There are plenty of terrific books coming out in early 2025 and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is already making plans to cover a lot of them, but when it comes to books I’m itching to read in the first quarter of the year, the vast majority come out in March. Here are eight I’m looking forward to.
Credit: Knopf
Credit: Knopf
It’s been 14 years since we’ve had a full-length novel from Miami native Karen Russell, a brilliant Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of both MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships. Advance word is that it’s well worth the wait. Set in Nebraska during the Dust Bowl, “The Antidote” follows the exploits of five primary characters: Prairie Witch, who holds all the townspeople’s bad memories so they can forget them; her apprentice; the only farmer who doesn’t lose his farm; a scarecrow; and a New Deal photographer whose pictures capture images of the town not visible to the naked eye. Blending elements of history and fantasy, Russell’s latest explores colonialism, misogyny, social injustice and the erasure of history. (Knopf, March 11)
Credit: Berkley
Credit: Berkley
“Jane and Dan at the End of the World” by Colleen Oakley
After 19 years of marriage, raising teenage kids who don’t seem to need her anymore and a stalled writing career, Jane decides to ask Dan for a divorce over dinner on their wedding anniversary at La Fin du Monde restaurant. But before she can get the words out, a group of activists burst in and take the diners captive. To Jane’s surprise, everything her captors do and say echoes the action and dialogue of her failed novel. And that means she and Dan have the advantage over their fellow captives because they know what’s going to happen next. From the Atlanta author of “The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise.” (Berkley, March 11)
Credit: Atria Books
Credit: Atria Books
“The Story Left Behind” by Patti Callahan Henry
Author of “The Secret Book of Flora Lea,” Patti Callahan Henry returns to the English countryside and another literary mystery with her new novel. It begins in South Carolina when 8-year-old Clara’s mother, author of a popular book written in an invented language, disappears, taking with her all hope of translating the book’s sequel. Twenty-five years later a man named Charlie calls Clara from England to say he has a dictionary of her mother’s made-up language. When Clara crosses the pond with her daughter to claim the dictionary, a historic natural disaster — the Great Smog — forces them to take refuge at Charlie’s family retreat in the Lake district where long buried truths are revealed. (Atria Books, March 18)
Credit: Penguin Random House
Credit: Penguin Random House
“Everybody Says It’s Everything” by Xhenet Alíu
Xhenet Alíu continues to explore themes of family, love and the Albanian immigrant experience with her follow-up to the 2019 Townsend Prize winning novel “Brass.” Her new novel centers on twins Drita and Pete who pursue different paths in their youth growing up in Connecticut. Now in her 20s, Drita hasn’t seen Pete in three years. She’s abandoned her studies and returned home to care for their mother when Pete’s girlfriend and son show up in need of help. Hoping for a second chance at making a family, Drita embarks on a journey that reveals secrets about her Albanian roots, the Kosovo war and the twins’ adoption. (Penguin Random House, March 18)
Credit: The MIT Press
Credit: The MIT Press
“Sweet and Deadly” by Murray Carpenter
Hometown beverage Goliath the Coca-Cola Company comes under fire in this investigation by Murray Carpenter, a writer with degrees in psychology and environmental science who’s been published in The New York Times, Wired, National Geographic and NPR. Not only is Coke a primary contributor to an epidemic of chronic diseases, writes Carpenter, but the company has covered up the truth by disseminating misinformation. (The MIT Press, March 25)
Credit: Gallery Books
Credit: Gallery Books
“Harriet Tubman: Live and In Concert” by Bob the Drag Queen
Columbus native Bob the Drag Queen, season eight winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” makes his literary debut with this bonkers-sounding novel that combines fantasy, history, humor and hope. Harriet Tubman and four enslaved people she helped gain freedom come back to life and collab with Darnell Williams, a successful hip-hop producer who’s recently been canceled, to produce an album she can take on tour. In the process they confront the disturbing realities of their pasts and lay the groundwork for a better future. (Gallery Books, March 25)
Credit: Kensington
Credit: Kensington
“Gothictown” by Emily Carpenter
When Billie Hope gets an offer she can’t refuse, she moves her family from a cramped New York City rental to a Victorian mansion in fictitious Juliana, Georgia, to open a new restaurant as part of an initiative to invigorate the town. But haunting dreams, a strained marriage and a cadre of pushy town elders are starting to make her think it wasn’t such a good idea. The Atlanta author’s previous book was “Reviving the Hawthorne Sisters.” (Kensington, March 25)
Credit: Crown
Credit: Crown
“There is No Place for Us” by Brian Goldstone
Atlanta journalist Brian Goldstone, who has a Ph.D. in anthropology from Duke University, explores the plight of the working homeless — people with full-time jobs who can’t afford to house themselves — in this sobering nonfiction report. He focuses on five people in Atlanta: a couple of newcomers priced out of D.C., a social worker, a warehouse employee undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer, a housing voucher recipient and a woman who mops floors at a hospital and dreams of starting her own cleaning business. It is a sobering look at the hidden homeless. (Crown, March 25)
Suzanne Van Atten is a book critic and contributing editor to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She may be reached at Suzanne.VanAtten@ajc.com.
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