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It has been an unbearable winter in some pockets of the country, with people ready for spring. Along with somewhat warmer weather, this March some highly anticipated book releases are arriving to brighten your day. They include a collection of award-winning science fiction stories and Ibram X. Kendi’s latest meditation on racial politics.
‘Now I Surrender’ by Álvaro Enrigue
Described as “part epic, part alt-Western,” Enrigue’s latest novel reimagines a 19th-century war between the Apaches, Mexico and the United States. The conflict begins with the abduction of a young Mexican woman by the tribe.
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Most of the story focuses on Geronimo, the Apache leader, and the title refers to his final surrender to U.S. forces in 1886. Enrigue’s approach to the story “isn’t so much to lament the end of Apachería” as it is to “admire the steeliness of a tribe that survived centuries-long attempts to subdue it,” said Kirkus Reviews. “A curious but effective treatment of an underappreciated effort to resist imperialism.” (March 3, $30, Penguin Random House, Amazon)
‘Whidbey: A Novel’ by T Kira Madden
Seven years after the release of her memoir, “Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls,” T Kira Madden’s debut novel has arrived. It’s a “tense, atmospheric thriller” set on an island near Seattle, said Esquire.
When a predator is murdered, his mother and two of his victims must “reckon with the ensuing secrets, confusion and darkness.” A woman running from the man who abused her as a child has a chance meeting with a stranger who promises to kill the stranger — all days before the abuser is murdered. In Madden’s hands, the novel is “so much more than a noir story,” said Electric Literature. The book “gives voice to survivors of sexual abuse and rape, claiming power not only from assailants” but from a “broken justice system and the media.” (March 10, $24, Harper Collins, Amazon)
‘Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age’ by Ibram X. Kendi
Author of “Stamped from the Beginning” and “How to Be an Antiracist,” Ibram X. Kendi is back with another book about the “state of Western bigotry,” said The New York Times. This time, he focuses on the “great replacement theory,” the concept of an “elite conspiracy to nudge white people in Europe and the United States off the map” by encouraging “low birthrates and promoting an influx of Black and brown immigrants.” Kendi argues that the theory “animates much of our politics today” while tracing its evolution from the “tirades of a French novelist to halls of power in Viktor Orban’s Hungary and Donald Trump’s America.” (March 17, $35, Penguin Random House, Amazon)
‘Seasons of Glass & Iron: Stories’ by Amal El-Mohtar
The acclaimed science fiction writer presents a collection of previously published short stories and poetry. The book includes the eponymous Nebula and Hugo Award-winning fantasy short story, “Seasons of Glass and Iron,” which is a feminist retelling of two fairy tales.
The book features a variety of formats, such as letters, diary entries and folktales and blends “fantasy, magical realism and speculative fiction,” rooted in “history, myth or legend,” said Publishers Weekly. The tales range across time and place but are connected by El-Mohtar’s love of women. The poetry, presented in both English and Arabic, “delves into real-world struggles while still showcasing El-Mohtar’s characteristic lyricism and striking imagery.” (March 24, $25, Macmillan, Amazon)
‘Son of Nobody: A Novel’ by Yann Martel
The Canadian author of the international bestseller “Life of Pi” is back with his sixth novel. It follows an Oxford scholar’s interpretation of an ancient Greek epic poem called “The Psoad,” which tells the story of the Trojan War from the point of view of a common soldier.
Parallel to this “imagined Greek text” is the scholar’s footnoted commentary, “part faux academic and part plain-spoken,” said Kirkus Reviews. The story is a “powerful meditation on life, death and the vanity of human wishes, all illustrated by a poem that would do Homer proud.” (March 31, $30, W.W. Norton & Company, Amazon)
