from the danger and insecurity of the world.” Throughout, Pandian gets into numerous gut-churning conversations (he demurely calls them “vivid and challenging”), including one where a white supremacist speculates about what would happen to Asian Americans like the author in an imagined new ethnostate. Yet Pandian is firm that there is, in the words of James Baldwin, “something between” him and his subjects, and that nurturing the connection is still possible (as Baldwin put it: “These are my countrymen and I do care about them and even if I didn’t, there is something between us”). It’s a solemn and extraordinary glimpse of a splintering America. (May)

Reviewed on 06/20/2025 | Details & Permalink

Rust, a University of Pennsylvania psychology professor, debuts with an ambitious study of the search for cures to Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia, depression, Alzheimer’s, and ALS. Frustrated with the lack of progress in treating these and other neurological disorders, Rust argues that modern ideas about the brain fail to recognize that it’s a complex adaptive system rather than a dominolike chain of cause and effect. In her telling, finding the offending domino and removing or changing it won’t result in effective treatments. Elsewhere, she notes that science’s lack of progress comes despite significant advances in genetics and medical technology; in her telling, clinical trials for treatments “failed for reasons we don’t understand” and the “absence of leads to chase” led pharmaceutical companies to abandon the slow-moving search. Ultimately, she calls for a new “Grand Plan” for research, in which scientists would “stop dreaming of magic bullets and embrace complexity.” Rust dives deep into the complex science involved, peppers the narrative with fascinating anecdotes (Ritalin was named for the wife of the chemist who first synthesized it), and finds insight in William Styron’s 1989 memoir about depression. The result is a cogent and impassioned account. (June)

Reviewed on 06/20/2025 | Details & Permalink

Canadian physician and novelist Kalla (High Society) has never been better than in this poignant, nail-biting techno-thriller set in Washington State. Tech CEO Liam Hirsch has just received a terminal diagnosis of ALS. To make matters worse, Andrea DeWalt, the PI he hired to surveil his wife, Celeste, recently came back with photos showing Celeste in bed with another man. The double barrel of bad news comes as Liam’s company, TranScend, is preparing to launch a new app called TheirStory— nicknamed “Séance AI”—which allows users to create an avatar of a dead relative that mimics their speech and thought patterns. Liam pushes his team to finish the product before he dies, but as the deadline approaches, he notices discrepancies in TranScend’s finances that cause him to question his employees’ integrity. Gradually, he grows paranoid that everything in his life, down to his ALS diagnosis, might be the work of AI. For solace, he strikes up an unlikely relationship with Andrea, who’s grieving the death of her father. Kalla mines contemporary anxieties about technology for a shocking and emotionally satisfying tale that continually defies expectations. It’s a stunner. Agents: Samantha Haywood and Carolyn Forde, Transatlantic Literary. (July)

Reviewed on 06/20/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this entertaining novel from Ahdieh (The Ruined), a rising New York City lawyer takes on a delicate and potentially reputation-making case involving a wealthy fellow Korean American family. The three adult Park children are suing their father, a lucrative client at Jia Song’s firm, to prevent him from divorcing their mother, who has terminal cancer, and marrying his young mistress, who is pregnant with his son. The Park family is intimidating enough, but Jia’s mission is further complicated by her own anxiety and perfectionism, born of being raised by extremely demanding shopkeeper parents. What’s more, the Park family’s young butler, Darius, is drop-dead gorgeous, empathic, and wise, and could present Jia with a major distraction, though she views him as a potential ally. As the characters jet-set between Manhattan, the Hamptons, the Cayman Islands, Paris, and Crete, Ahdieh spoofs rom-coms and chick lit while indulging in their high drama and steady stream of haute couture name-dropping. The novel also has depth, as Jia faces her fears and the Parks turn out to be surprisingly complex, especially the youngest son, Minsoo, who was rejected by their bully father for being gay. Fans of Succession will love this layered tale of a warring family. Agent: Barbara Poelle, Word One Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 06/20/2025 | Details & Permalink

