Featuring: Anthony Bourdain, Elaine Castillo, Jade Chang, Sam Guthrie, Jochen Hellbeck, Van Jensen, Elizabeth McCracken, Olivier Norek, Lauren Rothery, Andrew Rowe, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Lavie Tidhar

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Anthony Bourdain, THE ANTHONY BOURDAIN READER (Ecco)

The definitive, career-spanning collection of writing from Anthony Bourdain, assembled for the first time…

Anthony Bourdain represented many things to many people — and he had many sides. But no part of his identity was more important to him, and more longlasting, than that of a writer. The Anthony Bourdain Reader is a collection of his best and most fascinating writing, and touches on his many pursuits and passions, from restaurant life to family life to the “low life,” from TV to travel through places like Vietnam, Buenos Aires, Paris, and Shanghai.

The Anthony Bourdain Reader is also a showcase for new and never-before-seen material, like diary entries from Bourdain’s first trip to France as a teenager and “It’s Cruel and Unforgiving Terrain,” a piece on the New York restaurant scene, as well asunpublished short fiction like “I Quit My Job Yesterday” and chapters from No New Messages, his unfinished novel. These newly discovered pieces all contribute to give the fullest picture of the man behind the books.

The Anthony Bourdain Reader is a testament to the enduring and singular voice Bourdain crafted, with eclectic and curated chapters that encapsulate the unique brilliance of his restless mind. Edited by Bourdain’s longtime agent and friend Kimberly Witherspoon and with a foreword by Patrick Radden Keefe, this is an essential reader for any Bourdain fan as well as a vivid and moving recollection of the life and legacy ofone of our most distinctive writers.

I first came across Bourdain’s name when I picked up a copy of Kitchen Confidential on a whim, when I first lived in New York. I was gripped by his prose and storytelling, despite having very little interest in what happened in the kitchens of fancy restaurants. This, eventually, led me to watch his various television shows — No Reservation, The Layover, and Parts Unknown remain frequent re-watchables for me. His appetite for travel, new experiences, and so forth, was infectious and engaging. As someone who has either visited or lived in many of the countries he went to, it was also a nice way to “revisit” those countries, now that I am not able to travel as often as I would like. When I saw this new book was available for review, I jumped at the chance. Really looking forward to this. The Anthony Bourdain Reader is due to be published by Ecco in North America and Bloomsbury in the UK, on October 28th.

Follow the Author: Goodreads
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Elaine Castillo, MODERATION (Viking)

Girlie Delmundo is the greatest content moderator in the world, and despite the setbacks of financial crises, climate catastrophe, and a global pandemic, she’s going places: she’s getting a promotion. Now thanks to her parent company Paragon’s purchase of Fairground—the world’s preeminent virtual reality content provider—she’s on the way to becoming an elite VR moderator, playing in the big leagues and, if her enthusiastic bosses are to be believed, moderating the next stage of human interaction.

Despite the isolation that virtual reality requires from colleagues, friends, and family, the unbelievable perks of her new job mean she can solve a lot of her family’s problems with money and mobility. She doesn’t have to think about the childhood home they lost back in the Bay Area, or history at all—she can just pay any debts that come due. But when she meets William Cheung, Playground’s wry, reticent co-founder (now Chief Product Officer) and slowly unearths some of his secrets, and finds herself somehow falling in love, she’ll learn that history might be impossible to moderate and the future utterly impossible to control.

Castillo’s new novel got some interesting buzz around publication, and I thought the premise was intriguing and a little different to what I usually read. So, naturally, I decided to give it a try. Moderation is out now, published by Viking in North America and Atlantic Books in the UK.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky

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Jade Chang, WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE (Ecco)

A deeply moving and often hilarious novel following a woman who becomes an internet folk hero in the most unexpected way, catapulting her into fame and influence just as she’s finally beginning to reckon with her complicated past

Lola Treasure Gold can’t figure out her life. She’s broke, unemployed, and back in her childhood home, a crumbling cottage in the Hollywood Hills. Worse — unspeakably worse — one of her closest friends has just died. So nobody is more surprised than Lola when a jackpot falls in her lap: she stars in a viral video, opening a surprising path for her to become a self-help guru.

With the encouragement of her other best friend, Celi — still alive, thank god — Lola embraces the public interest in her perceived message. But is she a scammer or a sage? Just as Lola is telling others to be their own guiding lights, she can’t seem to find hers: she’s grieving; she’s accused of using the notoriety of her friend’s death to fuel her rise; and she’s full of questions about the fate of her mother, who came to America pregnant, fleeing China’s one-child policy, got deported when Lola was eight, and now has totally disappeared.

