"The Last of Earth"

New from Random House: The Last of Earth: A Novel by Deepa Anappara.

About the novel, from the publisher:

From the award-winning author of Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line comes a stunning historical novel set in nineteenth-century Tibet that follows two outsiders—an Indian schoolteacher spying for the British Empire and an English “lady” explorer—as they venture into a forbidden kingdom.

1869. Tibet is closed to Europeans, an infuriating obstruction for the rap­idly expanding British Empire. In response, Britain begins training Indians—permitted to cross borders that white men may not—to undertake illicit, dangerous surveying expeditions into Tibet.

Balram is one such surveyor-spy, an Indian schoolteacher who, for several years, has worked for the British, often alongside his dearest friend, Gyan. But Gyan went missing on his last expedition and is rumored to be imprisoned within Tibet. Desperate to rescue his friend, Balram agrees to guide an English captain on a foolhardy mission: After years of paying others to do the exploring, the captain, disguised as a monk, wants to personally chart a river that runs through southern Tibet. Their path will cross fatefully with that of another Westerner in disguise, fifty-year-old Katherine. Denied a fellowship in the all-male Royal Geographical Society in London, she intends to be the first European woman to reach Lhasa.

As Balram and Katherine make their way into Tibet, they will face storms and bandits, snow leopards and soldiers, fevers and frostbite. What’s more, they will have to battle their own doubts, ambitions, grief, and pasts in order to survive the treacherous landscape.

A polyphonic novel about the various ways humans try to leave a mark on the world—from the enduring nature of family and friendship to the egomania and obsessions of the colonial enterprise—The Last of Earth confirms Deepa Anappara as one of our greatest and most ambitious storytellers.

Visit Deepa Anappara's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Between Dung and Blood"

New from the University of California Press: Between Dung and Blood: Purity, Sainthood, and Power in the Early Modern Western Mediterranean by Manuela Ceballos.

About the book, from the publisher:

Between Dung and Blood investigates the stories of two sixteenth-century saints: the Spanish Christian Teresa de Jesús and the Moroccan Sufi Sīdī Riḍwān al-Januwī, both from families of converts. Through the stories of these saints, Manuela Ceballos reveals the roles played by blood and bodily pollution as substances and symbols in the religious and political fabric of the early modern Western Mediterranean. Drawing primarily on Arabic and Spanish sources, the author argues that in Morocco and Iberia, ideas about blood and bodily pollution helped shape processes of bodily differentiation as well as social hierarchies based on notions of ritual purity and impurity. Providing an inside look at the dynamics within Moroccan and Iberian societies as they grappled with the social and religious upheaval of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Ceballos shows that the real and imagined border between geographies and religious traditions could, at times, be porous and conducive to shared beliefs.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Scavengers"

Coming soon from Viking: Scavengers: A Novel by Kathleen Boland.

About the novel from the publisher:

A rollicking debut novel about a cautious daughter and her eccentric, estranged mother venturing west in search of buried treasure—and a way back to each other—before they run out of patience, money, and options

After being fired for taking an uncharacteristic risk at her commodities trading job, Bea Macon sublets her New York apartment and books a one-way ticket to stay with her mother, Christy, a free spirit who has been living in Salt Lake City on Bea’s dime.

Usually the responsible one, Bea isn’t about to admit exactly why she’s suddenly decided to visit, but she isn’t the only one keeping secrets: Christy has a man. She has a map. She has . . . a username on a forum devoted to unearthing $1 million in buried treasure that an antiquities dealer claims to have hidden somewhere in the western U.S.?

Bea is convinced this is just another one of her mother’s wild larks, an elaborate way to refuse, as she has for Bea’s entire life, to finally grow up. But Christy believes she’s onto something—and she’s arranged a rendezvous in a rural town called Mercy with the guy she’s been obsessively trading theories with online to prove it. Out in the desert that one woman believes to be a promised land, the other a wasteland, they find themselves barreling toward a more high-stakes, transformative escapade than either of them could have imagined.

Populated with unforgettable characters and set against one of the world’s most oddly enrapturing landscapes, Scavengers is a funny and heartbreaking novel about old injuries, new beginnings, and the lengths to which we’ll go to find, escape, and reinvent ourselves.

Visit Kathleen Boland's website.

--Marshal Zerigue

"Lives of the Imaginary Artists in Cold War California"

New from the University of Chicago Press: Lives of the Imaginary Artists in Cold War California by Monica Steinberg.

About the book, from the publisher:

How artists created fictionalized identities to realize works that resisted political overreach and art historical conventions.

