Among the most highly anticipated books slated for publication in March is the true story of a Maine-based hermit, authored by Michael Finkel, who will appear at The Music Hall in Portsmouth on March 14. Learn more about that and other top titles below.
All Grown Up
by Jami Attenberg
A wonderful look at the life of Andrea, single and child-free, as she pushes back against the antiquated expectations placed on women. It’s Attenberg’s funniest and fiercest novel yet. (Have tissues ready for a good cry, too.)
The Idiot
by Elif Batuman
A witty, poignant debut novel about an earnest young Turkish immigrant and her first year at Harvard, which brings new experiences, interesting new friends, and opportunities to travel abroad. Hopefully this book will launch Batuman into the fame stratosphere where she belongs.
Ill Will
by Dan Chaon
A new Chaon book is always cause for celebration! This is a great big novel about unsolved murders: the murder of the narrator’s parents when he was a teen, and the mysterious deaths in a town where he has a psychiatric practice. It’s a chilling story of faulty memory and the haunting of the past.
The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit
by Michael Finkel
The search for seclusion is at the heart of this fascinating true story about a Maine hermit who lived alone in the woods for 27 years, as well as the journalist who sought to understand him. This is definitely a “truth is stranger than fiction” tale.
Exit West
by Mohsin Hamid
It’s only March, but the best book of 2017 may already be here. This is a powerful story of love and war, about two young people whose escape from the violence of the civil war in their homeland leads them to a foreign land and an uncertain future. Definitely the right book for right now.
Rabbit Cake
by Annie Hartnett
Twelve-year-old Elvis Babbitt is one of fiction’s most wonderful new characters. She’s got a head for trivia facts — think Jonathan Lipnicki in Jerry Maguire — but the accidental death of her mother and the unknowable future has her stumped for answers. As charming as it is heartbreaking.
White Tears
by Hari Kunzru
A fabulous story of two young men who share a recording on the Internet, claiming it’s a song by a long-lost blues singer. When the truth of the recording is revealed, the men wind up at the heart of a tale about greed, racism, murder, and more.
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
by Hannah Tinti
Each chapter in this marvelous book is centered around the story behind a bullet Samuel Hawley encounters in his life as a career criminal. Hawley wants to give his daughter Loo a normal life, but he can’t seem to outrun his past. Tinti is a remarkable storyteller and this gorgeous novel is sure to leave a mark.
Temporary People
by Deepak Unnikrishnan
A delightfully weird and clever collection of 28 linked stories set in the United Arab Emirates, including the tale of construction workers who turn themselves into luggage to escape a labor camp, a woman who repairs the bodies of workers who have been injured on the job, and a man who invents disposable workers. Winner of the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing.
The Impossible Fairy Tale
by Han Yujoo
Mia is a spoiled child with everything; Child has nothing and is barely noticed in the classroom. All that changes when Child seeks revenge on her cruel classmates by ruining their work. But her actions will have serious, unpredictable results. This is a wildly imaginative novel about art, neglect, and the casual cruelty of children.