Fiction Five: Two Sides to Every Story
Two worlds separated by a screen. Dual narratives that come together to tell a single tale. A bisected story with different outcomes. This month’s new fiction releases will have you seeing double.
Public Access Afterworld by Jane Schoenbrun
Get ready for an emotionally intense, intricately plotted horror sci-fi novel from the celebrated filmmaker of I Saw the TV Glow. An unreliable narrator leads you through conspiracies, obsession, secrets and psychic trauma. This is a 600-page book, but most reviewers say that isn't long enough for such a weird tale that completely pulls you in.
“Few artists are able to capture the disconnection, longing, and eeriness of the early internet age and the holes it created in our society , and Public Access Afterworld continues that trend. It’s like a creepypasta come to life, and I’m here for it.”—Chicago Review of Books
“Reads like a David Mitchell fever dream imagined by somebody working the last Blockbuster on the planet . . . Is there anything Jane Schoenbrun can't do?” — Literary Hub
Fair Ones by Lydia Millet
Fair Ones is an unconventional story about friendship, grief and secrets. This reflective double novel follows two Brooklyn women in their 40s reeling from the sudden and baffling death of their friend Claire. Fair, Mara’s account, opens in the wake of initial shock as she and Jen come to grips with Claire’s killing. Ones, told from Jen’s point of view, picks up a year later as she and Mara wrestle with new relationships and old secrets.
"Millet spikes this transfixing tale with keen and caustic insights into friendship and love, privilege and obsession, delusion and truth, vulnerable children, aging parents, and imperiled nature, all amidst ambushing moments of wry humor and radiant beauty." ―Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)
"Millet’s two-parter succeeds at reminding readers that living in the present is the best tribute to a life cut short. There’s much to admire in this refreshingly unsentimental story of moving on." ― Publishers Weekly
The Queen of Roses by Julia Kelly
In 1960 reporter Theresa Johnson visits Rosewood House after Miss Pearce challenges an obituary. Miss Pearch then asks Theresa to help write her biography. The story reaches back to 1903 when Adele Pearce left London for California after her father's financial ruin forces her to seek a wealthy marriage to an American. As Adele builds a life in Pasadena and grows close to gardener Alexander Macalister, Rosewood House becomes central to her future.
"Having written so engagingly about a neglected garden brought back to life in The Last Garden in England, Kelly does so again in this tale of two women overcoming societal pressures to conform.” –Library Journal
"Kelly brings exquisite detail to both time lines, in setting and character, as each woman balances the need to rely on others who underestimate them with trusting their own instincts, particularly when their strength is literally tested by fire." –Booklist
The Occidental Book of the Dead by T. Geronimo Johnson
From the PEN/Faulkner finalist and National Book Award longlisted author of Welcome to Braggsville, comes this long-awaited, visionary new novel centered on a Black cop in an Atlanta precinct, whose façade of white alliance begins to crumble after a highly publicized murder. This is a suspenseful intricately plotted novel.
“Johnson’s take on history, his political commentary, and humor read like jazz, as, with this book in particular, he plays with the novel as a form, bending notes, making new music." ― Attica Locke, New York Times bestselling author of Bluebird, Bluebird
“Johnson’s hefty, free-wheeling, sharp-witted, disquieting third novel has a complexity that belies its straightforward premise. . . for all of its hard look at history, the book is as witty as it is unflinching, rich in comic riffs about pop music, misunderstandings around race, and where society does and doesn’t place its empathy. . . A swing-for-the-fences novel, both a gripping procedural and high literary study of American bigotry.” –Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
The Two Wills by Blair Fell
Willy Hughes, an arrogant young hustler in Elizabethan England, cons drunken men into believing he’s a young woman of ill repute and then robs them of their purses.
One night, Willy spots a newly famous stage poet in the alehouse. Will is 10 years his senior, and he looks at Willy in a way he’s never been looked at before. Willy decides the poet is meant to be the greatest love of his life.
Will wants Willy as an actor, his muse and perhaps as something more. However, Will also has a wife and a mistress. The older and more experienced poet is playing a dangerous game with people’s hearts and the confusion is driving Willy mad.
"It’s clear that Fell has done his Shakespearean homework. Fans of Hamnet and Shakespeare in Love will find much to admire." –Publishers Weekly
