New books published this month, plus two irresistibles

I just finished reading one of the most suspenseful books I’ve read in a long time — Anna Seghers’s classic novel The Seventh Cross about political prisoners who escape a Nazi concentration camp. The prisoners split up, and the plot follows one of them — George Heisler — through a week of dodging the Gestapo and seeking someone who can help him get to the German border. Seghers writes without the fanfare of cliffhangers at the end of a chapter and plot twists that require a suspension of belief, which is what makes her novel so thrilling. It’s a good story that tells itself without author interference. The tension rumbles around George being caught, as well as mentions of what happens to the other prisoners, and the frustration of the camp’s commandant, but it’s most powerfully intense due to the danger of Third Reich interrogation imposed on anyone George comes in contact with. The story takes place in the early 1930’s in Germany, before the World War.

This novel’s got a slow start, so be patient, if you choose to read it, and then be prepared to be obsessed with it. (You may know of the 1944 movie based on the novel, starring Spencer Tracey as George.) The novel was originally published in 1942 simultaneously in German by a publisher in exile in Mexico and in an English translation, according to the Afterword. Also, it went on to be an international bestseller. It sold 421,000 copies within six months of its appearance in the United States. That’s a lot in the 1940s.

Lev Grossman, known for his bestselling Magicians trilogy, released an epic fantasy this month, The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur. The plot focuses on the Knights of the Round Table, not the legendary heroes such as Lancelot, but the others. It begins with Collum, a gifted young knight who wants a seat at the Table. King Arthur is dead. There is no heir. Britain is in turmoil. From the novel’s summary: “It is up to Collum and his companions to reclaim Excalibur [King Arthur’s mythical sword], solve the mysteries of this ruined world, and make it whole again. But before they can restore Camelot, they’ll have to learn the truth of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell, and lay to rest the ghosts of his troubled family and of Britain’s dark past.” This could be the summer vacation read everyone’s been looking for.

A collection of stories pulled together by the Edgar Award–winning anthologist Otto Penzler released this month. It represents “some of the finest American whodunits of the [Golden Age] era.” The Golden Age is considered to be between the 20^th century’s two World Wars; however, in his introduction, Penzler gives more in-depth explanation of why that’s not a precise definition. He also shares interesting differences between crime novels of the Golden Age and those published today, which include sparing the reader from the violent details of a murder, justice achieved, and the author playing fair with the reader: If there’s a puzzle, there must be clues the reader can follow and perhaps, a long shot, solve it. Golden Age Whodunits includes 15 stories. Ellery Queen and F. Scott Fitzgerald are among the authors. This could be a perfect summer book to read at the pool, on a lunch hour, before a picnic or festival outing, or at night before turning out the light, one story at a time.

Also out this month, McNally Editions, a publisher of rediscovered books, released a new edition of Rhine Journey by Anne Schlee. The story takes place in 1851, when Reverend Charles Morrison, his wife and daughter, and his sister Charlotte (described as a meek middle-aged woman whose life is spent answering the needs of others) vacation in the Rhine Valley. For Charlotte, there’s a chance encounter unleashing “a sudden and violent awakening of memory, fear, and sexual desire” that surges toward a moment of crisis. Author Lauren Groff writes in the foreword that the Victorian era atmosphere is so perfect it’s astonishing to learn the novel was written in the 20th century, first published in 1980.

Bellevue Literary Press earlier this month released a new book in their American Novels Series by Norman Lock. The Caricaturist features Stephen Crane, American journalist, poet, and author of the Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage. The narrator is Oliver Fischer, a self-styled bohemian, boardwalk caricaturist, and student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. According to the book’s description, he travels to Key West to sketch the 1898 American invasion of Cuba, where he partners with war correspondent Stephen Crane, and realizes––”in the flash of a naval bombardment––that our lives are suspended by a thread between radiance and annihilation.” Kirkus Reviews in their starred review says, “It’s Oliver’s voice and the lyricism of his observations that make this novel especially strong.” Previous novels in the American Novels Series have featured, among others, Herman Melville, Susan B. Anthony, Walt Whitman, Louisa May Alcott, Emerson, and Thoreau (learn more about the series here).

Finally, I purchased a book I’ve been wanting to read since it was published in 2022. I kept telling myself I won’t have time to read it, but finally surrendered this week. Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan is Darryl Pinckney’s memoir of a time in 1970’s New York when he was drawn into the world of author Elizabeth Hardwick, who also co-founded The New York Review of Books. His recollection is described in The Wall Street Journal as “an ode to the power of mentorship if ever there was one.” Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Michael Dirda in The Washington Post said, “This memoir of that apprenticeship―by one of our most distinguished writers on African American culture, literature and history―provides a ‘you are there’ account of those thrilling years.'” This book has been so irresistible for me.