Winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for 2015
Winner of the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year Award (Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards 2015)
Short-listed for the Costa First Novel Award
Long-listed for The Guardian First Book Award 2015,
A Readers' ChoiceLong-listed for the Warwick Prize for Writing 2015
Long-listed for 2015 Edinburgh First Novel Award
Barnes & Noble Spring 2016 Discover Great New Writers
March 2016 Indie Next Pick
2016 Winter/Spring Indies Introduce Pick
Synopsis: It is springtime, and two outcasts — a man ignored, even shunned by his village, and the one-eyed dog he takes into his quiet, tightly shuttered life — find each other, by accident or fate, and forge an unlikely connection. As their friendship grows, their small, seaside town suddenly takes note of them, falsely perceiving menace where there is only mishap; the unlikely duo must take to the road.
According to NetGalley, this title was published first in the UK by a small press before being picked up by Random House UK then Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the U.S.
I found a signed First Edition (hardcover) published by Tramp Press, Dublin (2015), listing for $96. According to the product description only 100 hardcover copies were printed and signed by the author. Tramp press also printed a run in paperback (I'm assuming this is the "small press" NetGalley mentions and therefore the first printing).
I din't find any other print run numbers. At the time of this writing, Abebooks had about 50 copies (a lot of them shipping from Germany for some reason). Prices were generally pretty low (the highest being the signed hardcover).
Next is a literary suspense novel in the vein of Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You. Shelter by Jung Yun (Picador, March 15, 2016), is centered around family, high expectations, a horrible crime, and internal conflict that resolves with violence.
A Barnes & Noble Winter 2016 Discover Great New Writers selection.
Synopsis: Kyung Cho is a young father burdened by a house he can’t afford. For years, he and his wife, Gillian, have lived beyond their means. Now their debts and bad decisions are catching up with them, and Kyung is anxious for his family’s future.
A few miles away, his parents, Jin and Mae, live in the town’s most exclusive neighborhood, surrounded by the material comforts that Kyung desires for his wife and son. Growing up, they gave him every possible advantage—private tutors, expensive hobbies—but they never showed him kindness. Kyung can hardly bear to see them now, much less ask for their help. Yet when an act of violence leaves Jin and Mae unable to live on their own, the dynamic suddenly changes, and he’s compelled to take them in. For the first time in years, the Chos find themselves living under the same roof. Tensions quickly mount as Kyung’s proximity to his parents forces old feelings of guilt and anger to the surface, along with a terrible and persistent question: how can he ever be a good husband, father, and son when he never knew affection as a child?
I only found, what I'm guessing are, ARC's listed over on Abebooks.
No mention of print run numbers on this one. (In general publisher's won't announce the print run if it's lower).
Stork Mountain by Miroslav Penkov (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, March 15, 2016)
Synopsis: In Stork Mountain, a young Bulgarian immigrant returns to the country of his birth in search of his grandfather, who suddenly and unexpectedly cut all contact with the family three years ago. The trail leads him to a village on the border with Turkey, a stone's throw away from Greece, high up in the Strandja Mountains − a place of pagan mysteries and black storks nesting in giant oaks; a place where every spring, possessed by Christian saints, men and women dance barefoot across live coals in search of rebirth. Here in the mountains, he gets drawn by his grandfather into a maze of half-truths. And here, he falls in love with an unobtainable Muslim girl. Old ghosts come back to life and forgotten conflicts blaze anew until the past surrenders its shameful secrets.
A new Amy Einhorn selection, part of the new fiction line from Flatiron Books: An Unrestored Woman by Shobha Tao (March 15, 2016), is a collection of interconnected stories that take place during the partition of India and Pakistan, Rao's book is in the tradition of Jhumpa Lahiri.
Winner of the 2014 Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction.
Library Journal says she's "a writer to watch."
Synopsis: The twelve paired stories in Shobha Rao's An Unrestored Woman trace their origins to the formation of India and Pakistan in 1947, but they transcend that historical moment. A young woman in a crushingly loveless marriage seizes freedom in the only way left to her; a mother is forced to confront a chilling, unforgiveable crime she committed out of love; an ambitious servant seduces both master and mistress; a young prostitute quietly, inexorably plots revenge on the madam who holds her hostage; a husband and wife must forgive each other for the death of their child. Caught in extreme states of tension, in a world of shifting borders, of instability, Rao's characters must rely on their own wits.
No print run numbers on this one.
Synopsis: Phnom Penh, Cambodia: The end of the line. Lawless, drug-soaked, forgotten—it’s where bad journalists go to die. For once-great war photographer Will Keller, that’s kind of a mission statement: he spends his days floating from one score to the next, taking any job that pays; his nights are a haze of sex, drugs, booze, and brawling. But Will’s spiral toward oblivion is interrupted by Kara Saito, a beautiful young woman who shows up and begs Will to help find her sister, June, who disappeared during a stint as an intern at the local paper.
No print run numbers on this one either - I'm guessing not more than 30,000.
And, according to NetGalley, the most anticipated debut of the month comes later in March: Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney's The Nest, bought by Ecco in a major deal in 2014. Being released March 22, 2016.
Starred Kirkus review.
Synopsis: Every family has its problems. But even among the most troubled, the Plumb family stands out as spectacularly dysfunctional. Years of simmering tensions finally reach a breaking point on an unseasonably cold afternoon in New York City as Melody, Beatrice, and Jack Plumb gather to confront their charismatic and reckless older brother, Leo, freshly released from rehab. Months earlier, an inebriated Leo got behind the wheel of a car with a nineteen-year-old waitress as his passenger. The ensuing accident has endangered the Plumbs' joint trust fund, “The Nest,” which they are months away from finally receiving. Meant by their deceased father to be a modest mid-life supplement, the Plumb siblings have watched The Nest’s value soar along with the stock market and have been counting on the money to solve a number of self-inflicted problems.
First print run: 150,000 [Library Journal]. Grab an early, signed copy if you can. She'll be on a 6 city book tour hitting Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle. Specific locations are listed on the book's HarperCollins page.