Books Update: Up All Night

Stephen King's “If It Bleeds” and more

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story April 24, 2020

Johnny Dombrowski

Dear Reader,

Doesn’t it feel like Stephen King saw all this coming? For decades, he’s had his eye on the impending horror, the dangers that lurk beneath the present, the evil — and occasional good — that the very worst threats bring out in humanity. Most famously in “The Stand,” he gave us a vision of the world on the brink. It’s hard not to think of him now, to want to hear what he has to say.

This week, the biographer and critic Ruth Franklin reads King’s new collection of novellas, “If It Bleeds,” through the veil of our current pandemic. “The stories he was telling — about the seductions and corruptions of technology, the extremes of beauty and depravity in even the most ordinary life, the workings of a universe we can never entirely understand — were somehow exactly what I wanted to read right now,” she writes in her cover review.

Also in this issue, new fiction from the talented Japanese writer Mieko Kawakami, French literature in translation and the most recent novel by Julia Alvarez. Plus, the inspiring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie answers our By the Book questions.

Please stay in touch to let us know what you think — whether it’s about this newsletter, our reviews, our podcast, our literary calendar, our Instagram or what you’re reading. We read and ponder all of it. I even write back, albeit belatedly. You can email me at books@nytimes.com.

Pamela Paul

Editor of The New York Times Book Review

@PamelaPaulNYT

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THE BOOK REVIEW PODCAST The Shocks and Aftershocks of the Great Alaska Quake of 1964 Jon Mooallem talks about “This Is Chance!” and Elisabeth Egan discusses Charlie Mackesy’s “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.”

FICTION fiction Can’t Sleep? Let Stephen King Keep You Company His latest book, the novella collection “If It Bleeds,” offers the familiar unsettling pleasures. By Ruth Franklin fiction In Her First Adult Novel in 14 Years, Julia Alvarez Travels Home In “Afterlife,” even privilege can’t shield a Dominican-American widow from the immigrant’s plight. By Francisco Cantú fiction A Japanese Literary Star Joins Her Peers on Western Bookshelves The novelist Mieko Kawakami belongs to a cadre of young female writers redefining their national literature. “Breasts and Eggs” introduces her to readers of English. By Katie Kitamura fiction Stalkers, Chat Bots and Trolls: Stories From Our Lives Online Mary South’s debut collection, “You Will Not Be Forgotten,” scrolls through the many facets of our digital existence. By Julie Bloom fiction Paulette Jiles’s New Novel Goes Deep in the Heart of Texas In “Simon the Fiddler,” an itinerant musician roams the state with his band during Reconstruction, scratching out a living and pining for his true love. By S. Kirk Walsh fiction Set in a Notorious Prison, a Novel Probes Iran’s Torturers and Their Victims “Then the Fish Swallowed Him,” the first novel in English by the Iranian-born Amir Ahmadi Arian, makes for unnerving reading. By Dina Nayeri fiction A Botanist’s Desire Turns Toxic in This Novel of Romantic Obsession In Rebecca Dinerstein Knight’s “Hex,” an expelled Ph.D. candidate offers a not-so-scientific confession to the mentor she idolizes. By Olivia Sudjic fiction What Wins in the Heartland, Machismo or Intellect? Callan Wink’s debut novel, “August,” pits brains against brawn in an America far from the literary world. By Austin Considine

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NONFICTION nonfiction When Globalization Really Began As Valerie Hansen shows in “The Year 1000,” the world was already genuinely interconnected a millennium ago. By Christiane Bird nonfiction Martin, Malcolm and the Fight for Equality Peniel E. Joseph’s “The Sword and the Shield” shows that Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X had more in common than is generally believed. By Annette Gordon-Reed nonfiction A Poet Traces Her Personal Obsessions, in Prose In the essay collection “Synthesizing Gravity,” Kay Ryan offers characteristically tart and idiosyncratic takes on writing, and on influences from Robert Frost to Marianne Moore. By David Orr nonfiction The Women in Congress Who Are Making a Revolution Jennifer Steinhauer’s “The Firsts” traces the experiences of the 35 women newly elected to Congress in 2018. By Ellen Fitzpatrick nonfiction How Racism Is Destroying America Eduardo Porter’s “American Poison” details the long legacy of racism and inequality in the United States. By Michael Ignatieff

CHILDREN’S BOOKS children’s books From Missing Persons to Mistaken Identities, Books About Seeing and Being Seen Slices of young adult life, from Monica Hesse (“They Went Left”), Ismée Williams (“This Train Is Being Held”), George M. Johnson (“All Boys Aren’t Blue”) and Meredith Tate (“The Last Confession of Autumn Casterly”). By Jennifer Harlan

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FEATURES by the book What the Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Reads While She Works “I mostly read poetry,” she says, “as a way of immersing myself in language, of luring back my own words.” essay How a College Final Became a Lesson in Survival When Covid-19 struck, Stanford closed its classrooms. The novelist Daniel Mason turned his students’ last assignment into an exercise for staying well. By Daniel Mason the shortlist Buying Dora Maar’s Diary on eBay and Other Classy Tales From France A father-son love story, a memoirist’s account of her first affair and a journalist’s chronicle of the life of Picasso’s lover through the addresses in her Hermès diary. By Joumana Khatib graphic review On Earth Day, a Cartoonist Glances Back at Rachel Carson’s Classic A graphic review of “Silent Spring,” the book that helped launch the environmental movement. By Peter Kuper

New & Noteworthy Audiobooks, From Betsey Johnson to Pot in San Francisco A selection of recent audiobooks of interest; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading. letters to the editor What Is a Conservative? And Other Letters to the Editor Readers respond to recent issues of the Sunday Book Review. editors’ choice 11 New Books We Recommend This Week Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times. inside the list Home Is Where Her Story Was. Leaving Helped Her Find It. Elizabeth Wetmore’s debut novel, “Valentine,” is a love letter to Texas. By Elisabeth Egan New in Paperback: ‘Running to the Edge’ and ‘The Queen’ Six new paperbacks to check out this week. By Jennifer Krauss

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New International Books

Illustration by Thoka Maer

Your sneak preview of books coming out in 2019 from around the world. Get globetrotting.

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