Six Books You Don't Want to Miss This Spring

On February 10 I wrote a piece about seven books published in January-February that I was looking forward to reading. Today’s post is a follow-up preview of books that will be published in April and May. I’ve read two of them already, and the others are on the top of my TBR stack. You can’t go wrong with Jennifer Haigh, Amity Gaige, Anne Berest, Mary Morris, and Barbara Linn Probst. The wild card is Lauren Stienstra, who debuts with a speculative fiction novel that sounds very intriguing (it’s giving me Never Let Me Go vibes).

Rabbit Moon – Jennifer Haigh (Little, Brown, Apr. 1)

I’ve been a big fan of Jennifer’s Haigh’s work since I discovered her with News from Heaven (2013), the linked story collection that served as a follow-up to her classic novel, Baker Towers (2005). Both books are set in Pennsylvania coal country, where Haigh grew up, as is Heat & Light (2016). All skillfully portray the lives of the people in small towns caught up in economic and social forces beyond their control.

Rabbit Moon is a departure; it’s set in Shanghai and is focused on a single family. Claire and Aaron Litvak have been divorced a few years when they learn that their daughter Lindsey, 22, who is teaching English in China, has been seriously injured in a car accident. When they arrive in Shanghai, they find that Lindsey’s life is not what they were led to believe. Both the city and Lindsey are confusing and difficult to navigate. Slowly, we learn about the parents’ divorce, Lindsey’s estrangement from them, and her relationship with younger sister Grace, who was adopted as an infant from China.

Heartwood – Amity Gaige (Simon & Schuster, Apr. 1)

Amity Gaige has been writing probing character studies with elegant prose for more than 20 years. Now she’s primed to hit the bestseller lists with Heartwood, which will be Read with Jenna’s April selection. Gaige continues her move, started with 2020’s Sea Wife, to literary mysteries that examine the complex relationship the protagonists have with both nature and family members. Here, 42-year-old hiker Valerie Gillis goes missing on the Appalachian Trial. The narrative moves among Valerie’s experiences, the Maine game warden trying to find her, and an elderly woman in Connecticut who is following the story on the news and playing armchair detective. Naturally, little is as it seems. Heartwood is a wilderness survival story, a mystery, and an exploration of a mother-daughter relationship. Highly recommended for fans of Angie Kim’s novels, Miracle Creek and Happiness Falls.

The Beauty of the End – Lauren Stienstra (Little a, Apr. 1)

What if there was a biological clock for extinction in every living creature’s DNA and there are only four generations left for human beings? In this thought-provoking debut, Lauren Stienstra examines this shocking situation. Twin sisters Charlie and Maggie Tannehill decide to join the Mendelia, a government-run human husbandry program that designs embryos in the hope that a particular combination of genes will lead to a mutation that can save humanity. Charlie and Maggie struggle with the ethical implications but part ways when they it’s time to decide how much they are willing to sacrifice. The Beauty of the End draws on Stienstra’s experience as a public health scientist and crisis management consultant in its portrayal of life teetering on the edge.

Gabriële – Anne Berest & Claire Berest (Europa Editions, Apr. 22)

Anne Berest made a big impression with The Postcard, a hybrid of fiction and memoir that explored her family’s past and the effect it had on her life. She returns with a similar project, co-written with her sister, about the unusual and influential life of their great-grandmother, Gabriële Buffet. In 1908, young Gabriële, fresh out of an elite music school, falls in love with a volatile Spanish artist named Francis Picabia; they marry and join the revolutionary movement in Paris that is experimenting with new ways of living and making art. Before long, Gabriële falls for Marcel Duchamp, a younger artist, and the three pursue a unique relationship. Together they help revolutionize art. Gabriële considers how new ways of living and loving can influence creativity through the life and loves of this uninhibited, brave, and talented woman.

The Red House – Mary Morris (Doubleday, May 13)

The Red House is a story of the haunted legacy of a mother who disappeared – and her hidden past in WWII Italy. Viola left behind mysterious paintings of a red house with a cryptic message scrawled on the back, but she was never found. Thirty years later, her daughter Laura, also an artist, decides to return to Italy, where she lived briefly before the family moved to New Jersey in search of the American Dream. She hopes to discover why her mother refused to talk about her life before she married; perhaps that will explain what the paintings mean and why her mother disappeared. Her search takes her to Puglia in the south, then to Naples, and eventually north to Turin. She uncovers long-buried secrets and begins to understand the legacy of trauma that shaped her life.

Roll the Sun Across the Sky – Barbara Linn Probst (SWP, May 13)

Barbara Linn Probst has made exploring the desires and creative ambitions of women her specialty across three novels (Queen of the Owls, The Sound Between the Notes, and The Color of Ice). In her latest novel she focuses on the reckless life of a woman and the effect her actions have across generations. Arden Rice has been married three times and has gone from poverty to wealth. Through it all, she has been determined to provide her daughter with the best life possible. A tragic accident sets in motion Arden’s investigation into her own past and the difficult person her daughter has become. But now her concerns have shifted to her granddaughter. Probst is especially good at creating flawed but still sympathetic characters while keeping the pages turning.