Making book on potentially cool new fiction of 2009
Anticipating the exciting new books of the year can be tricky. Often my personal favorites will be the out-of-nowhere titles I’ve never heard of, like 2007’s workplace satire Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris. The Guardian anticipates a resurgence of fiction in 2009, anticipating new novels from the likes of Martin Amis and Thomas Pynchon. The late Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, although published in November, should be considered an “honorary” 2009 novel, since it’s more than 900 pages: The New Yorker magazine’s Book Bench blog has dubbed January 2009 “National Reading 2666 Month.”
This spring features three intriguing-sounding books from authors with local connections:
Bound South - Susan Rebecca White (Feb. 10). The debut novel by an author born in bred in Atlanta offers a portrait of the city from the view of three women seeking to find themselves and their place in the New South. The Margaret Mitchell House hosts an author event for White on Feb. 9.
The Age of Orphans – Laleh Khadivi (March 3). A fellow in Emory University’s Creative Writing Program, Khadivi received a 2008 Whiting Writers’ Award for this historical novel set in Iran during the first Shah’s rise to power.
The King James Conspiracy – Phillip DePoy (May 12). The playwright, mystery novelist and Creative Loafing Fiction Contest judge pens a historical mystery set around the creation of the King James Bible. It sounds more Name of the Rose than Da Vinci Code.
Here’s a handful of other potentially cool books scheduled for 2009 publication; avid readers should feel free to suggest others: