Books We Can’t Wait to Read in August 2021

Fiction

Radiant Fugitives by Nawaaz Ahmed - August 3 (Counterpoint Press)

A tour-de-force debut following three generations of a Muslim-Indian family confronted with a nation on the brink of change in Obama-era San Francisco and Texas with a blockbuster ending you have to read to believe.

All’s Well by Mona Awad - August 3 (Simon & Schuster)

With prose Margaret Atwood has described as “no punches pulled, no hilarities dodged...genius,” Mona Awad has concocted her most potent, subversive novel yet. All’s Well is the story of a woman at her breaking point and a formidable, piercingly funny indictment of our collective refusal to witness and believe female pain.

The Husbands by Chandler Baker -August 3 (Flatiron Books)

Chandler Baker, the New York Times bestselling author of Whisper Network, is back with The Husbands, a novel that asks: to what lengths will a woman go for a little more help from her husband?

Holdout by Jeffrey Kluger - August 3 (Dutton Books)

When evil forces are going unchecked on Earth, a principled astronaut makes a spilt-second decision to try to seek justice in the only place she knows how--the International Space Station.

Afterparties: Stories by Anthony Veasna So - August 3 (Ecco Press)

In his posthumous debut collection of short stories, Afterparties: Stories, Anthony Veasna So captures the challenges and triumphs of a close-knit community of Cambodian Americans living in Southern California in the shadow of genocide.

Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson - August 3 ( Scribner Book Company

An epic, immersive debut, Damnation Spring is the deeply human story of a Pacific Northwest logging town wrenched in two by a mystery that threatens to derail its way of life.

Immediate Family by Ashley Nelson Levy - August 3 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

In Immediate Family, a tender and fierce debut novel, Ashley Nelson Levy explores the enduring bond between two siblings and the complexities of motherhood, infertility, race, and the many definitions of family.

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy - August 3 (Flatiron Books)

Propulsive and spell-binding, Charlotte McConaghy's Once There Were Wolves is the unforgettable story of a woman desperate to save the creatures she loves--if she isn't consumed by a wild that was once her refuge.

Savage Tongues by Azareen Van Der Vliet Oloomi - August 3 (Mariner Books)

Equal parts Marguerite Duras and Shirley Jackson, Rachel Cusk and Samanta Schweblin, Savage Tongues is a compulsive, unsettling, and bravely observed exploration of violence and eroticism, haunting and healing, and the profound intimacy born of the deepest pain.

Edge Case by Yz Chin - August 10 (Ecco Books)

When her husband suddenly disappears, a young woman must uncover where he went--and who she might be without him--in this striking debut of immigration, identity, and marriage.

Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket: Stories by Hilma Wolitzer - August 31 (Bloomsbury Publishing)

Of their time and yet timeless, Wolitzer's stories zero in on the domestic sphere with wit, candor, grace, and an acutely observant eye. Brilliantly capturing the tensions and contradictions of daily life, Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket is full of heart and insight, providing a lens into a world that was often unseen at the time, and often overlooked now-reintroducing a beloved writer to be embraced by a whole new generation of readers.

Three Rooms by Jo Hamya - August 31 (Mariner Books)

Set in one year, Three Rooms follows a young woman as she moves from a rented room at Oxford, where she's working as a research assistant; to a stranger's sofa, all she can afford as a copyediting temp at a society magazine; to her childhood home, where she's been forced to return, jobless, even a room of her own out of reach. As politics shift to nationalism, the streets fill with protestors, and news drip-feeds into her phone, she struggles to live a meaningful life on her own terms, unsure if she'll ever be able to afford to do so.

Nonfiction

Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption by Rafia Zakaria - August 17 (W. W. Norton & Company)

Upper-middle-class white women have long been heralded as “experts” on feminism. They have presided over multinational feminist organizations and written much of what we consider the feminist canon, espousing sexual liberation and satisfaction, LGBTQ inclusion, and racial solidarity, all while branding the language of the movement itself in whiteness and speaking over Black and Brown women in an effort to uphold privilege and perceived cultural superiority. An American Muslim woman, attorney, and political philosopher, Rafia Zakaria champions a reconstruction of feminism in Against White Feminism, centering women of color in this transformative overview and counter-manifesto to white feminism’s global, long-standing affinity with colonial, patriarchal, and white supremacist ideals.

Real Estate: A Living Autobiography by Deborah Levy - August 24 (Bloomsbury Publishing)

In this vibrant memoir, Levy employs her characteristic indelible writing, sharp wit, and acute insights to craft a searing examination of womanhood and ownership. Her inventory of possessions, real and imagined, pushes readers to question our cultural understanding of belonging and belongings and to consider the value of a woman's intellectual and personal life. Blending personal history, gender politics, philosophy, and literary theory, Real Estate is a brilliant, compulsively readable narrative.

God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning by Meghan O’Gieblyn - August 24 (Doubleday)

Meghan O'Gieblyn tackles this challenge with philosophical rigor, intellectual reach, essayistic verve, refreshing originality, and an ironic sense of contradiction. She draws deeply and sometimes humorously from her own personal experience as a formerly religious believer still haunted by questions of faith, and she serves as the best possible guide to navigating the territory we are all entering.

Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir by Kat Chow - August 24 (Grand Central)

For readers of Helen Macdonald and Elizabeth Alexander, an intimate and haunting portrait of grief and the search for meaning from a singular new talent as told through the prism of three generations of her Chinese American family.