Vol.1 Brooklyn’s December 2016 Book Preview

December is frequently a quiet month for new books, and this year is no exception. That doesn’t mean that there’s nothing new coming out, however–those of you keeping an eye on the new releases shelf of your local bookstore can take in an array of interesting work in translation, as well as a number of notable books being brought back into print in new editions. Here’s a sampling of the books that have our attention for this month.

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#tobyreads: Distant Cities and Haunted Narratives

For a split-second, let’s talk about cities in prose. Maybe they’re not far yet remain unfamiliar; maybe they’re on the other side of the world. Maybe they’re cities from which we’re separated by time; maybe they’re cities that never existed at all. These three books chronicle scenes and observations from all of the above; they’re works that provoke and get under your skin.

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#tobyreads: Protests and Discontent, Then, Now, and Soon

When Lauren Beukes is on point, she unsettles like few other writers. Her novel Zoo City is both metaphorically and literally terrifying. In it, animals become tethered to people because of guilt; separating the two leads to horrific, catastrophic events, and society becomes subtly and bleakly changed as a result. The Shining Girls brought together the story of a time-traveling serial killer with a resonant portrayal of Chicago in the 1990s. I haven’t yet read her new novel Broken Monsters, but a number of smart readers I […]

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