LETRAS

While on a writer’s residency, a nameless narrator focuses on the color white to creatively channel her inner pain. Through lyrical, interconnected stories, she grapples with the tragedy that has haunted her family, attempting to make sense of her older sister’s death using the color white. From trying to imagine her mother’s first time producing breast milk to watching the snow fall and meditating on the impermanence of life, she weaves a poignant, heartfelt story of the omnipresence of grief and the ways we perceive the world around us.

Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler is five years old when his father disappears during Kristallnacht-the night his family loses everything. As her child's safety becomes ever harder to guarantee, Samuel's mother secures a spot for him on a Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to England. He boards alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin. Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Dìaz and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. But their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and seven-year-old Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes her tenuous reality through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination. Meanwhile, Selena Durán, a young social worker, enlists the help of a successful lawyer in hopes of tracking down Anita's mother. Intertwining past and present, The Wind Knows My Name tells the tale of these two unforgettable characters, both in search of family and home. It is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers-and never stop dreaming.

Rome, 1965: Aspiring actress Silvia Whitford arrives at Rome’s famed Cinecittà Studios from Los Angeles, ready for her big break and a taste of la dolce vita. Instead, she learns that the movie in which she was cast has been canceled. Desperate for money, Silvia has only one choice: seek out the Italian aunt she has never met. Gabriella Conti lives in a crumbling castello on the edge of a volcanic lake. Silvia’s mother refuses to explain the rift that drove the sisters apart, but Silvia is fascinated by Gabriella, a once-famous actress who still radiates charisma. And the eerie castle inspires Silvia’s second chance when it becomes the location for a new horror movie, aptly named The Revenge of the Lake Witch and she lands a starring role. Silvia immerses herself in the part of an ingenue tormented by the ghost of her beautiful, seductive ancestor. But when Gabriella abruptly vanishes, the movie’s make believe terrors seep into reality. No one else on set seems to share Silvia’s suspicions. Yet as she delves into Gabriella’s disappearance, she triggers a chain of events that illuminate dark secrets in the past and a growing menace in the present…

When Morgan and Benji surprise their families with a wedding invitation to Maine, they’re aware the news of their clandestine relationship will come as a shock. Twelve years have passed since the stunning loss of sixteen-year-old Alice, Benji’s sister and Morgan’s best friend, and no one is quite the same. But the young couple decide to plunge headlong into matrimony, marking the first time their fractured families will reunite since Alice’s funeral. As the arriving guests descend upon the tranquil coastal town, they bring with them not only skepticism about the impromptu nuptials but also deep-seated secrets and agendas of their own. Peter, Morgan’s father, may be trying to dissuade his daughter from saying “I do,” while Linnie, Benji’s mother, introduces a boyfriend who bears a tumultuous past of his own. Nick, Benji’s father, is scheming to secure a new job before his wife—formerly his mistress—discovers he’s lost his old one. Morgan, too, carries delicate secrets that threaten to jeopardize the happiness for which she has so longed. And as for Benji—well, he’s just trying to make sure the whole weekend doesn’t implode.

The Young Man is Annie Ernaux’s account of her passionate love affair with A., a man some 30 years younger, when she was in her fifties. The relationship pulls her back to memories of her own youth and at the same time leaves her feeling ageless, outside of time— together with a sense that she is living her life backwards. Amidst talk of having a child together, she feels time running its course, and menopause approaching. The Young Man recalls Ernaux as the “scandalous girl” she once was, but is composed with the mastery and the self-assurance she has achieved across decades of writing. It was first published in France in 2022.

This Great Hemisphere is powerful, captivating novel about how far we’ll go to protect the ones we love. With the worldbuilding of N. K. Jemisin’s novels and blazing defiance of Naomi Alderman’s work, it is also a story about what happens when we resist the narratives others write about us. Northwestern Hemisphere, 2529: an Earth on which half of people are now born literally invisible. Sweetmint, a young woman, is one of them and thus relegated to second-class citizenship. She has done everything right her entire life, from school to landing a highly sought-after apprenticeship. But all she has fought so hard to earn comes crashing down when she learns that her brother (whom she had presumed dead) is not only alive and well but also the primary suspect in a high-profile political murder.

Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter Debbie is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband Max arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay and without even a suit. But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband-to-be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past. Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life, Three Days in June is a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer at the height of her powers.

Clanton, Mississippi, 1990. Stuart Kofer, ayudante del sheriff, se considera intocable. Aunque, cuando bebe más de la cuenta, algo bastante habitual, vuelca sus ataques de ira en su novia, Josie, y los hijos adolescentes de esta, el código de silencio de la policía siempre le ha protegido. Pero, una noche, tras golpear a Josie hasta dejarla inconsciente en el suelo, su hijo Drew sabe que solo tiene una opción para salvar a su familia. Cogeuna pistola y decide tomarse la justicia por su mano. En Clanton, no hay nada que suscite más odio que un asesino de policías… excepto, quizá, su abogado. Jake Brigance no quiere encargarse de este caso imposible, pero es el único con suficiente experiencia para defender al chico. Y cuando comienza el juicio, parece que solo hay un resultado en el horizonte para Drew: la cámara de gas. Pero, como la ciudad de Clanton descubre una vez más, cuando Jake Brigance se hace cargo de un caso imposible… todo es posible.

Clanton, Mississippi, 1990. Stuart Kofer, ayudante del sheriff, se considera intocable. Aunque, cuando bebe más de la cuenta, algo bastante habitual, vuelca sus ataques de ira en su novia, Josie, y los hijos adolescentes de esta, elcódigo de silencio de la policía siempre le ha protegido. Pero, una noche, tras golpear a Josie hasta dejarla inconsciente en el suelo, su hijo Drew sabe que solo tiene una opción para salvar a su familia. Cogeuna pistola y decide tomarse la justicia por su mano. En Clanton, no hay nada que suscite más odio que un asesino de policías… excepto, quizá, su abogado. Jake Brigance no quiere encargarse de este caso imposible, pero esel único con suficiente experiencia para defender al chico. Y cuando comienza el juicio, parece que solo hay un resultado en el horizonte para Drew: la cámara de gas. Pero, como la ciudad de Clanton descubre una vez más, cuando Jake Brigance se hace cargo de un caso imposible… todo es posible.