News in December 2022

News in December 2022

16th December, 2022

AN IMMENSE WORLD by Ed Yong continues to receive praise and accolades. The book was included in the Readers Digest Best Books of 2022 (“The deeply researched book immerses readers in the animal kingdom. Even the proudest pet owner or animal lover will learn something new…Page by page, Yong shines a new light on animal experiences in this dazzling narrative nonfiction book”) and was named a Time Magazine Top 10 Best Nonfiction Book of 2022 (“Yong’s absorbing book is a joyful blend of scientific study and elegant prose that transforms textbook fodder into something much more exciting and accessible"). Random House published the book on June 21, 2022.

16th December, 2022

Lit Hub included STRANGERS TO OURSELVES by Rachel Aviv in its roundup of the Best Book Covers of 2022. Alison Forner calls it “[s]uch a simple design, yet so incredibly unnerving – it’s a design you can almost hear,” Mark Abrams praises it as “elegant,” and Jamie Stafford-Hill calls it “[d]eceptively simple, really effective.” STRANGERS TO OURSELVES was also named a best book of the year by Bookforum, where Lynne Tillman raves: "STRANGERS TO OURSELVES is an important contribution to contemporary thought about mental illness and the psychiatrization of everyday life. Through the stories, case histories, of others, Aviv examines how they came to be identified by their 'illnesses,' and how their illnesses told their stories and not them. The book asks readers to be skeptical of professional 'mind-readers' and diagnoses that threaten to control a person’s life.” Farrar, Straus and Giroux published the book on September 13, 2022.

16th December, 2022

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SKIN by Lakiesha Carr received a starred Publishers Weekly Review: "By tracing the characters’ complex bonds, Carr underscores the power of community and kinship among Black women who find a way to be vulnerable and joyful in a world that too often charges them with the role of caretakers. This exploration of love, courage, and desire is not to be missed." The novel also received a fabulous review from Kirkus: “Whether seen as a novel or three novellas linked by overlapping characters, Carr’s debut is by turns eloquent and raw, fantastical and realistic…With vivid writing and characters, Carr's debut is sometimes brutal or sentimental, always passionate, never boring.” Pantheon will publish the novel on February 28, 2023.

16th December, 2022

THE FURROWS by Namwali Serpell was recognized by Vox as one of the Best Books of 2022. Constance Grady calls the book a “haunting, elegiac sophomore novel,” adding: “Serpell remains committed to her dreamy, haunted atmosphere, in a narrative that evokes the way grief twists time into a knot and raises more questions than it ever plans to answer.” Hogarth published THE FURROWS on September 27, 2022.

16th December, 2022

Lit Hub included VERY COLD PEOPLE by Sarah Manguso in its roundup of the Best Book Covers of 2022. Colleen Reinhart writes: "The tactile, handmade quality of the cover and the domestic scene contrasts beautifully with the ‘cold people’ evoked in the title." Hogarth published the book on February 8, 2022.

16th December, 2022

Lit Hub included THE UNWRITTEN BOOK by Samantha Hunt in its roundup of the Best Book Covers of 2022. Anna Morrison writes: "When I first saw this cover it stopped me in my tracks—so intriguing. I love the textures, composition, colours; the eye just draws you in. The author line going up the side is genius, so unexpected. To create such an atmosphere within such a small space is a real gift." Farrar, Straus and Giroux published the book on April 5, 2022.

10th December, 2022

THE FURROWS by Namwali Serpell continues to receive incredible accolades. The book has been longlisted for The New Literary Projects’ Joyce Carol Oates Prize, which “annually honors a mid-career author of fiction in the midst of a burgeoning career.” Finalists will be announced in March 2023, and the winner will be announced in April 2023. The book was also featured on 2022 best-of lists from The Los Angeles Times (“Serpell’s delivery is truly innovative: Her shape-shifting approach to character and language captures the disassociation that often attends loss in brand-new ways”), Vulture (“At once heartfelt and dizzying, THE FURROWS is a powerful meditation on riding out the waves of grief”), and Oprah Daily (“Serpell, the author of the widely praised THE OLD DRIFT, spins a decades-long incantatory dream; the facts change, but the bewildering grief remains the same. She weaves influences from noir masters to canonical authors to visionary filmmakers, most conspicuously Alfred Hitchcock”). Hogarth published THE FURROWS on September 27, 2022.

10th December, 2022

Ed Yong’s AN IMMENSE WORLD was named one of “The 10 Best Books of 2022” by The Wall Street Journal: “Vividly describing other creatures’ senses (the ultraviolet sight of bumblebees, the exquisite echolocation ability of dolphins), Mr. Yong enlarges our awe of William Blake’s ‘immense world of delight.’” The book was also featured on best-of lists from the Inquirer, Slate, Toronto Star, Bookshop, BookPage, Oprah Daily, and many more. Random House published the book on June 21, 2022.

10th December, 2022

STRANGERS TO OURSELVES by Rachel Aviv continues to receive incredible press. The book has been featured on 2022 best-of lists from The Wall Street Journal (“[a] remarkable debut work”), The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times (“both a service to medicine and a page-turner”), Vulture (“a work of fierce moral intelligence”), and BookPage (“[a] stunning book”). Farrar, Straus and Giroux published the book on September 13, 2022.

10th December, 2022

In the book’s first trade review, Kirkus praises Emily Pennington’s debut memoir FERAL as “fierce, candid reading” and “a moving portrait of a woman who came into her own by learning to let go,” praising “the author’s unflinching honesty and the boldness of her inner and outer journeys.” Little A will publish the book on February 1, 2023.

10th December, 2022

A new Publishers Weekly review praises Mya-Rose Craig's BIRDGIRL as a “dynamic debut…[that] will inspire nature-minded readers.” Jonathan Cape published BIRDGIRL on June 30, 2022 in the UK, and Celadon Books will publish the book on March 28, 2023 in the US.

10th December, 2022

The original audio drama adaptation of UPGRADE SOUL by Ezra Claytan Daniels, adapted from the award-winning graphic novel and starring Wendell Pierce, Marcia Gay Harden, and Phil LaMarr, has been named Audible’s Best Podcast of 2022 in the Science Fiction category. UPGRADE SOUL was published by Fantagraphics on September 18, 2018, and the five-part Audible audio drama was released on November 3, 2022.