Schaefer debuts with a rollicking tale of transformation revolving around a boxing gym in Austin, Tex. Nathaniel Rothstein, 16, is sent from his hometown in Newton, Mass., to spend the summer of 1998 with his uncle Bob in Austin. Bob sets him up with a job at a local nursing facility alongside David, a Haitian immigrant and fellow member of Bob’s boxing gym. David, who is Black and aware that white boys such as Nathaniel lap up everything he says, regales him with tales of his sexual conquests. The stories fill Nathaniel with desire, and he pretends to be Black to a phone sex hotline operator he knows as Sasha. As the end of summer nears, Nathaniel resolves to meet Sasha, who turns out to be linked to his disappearance. Nathaniel is still missing in 2014, when Bob and a hapless cop, another of the gym’s patrons, try to solve the mystery after a new lead comes to light. The circuitous route to its resolution includes colorful if exhausting detours into the lives of side characters, including a small-town beauty queen turned nude model turned hairdresser, a border-hopping clown, an undocumented up-and-coming boxer, and a quick-witted, elderly Italian American woman. This one-of-a-kind tale delights and exasperates, often on the same page. Agent: Christopher Schelling, Selectric Artists Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 06/20/2025 | Details & Permalink

Journalist Rausch (My Best Friend’s Birthday) provides a solid survey of 1990s filmmakers whose work showcases “the attitude and swagger that has come to define Gen X.” Drawing on interviews with screenwriters, producers, critics, and some of the filmmakers themselves, Rausch shines light on their methods and “the hurdles they faced.” A section on David Fincher covers the making of Se7en; the director was asked to “tone down the dark mood,” including by eliminating the gruesome ending, and Rausch credits the film’s success to Fincher’s refusal to compromise. John Singleton, meanwhile, fought to ensure that what audiences saw matched his view of life in L.A. in Boyz n the Hood. Central to the account is Quentin Tarantino, who, with his “DIY gusto,” “personifies” the era’s filmmaking. Only one woman gets the spotlight—a section on Sofia Coppola highlights how she “wrote and then talked her way” into directing The Virgin Suicides, no small feat after her father couldn’t secure the rights to the novel. With colorful anecdotes aplenty, Rausch makes good on his goal to pull back the curtain on “a wave of revolutionary filmmakers” who fought against studio pressures to water down their work. It’s an entertaining look at a game-changing period. (July)

Reviewed on 06/20/2025 | Details & Permalink

Lynch’s subtle and powerful debut novel (after the memoir Small: On Motherhood) centers on a family torn apart by a long-ago custody battle in a small English village. When Heron Barnes is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he can’t manage to tell his daughter, Maggie, whom he normally shares everything with. A parallel narrative set in 1982 follows Heron’s wife, Dawn, at 23, when Maggie is three. Dawn is captivated by Hazel, a teacher new to town, and the women begin an affair. After Dawn confesses to Heron, he throws her out. She continues to dote on Maggie until a solicitor suggests to Heron he attempt to gain full custody to protect Maggie from Dawn’s influence. Back in the present, Maggie’s grade schooler son asks Heron questions for a history project that Maggie herself has never been able to ask about her long-lost mother. When Maggie finally learns her father is dying, she goes through his papers and uncovers surprising details about the past, which run contrary to what she was told as a child. As the two narratives coalesce, Lynch devastatingly captures the homophobic prejudices of the era. Readers will be heart-struck. Agent: Sarah Fuentes, UTA. (June)

Reviewed on 06/20/2025 | Details & Permalink

This scintillating 1953 novel from Bessette (1918–2000) follows the beautiful Lili, who’s 40 and looks 20, through one heartache after another as she contends with her possessive mother’s hold on her. At the beginning, Lili is crying because she can’t bring herself to commit to a handsome and wealthy suitor, whom she loves, because leaving home in Provence would break her mother Charlotte’s heart. Still, she desires to escape and eventually runs off with another man, a foreigner from a Slavic country, though she doesn’t love him. After a brief courtship in a nearby town and an aborted pregnancy (Lili desperately wanted the baby but feared the shame it would bring to Charlotte), they marry and return to the village. The man means well, but Charlotte berates him, prompting him to demand she choose him or her mother. Lili’s response is surprising and dramatic, though what keeps this novel running is not the plot but Bessette’s remarkable prose, complete with freewheeling swerves from spoken dialogue to internal monologue, propelling the action without losing sight of the characters’ intense emotions. Briggs’s ear is highly trained to Bessette’s singular register, making this rediscovery all the more noteworthy. (June)

Reviewed on 06/20/2025 | Details & Permalink