Driven by an exuberant, searching spirit, Jade Chang’s kaleidoscopic new novel is a deep examination of the ways we commodify belief, the power and precarity of fame, and the delicious terror of being truly seen. What a Time to Be Alive asks if we can look honestly at the world and still love it; the answer is a brilliant, resounding yes.

Sounded interesting. I haven’t read Chang’s previous novel, the acclaimed and best-selling The Wangs Vs. the World, but the premise for this one really caught my attention. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to it prior to its publication date. What a Time to Be Alive is due to be published by Ecco in North America September 30th. (No UK edition details available at the time of writing.)

Follow the Author: Goodreads, Instagram
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Sam Guthrie, THE PEAK (Harper)

THREE WORDS IN MANDARIN.

THAT’S ALL IT TAKES TO END THE WORLD.

Planes circle, unable to land. The phone lines are down. The power is out.

And the only person who knows why is dead.

That man was Sebastian, a handsome politician on the rise. Charlie, his political attack dog and childhood friend, just watched him kill himself.

Then the Secret Intelligence Service comes knocking.

What the hell did Sebastian do?

And can Charlie find out before the world implodes?

A few weeks ago, this novel was the subject of a little bit of buzz online — I think it must have been around the time it was announced — and as a long-time fan of espionage fiction, I thought it sounded right in my wheelhouse. The Peak is due to be published by Harper Collins in the UK on August 28th.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Jochen Hellbeck, WORLD ENEMY NO.1 (Penguin Press)

A major new history that transforms our understanding of World War II — tracing the conflict and its most infamous crime, the Holocaust, to Germany’s implacable hostility toward Soviet Russia

In the West, World War II is commonly understood as the Allies’ struggle against Nazism. Often elided, if not simply forgotten, is the Soviet Union’s crucial role in that fight. With this book, acclaimed historian Jochen Hellbeck rectifies this omission by relocating the ideological core of the conflict. It was not the Western powers but Communist Russia that Nazi Germany viewed as an existential threat — in fact, “World Enemy No. 1.” Jewish revolutionaries, the Nazis believed, had seized power in 1917 and were preparing the Soviet state to destroy Germany and the world. And so, on June 22, 1941, a German army of three million attacked the Soviet Union to exterminate “Judeo-Bolshevism,” Hitler’s cardinal obsession. While Europe’s Jews were expelled, exiled, and persecuted by the Nazis, Soviet Jews were immediately slated for elimination. The Soviet lands thus became ground zero for systematic extermination, which was only later extended to all Jews, igniting the Holocaust.

Hellbeck plumbs newly declassified archives and previously undiscovered sources — testimonies, diaries, and dispatches from soldiers and civilians, Soviet and German — to offer a unique history that takes account of both sides. He reconstructs the years leading up to the war when “Europe against Bolshevism” was the Nazis’ most fervid rallying cry, and documents their annihilatory ambitions on the battlegrounds in the East. Widely disseminated accounts of German atrocities mobilized millions of Soviet citizens to join a people’s war against the hated invaders. Hellbeck tracks the desire for revenge that drove the Red Army on its path of reconquest, an advance that further inflamed the belief in a murderous “Bolshevik Jew,” stirring the Germans to fight to the bitter end. Recounted here in vivid detail are the events at Babi Yar, the Battle of Stalingrad, the liberation of the concentration camps, and the arrival of the Red Army in the Nazi capital. Finally, Hellbeck reckons with the West’s persistent disregard of the Soviet Union’s incalculable contribution to winning the war — and its sacrifice of twenty-six million citizens — as anti-communism and the Cold War turned erstwhile allies into mortal enemies.

Hellbeck’s eye-opening work is an astonishing new reading of both the Second World War and how its history has been told.

Always on the look out for new books on this period of history — for professional and also general interest reasons. World Enemy No.1 is due to be published by Penguin Press in North America (October 21st) and Picador in the UK (February 5th, 2026).

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Van Jensen, GODFALL (Grand Central)

When a massive asteroid hurtles toward Earth, humanity braces for annihilation — but the end doesn’t come. In fact, it isn’t an asteroid but a three-mile-tall alien that drops down, seemingly dead, outside Little Springs, Nebraska. Dubbed “the giant,” its arrival transforms the red-state farm town into a top-secret government research site and major metropolitan area, flooded with soldiers, scientists, bureaucrats, spies, criminals, conspiracy theorists — and a murderer.

As the sheriff of Little Springs, David Blunt thought he’d be keeping the peace among the same people he’d known all his life, not breaking up chanting crowds of conspiracy theorists in tiger masks or struggling to control a town hall meeting about the construction of a mosque. As a series of brutal, bizarre murders strikes close to home, Blunt throws himself into the hunt for a killer who seems connected to the Giant. With bodies piling up and tensions in Little Springs mounting, he realizes that in order to find the answers he needs, he must first reconcile his old worldview with the town he now lives in — before it’s too late.

