hey everyone and welcome to the september edition of ‘nine new releases’ where I shine a spotlight on some of my most anticipated releases for the month!
I’m super excited that about half of the books in this post are translated fiction and a lot are also from smaller publishers so please check out these books and consider purchasing them direct from the publisher if you’re able to! there are also 10 books this month instead of 9 as I only discovered one after writing this whole post and didn’t want to replace any of the others!
Hope you find some new books to enjoy,
M x
⭐️ AWAKE by harald voetmann, translated by johanne sorgenfri ottosen~ september 7th: In a shuttered bedroom in ancient Italy, the sleepless Pliny the Elder lies in bed obsessively dictating new chapters of his Natural History to his slave. But despite his ambition to catalog everything from precious metals to the moon, as well as a collection of exotic plants, Pliny the Elder still takes immense pleasure in the common rose. After he rushes to an erupting Mount Vesuvius and perishes in the ash, his nephew, Pliny the Younger, becomes custodian of his life’s work. But where Pliny the Elder saw starlight, Pliny the Younger only sees fireflies.
🧡 SUTURE by nic brewer ~ september 21st: To make her films, Eva must take out her eyes and use them as batteries. To make her art, Finn must cut open her chest and remove her lungs and heart. To write her novels, Grace must use her blood to power the word processor. Suture shares three interweaving stories of artists tearing themselves open to make art. Eva’s wife worries about her mental health; Finn’s teenager follows in her footsteps, using forearms bones for drumsticks; Grace’s network constantly worries about the prolific writer’s penchant for self-harm, and the over-use of her vitals for art.
⭐️ HOW TO WRESTLE A GIRL by venita blackburn ~ september 7th: In “Biology Class,” Blackburn’s characters torment a teacher to the point of near insanity, while in “Bear Bear Harvest™,” they prepare to sell their excess fat and skin for food processing. Stark and sharp, hilarious and ominous, these pieces are scabbed, bruised, and prone to scarring. Many of the stories, set in Southern California, follow a teenage girl in the aftermath of her beloved father’s death and capture her sister’s and mother’s encounters with men of all ages, as well as the girl’s budding attraction to her best friend, Esperanza. In and out of school, participating in wrestling and softball, attending church with her hysterically complicated family, and dominating boys in arm wrestling, she grapples with her burgeoning queerness and her emerging body, becoming wary of clarity rather than hoping for it.
🧡 THE STRANGE THING WE BECOME AND OTHER TALES by eric larocca ~ september 1st: collects eight stories of literary dark fiction. Tense and terrifying, these masterful stories by Eric LaRocca explore the shadow side of love.
⭐️ DOG PARK by sofi oksanen, translated by owen frederick witesman~ september 21st: Helsinki, 2016. Olenka sits on a bench, watching a family play in a dog park. A stranger sits down beside her. Olenka startles; she would recognize this other woman anywhere. After all, Olenka was the one who ruined her life. And this woman may be about to do the same to Olenka. Yet, for a fragile moment, here they are, together—looking at their own children being raised by other people.
🧡 STRANGER TO THE MOON by evelio rosero, translated by victor meadowcroft and anne mclean~ september 7th: portrays a world that seems to exist outside history and geography, but taps into the dark myths and collective subconscious of his country’s harrowing inequality and violence. A parable of pointed social criticism, with naked humans imprisoned in a house to serve the needs of “the vicious clothed-ones,” the novel describes what ensues when a single “naked-one” privately rebels, risking his own death and that of his fellow prisoners. Each subsequent section of the book adds further layers to the ritualistic and bizarre social order that its characters inhabit. Trained insects and reptiles spy on all the naked-ones, and only the most fortunate reach old age.
⭐️ AMONG THE LILLIES by daniel mills ~ september 14th: A collection of 12 grotesqueries inspired by the natural and psychological landscapes of New England and by the ghosts that walk the places in-between.
🧡 THE WATER STATUES by fleur jaeggy, translated by gini alhadeff~ september 7th: a shiningly peculiar book concerned with wealth’s loneliness and odd emotional poverty, this early novel is in part structured as a play: the dramatis personae include the various relatives, friends, and servants of a man named Beeklam, a wealthy recluse who keeps statues in his villa’s flooded basement, where memories shiver in uncertain light and the waters run off to the sea.
⭐️ FROM THE NECK UP by aliya whiteley ~ september 14th: The new collection of beautiful, strange and disarming short stories from award-winning author Aliya whiteley.. Witness the future of farming in a new Ice Age, or the artist bringing life to glass; the many-eyed monsters we carry and the secret cities inside our bodies; the alien invasion through our language to the Chantress and her twists on the fairy tale.
🧡 BLOOD AND BONE edited by a r ward~ september 22nd: Since the earliest creation myths, womens’ bodies have been a site of conflict, venerated and feared in equal measure. In this collection, female and non-binary writers let rip with 22 powerful, visceral body horror stories that explore, celebrate and dissect (sometimes literally) femininity and the female experience. The stories traverse difficult and sometimes controversial ground, digging into subjects like eating disorders, the beauty industry, pregnancy, infertility, body dysmorphia, domestic violence, rape and sexual abuse- all done with passion, humour, and creativity. Approach with an open mind and a strong stomach.
Mols by Moonlight 