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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7 Books About Ghostwriters

When I was ghostwriting full-time, I produced twenty books in fourteen years. Thanks to a suggestion from my literary agent, I realized a ghostwriter might make a great heroine—they’re under tremendous pressure, often while adjacent to the fame machine—so Mari Hawthorn, the ghostwriter at the... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-02-15 12:05:00 UTC ]
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Your Next Book Based on Your Relationship Status

Ah yes. Literature. The vehicle through which we may explore faraway lives we would have otherwise never imagined. From my little, rugged armchair, I can witness forbidden love in the 18th century. Peek into a bustling kitchen in New York City. Discover the dramatic betrayal that fractured the... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-02-14 12:00:00 UTC ]
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It's funny and cringey, but Andrew Ewell's debut novel doesn't live up to its potential

Andrew Ewell's debut novel 'Set for Life' is well-written but doesn't fulfill its potential. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-02-09 16:00:10 UTC ]
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A father goes missing. Then a brother too. In this 'Great Forest,' a fraught return home

The debut novel from Leo Vardiashvili, 'Hard by a Great Forest,' has its commercial trappings but ultimately lands with lyrical and heartbreaking resonance. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-31 18:43:16 UTC ]
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“Where Theorems of Wonder Get Proven True and Synchronicities Are Real”

Temim Fruchter’s debut novel centers around a young woman, Shiva, seeking answers about her family’s past after the death of her father. Told in revolving perspectives, between women in Shiva’s family and a mysterious, omniscient narrator, the book explores the interior lives of women,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-01-24 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Temim Fruchter on Writing a Queer Jewish Novel Based on Folklore

Temim Fruchter’s debut novel centers around a young woman, Shiva, seeking answers about her family’s past after the death of her father. Told in revolving perspectives, between women in Shiva’s family and a mysterious, omniscient narrator, the book explores the interior lives of women,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-01-24 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Go on, be a 'Martyr!' A brilliant debut novel rides the slippery slope of self-sacrifice

In Kaveh Akbar's brilliant debut novel, 'Martyr!', an Iranian American man in addiction recovery becomes obsessed with the concept of martyrdom. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-22 11:00:10 UTC ]
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Katherine Min was ahead of her time. Four years after her death, her second novel proves it

Katherine Min's Korean American debut novel was ignored. After she died in 2019, publishers worked to put out her second novel, 'The Fetishist.' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-18 11:00:57 UTC ]
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Annie Liontas on “Sex With a Brain Injury”

The new memoir in essays Sex With a Brain Injury from Annie Liontas, author of the novel Let Me Explain You, is a highly formally and thematically risky work of nonfiction exploring traumatic brain injury (TBI), queerness, addiction, mass incarceration, and chronic illness. Weaving “history,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-01-16 12:00:00 UTC ]
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15 Small Press Books You Should Be Reading This Winter

Solstice has come and gone, but in addition to the returning of the light, we can also herald another excellent small press publishing season. What I love about these titles is the richness of imagination and inquiry, leading to inventive plots in fiction and deep emotional honesty in... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-01-15 12:00:00 UTC ]
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This L.A. flash-fiction star thinks novels are 'saggy.' Her own debut proves her wrong

The debut novel 'Dead in Long Beach, California,' is a sharp, dazzling turn for Compton-raised author Venita Blackburn, who made her name with lightning-fast fiction. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-11 11:00:44 UTC ]
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7 Books Set In Turkey

How many stories does it take to get to know a place?  Lifelong residents may write confidently of their homeland, but among the travelogs and novels and poems and memoirs that give shape to a city, I’m partial to books written from the perspective of those still calibrating their relationship... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-01-10 12:00:00 UTC ]
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In “The Storm We Made,” A Malayan Housewife Becomes a Spy During WWII

Set in World War II, Vanessa Chan’s utterly gripping debut novel The Storm We Made is the story of an unlikely spy and the consequences of her actions. When Cecily, a bored Malayan housewife in British-colonized Malaya, encounters the charismatic General Fujiwara, she is seduced not only by the... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-01-02 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Exclusive Cover Reveal of “If Only” by Vigdis Hjorth

Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover for the novel If Only by Vigdis Hjorth, which will be published by Verso Books on September 3, 2024. Preorder the book here. “A relatively young woman, aged thirty. She married in her early twenties, had two children. It is winter. January and... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-01-01 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Announcing the Best Book Cover of 2023

Last week, we asked our social media followers to vote for the cover of year from the best 32 designs of the year. This year’s tournament was fierce, with surprise twists and crowd favorites that bowed out early. The winner edged out the competition by a mere 6 votes. From 32 cover designs, here... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-12-29 12:05:00 UTC ]
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The best books we read in 2023

With El Niño slated to drop a warm, wet winter on most of the US in the coming months, everybody’s going to need something good to read while the weather outside is frightful. Engadget’s well-read staff have some suggestions: our favorite books of 2023! We’ve got a phenomenal assortment of... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-12-25 16:30:28 UTC ]
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Exclusive Cover Reveal: Emma Copley Eisenberg’s “Housemates”

Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of Housemates, the highly-anticipated debut novel by Emma Copley Eisenberg, which will be published by Hogarth on May 28th, 2024. You can pre-order your copy here. When Bernie answers Leah’s ad for a new housemate in Philadelphia, the two find... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-12-21 12:15:00 UTC ]
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Electric Literature’s Most Popular Articles of 2023

In one of Electric Lit’s most-read essays of the year, “Black Women Are Being Erased From Book Publishing,” Jennifer Baker examines the publishing industry in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. She holds the publishing industry accountable for appointing high-profile Black... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-12-21 12:15:00 UTC ]
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7 Short Story Collection Recommendations Based on TV Shows You Know and Love

In talking about my debut story collection, House Gone Quiet, with friends and family, I’ve often found myself pitching the merits of the short story form itself. Due to habit or book marketing or a lack of exposure, it’s simply the case that most fiction readers who enter a bookstore are... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-12-19 12:00:00 UTC ]
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The Woefully Neglected (and Partially Unfilmable) Creations of Alasdair Gray

“Gray’s idiom may be modern, but it embraces many traditional things; not only autobiographical realism, but low comedy, afterlife fantasy, scattershot satire, nightmarish allegory, self-referential metafiction, tender eroticism, lunatic scholarship and profuse literary borrowings.” —David... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-19 09:57:38 UTC ]
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