Winter + Spring 2024 Publishing Preview

25 new books to put on your radar from January through April

While four seasons define the year, I think of the publishing world as having only three. Summer releases, which come out from May through August, are known for buzzy beach reads. Fall books, released from September through November, (December is a holiday dead-zone), are known for literary heavy hitters. The hybrid winter-spring releases from January through April are a combination of the two seasons and promise the most publishing range.

As I did for last year’s summer and fall releases, today I am sharing 25 of my most anticipated books coming out in January, February, March, and April. I have not yet read any of these books, but they each caught my eye because they’re written by a favorite author, the debut is published by an imprint that I trust, or it received a positive advance review.

What are you most looking forward to reading this winter and spring? Let me know in the comments below.

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January Releases

My Friends - Hisham Matar - Fiction - Release Date: January 9

I loved Hisham Matar’s 2017 Pulitzer Prize winning memoir, The Return, about Matar’s search for his father after he went missing under the Qaddafi regime. My Friends is Matar’s most recent novel, centering around a young man who moves to England from Benghazi and is swept up in anti-Qaddafi protests that leave him and his family in danger.

Valley Verified - Kyla Zhao - Fiction - Release Date: January 16

When a fashion writer reaches a dead end in New York, she decides to take a job in Silicon Valley for a tech startup to revamp its image. Placed in a new environment, Zoe must navigate hostile coworkers and the eccentricities of a new industry to find her footing. Valley Verified is inspired by the background of the author, who left her own job in fashion to work at a tech company in Silicon Valley.

Martyr! - Kaveh Akbar - Fiction - Release Date: January 23

Cyrus Shams is newly sober and grappling with the deaths of his Iranian immigrant parents. Looking for a connection to his past, Cyrus becomes obsessed with martyrs, including his uncle, who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to comfort the dying. His search for understanding leads him to the Brooklyn Museum, where he discovers a terminally ill painter who allows him to connect with his mother. This is a book that has earned praise from authors Tommy Orange and Lauren Groff, so I’m excited to give it a try.

Come and Get It - Kiley Reid - Fiction - Release Date: January 30

Millie is a senior at the University of Arkansas in 2017. When a visiting professor and writer offers Millie an unusual job opportunity, Millie eagerly accepts, seeing it as a unique jumpstart to her post-grad life. But the job quickly becomes messy, mixing the intrigue of “money, indiscretion, and bad behavior,” from the best-selling author of Such a Fun Age.

One Hour of Fervor - Muriel Barbery - Translated Fiction - Release Date: January 30

Months after a brief affair with a French woman, Haru, a successful Japanese art dealer, discovers that she is pregnant. Although he wants to be in his daughter’s life, the woman warns him that if he ever tries to see the child, she will kill herself. Respecting this demand, the daughter grows into adulthood, but a part of him always wonders if it’s too late for things to change. Muriel Barbery, author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, is known for her intriguing writing and this story sounds no different.

February Releases

Cahokia Jazz - Francis Spufford - Historical Fiction - Release Date: February 6

From the author of Light Perpetual and Golden Hill, Francis Spufford is back with Cahokia Jazz, a novel set in a slightly altered 1920s America. In this version of the country, Spufford questions how the course of American history would be different if the indigenous population had thrived instead of being pushed to the edges of American society. The story takes place in Cahokia, an ancient indigenous multiracial city beside the Mississippi River, which is thrown into disarray when a corpse is discovered on a roof.

Set for Life - Andrew Ewell - Fiction/Satire - February 6

A creative writing professor at a middling college struggling to work on his overdue novel sleeps with a close friend’s wife. Suddenly, this act of indiscretion gives him a feeling of freedom, which he hopes to use as inspiration for his novel and to get his career back on track. Set for Life is Andrew Ewell’s debut; a cutthroat satire on academia, art, and its overlapping boundaries with one’s life.

The Book of Love - Kelly Link - Fiction/Fantasy - February 13

A year after going missing and being presumed dead, three high schoolers make a bargain with their music teacher to bring them back to life. Their resurrection draws the attention of other supernatural figures, sowing chaos as the teens try to solve the mystery of their deaths. This is Kelly Link’s debut novel, although her short stories earned her the honor of being a 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Leaving - Roxana Robinson - Fiction - February 13

Sarah and Warren have not seen each other since their relationship ended in college. In the years since they have both married, had kids, and started a career. When they meet decades later the two begin an intense affair raising questions of fidelity, happiness, and to whom one owes loyalty.

Grief is for People - Sloane Crosley - Memoir - February 27

After Sloane Crosley lost her best friend to suicide, she turned to friends, philosophy, and art to try to find answers. This memoir is her attempt to reconcile her grief and sense of security with the unending questions posed by loss, particularly amidst a pandemic.

Wandering Stars - Tommy Orange - Fiction - February 27

Wandering Stars follows three generations of an indigenous family following the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and the subsequent founding of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution dedicated to eliminating indigenous culture, language, and identity. Star, the first generation, survives the massacre and is one of the original students of the school’s founder. Charles, Star’s son, is sent to the school where he is brutalized. The third generational narrative follows Orvil and his brother Lony, who are struggling to reconcile their family history with a recent deadly shooting. Tommy Orange is known for his 2018 Pulitzer Prize novel There, There, and Wandering Stars is being awaited with much anticipation.

March Releases

The Hunter - Tana French - Mystery/Thriller - March 5

Tana French is considered a classic crime novelist of this era. Her novels, set in Ireland, including In the Woods and The Trespasser, have been met with acclaim, particularly because of their emphasis on character and atmospheric development. Her latest, The Hunter, follows a retired police officer caught up in solving the mystery of a get-rich-quick scheme in rural Ireland.