I only heard about this novel a few days ago (at the time of writing), but I the premise caught my attention, as did that rather cool cover. The synopsis made me think of Benjamin Percy’s Comet Cycle (which I highly recommend), and I decided to pop it on my To Read list. Very much looking forward to this. Godfall is due to be published by Grand Central Publishing in North America (January 13th, 2026) and Bantam in the UK (January 8th).

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Elizabeth McCracken, A LONG GAME (Ecco)

Writing can feel like an endless series of decisions. How does one face the blank page? Move a character around a room? Deal with time? Undertake revision? The good and bad news is that in fiction writing, there are no definitive answers to such questions: writers must come up with their own. Elizabeth McCracken, author of bestselling novels, National Book Award long-listed story collections, and a highly praised memoir, has been teaching for more than thirty-five years, guiding her many students through their own answers. In A Long Game, she shares insights gleaned along the way, offering practical tips and incisive thoughts about her own work as an artist. “Writing is a long game,” she notes. “What matters is that you learn to get work done in the way that is possible for you, through consistency or panic. Through self-recrimination or self-delusion or self-forgiveness: every life needs all three.”

As much a book about the life of a working artist as it is a guide to thinking about fiction, A Long Game is a revelatory and indispensable resource for any writer.

I’ve been reading Elizabeth McCracken’s fiction for a little while, now (I was a relative latecomer to the author’s work), and have very much enjoyed her short fiction. When I saw this book was on the way, I thought it would be very interesting to read about McCracken’s thoughts on writing. A Long Game is due to be published by Ecco in North America (December 2nd) and Jonathan Cape in the UK (January 1st, 2026).

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Olivier Norek, THE WINTER WARRIORS (Atlantic Monthly Press)

Intense, propulsive, and deeply human, The Winter Warriors is a stunning historical novel of Finnish heroism in the face of Soviet invasion.

November 1939: The Soviet Union, the largest army in the world, invades its tiny, relatively defenseless neighbor Finland, just three months after the declaration of World War II. So began what is known as the Winter War. A small makeshift company of soldiers, workers, and farmers must face off against columns of tanks and millions of Stalin’s Red Army fighters.

In this propulsive and deeply moving narrative based on the true story of the Finnish infantry division, heroes emerge: the star sniper Simo Häyhä, nicknamed the “White Death”; the young men from farms and villages who meet again on the battlefield to fight for their homes; nurses who must treat old childhood friends. The soldiers go to battle with old guns as their wounds freeze in the unforgiving cold, and yet not only do they resist the Soviet soldiers, but they force the superpower to offer terms for peace only six months later. The Winter Warriors is a testament to the Finnish quality of “sisu”: inner strength and determination which prevails in the face of overwhelming odds.

Always interested in reading a Cold War-based novel — usually espionage or thrillers, but this also sounds really good — also an interesting piece of history that doesn’t get as much attention as others. The Winter Warriors is due to be published by Atlantic Monthly Press in North America (January 27th, 2026) and Open Borders Press in the UK (September 25th, 2025).

Follow the Author: Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Lauren Rothery, TELEVISION (Ecco)

Some people you meet them and you imagine this movie together. The two of you make a kind of movie and then it’s over. Other people, what you imagine isn’t a movie, because it keeps going. It’s television… If you can’t see how romantic television is, you’re blind.

An aging, A-list movie star lotteries off the entirety of his mega-million blockbuster salary to a member of the general viewing public before taking up with a much younger model. His non-famous best friend (and often lover) looks on impassively, while recollecting their twenty-odd years of unlikely connection. And an aspiring filmmaker, unknown to them both, labors over a script about best friends and lovers while longing for the financial freedom to make great art.

Told in their alternating, intricately linked perspectives, Television is a funny, philosophically astute novel about phenomenal luck, whether windfall or chance encounter. Like Joan Didion’s classic Play It as It Lays, but speaking to a since irrevocably changed Hollywood, it portrays a culture in crisis and the disparities in wealth, beauty, talent, gender, and youth at the heart of contemporary American life. In this glittering but strange new world, lit up by social media and streaming services—what, if not love, can be counted in your favor?

With plays in chronology, bright, nimble dialogue, and a profoundly modern style, Lauren Rothery’s debut novel is an arresting feat of literary impressionism, and marks the arrival of a significant new talent to the landscape of American fiction.

