Featuring 288 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children'sand YA books KIRKUSVOL. LXXXVII, NO. 20 | 15 OCTOBER 2019 REVIEWS 9 Read about all 18 Finalists for the 2019 Kirkus Prizes Also in this issue: Interviews with Jami Attenberg, Ashley Bryan, Kekla Magoon, and more from the editor’s desk: Chairman The 2019 Kirkus Prize Finalists HERBERT SIMON President & Publisher BY TOM BEER MARC WINKELMAN # Chief Executive Officer MEG LABORDE KUEHN [email protected] John Paraskevas Editor-in-Chief TOM BEER It’s that time of year again, when we at Kirkus honor the best [email protected] Vice President of Marketing books that we’ve reviewed in the previous year. Over the course of SARAH KALINA several months, three panels of dedicated judges have considered [email protected] Managing/Nonfiction Editor ERIC LIEBETRAU a host of books to come up with a list of 18 finalists in three cat- [email protected] egories. Any book that received a Kirkus Star since Nov. 1, 2018, Fiction Editor LAURIE MUCHNICK was eligible—356 fiction titles, 306 nonfiction titles, and a whop- [email protected] Children’s Editor ping 602 young readers’ literature titles in total. VICKY SMITH [email protected] My colleagues and I are people who get excited about great Young Adult Editor LAURA SIMEON Tom Beer books—it’s our job, after all—but there’s a special electricity in [email protected] Editor at Large the office the day we make the finalists public; we’re proud of the list and of the work MEGAN LABRISE [email protected] that our judges have done. The winners will be announced in a special ceremony at Vice President of Kirkus Indie KAREN SCHECHNER the Austin Public Library on Thursday, Oct. 24, and the winner in each category will [email protected] Senior Indie Editor receive a $50,000 prize. DAVID RAPP Please visit KirkusReviews.com and follow us on social media to learn more about [email protected] Indie Editor MYRA FORSBERG these titles and to find out the winners once they are announced. For this issue, our [email protected] editors have also written about the finalists in their respective sections. Here’s to Associate Manager of Indie KATERINA PAPPAS another year of great books and a bumper crop of outstanding finalists—we hope [email protected] Editorial Assistant you’ll add them to your own reading list. JOHANNA ZWIRNER [email protected] Mysteries Editor FICTION: THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor GREGORY McNAMEE • Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis (Knopf) Copy Editor BETSY JUDKINS Designer • The Other Americans by Laila Lalami (Pantheon) ALEX HEAD Director of Kirkus Editorial LAUREN BAILEY • Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli (Knopf) [email protected] Production Editor CATHERINE BRESNER • Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima, translated by Geraldine Harcourt (FSG) [email protected] Website and Software Developer PERCY PEREZ • On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press) [email protected] Advertising Director MONIQUE STENSRUD • The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday) [email protected] Advertising Associate TATIANA ARNOLD The judges for the 2019 Kirkus Prize in Fiction are: bestselling author Min Jin [email protected] Advertising Coordinator Lee; editor, writer, and critic David L. Ulin; and Michelle Malonzo, buyer KELSEY WILLIAMS [email protected] and bookseller at Changing Hands Bookstore in Arizona. Graphic Designer LIANA WALKER [email protected] Controller MICHELLE GONZALES [email protected] Continued on p. 4 for customer service or subscription questions, please call 1 800 316 9361 Print indexes: www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/print-indexes Submission Guidelines: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/submission-guidlines - - - Kirkus Blog: www.kirkusreviews.com/blog Subscriptions: www.kirkusreviews.com/subscription Advertising Opportunities: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/advertising- Newsletters: www.kirkusreviews.com/subscription/newsletter/add Cover design by Liana Walker opportunities 2 | 15 october 2019 | from the editor’s desk | kirkus.com | you can now purchase books online at kirkus.com contents fiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ........................................................... 5 The Kirkus Star is awarded REVIEWS ............................................................................................... 5 to books of remarkable EDITOR’S NOTE.....................................................................................6 INTERVIEW: JAMI ATTENBERG ....................................................... 14 merit, as determined by the INTERVIEW: STEPH CHA ..................................................................24 MYSTERY ..............................................................................................30 impartial editors of Kirkus. SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY ..........................................................33 ROMANCE ........................................................................................... 34 nonfiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ..........................................................37 REVIEWS ..............................................................................................37 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................... 38 INTERVIEW: TOM MUELLER .............................................................52 INTERVIEW: ADRIENNE BRODEUR ................................................ 58 children’s INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ..........................................................75 REVIEWS ..............................................................................................75 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................... 76 INTERVIEW: ASHLEY BRYAN ...........................................................82 INTERVIEW: KEVIN NOBLE MAILLARD ......................................... 92 BOARD & NOVELTY BOOKS ............................................................. 99 CONTINUING SERIES ......................................................................109 young adult INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ........................................................112 REVIEWS ............................................................................................112 EDITOR’S NOTE..................................................................................114 INTERVIEW: KEKLA MAGOON .......................................................118 INTERVIEW: LONDON SHAH .........................................................122 CONTINUING SERIES ......................................................................124 Strawberry-blonde Circassian American Allie indie flies under the radar of Islamophobes but can’t INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ........................................................125 escape her own inner turmoil in Nadine Jolie REVIEWS ............................................................................................125 Courtney’s insightful #ownvoices novel. EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................. 126 INTERVIEW: AMY GULICK ...............................................................132 Read the review on p. 112. QUEERIES: SHELLY ORIA ................................................................ 140 Don’t wait on the mail for reviews! You can read pre-publication reviews as INDIE BOOKS OF THE MONTH ....................................................... 149 they are released on kirkus.com—even before they are published in the magazine. FIELD NOTES......................................................................................150 You can also access the current issue and back issues of Kirkus Reviews on our website by logging in as a subscriber. If you do not have a username or password, APPRECIATIONS: JACK KEROUAC, 50 YEARS AFTER please contact customer care to set up your account by calling 1.800.316.9361 or HIS PASSING ......................................................................................151 emailing [email protected]. | kirkus.com | contents | 15 october 2019 | 3 from the editor’s desk: The 2019 Kirkus Prize Finalists NONFICTION: • Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib (Univ. of Texas) • When Death Takes Something From You Give It Back: Carl’s Book by Naja Marie Aidt, translated by Denise Newman (Coffee House) • How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir by Saeed Jones (Simon & Schuster) • Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe (Doubleday) • The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You by Dina Nayeri (Catapult) • No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us by Rachel Louise Snyder (Bloomsbury) The judges for the 2019 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction are: Kirkus Prize and Pulitzer Prize winner Jack E. Davis; critic Richard Z. Santos; and bookseller at Miami’s Books & Books Aaron John Curtis. YOUNG READERS’ LITERATURE: Picture Books: • The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Versify/HMH) • Imagine by Juan Felipe Herrera, illustrated by Lauren Castillo (Candlewick) Middle Grade: • New Kid by Jerry Craft, color by Jim Callahan (HarperCollins) • Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams (Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum) Young Adult: • On The Come Up by Angie Thomas (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins) • The Other Side: Stories of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing the Border by Juan Pablo Villalobos, translated by Rosalind Harvey (FSG) The judges