On long slow languid afternoons on the first warm days of the year, there are few things better than sprawling out on a picnic blanket in the sun and picking up a good read. Luckily, there are plenty of new gems to choose from right now. This April, a slate of beloved authors make their much-anticipated returns.
Maria Semple, the New York Times-bestselling author of Where’d You Go Bernadette ends her nine-year fiction hiatus with a novel that takes readers on another of her signature twisty journeys. Patrick Radden Keefe, author of New York Times-bestseller Say Nothing, delivers his eagerly anticipated London Falling, another deeply researched work of nonfiction with enough plot twists to read as a novel. Pulitzer Prize nominee Xochitl Gonzalez’s vibrant and touching third book reimagines The Great Gatsby set in 2008 Brooklyn.
For those seeking fresh voices in literature, there are also a gaggle of much talked-about debuts sure to make a splash. Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear, which follows the struggles of a social media tradwife after she’s transported to 1855, is already being adapted into a film starring Anne Hathaway. Jane Park’s Inheritance, which centers on a grieving daughter of immigrants, has all the wisdom of an author well into their career.
Set between North Korea, Idaho, rance and beyond, this month’s reads are there to take you on an adventure, even if you never leave your sunny spot in the park.
Content warning: This story mentions suicide.
As Far as She Knew by Diana Awad
Out April 7. Journalist-turned-author Diana Awad makes her debut with a women’s fiction work that follows Amira Abadi, a fiercely devoted wife and mother of two left grief-stricken when her husband, Ali, is killed in a car accident. Her depression turns to confusion, however, when she learns that Ali had been hiding his a home in another state, prompting questions about the possibility he was leading a double life. Battling against the speculative chatter of her Arab-American community and her utmost desire to protect her children, Amira investigates the days leading up to her husband’s demise — bringing her ever closer into danger.
American Fantasy by Emma Straub
Out April 7. Annie, a recently divorced marketing executive, boards a four-day cruise featuring her childhood favorite boyband, Boy Talk, as the on-ship entertainment. Through concerts, VIP parties, and costumed nights, readers follow Annie on her collision course with the band’s brooding frontman, Keith, for a moment of kismet. An exploration of middle age, perimenopause, and the effects of early fame, Straub’s seventh novel for adults is a joyful testament to life’s never-ending possibilities.
Inheritance by Jane Park
Out April 7. Anne Kim has spent her adulthood as a Yale-educated lawyer in New York City trying to forget her growing up in rural Alberta under the crushing weight of her father’s expectations. After he suddenly dies of a stroke, Anne must return to Edmonton to support her mother, picking up her brother Charles from rehab along the way. In the days after his death, as she grapples with her memories of childhood, Anne makes a discovery — her father was not South Korean as she had believed, but North Korean, and had left his brother behind when he fled. Told through both Anne’s perspective and through her father’s letters to his brother detailing his new life, Anne contends with the outline of the man she once knew and the one laid out before her.
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Out April 7. Natalie Heller Mills aka @YesteryearRanch has found a loyal audience by posting about homesteading on her Idaho farm, tradwife life with her hunky cowboy husband, and her impossibly perfect children. Behind the scenes, however, a scandal and increasing scrutiny into her picture-perfect world leave her shaken. Then, with a jolt, Natalie wakes up in 1855, cold, scared, and forced to survive as a true pioneer woman. Laden with irony, Burke’s twisty, witty debut sparks questions about womanhood and power.
Like This But Funnier by Hallie Cantor
Out April 7.
Caroline Neumann has struggled for years as a TV writer in Hollywood, never quite landing her big break. Her husband is a therapist, and after discovering his notes on a patient he refers to as the Teacher, she accidentally pitches a show inspired by the man’s deepest secrets. Faced with a decision that could cost her marriage, Caroline balances her professional goals against the weight of her own moral compass. Features editor Nolan Feeney says, “Caroline’s tortured feelings about her own ambition will resonate with anyone in a love-hate relationship with their creative field, as will the too-real chapter told entirely through an email chain of assistants trying to schedule drinks.”
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe
Out April 7. In 2019, teenager Zac Brettler’s body was discovered in the River Thames, his death an apparent suicide. Grasping for answers and receiving little help from the police, his parents launched their own investigation which led to a startling discovery: Zac had spent the last few years posing as the son of a Russian oligarch and had been swallowed into London’s criminal underbelly. Keefe traces the story from London to Uganda to Russia with rigorous reporting on Zac’s life, his parents’ endless efforts to get justice, and the secretive network of England’s criminal network. For all its twists and turns, at its core, London Falling is an exploration of one family’s desperate expression of grief.
The Model Patient by Lucy Ashe
Out April 14. Former model and newlywed Evelyn Westbrook is unraveling. In search of fulfillment, she begins to see the alluring Dr. Daley, a renowned psychotherapist. As he threatens to dig into her dark past, Evelyn finds herself caught in the throes of a deep obsession with him. Set in 1960s London alongside the rise of the birth control pill, Evelyn must search within herself and her past to untangle herself from Dr. Daley’s web and reclaim her power. Based on her own experiences with therapy, Ashe explores power dynamics and the blurry boundaries that can exist between doctor and patient.
Go Gentle by Maria Semple
Out April 14. Adora Hazzard is a recently-divorced and discontented TV writer living in The Ansonia, an iconic building in New York, where she assembles a “coven” of likeminded older women. A follower of the Stoic philosophy, which preaches that its followers focus only on what they can control, Adora takes an odd job as the private moral philosophy tutor for the twin boys of a well-heeled family. But, when Adora is seduced by a stranger at the ballet, her world descends into heists and global black markets. Witty, silly, and dreamlike, Semple is decidedly back.
American Spirits by Anna Dorn
Out April 14. Blue Velour, a 38-year-old Lana Del Rey-esque musician, is riding high after her sixth album finally thrust her into the spotlight. Contending with the new demands placed on her, she hires a fan, Rose Lutz, as her assistant. Little does Blue know that Rose is the creator of a subreddit dedicated to obsessively investigating whether she and her long-time producer Sasha Harlow are secretly together. When the pandemic halts her tour, the three gather in a remote cabin to create another album. A fever dream that spirals toward tragedy, Dorn’s latest is an exploration of the realities of fame and unrelenting fandom.
Last Night in Brooklyn by Xochitl Gonzalez
Out April 21. Set on the cusp of the 2008 financial crisis, this modern retelling of The Great Gatsby casts 26-year-old Alicia Canales Forten in place of the original narrator, outsider Nick Carraway. Living in her mother’s house while working in advertising, Alicia finds herself thrust into the life of her enigmatic and exuberant fashion designer neighbor, La Garza, known for her extravagant houseparties. Part love letter to New York’s Black and Latinx communities, part historical record of Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood pre-gentrification, Gonzalez follows up on her New York Times– bestselling book Olga Dies Dreaming with a novel that is both witty and deeply sincere.
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