Hikikomori and the Rental Sister
by Jeff Backhaus (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)
This debut novel from Backhaus takes place in New York City, but aside from some references to a bus line here or a bodega there, it could almost be anywhere. That’s because Thomas Tessler has basically locked himself in his room for the past three years (a phenomenon in Japan called hikikomori) after his son’s death. His desperate wife, who shares the apartment but never sees him, hires a “rental sister” (another import from Japan) to try to snap him out of it. When they become intimate, his wife needs to decide if it’s all worth it.
Rage is Back
by Adam Mansbach (Viking)
A cacophonous love letter to the old dirty, pre-gentrified New York, “Rage” centers on 18-year-old biracial Brooklynite Kilroy Dondi Vance, whose father, Billy Rage, was the city’s most storied graffiti artist — until he disappeared in 1989 following a feud with top transit cop Anastacio Bracken. Now it’s 2005. Bracken is running for mayor and Rage has resurfaced, reunited and is gathering graffiti writers from all over for an outsized stunt to keep Bracken out of Gracie Mansion.
Jungleland
A Mysterious Lost City, a WWII Spy, and a True Story of Deadly Adventure
by Christopher S. Stewart (Harper)
It’s “The Mosquito Coast” meets “Raiders of the Lost Ark” in journalist Stewart’s real-life adventure story of a trek through Honduras. Stewart had reported from war zones and on the drug trade. But a few years ago, he was feeling restless, having settled down with his family in Brooklyn. He couldn’t get the thought of the fabled Ci
udad Blanca — told to him by an American ex-soldier who helped train the Contras. In his tale, Stewart follows the trail of American spy and explorer Theodore Morde, who claimed to have found the city in 1939 — but who mysteriously died before revealing the location.
The Last Runaway
by Tracy Chevalier (Dutton)
The much-loved London-based historical novelist takes on the Underground Railroad in her first foray into American history. In her new book, Chevalier — whose “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” was a runaway best seller and a film with Scarlett Johansson — delivers fictional heroine Honor Bright, a proper English Quaker who moves to 1850s Ohio, a major hub of the clandestine network moving runaway slaves from the South to freedom in North. Honor soon discovers her inner mettle: She is a person to whom principles mean more than personal safety.
1356
by Bernard Cornwell (Harper)
Tired of waiting for another of George R.R. Martin’s “Game of Thrones” books? Cornwell’s latest novel may be your best option. This author of adventure tomes, including the Grail Quest series, counts Martin among his biggest fans. (“Bernard Cornwell does the best battle scenes of any writer I’ve ever read,” Martin said last year.) Cornwell’s newest book follows the actions of Thomas Hookton, a fictional soldier during the Hundred Years War who is the hero of the Grail Quest series.