This book explores how a group of real California artists created imaginary artists, engaging with the political climate of the Cold War era and frustrating the discipline of art history. They employed pseudonymity, obfuscation, anonymity, (auto)biografiction, imaginary portraiture, heteronymity, role-playing, doubling, and alter ego. Often laced with humor, these exploits facilitated stylistic experimentation, provoking reactions from art viewers and governing authorities alike, and disrupting reliance on documentation and attribution within art history.

In the 1950s and early 1960s, Ed Kienholz, Walter Hopps, Robert Alexander, Wally Hedrick, George Herms, and Wallace Berman activated imagined and secret identities, provoking reactions within a conservative environment gripped by communist paranoia. As political concerns shifted in the 1960s and 1970s to movements for peace and equality, artists including Billy Al Bengston, Ed Ruscha, Joe Goode, Lynda Benglis, Larry Bell, Judy Chicago, Lowell Darling, and Eleanor Antin redirected these tactics to probe the rise of celebrity culture and the administrative state. These practices also became the precursor for later interventions by Bruce Conner, Asco, Allen Ruppersberg, Senga Nengudi, and others.

Considering a compelling range of visual material, including paintings, sculptures, and performed intrusions as well as publications, postcards, and advertisements, Monica Steinberg examines why these imaginary artists appeared when and where they did—and to what ends.

Visit Monica Lee Steinberg's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Epicenter of Forever"

Coming February 1 from Lake Union: The Epicenter of Forever: A Novel by Mara Williams.

About the book, from the publisher:

A moving story about family, forgiveness, and unexpected love―where the fault lines of a fractured past become the foundation for building something new.

Eden Hawthorne spent idyllic childhood summers in Grand Trees, a mountain town perched along a restless earthquake fault in the heart of California’s fire country. But her family and future were shattered there, and she vowed never to return―until news of her estranged mother’s illness forces her back twenty years later.

Still reeling from her recent divorce, Eden has to confront her mom’s found family, including single father Caleb Connell, who blames Eden for the seismic rift that drove her away. But as they move beyond a battle of wills, Eden and Caleb discover shared wounds and intertwined histories―and succumb to an attraction that feels fated.

When her mother’s condition worsens, Eden faces an impossible choice between the man she’s falling for and the mother she’s just beginning to forgive. And with time running out, Eden fears her decision will doom her to relive the aftershocks of past heartbreak.

Visit Mara Williams's website.

Q&A with Mara Williams.

The Page 69 Test: The Truth Is in the Detours.

My Book, The Movie: The Truth Is in the Detours.

Writers Read: Mara Williams (August 2025).

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Future Is Foreign"

New from ILR Press: The Future Is Foreign: Women and Immigrants in Corporate Japan by Hilary J. Holbrow.

About the book, from the publisher:

Japan is at the forefront of global population decline. The Future Is Foreign investigates how elite Japanese firms are responding to this unprecedented challenge. Hilary Holbrow argues that labor shortages push Japanese firms to hire more immigrants and women, and to ease excessive demands on all workers. At the same time, not all employees benefit equally.

Japanese women's enduring overrepresentation in low-status clerical roles reinforces gender biases that hold all women back. In contrast, the small but growing presence of white-collar Asian immigrant workers weakens the ethnic prejudices of their Japanese colleagues. Despite Japan's reputation for xenophobia, white-collar immigrant men disproportionally reap the dividends of Japan's shrinking population.

The Future Is Foreign sheds new light on the processes that perpetuate inequality in Japanese firms, and in organizations worldwide. While managers and policymakers often assume that increasing women and minorities' representation in leadership will erode prejudice, Holbrow reveals that the people we see when we "look down" the organizational hierarchy are more important to the social construction of bias than are the people we see when we "look up."

--Marshal Zeringue

"Bitter Fall"

Coming January 13 from Severn River: Bitter Fall (Detective Justice, 2) by Bruce Robert Coffin.

About the book, from the publisher:

Summer’s last breath meets autumn’s first kill in Greenville, Maine.

On a moonless stretch of backcountry road, Detective Brock Justice stares down at a crime scene that refuses to play by the rules. A woman lies dead, the apparent victim of a lethal roadside crash—until a stab wound is found hidden beneath her clothing. Two causes of death. Zero easy answers.

Reunited with his partner, Detective Chloe Wright, Justice begins pulling at threads too many people want left alone. The victim had secrets—the kind worth killing for. And each suspect carries enough baggage to sink a body in Moosehead Lake. An ex-boyfriend with a violent past. A married fitness trainer with too much to lose. A combat veteran living off the grid, haunted by ghosts of his own.

As golden leaves turn blood-red against pewter skies, Justice is fighting more than just a killer. The fallout from testifying against a fellow trooper clings to him like a bad debt, and someone inside the department is making sure he pays for it.

Then a game warden’s trail camera captures something deep in the woods. But it isn’t just a clue—it’s a warning.

Fans of Craig Johnson's Longmire and C.J. Box's Joe Pickett will find themselves right at home in this dark corner of Maine.

