KB Projects 2021
Well, I will tell you what: remembering to blog (is that still a word) here has not been at the top of ye olde “to do” list, but maybe I’ll be better about it next year, and you can see what I’m up to with Michael Taeckens and Whitney Peeling over at BroadsidePR. Right now though I am over the moon to announce my projects for the first half of 2021:
Jen Silverman‘s debut novel, We Play Ourselves – Random House, Feb 9 – about a NYC playwright involved in a humiliating (but fabulous for readers) public scandal who flees to LA. There she meets an ambitious/monstrous filmmaker and starts work on a documentary tracking a group of young girls in a female fight club. But what it’s really about? Female rage – especially repressed female rage, queerness, crushes, and figuring out how far is too far to go for success/fame/glory. You’ll read it quickly and it will stick. Jen Silverman writes magnificently developed characters to love, hate, cringe for, cry about, laugh with – they just get up and run all over her pages. ALA Booklist’s starred review says We Play Ourselves is “A beautifully realized novel about choice, ambition, and revelation…This memorable novel deserves a standing ovation.”
Li Juan’s first major publication in English, Winter Pasture: One Woman’s Journey with China’s Kazakh Herders – Astra House, Feb. 23 – Since it was first published, Winter Pasture has been critically acclaimed around the world, winning the 2011 People’s Literature Award, and has long been a bestseller in China. Astra House is launching their imprint with this extraordinary, rare, and beautifully told account of the annual migration of Kazakh herders by one of China’s most important and acclaimed writers. Rachel Friedman (author of The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Lost) says, “Near the end of Winter Pasture Li Juan asks herself what it means to be “a passerby” in the lives of others. Her intimate depiction of a family of Kazakh herders is itself an answer to that complicated travel writer question: to connect the reader with people and stories she likely otherwise would never encounter. In doing so, Li Juan is an empathetic, interrogative, and entertaining chronicler. She offers up a fascinating portrait of life in one of the world’s most remote corners.”
Imbolo Mbue‘s second novel, How Beautiful We Were – Random House, March 9 – African villagers rise up to fight against an American oil company that is destroying their land and killing their children, featuring a magnificent young heroine readers will remember forever. You might’ve read Imbolo’s debut novel, Behold the Dreamers – international bestseller, Oprah pick, on every single “best of the year” list. I love what Kirkus said about How Beautiful We Were in their starred review: “Among the many virtues of Mbue’s novel is the way it uses an ecological nightmare to frame a vivid and stirring picture of human beings’ asserting their value to the world, whether the world cares about them or not. One can both grieve for Kosawa and be inspired by its determined fight for life.”
Laura Lindstedt‘s US debut novel, My Friend Natalia – WW Norton/Liveright, March 23 – a linguistic sexual thriller (you heard me) narrated by an unnamed, ungendered therapist and their patient, Natalia, who arrives seeking help saying she cannot stop thinking about sex. The story becomes a gripping examination of the power dynamics that are present, but not often talked about, in therapy and sexuality. Think Nabokov meets Anais Nin…in Helsinki. I’ve done work over the last few years for FILI, Finnish Literature Exchange, and met Laura through them. On Feb 29, 2020, a date, (right before Covid hit the US), that I refer to as “the last good time” – we had a celebration of Finnish writers in NYC with FILI, the New York literary community, and a ton of Finnish ex-pats. Laura gave a magnificent reading at McNally Jackson’s South Seaport store – it was an absolutely fantastic night and Laura had the packed audience, and me, on the edge of our seats. The rights to My Friend Natalia have been sold in 13 territories – I expect Lindstedt World Domination ESPECIALLY here in the US.
Rebecca Donner‘s nonfiction debut, All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler – Little, Brown, New Pub date! August 3, 2021 – I’ve known and admired Rebecca for years, ever since she was running the KGB Bar’s literary series in the early 2000s. But I didn’t know that when she was a teenager, her grandmother handed her a packet of letters and notes and said, “Someday you will write a book about this.” “This” is Rebecca’s great-great-aunt, Mildred Fish-Harnack, hailing from Milwaukee, she was the only American leader of the German Resistance in Berlin. All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days tells the little known, riveting story of Mildred, and also provides a rare vantage of the rise of fascism from a woman’s perspective. Rebecca fuses elements of biography, political thriller, and scholarly detective story to put readers right there on the streets of 1930s and 40s Berlin. Deeply researched and highly personal – Rebecca delivers a powerful, enthralling story to reconstruct the moral courage of an enigmatic woman, executed on Hitler’s direct orders and nearly erased by history: her great-great-aunt.
👉All these books are available for pre-order at your local independent bookstore or on bookshop.
