Every month we break down our most excitedly awaited new book releases. Here are our picks for January......
Anthem, Noah Hawley
Release date: January 4th
Genre: Thriller
Available on Bookdepository
Set in a dystopian future where the nation is hopelessly divided, the political system is broken, and the climate is barreling toward irrevocable disaster (Sound familiar?). Crippled with anxiety about the sorrowed world they stand to inherit, high schoolers respond with a disturbing protest movement: mass suicide. Three unlikely young heroes resist the movement and journey into the American West, embarking on an epic quest to save a friend from the Wizard, a Jeffrey Epstein-like monster; ultimately, they may just save the world.
The School For Good Mothers, Jessamine Chan
Release date: January 4th
Genre: Fiction
Available on Bookdepository
This dystopian novel is about a mother who makes a mistake and then faces the consequences: Government officials have to determine if she’s a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion. A transgressive novel of ideas about the perils of "perfect" upper-middle class parenting; the violence enacted upon women by both the state and, at times, one another; the systems that separate families; and the boundlessness of love.
Olga Dies Dreaming, Sosuke Natsukawa
Release date: January 4th
Genre: Fiction
Available on Bookdepository
In this Technicolor novel from an astounding new voice, we meet Olga and Prieto Acevedo, two Brooklyn-born children of Puerto Rican revolutionaries who now live successful but precarious lives in their gentrifying borough. Olga, a wedding planner working with well-heeled Manhattan clientele, wonders if she’ll ever find a love story to call her own; meanwhile, popular Congressman Prieto fights for the siblings' Latinx neighborhood while concealing his sexuality. Blanca, their demanding and absent mother, chose fighting for Puerto Rican independence over her children long ago, but when Hurricane Maria blows her back into their lives, Olga and Prieto must reckon with the wounds of the past.
To Paradise, Hanya Yanagihara
Release date: January 11th
Genre: Historical Fiction
Available on Bookdepository
In her first novel since 2015’s much-lauded A Little Life, Yanagihara crafts a symphony from three disparate stories, each one set in an alternate America. In 1893, the scion of a wealthy family resists an arranged marriage as he falls for a penniless music teacher; in 1993, a young Hawaiian paralegal hides his past from his much-older lover; finally, in 2093, a woman in totalitarian, pandemic-ridden New York uncovers the mysteries of the men she’s loved
Daughter Of The Moon Goddess, Sue Lynn Tan
Release date: January 25th
Genre: Fantasy
Available on Bookdepository
This captivating fantasy seamlessly weaves ancient Chinese mythology into a sweeping adventure of immortals and magic. Inspired by the legend of the Chinese moon goddess, Chang’e, this debut is the first in a romantic duology. With its lush world-building, strong female protagonist, and vivid characters, this tale of love, sacrifice, and honour is already topping all the fantasy must-read lists.
Joan Is Okay, Weike Wang
Release date: January 18th
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Available on Bookdepository
Joan is a thirtysomething ICU doctor at a busy New York City hospital. She does look up sometimes and wonder where her true roots lie: at the hospital, where her white coat makes her feel needed, or with her family, who try to shape her life by their own cultural and social expectations.
Violeta, Isabel Allende
Release date: January 25th
Genre: Historical Fiction
Available on Bookdepository
Violeta tells the epic story of Violeta del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century. She tells her story in the form of a letter to someone she loves above all others, recounting devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, times of both poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy. Her life will be shaped by some of the most important events of history: the fight for women's rights, the rise and fall of tyrants, and, ultimately, not one but two pandemics.
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