Mercury, by Amy Jo Burns
Burns’s second novel introduces the Josephs, a roofing family in Mercury, Pa., who — along with a young woman in search of her own place in the world — find themselves at an inflection point forged by long-ago choices.
Celadon, Jan. 2
This ambitious and sweeping debut novel explores the fallout of a Malayan woman’s decision to become a spy for Japanese forces during World War II. Seduced by promises of an “Asia for Asians,” she instead helps usher in a brutal occupation with devastating costs for her family.
Marysue Rucci Books, Jan. 2
Ædnan: An Epic, by Linnea Axelsson; translated by Saskia Vogel
Axelsson’s novel in verse, about the challenges confronting two Sámi families during 100 years of colonialism and migration, won Sweden’s top literary prize in 2018. The book opens in the 1910s with an accident among reindeer herders and culminates a century later with a battle over land rights and Indigenous reparations.
Knopf, Jan. 9