Most recent staff pick: A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib
"Oh man, this book got me good. I felt wrung out and raw after it loosed its grip on me. If you've read any of Hanif Abdurraqib's writing before then you have already made up your mind to purchase this book. Here he crowns his heroes, lifts luminaries from the gloom, shines light into neglected corners of pop-cultural history, and grapples poetically with a host of demons both internal and external. In an age of bullshit and artifice, this book feels shockingly genuine, and therefore is a gift to anyone who reads it."
As difficult to classify as it is to put down, this was just so much fun to read. McBride is a natural storyteller, a natural entertainer. Man, I wanted to spend a lot more time with these characters!
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award
From the author of the New York Times bestseller Empire of Pain—a stunning, intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions
“A gripping, sinister fable!” —Margaret Atwood, via Twitter
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR:
NPR • GLAMOUR • GOOD HOUSEKEEPING • LIT HUB • THRILLIST
"Beautiful yet devastating. Academic yet accessible. Original scholarship in the service of powerful narrative and vice versa. Feels truly groundbreaking."
Another one of my favorite creepy, open-ended, beautifully written "thrillers." Doesn't easily fit into the genre but it's definitely full of mystery and suspense. It's like that unsetlling realization you've gotten on the wrong bus and won't be able to get off till the end of the line.
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What a beautiful, powerful, devastating novel, full of a humanity we so desperately need right now. This one will stay with you for a long time.
A harrowing and illuminating reframing of the American horror story and a rhetorical masterwork from the author of The Warmth of Other Suns.
Creepy, absurd, deeply moving, and chock full of unforgettable characters, ridiculous situations and beautiful, haunting prose.
Did not expect to fall so deeply into this elegantly observed, melancholic novel about David Hockney, an artist I honestly didn't know anything about before picking this up. Just goes to show you the power of great writing and great storytelling to open up doors and windows where there previously weren't any. A gorgeous gem.
Hands down my favorite contemporary crime series. Wise-cracking, substance-abusing, pop-culture-referencing Catholic cop on a Protestant police force in 1980s Northern Ireland. This series just works, and gets better and better with each book. There's also a great sense of humor and a devotion to devilishly and classically constructed mysteries.
Shout-out God-Level Knowledge Darts, number one book on late-night, only illustrious pages!! YERRR YERRRRRR!!
"What can I say? From page one it has that Ferrante magic, pulling you into its detail-rich world, balancing an abundance of external events with her signature mesmerizing interiority. My very high expectations were met and exceeded with this new novel."
"Beautifully written vignettes about birds and the natural world and so much else, destined to be an offbeat classic in the genre. An essential on your nature writing shelf."
"Oh man, this book got me good. I felt wrung out and raw after it loosed its grip on me. If you've read any of Hanif Abdurraqib's writing before then you have already made up your mind to purchase this book. Here he crowns his heroes, lifts luminaries from the gloom, shines light into neglected corners of pop culture history, and grapples poetically with a host of demons both internal and external. In an age of bullshit and artifice, this book feels shockingly genuine, and therefore is a gift to anyone who reads it."
"Yes, some physical distances are covered in the course of this marvel of a book, as implied by the title. But from page one it is clear that the journeys that matter most to protagonist Krishan are through time and memory, the space his mind is prepared to traverse as it pendulates freely through the past, lingering on joys and traumas alike in order to make sense and give meaning to the present. A Passage North was a tonic to me, a book I could luxuriate into with its pages-long paragraphs and slowly unfurling sentences, with its disregard for the conventional machinations of plot or movement. It persuaded me to slow down and acclimate to a depth and pacing of thought unusual in my reading adventures and modern life in general. And it brought me to a part of the world, Sri Lanka, unfamiliar to me, brought to life its history and the lived experience of its people. So happy I crossed paths with this book and can't wait to start selling it."