Say Hello to My Little Friend - Jennine Capo Crucet - Fiction - March 5

This book is a bit hard to summarize. It involves a failed Pitbull impersonator who escaped from Cuba as a child and now lives in Miami. There’s also a captive orca at the Miami seaquarium. However, this book has positive blurbs from National Book Award winners Charles Yu, Lauren Groff, and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, which indicates that there might be more than originally meets the eye.

Great Expectations - Vinson Cunningham - Fiction - March 12

Vinson Cunningham is a theater critic for The New Yorker. Great Expectations is Cunningham’s highly anticipated debut novel about a young Black man’s experience working on a historic presidential campaign for the United States’ first Black president. This book is being hailed as a coming of age story about identity, politics, family, and the people we meet along the way.

Wild Houses - Colin Barrett - Fiction - March 19

At the end of my review for Colin Barrett’s short-story collection Homesickness, I said that I would read anything Barrett writes next. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to wait long for Barrett to release his debut novel about a frenetic revenge plot against a local dealer and the people caught up in its tangled violent web in a small town in County Mayo.

Memory Piece - Lisa Ko - Fiction - March 19

From the author of the National Book Award finalist The Leavers, Lisa Ko’s latest, Memory Piece, tracks the friendship of three women from their teenage years in the early 1980s through an imagined 2040s. Their friendship morphs as they age and the landscape around them shifts in a world different than what they imagined as kids.

There’s Always This Year - Hanif Adburraqib - Memoir/American Studies - March 26

As a basketball lover growing up in Columbus, Ohio in the 1990s, Hanif Adburraqib witnessed the ascent of LeBron James and the failure of others. The starkness between these two outcomes led Abdurraqib to try to discover what it means to succeed, excel, and thrive within society’s expectations. Abdurraqib is known for his beautiful writing, particularly after A Little Devil in America, and I’m eager to read this book that offers a fresh angle to superstars and sports fandom.

April Releases

Sociopath - Patric Gagne - Memoir/Psychopathology - April 2

Sociopath is Patric Gagne’s memoir about her sociopathy, which she felt all through her childhood but finally confirmed in college. Sociopath uses Gagne’s experience to tell a larger story about the condition generally, including its neglect by mental health professionals and its harmfully villainous portrayal in popular culture.

Table for Two - Amor Towles - Historical Fiction - April 2

Amor Towles is a study in mastery of historical fiction, whether it be in Rules of Civility, A Gentleman in Moscow, or The Lincoln Highway. Table for Two is a new collection of Towles’ shorter fiction. In six stories set in New York, Towles explores brief encounters in the compromises of marriage in 2000. The final story appears to be an extension of Rules of Civility, telling Evelyn Ross’ story from seven points of view as she crafts a new life for herself in Los Angeles.

The Sleepwalkers - Scarlett Thomas - Fiction/Thriller - April 9

Any book advertised as Patricia Highsmith meets White Lotus is going to catch my eye, and the The Sleepwalkers, a modern gothic story about a couple honeymooning at a hotel on a Greek island while attempting to hide from their pasts, seems to fit this descriptor. The novel is as much about the couple as it is the intrigue of the other guests, including a couple who stayed at the hotel recently and drowned in their sleep, the disapproving hotel owner, and an American producer enthralled with it all.

The Limits - Nell Freudenberger - Fiction - April 9

As the pandemic descends on New York City, fifteen-year-old Pia arrives from Tahiti to live with her father Stephen and his new wife Kate in Manhattan. While Stephen is busy as a surgeon in an overwhelmed hospital, tensions rise between Kate and Pia who struggle to get along. Meanwhile, a student of Kate’s, Athyna, who is sixteen and cares for her nephew full-time, is living her life in parallel to Pia’s privilege, until their path’s converge after tragedy strikes.

The Band - Christine Ma-Kellams - Fiction/Thriller - April 16

Duri is the lead of a mega K-pop band until a controversy causes his cancellation and exile. Hiding in the home of a woman he met in a Los Angeles H-Mart, Duri unpacks what happened while navigating his relationship with his music producer and newfound rescuer. The publisher has compared The Band to Mouth to Mouth and Black Buck, two extremely different books that I loved equally for their suspense and dark humor, so I am looking forward to picking this one up.

Lucky - Jane Smiley - Historical Fiction - April 23

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley has a new book coming out! The main character’s name is Jodie (unfortunate spelling…)! Need I say more? Lucky tells the story of Jodie Rattler, a singer who gets her big break in 1960s New York after a childhood in St. Louis, leading to the opportunity of a lifetime she’s not sure she wants.

Reboot - Justin Taylor - Fiction - April 23

Reboot is a satire of Hollywood, fandom, and online culture told through the lens of former child-actor David Crader. His stardom long over, David now spends his time as a part-time alcoholic and occasional video game voice actor until he gets a chance to reboot the show that made him famous. But instead of an innocuous return to prominence, the reboot sparks far-right conspiracies, rabid fans, and an act of violence.

Real Americans - Rachel Khong - Fiction - April 30

At the turn of the century, Lily Chen is working as an unpaid intern at a new media company in New York where she meets Matthew. Twenty years later, their child, raised only by Lily, sets out to find answers about his father, which unearths previously buried questions of class, race, and inheritance. Not only is Rachel Khong the award winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin, but the editor of this book also worked on Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, one of my favorite books of 2022. I have a feeling that this will be ~the~ release of the spring in the literary fiction world.

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• Every book I wrote about here is compiled on this Bookshop page and available for pre-order.

• Every book I’ve ever recommended, sorted by post, is also available on the general shop page.

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