Spring’s finally on my horizon, optimist as I am. Quite a few goodies to tide us over until it properly arrives beginning with Adelle Waldman’s Help Wanted set in a superstore where the poorly managed, poorly paid logistics team start their day at 3.55 am, restocking the shelves. With a promotion in the offing, the team members stitch together an unlikely plot that might benefit them all. ‘Help Wanted is a darkly comic workplace drama that explores the aches and uses of solidarity, and most of all it is a deeply humane portrait of people trying, against increasingly long odds, to make a living’ says the blurb making me hopeful for a cheering read.
Michael Donker’s Grow Where They Fall begins when Kwame is ten, always the good boy until his cousin turns up from Ghana. Twenty years later, he’s a popular secondary school teacher, apparently happy and confident but still living a cautious life until the arrival of a new headteacher forces him to face events from his childhood. ‘Grow Where They Fall is a beautifully written, spirited and deeply moving novel about a young man finding the courage to expand the limits of who he might become’ says the blurb, encouragingly.
Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr sees a young man trying to get to the bottom of his mother’s death in a plane shot down over the Persian Gulf when he was a baby. A dying artist points him towards clues which will lead to revelations overturning all that he thought he knew about her. ’Electrifying, funny, wholly original, and profound, Martyr! heralds the arrival of a blazing and essential new voice in contemporary fiction’ according to the blurb. Not entirely sure about this one but it sounds worth a look.
The setting of Rowan Beaird’s The Divorcées brought to mind Jane Rule’s 1960s lesbian classic Desert of the Heart, although
that’s where the resemblance ends. In the ‘50s and ‘60s, women went to Reno, Nevada to put an end to their marriages, fulfilling the state’s six-week residency requirement on ‘divorce ranches’. Lois Saunders finds herself falling under the spell of Greer Lange, spending their days riding in the desert and their nights flirting with cowboys. Greer, however, might not be as trustworthy as she seems. ‘Set in the glamourous, dizzying world of 1950s Reno, The Divorcees is a dark, riveting page-turner and a dazzling exploration of female friendship, desire, and freedom’ say the publishers. Not entirely sure about this one, either, but I’ve been seduced by that cover.
Lisa Ko’s Memory Piece follows three American women of Chinese heritage who first meet in 1983, aged twelve, and maintain a connection into their seventies in a dystopian near future. Each of the friends has a lengthy narrative section following the very different directions their lives take. Giselle’s thread follows her career as an artist, Jackie guides us through the development of the internet and Ellen is the inveterate activist, always on the fringes of the others’ lives. Tough to keep these three narratives from diverging too far – there was a point when I wondered if Ko might be losing her way but she brings her characters satisfyingly back together with their final project. Her ambitious novel left me both impressed and with a great deal to think about. Review to follow…
Mary Costello’s Academy Street is one of my favourite books so I was delighted when a proof of her new short story collection, Barcelona, popped through my letter box. 
Many of the characters in its nine stories find themselves facing revelatory moments of crisis: disappointments brought into stark relief; misunderstandings, incompatibilities and an awareness that habits and views are set and will not change come into sharp focus. Several characters are troubled by animal cruelty – more squeamish readers, like me, might find themselves skipping bits including a graphic description of an abattoir. Costello’s writing is as satisfyingly accomplished as ever but while I enjoyed most of the stories I wasn’t as thrilled as I’d expected to be. Review shortly…
That’s it for March’s first batch of new fiction. As ever, a click on a title will take you to a more detailed synopsis for any that take you fancy. Part two soon…
I’m planning to read the Akbar, Costello and Ko — I’ve read most (all?) of their published work.
I’ll be interested to see how you get on with the Akbar.
I love his poetry, but I agree the synopsis for this sounds a bit mad. I was encouraged to hear that Lauren Groff eviscerated the manuscript and then helped him get a book out of it!
That’s interesting! There seems to be a reasonable amount of hype around it. Perhaps it’s the Groff connection.
These sound promising. Hats off for another intriguing roundup. I just managed to find a novel from a past review of yours in a charity shop for one pound! Victoria Park, by Gemma Reeves. Really looking forward to reading it, it is exactly up my alley right now!
Thank you, Jennifer. I remember Victoria Park as a very nicely turned out comfort read, the kind that restores your faith in human nature. Hope you enjoy it.
I’ve just finished Barcelona. I’m in awe of Costello’s writing, but found some of the stories slighter than others. Memory Piece really appeals.
I was left a little disappointed probably because I was expecting so much from it. I’d recommend Memory Piece, though.
These are all appealing, and Help Wanted especially – a cheering read is welcome! Thank goodness it’s nearly Spring!
Such a relief to have it in our sights although I might not think it so near if I lived in Scotland!
I think I could be persuaded to give Help Wanted a go. After a few bleak novels, this could be a welcome antidote
Without giving anything away, I’d describe it as a pretty positive novel. Bleak feels even bleaker given the news and the weather for me at the moment.
Am heartily sick of all this rain. So good to wake this morning to blue skies.
I’d be all over the idea of Help Wanted, loving a good workplace tale, but the “darkly” gives me pause. At 3:55 am things could be very dark indeed.
Ah, those horrible waking in the early hours dark thoughts. I’d recommend this one which. Much more positive than negative.
Help Wanted! I need that one. I worked Christmas retail a couple of years ago (and worked retail in the 80s) should be a good read.
I’m sure it’ll strike a few chords then. My only experience of retail is bookselling but it’s clear that Waldman knows what she’s talking about. I enjoyed it.
I do like the sound of Help Wanted. Work places are such good places for storytelling. However Memory Piece appeals even more.
I’d recommend both. It’s a mystery to me why we don’t have more workplace novels given how much time we spend in them.
I’m on the wait list for Martyr! which has received a lot of good press. I have read Help Wanted (a bit different) and did a Q&A with the author at: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/94094-working-for-a-living-pw-talks-with-adelle-waldman.html
Thanks for the link. Interesting interview – I thought she must be writing from experience. Her writing seemed heartfelt.
Memory Piece is the one of these I have, so I’ll look forward to your review, probably sitting somewhere in my blog backlog!
Yet to post that one but I’m contemplating including it on my Women’s Prize for Fiction wish list!
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