In “The Edge of Water,” A Prophecy Unravels a Nigerian Family’s Pursuit of the American Dream

Olufunke Grace Bankole’s debut novel The Edge of Water opens with a prophecy: “A storm is coming.” The order of things, the Iyanifa tells us, will be disrupted by a soul who defies her fate.  What follows is the story of three generations of Nigerian and Nigerian American women: Esther, who dreams of a different […] The post In “The Edge of Water,” A Prophecy Unravels a Nigerian Family’s Pursuit of the American Dream appeared first on Electric Literature. Continue reading at 'Electric Literature'

[ Electric Literature | 2025-02-04 12:00:00 UTC ]

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Toronto author's bestselling novel The Maid started as an idea on a napkin

Canadian author Nita Prose's debut novel The Maid became a New York Times and Canadian bestseller just a few weeks after its release on January 4.  Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2022-02-16 09:00:00 UTC ]
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What You Lose as a Daughter of the Iranian Revolution

In They Said They Wanted Revolution: A Memoir of My Parents, Iranian American author and Vice journalist Neda Toloui-Semnani reconstructed the story of her parents as young, leftist Iranian activists radicalized at Berkeley in the late ’60s and who came to see communism as the political answer... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-02-08 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Review: A debut novel of love and privilege that's made for TV

Coco Mellors' 'Cleopatra and Frankenstein' evokes a rich universe in multiple senses, but it feels engineered for a Netflix adaptation. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-02-04 14:00:54 UTC ]
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On The Lost Daughter, Vladimir, and What Happens When Women Have Had Enough

Early in Julia May Jonas’s searing debut novel Vladimir, the unnamed narrator, an “oldish white woman in her late fifties (the identity I am burdened with publicly presenting, to my general embarrassment)” finds herself in the last place anyone wants to be—a faculty meeting of a small New... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-02 09:50:43 UTC ]
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Review: The predator's wife: A dark debut novel with a #MeToo gender twist

Julia May Jonas' "Vladimir" is a thrilling "Lolita" update in which the deliciously wicked narrator is not the male abuser but his wife. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-02-01 14:00:41 UTC ]
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‘The Violin Conspiracy’ Is a Musical Thriller With Some Unexpected Notes

Brendan Slocumb’s debut novel is a musical bildungsroman cleverly contained within a literary thriller. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-02-01 10:00:07 UTC ]
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7 Novels About Family Curses

I have always held a keen interest toward the processes of myth formation and how beliefs about family identity are handed down through generations. My debut novel Defenestrate tells the story of a family in the midst of reckoning with superstition and inheritance, the long-held beliefs that can... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-01-31 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Genderqueer Short Stories About the Ways We Mythologize Our Identities

A nonbinary teenager on their way home from an eating -disorder treatment center who tries to convince a stranger she is not a vampire, an aspiring fashion designer/dry-cleaning worker who develops an obsession with a customer, a community of people with Hansen’s disease that welcome and attempt... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-01-27 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Europa pre-empts Yi's 'funny and bonkers' debut in two-book deal

Europa Editions UK has acquired Esther Yi's "incredible" debut novel Y/N in a two book pre-empt. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-19 12:54:14 UTC ]
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In ‘Last Resort,’ a Writer Turns a Friend’s Story Into a Smash Success

Andrew Lipstein’s entertaining debut novel mines comedy from an aspiring author’s ethically questionable path to publication. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-01-19 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Atlantic bags 'gorgeous' debut from Grudova in two-book deal

Atlantic Books has acquired Camilla Grudova's Children of Paradise, a "stunning" debut novel exploring the lives of cinema workers and sex. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-19 06:20:25 UTC ]
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Jessamine Chan’s Debut Calls Modern-Day Parenting Into Question

At Electric Literature, Diane Cooke speaks to Jessamine Chan about The School for Good Mothers, Chan’s incisive debut novel that revolves around how a young mother’s error lands her in a government reform program and at risk of losing custody of her child. They discuss one of Chan’s main... Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2022-01-18 21:30:56 UTC ]
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Allison & Busby nets 'explosive' debut by former police officer Bartlett

Allison & Busby has netted an "explosive" debut novel by former police officer Graham Bartlett. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-16 13:20:55 UTC ]
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8 Books by Queer Writers Who Came of Age in the 90s

The ’90s are back, as if they could ever truly peace out. Between Fear Street and Captain Marvel and the Alanis Morissette musical, the last mostly-offline decade is getting a gargantuan nostalgia polish. For my memoir Sticker—an exploration of my childhood in Charlottesville, Virginia via 20... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-01-14 12:00:00 UTC ]
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A Chilling Debut Novel Puts Mothers Under Surveillance and Into Parenting Rehab

Jessamine Chan’s “The School for Good Mothers” takes up themes of autonomy and technology in imagining an experimental facility where parents go through mandatory retraining. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-01-11 17:33:33 UTC ]
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Fig Tree scoops debut novel by Mo Siewcharran Prize-winner Bhattacharya

Fig Tree has scooped the "powerful and beautifully humane" debut novel by Mo Siewcharran Prize-winner Santanu Bhattacharya. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-05 14:00:25 UTC ]
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Sequoia Nagamatsu’s Dystopian Debut Is a Must-Read for the New Year

Sequioa Nagamatsu discusses his much-awaited debut novel about people living in a future beset by the Arctic Plague. The post Sequoia Nagamatsu’s Dystopian Debut Is a Must-Read for the New Year appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2022-01-04 21:00:24 UTC ]
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A Debut Novel About Friendship, Family and Other Ties That Bind

In “Brown Girls,” Daphne Palasi Andreades breaks a big world into small, meaningful pieces. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-01-04 10:00:03 UTC ]
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8 Genre-Bending Books by Asian American Women

The Asian American women writers in this reading list explore the existential. They seek to do anything but simplify. They live with and write through some very dense, tangled complexities, even mysteries. Some, perhaps many, unsolvable, with wounds that perhaps cannot be closed, not in this... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-01-03 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Our Favorite Essays about Unconventional Writing Teachers

For those of us who want to become real writers—whatever that means—the countless resources available can feel a bit dry and uninspired, ranging from tired but true clichés to well-lauded craft books (Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir on Craft sits dustily on my shelf). Many of us find... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-12-31 12:00:00 UTC ]
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