New Skin (2026) Sarah Wang "Horror and coming-of-age genres wildly collide in Sarah Wang's inventive and brilliant debut novel New Skin. But her agenda is something more subtle: how do circumstance, culture and character combine to define us? Completely engaging, surprising and beautifully written, I couldn't stop reading."
Open Throat (2023) Henry Hoke "Henry Hoke's narrator is the most credible animal witness to human behavior since Robert Bresson's Balthazar. Original, fun and completely awakening, Open Throat is a devastating portrait of LA today."
The Daughter Ship (2023) Boo Trundle "I loved The Daughter Ship, a novel about sexual trauma in which a multiplicity of people are contained within each person, and trace elements of history migrate across generations. This is a witty, clear-eyed, and devastating debut."
Golden Age (2022) Wang Xiaobo "Like a Chinese Kurt Vonnegut. By turns lyrical and satirical, Wang Xiaobo's sexual comedies set during the Chinese Cultural Revolution are as improbable as that genre sounds. His long overdue publication in English comes as a gift. Golden Age is funny and brave and profound."
The Appointment (2020) Katharina Volckmer "Surprising, inventive, disturbing and beautiful. I inhaled all its meanness and rancor at the beginning, which felt like a breath of fresh air. Even though I knew it would eventually turn, I was surprised and moved when it did. The Appointment is an overdue, radical intervention."
Talking Animals (2020) Joni Murphy "Joni Murphy’s inventive and beautiful allegory depicts a city enmeshed in climate collapse, blinded to the signs of its imminent destruction by petty hatreds and monstrous greed: that is, the world we are living in now. Talking Animals is an Orwellian tale of totalitarianism in action, but the animals on this farm are much cuter, and they make better puns."
Wild Swims (2020) Dorthe Nors "Nors's writing creeps up on you, and then overwhelms you with its emotional power. She is a master."
Born Slippy (2020) Tom Lutz "A highly literary and always engaging 21st century noir... Born Slippy confronts contemporaryquestions about the relativity of evil that no one can dodge."
Paradise Rot (2018) Jenny Hval "In Paradise Rot, Jenny Hval creates a parallel world that’s familiar but subtly skewed. As intriguing and impressive a novelist as she is a musician, Hval is a master of quiet horror and wonder."
