Media Hits: COMRADE PAPA, NEAR DISTANCE, A CASE OF MATRICIDE, and more!
IN THE NEWS!
Comrade Papa by GauZ’, translated by Frank Wynne (Oct 8, 2024), was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal! The review was published online on November 14, and is available to read here.
Critic Sam Sacks writes,
“GauZ’ avoids moralizing and is always alive to the humor and peculiarity of his stories. There are very funny scenes of the young Marxist speechifying to his unimpressed elders about the class struggle and the ‘retching of the earth.’ (Frank Wynne’s translation from the French shows a deft touch with Anouman’s malapropisms.)”
Comrade Papa was also a bookseller choice in Electric Literature’s article “The Best Books of the Fall, According to Indie Booksellers”! The list was published November 1, and you can check it out here.
Josh Cook (Porter Square Books) wrote,
“A funhouse mirror version of the colonial adventure story, Comrade Papa pokes, prods, & mocks a whole suite of ideologies & assumptions. GauZ’ has an exuberant, nimble style & an off-center imagination that will keep readers on their toes.”
Get Comrade Papa here!
Caroline Adderson, author of A Way to Be Happy (Sep 10, 2024), was interviewed on CBC’s The Next Chapter! The interview with Antonio Michael Downing was posted November 15, and you can read it here.
A Way to Be Happy was also reviewed in FreeFall! The review was posted online on November 3, and you can read it here.
Lori Hahnel writes,
“As the author of many books of fiction and non-fiction, the breadth of Adderson’s writing experience is evident in her craft. This clever and meticulously crafted collection from a writer who has mastered her art is a pleasure to read.”
Get A Way to Be Happy here!
A Case of Matricide by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Nov 12, 2024)was reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement on November 15. You can read it in full here.
Critic Nicolas Cree writes,
“A remarkable crime trilogy of doublings and disappearance . . . These are crime novels in which identities are unstable, evidence is slippery and solutions are obscure.”
A Case of Matricide was also reviewed in the Miramichi Reader on November 14, which you can check out here.
Luke Francis Beirne writes,
“The story in A Case of Matricide is intricately woven, with layers of significance throughout . . . Graeme Macrae Burnet has elevated the detective novel to incredible heights.”
Get A Case of Matricide here!
Near Distance by Hanna Stoltenberg, translated by Wendy H Gabrielsen (Jan 14, 2025), was reviewed in Kirkus Reviews. The review was published in their November 15 print issue and is available to read online here.
Kirkus writes,
“Grimly fascinating . . . infused with a sense of dread, and observed in microscopic detail from a bemused and calculated remove. Page after page leaves the reader anxiously waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
Preorder Near Distance here!
Heaven and Hell by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton (Feb 4, 2025), was given a starred review in Kirkus Reviews! The review was posted online on November 9, and will appear in their December 15 print issue. Read it here.
Kirkus writes,
“A moving story of loss and courage told in prose as crisp and clear as the Icelandic landscape where it takes place. . . Stefánsson writes like an epic poet of old about the price the natural world exacts on humans, but he’s not without sympathy or an ability to find affirming qualities in difficult situations.”
Preorder Heaven and Hell here!
SETH’S CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES
The 2024 Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories were featured on So Many Damn Books podcast for the Holiday Gift Guide episode! Listen to the full episode here.
Host Christopher Hamelin says,
“Awesome pocket editions of forgotten horror stories, or mystery stories, from the past, in this perfect set . . . This ‘Ghost Story for Christmas’ series is some of the most delightful reading that I do all year.”
Get all three 2024 Christmas Ghost Stories here!
The Pages of the Sea by Anne Hawk (Sep 17, 2024) was reviewed in the Ottawa Review of Books. The review was published online, and is available to read here.
Timothy Niedermann writes,
“A moving portrayal of a young girl’s efforts to grow out of a state of melancholy and confusion and acquire self-confidence and assertiveness, despite her young age.”
Get The Pages of the Sea here!
Old Romantics by Maggie Armstrong (Apr 1, 2025) was reviewed in The Stinging Fly on November 15, which you can check out here.
Sarah Gilmartin writes,
“Readers of Old Romantics will be swept up in the verve of Armstrong’s storytelling, but the deeper purpose of the humour, as with all good comedic writing, is that of connection, of recognition: this crazy thing called life, tell me you feel it too? The more we laugh, the closer we are to tears. Old Romantics is a collection big on feeling, on living, romanticism with a capital R.”
Preorder Old Romantics here!
