Readings From New Novels

Brock Clarke is the author of four previous novels, including the bestselling An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, as well as three collections of short stories. He teaches at Bowdoin College. Of his latest book, Who Are You, Calvin Bledsoe?: A Novel (Algonquin Books), author Ben Fountain writes, “Brock Clarke has given us a wonderful novel that bursts with all the meaty stuff of real life.” Calvin Bledsoe’s journey begins with the death of his mother. An expert on all things John Calvin, she had been the dominant force in her son’s existence, so much so that he never left home—even when he married—and, as a result, never grew up. At his mother’s funeral, Calvin is introduced to his aunt Beatrice, a woman he had not even known existed. Beatrice immediately makes it clear to Calvin that she is now in charge of his life, and the first thing she is going to do is whisk him off to Europe with her for a grand adventure. As Calvin and his aunt traverse the continent, it becomes apparent that her clandestine behavior is leading him into danger. Facing a menagerie of antiquities thieves, secret agents, religious fanatics, and an ex-wife who is stalking him, there’s little time for soul-searching, as Calvin has to figure out why he has been kidnapped, why his aunt has disappeared, and who the hell burned down his house in Maine.

Julie Langsdorf’s short stories and essays have appeared in Lit Hub and Electric Literature among other publications. She is the recipient of four individual artist awards from the Maryland State Arts Council. Her debut novel is White Elephant (Ecco). The white elephant looms large over the town of Willard Park: a newly constructed behemoth of a home, it towers over the quaint houses, including Allison and Ted Millers’ tiny hundred-year-old home. When owner Nick Cox cuts down the Millers’ precious red maple, in an effort to make his unsightly property more appealing to buyers, their once serene town becomes a battleground. White Elephant is a tangled-web tale of a community on the verge and its all-too-human inhabitants, who long to connect but can’t seem to find the words. It's a story about opposing sides struggling to find a middle ground—a parable for our times.

Kevin Wilson previous novel, The Family Fang, was a New York Times bestseller and a best book of the year in Time, People, Salon, and Esquire. It was praised as “Breathtakingly wonderful,” by The Miami Herald, and “Winningly bizarre,” by Vanity Fair. In Nothing to See Here (HarperCollins), a woman finds meaning in her life when she begins caring for two children with remarkable and disturbing abilities. A friend pleads with Lillian to care for her twin stepchildren. There’s also a catch: the twins spontaneously combust when they get agitated, flames igniting from their skin in a startling but beautiful way. Over the course of one humid, demanding summer, Lillian and the twins learn to trust each other — and Lillian begins to accept that she needs these children as much as they need her. Call it an unusual story of parental love.