Three (More) Great Books You Might Have Missed

I recommend recent books by Perceval Everett, Jo Lloyd, and Yuri Herrera

In the first half of the year, I wrote about three books I really enjoyed that maybe didn’t cross your radar. So I figure I might as well do this for the second half of the year. I’m not saying these are the best books of the year, but merely ones I enjoyed and want to shout out. Book review coverage tends to coalesce around a few high-profile books to an honestly absurd degree. (For example, the new Sally Rooney has 74 professional reviews on Book Marks while even National Book Award finalists like Hell of a Book and Zorrie are in the single digits.)

Certainly it’s no surprise that extremely famous authors with massive publicity dollars behind them get reviewed more than others, but to the degree I can I try to spend my minimal cred on promoting lesser known books. So here are three I recommend, each of which happen to be from excellent small presses.

The Trees by Percival Everett (Graywolf)

This is one of those rare novels that I truly tore through, almost in one sitting. (I think it took me two.) Everett is the kind of amazing, innovative authors whose commitment to always trying new things seems to keep his books a bit under the radar. There wasn’t much buzz about his last novel, Telephone, until it suddenly was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Every time I read an Everett book, I have no idea what I’m going to get. He’s always trying something new with tone, form, setting, or style.

The Trees is yet another swerve from Everett, a darkly comic novel about the history of lynching that manages to balance almost slapstick humor with deep effect. This novel blew me away so much that I actually posted on Twitter asking if anyone would let me review it. I ended up writing about it for John Warner’s excellent Substack Biblioracle if you want my full review.

Something Wonderful by Jo Lloyd (Tin House)

Lloyd is a Welsh author whose debut collection covers a wide range of UK characters, time periods, and subjects with a honed, crisp prose style. The opening story, “My Bonny,” really gripped me. It follows a series of related characters in a 19-century port town, each haunted in a different way by the sea and the past. A perfect short story. Other tales here move around from 1700s English lords to the modern millennial dating scene. I love a story collection that isn’t afraid to jump about and show the author flexing their various writing muscles. That’s one of the things story collections are perfect for, and if you’re a short story lover I’d put this on your list.

Three Novels by Yuri Herrera (And Other Stories)

Okay, this last one is cheating a bit as these three novels by Mexican crime novelist Yuri Herrera have all been published before. However, all three of these literary crime novels (or novellas perhaps)—each translated by Lisa Dillman—are excellent and deserving of a much wider readership. I adore Herrera’s works. Signs Preceding the End of the World is a straight up masterpiece about language, migration, and the US-Mexico border. Kindom Cons is a narco-fairy tale in which the tale of a musician in a modern-day drug kingpin estate is retold in the language of fantasy fiction. Those two are my favorite, although the third—The Transmigration of Bodies—is also an excellent read.

I also have to say the the hardcover from And Other Stories looks truly gorgeous in person. It would make a perfect Christmas gift for anyone in your life who might love taut, gripping, and highly literary crime novels.

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