Boris Fishman’s A Replacement Life (June 2014) merges an immigrant narrative with a political caper as a group of eastern Europeans settling in New York City defraud the German government of holocaust reparations.
Remember Me LIke This (May 2014) is Bret Anthony Johnston’s debut about a boy in south Texas who disappears only to be found unharmed some time later, but his happy reunion exposes the fractures and wounds of his family. Skateboarding plays a significant role in the novel as it does in his life, and Johnston showed up at the event with a skateboard painted with the book’s cover on it, special edition board produced by a friend of his. He raffled the board to the audience.
Cristina Henríquez’s latest book, The Book of Unknown Americans (June 2014), focuses on the lives of a group of immigrants residing in Newark, Delaware. A cast of eleven voices comes together from various Central American nations as they acclimate to life in the United States, some legally, some with more questionable circumstances. She was joined at McNally Jackson by her editor Robin Desser for a conversation about the book.
As I sit to write this review, I’d rather be finishing the third volume of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle. I’ve done little else for the last few weeks, as I just began reading the 3,500-page, six-volume novel following the media attention of the third volume’s English publication.
In 2010, The New Yorker named Rivka Galchen one of their 20 under 40 following the publication of her 2008 novel, Atmospheric Disturbances. She read from her new collection of stories, American Innovations (May 2014) at McNally Jackson. Rebecca Curtis joined Galchen to discuss short stories, inspiration, and process with New Yorker editor Willing Davidson.
Amy Rowland once worked in a newspaper transcription office, a job since automated. But her time listening to dictated stories and interviews left her thinking about language and inspired her debut novel, The Transcriptionist. She read from the book at Powerhouse Arena.
Porochista Khakpour released her second novel, The Last Illusion, earlier this month. The Iranian born, New York City based novelist was joined by Alexander Chee at McNally Jackson to discuss the book.
Joshua Ferris read from his latest novel To Rise Again at a Decent Hour at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn. The novel explores the life of a dentist obsessing over his online doppelgänger through the neurotic voice of the protagonist. Ferris has a knack for portraying characters in otherwise bland occupations. His debut novel, Then We Came to the End (2007) chronicles the final days of an ad agency while The Unnamed (2010) features an overworked lawyer.