This has been pitched as “Bojack Horseman meets Joan Didion”, which is certainly an intriguing blend. I can’t remember exactly when/where I first heard about Rothery’s upcoming novel, but it probably shouldn’t  a surprise that it caught my attention. Really looking forward to reading this. Television is due to be published by Ecco in North America and in the UK, on December 2nd.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Andrew Rowe, HOW TO DEFEAT A DEMON KING IN TEN EASY STEPS (Saga Press)

For thousands of years, there has been a cycle: a Demon King rises and conquers, and a Hero is reborn a hundred years later to defeat him. Each time, civilizations are ground to dust beneath the Demon King’s hordes, but humanity has remained secure in the belief that a Hero of legend will always save them. There’s just one slight problem. It’s only been twenty-three years since the Demon King’s latest rise, and this time, he’s already conquered more than half the world. If humanity simply waits for the Hero’s return, there may be no world left for him to save.

And so, Yui Shaw sets out with an ambitious plan. A ten-step plan.

She’ll find a way to obtain the Hero’s legendary sword. She’ll earn obscure classes, gain levels, and increase her skills. She’ll travel to the meticulously-crafted dungeons that seem designed for one specific Hero to complete. And, if she’s truly (un)fortunate, she might even find a fairy.

LitRPGs seem to be having a bit of a moment. I’m not sure if I’ve ever read anything that would be considered part of that sub-genre, so when the publisher offered this for review, I thought I’d give it a try. Looking forward to it. How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps is due to be published by Saga Press in North America and Gollancz in the UK, on September 30th.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, BlueSky
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Adrian Tchaikovsky, THE HUNGRY GODS (Solaris)

The Gods have returned to the world.

Amri was a Rabbit, one of a tribe of survivors scratching out an existence in the blasted landscape of a shattered, poisoned world. The Seagull fight, the Pigeon trade and the Cockroach scavenge, but the Rabbit had one rule: If you want to see tomorrow, you run.

But they didn’t run fast enough when a weapon fell from the sky and consumed their home, and now Amri is alone, in the company of a fallen god named Guy Vesten. A god who promises revenge against the three gods who turned against him, and who killed her tribe.

But gods don’t die easily. Guy will need followers, like any god, and warriors to aid him in his quest. And if Amri is to find a place in the world that is to come, she may as well be standing at his right hand, as his priestess…

The latest in a series of Tchaikovsky novellas that Solaris is publishing — each one has been excellent, and I can’t recommend them highly enough. Perfect showcases for the scope and quality of the author’s imagination and authorial skill. By the time this post goes live, I will probably have finished reading it (I started it a couple of days after publication). The Hungry Gods is out now, published by Solaris in North America and in the UK.

Also on CR: Interview with Adrian Tchaikovsky (2012); Guest Posts on “Nine Books, Six Years, One Stenwold Maker”, “The Art of Gunsmithing — Writing Guns of the Dawn”, “Looking for God in Melnibone Places: Fantasy and Religion”, and “Eye of the Spider”; Excerpt from Guns of the Dawn; Reviews of Empire of Black & Gold, Guns of the Dawn, Children of Ruin, Spiderlight, Ironclads, Made Things, and One Day All This Will Be Yours, Shards of Earth, and Ogres

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, BlueSky

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Lavie Tidhar, NO ONE HEARS THE LAST SHOT (JABberwocky)

A middle-aged hitwoman goes on the run from the Israeli mob; a boy on a South Pacific island searches for a missing cat and uncovers dark secrets; an ageing bagman has to recover a package across one violent night, no matter the cost; an informer must uncover the heist of a lifetime on the fringes of the Roman Empire, and Sherlock Holmes is faced with a confounding botanical mystery; while a pair of hapless actors are forced into a seedy mystery in Golden Age Hollywood.

Moving from the genteel English countryside to the mean streets of L.A. and from the islands of Vanuatu to the dark alleyways of Tel Aviv, this wide-ranging collection gathers together the best crime and noir stories of master storyteller Lavie Tidhar, including the CWA Dagger Award nominated “Bag Man” and much more besides.

Welcome to a world of gangsters and hired killers, of lost romantics and deadly women, of good times and lowlifes. Where it’s always the wrong part of town, and where whatever you do, there are no good choices…

Because when it comes, no one hears the last shot.

A new collection of crime/mystery fiction from Tidhar? Sign me up. I started reading this on the same day I received it, dipping in between longer reads. No One Hears the Last Shot is out now, published by JABberwocky in North America and in the UK.

Also on CR: Interview with Lavie Tidhar (2019); Interview with Tidhar & Nir Yaniv (2023); Excerpts from The Best of World SF, Vol.1, Neom, and The Circumference of the World

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received from author’s agent