Our editors share what they’ll be reading this summer.
Alex Gilvarry: I started my summer reading off with Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation, the first in his sci-fi trilogy. And it is thrilling. Immensely looking forward to Rivka Galchen’s American Innovations, and the galley I received of Ben Lerner’s new novel 10:04 which comes out in August. Also on my nightstand, Maria Venegas’ memoir Bulletproof Vest, a haunting true tale of a father and daughter relationship.
Kate Gwynne: I’ll most certainly be reading Emma Healey’s debut novel Elizabeth is Missing. I just love the unique premise of the story— elderly protagonist Maud searches for a missing friend all while struggling with advancing dementia. Zia Haider Rahman’s In the Light of What We Know also comes highly recommended. Born in Bangladesh and a former Wall Street banker and human-rights lawyer, the author no doubt brings an original perspective to his story of an investment banker during the financial crisis.
Scott Cheshire: I’m especially looking froward to reading Smith Henderson’s Fourth of July Creek, a big novel about American apocalyptic paranoia and a feral child in the Montana wilderness, Herman Koch’s Summer House with Swimming Pool, his first since The Dinner, which I could not put down and also happened to read at a summer house by a swimming pool, and Vanessa Manko’s debut novel The Invention of Exile.
Kaitlyn Greenidge: I’ll be reading Sleep it off, Lady Jean Rhys’ book of interconnected short stories that span from the late 19th century to the 1970s, the time of the book’s publication. That description of its structure alone has me excited–I’m looking forward to a summer spent figuring out how to rewrite time between sips of that terrible BudLight Limerita they sell in cans at the corner store.
Matthew Daddona: I just picked up the galley of Dry Bones in the Valley by Tom Bouman, to be published in July by W.W. Norton. It takes place in rural Pennsylvania. There are meth labs and heroin dealers. And a murder investigation. Many shadows between the trees. This one looks like a tour de force and I quite enjoy the title too: a little offset, reserved despite its purported content.
David Burr Gerard: Two words: Knaus. Gaard.