Visit Bruce Robert Coffin's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Mirrors of Empire"

Coming February 1 from State University of New York Press: Mirrors of Empire: Courtiers, Diplomats, and Intellectuals in Mughal India by Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam.

About the book, from the publisher:

Approaches the history of the Mughal Empire at the level of human experience, through a diverse group of autobiographical narratives.

Starting from 1526, the Mughals ruled over much of India for three centuries, perhaps the most important Islamic empire in the early modern world. This period saw the production of a fascinating variety of memoirs and autobiographies in which residents of the empire reflected on their own lives, on Islam in a Hindu context, and on the relationship of individual subjects to their new rulers. Those written by Mughal royalty--especially Babur and Jahangir--are well known. This book considers the less well-known writings of diverse others, from the poet laureate Faizi to those who were not part of elite society but a few notches below it, such as the lowly envoy Asad Beg and characters like Mirza Nathan and Abdul Latif, who lived dangerously on the Bengal frontier. Also considered are prolific Hindu writers, such as Bhimsen Saksena and the witty Anand Ram Mukhlis, who lived in Delhi through the turbulent 1730s and 1740s. Together, they offer an original and differently critical perspective on the empire--its religious, social, and political tensions, as well as its strategies for overcoming them.

Covering over two centuries of such materials, Mirrors of Empire is a work of cultural history that is also firmly rooted in social history. It incorporates extensive translations from Persian, including materials that are little-known even to historians and specialists, and shows the transformation of the empire from its difficult emergence, to its expansive height, to its phase of disintegration in the middle of the eighteenth century. Gracefully written, the book approaches the Mughal Empire at the level of human experience, rendering it accessible and not a mere abstraction.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Mysterious Death of Junetta Plum"

New from Kensington: The Mysterious Death of Junetta Plum (A Harriet Stone Mystery) by Valerie Wilson Wesley.

About the book, from the publisher:

At the darkly glamorous height of the Roaring 20s, an independent Black intellectual and her bi-racial foster child are immersed in the vibrant world of the Harlem Renaissance – and a shocking murder on Striver’s Row – in this thrilling Jazz Age mystery for reader of Nekesia Afia, Jacqueline Winspear, Avery Cunningham’s The Mayor of Maxwell Street.

1926: Harriet Stone, a liberated, educated Black woman, and Lovey, the orphaned, biracial 12-year-old she is bound to protect, are Harlem-bound, embarking on a new, hopefully less traumatic chapter in their lives. They have been invited to move from Connecticut by Harriet’s cousin, Junetta Plum, who runs a boardinghouse for independent-minded single women.

It’s a bold move, since Harriet has never met Junetta, but the fatalities of the Spanish flu and other tragedies have already forced her and Lovey to face their worst fears. Alone but for each other, they have little left to lose—or so it seems as they arrive at sophisticated Junetta’s impressive brownstone.

Her cousin has a sharp edge, which makes Harriett slightly uncomfortable. Still, after retiring to her room for the night, she finally falls asleep—only to awaken to Junetta arguing with someone downstairs. In the morning, she makes a shocking discovery at the foot of the stairs.

What ensues will lead Harriet to question Junetta’s very identity—and to wonder if she and Lovey are in danger, as well. It will also tie Harriet to five strangers. Among them, Harriet is sure someone knows something. What she doesn’t yet know is that one will play a crucial role in helping her investigate her cousin’s murder . . . that she will be tied to the others in ways she could never imagine . . . and that her life will take off in a startling new direction....

Visit Valerie Wilson Wesley's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Aerial Archives of Race"

New from the University of California Press: Aerial Archives of Race: African American Cultural Expressions and the Black Nuclear Pacific by Etsuko Taketani.

About the book, from the publisher:

Opening new perspectives in transpacific studies, Etsuko Taketani examines the genealogy and contours of the aerial imaginary and the corollary shifting planetary imaginary that evolved in a transnational space she names the “Black nuclear Pacific.” Following the first dropping of an atom bomb on humans and the subsequent military occupation of Japan by the United States, Black-Japanese encounters happened on a scale unimaginable before World War II. Analyzing texts by a diverse range of artists, writers, and political thinkers who had formative interactions with occupied Japan—including the NAACP’s Walter White, lawyer Edith Sampson, Josephine Baker, Langston Hughes, Lorraine Hansberry, and Malcolm X—Taketani uncovers African American cultural expressions that include a quasi–alien abduction narrative, the literary creation of a new tribe in the image of a rainbow, a Black futuristic apocalypse, and a racial fantasy of the Mother Plane. Aerial Archives of Race tracks the Black networks and exchanges with Japan that provoked new ways of thinking about (human) races on planet Earth.

--Marshal Zeringue