Finding the Truth in Fiction: Great 2024 Works from The New School Community
Titles that caught our attention during the past 12 months.
Fourteen Days, by (among others) Mira Jacob (Assistant Professor of Writing), HarperCollins.
One week into the Covid-19 lockdown, tenants of a Lower East Side tenement begin gathering on the rooftop to tell their (socially distanced) stories. In the process, people who barely knew one another become real neighbors. A serial novel, including contributions from authors as renowned and varied as Erica Jong, Dave Eggers, Sylvia Ng, Tommy Orange, and Ishmael Reed. Edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston, with proceeds from the book’s sales benefitting the Authors Guild.
America’s Dreaming, by Bob McKinnon (Assistant Professor at Parsons School of Design), Penguin Random House.
The first day at a new school turns out to be a nightmare for little America until the teacher rolls out the “Welcome Wagon” – a cartful of books about real-life figures who also had trouble feeling accepted. During her sleep that night, the stories of Amelia Earhart, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Emma Lazarus feed her dreams and inspire her to return to school to make them come true. “Heartwarming and thought-provoking,” says School Library Journal, calling it “a valuable addition to any library or classroom collection.”
Invisible Woman, by Katia Lief (Part-time Associate Teaching Professor), Grove Atlantic.
Once, Joni Ackerman was on the cusp of a breakthrough film directing career. Instead, 25 years later she’s a Brooklyn mother whose husband is about to launch a production studio. Then a film industry scandal surfaces long-buried secrets, and the line between Joni’s taste in literary thrillers and her real life blurs. “Attention, suspense readers: get ready to gasp. Attention, book clubs: get ready to argue,” cautions best-selling novelist A.J. Finn, who calls this a high-tension mystery “with brains in its head and ice in its veins.”
Mama’s Shoes, by Caron Levis (Assistant Professor and Chair in Writing for Children/YA MFA program), Abrams Books.
A book for toddlers, and parents, dealing with separation anxiety. Perry knows all of her Mama’s shoes until one morning Mama puts on new “click-clack” shoes, drops Perry at a friend’s house, and disappears for the whole day. Perry’s natural response is to hide those hateful shoes – and, for good measure, all Mama’s other shoes too. There’s a resolution, naturally, about how what takes Mama away also brings her home every night.
The Stolen Child, by Anne Hood (Part-time Associate Teaching Professor), W.W. Norton Books.
It’s 1974, and a World War I veteran with only months to live returns to France to solve a mystery from his youth: Why did an artist he befriended suddenly thrust her paintings, and her child, into his hands, then disappear? He enlists the help of a young woman, and together, Nick, the curmudgeon, and Jenny, the hopeless romantic, unravel a tale that forces reckonings with their own life choices. “I had my fingers crossed,” writes novelist Ann Napolitano, “that they would find not only what they were looking for, but themselves.”
And don’t overlook these previously highlighted titles:
Beautyland, by Marie-Helene Bertino (Adjunct Professor, Creative Writing), Macmillan.
As Voyager 1 lifts off, carrying its famous “sounds of Earth” golden LP across the solar system, an unusual baby is born in Philadelphia. As a child, she recognizes that she is different, and possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine then enables her to contact extraterrestrial relatives who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings. A funny-sad novel with an outer space visitor for our era, and one of The New York Times’s 100 Notable Books for 2024.
The Witches of El Paso, by Luis Jaramillo (Assistant Professor of Writing), Simon & Schuster.
A struggling lawyer and her 93-year-old great aunt embark on a quest that crosses borders of space and time in search of a lost child – in the process, discovering (and rediscovering) supernatural gifts, and the powers and price they involve. A debut novel that author Mira Jacob calls a “sexy, smart, and soulful” tale of familial survival in a fractured world.
After David, by Catherine Texier (Assistant Professor of Creative Writing), ITNA Press.
Ignoring the concerns of friends and family, a 60-something recent divorcee begins having casual sex with younger men she meets online. An ensuing, revitalizing affair with a man nearly half her age tempts her to leave behind complicated memories of a failed marriage. “In the deft, sensuous prose she’s known for,” writes novelist Elizabeth Crane, “Catherine Texier reminds us that women of a certain age still have desire, and still are desired.”
Lauren Leiker is a research assistant and Bruce Cory is editorial advisor at the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School.