Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin

by
Staff
From the November/December 2012 issue of
Poets & Writers Magazine

Growing up, I have dreams that my father sets our house on fire.” Safe as Houses (University of Iowa Press, October 2012) by Marie-Helene Bertino. First book, short story collection. Agent: Renee Zuckerbrot. Editor: James McCoy. Publicist: Allison Means.

“An Igbo proverb tells us that a man who does not know where the rain began to beat him cannot say where he dried his body.” There Was a Country (Penguin, October 2012) by Chinua Achebe. Twentieth book, first memoir. Agent: Andrew Wiley. Editor: Scott Moyers. Publicist: Yamil Anglada.

“To press the air, to bless the silhouette, / the owl and the field mice—that argument— / and spare no speck of dust or fleck of light, // all fair and foul, lush and bare…” The Foundling Wheel (Four Way Books, October 2012) by Blas Falconer. Second poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Martha Rhodes. Publicists: Victoria McCoy and Bridget Bell.

“Do you want my recipe for disaster?” May We Be Forgiven (Viking, October 2012) by A. M. Homes. Tenth book, seventh novel. Agent: Sarah Chalfant. Editor: Paul Slovak. Publicists: Holly Watson and Langan Kingsley.

“On the last Wednesday of April, 1983, my grandmother went to a funeral.” I Will Not Leave You Comfortless (Milkweed Editions, October 2012) by Jeremy Jackson. Third book, first memoir. Agent: Jennifer Carlson. Editor: Daniel Slager. Publicist: Meredith Kessler.

“Across from me the whole ride / Hardly stirred: just Mister with his barren / Skull across the arm-rest while the kid / Got his head between his mama’s legs and slept.” Poems 1962–2012 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, November 2012) by Louise Glück. Thirteenth book, twelfth poetry collection. Agent: Sarah Chalfant. Editor: Jonathan Galassi. Publicist: Andrew Saviano. 

“Dinner is nearly ready, Madam,’ I said. ‘Please come to the table.’” Silent House (Knopf, October 2012) by Orhan Pamuk, translated from the Turkish by Robert Finn. Second of twelve books, eighth novel in translation. Agent: Jin Auh. Editor: George Andreou. Publicist: Lena Khidritskaya.

“Here we have a film still of Brando at his most filmable: garments rent and wet, hands cradling his temples, and the name of a star on his wide, taut lips.” Let Me Clear My Throat (Sarabande Books, October 2012) by Elena Passarello. First book, essay collection. Agent: None. Editor: Sarah Gorham. Publicist: Kristen Radtke. 

“No dog chained to a spike in a yard of dying / grass like the dogs / I grew up with, starving, overfed, punched in the face / by children, no children, no firecrackers / slipped down the long throats of bottles in the first days of / summer,” Mayakovsky’s Revolver (Norton, October 2012) by Matthew Dickman. Third poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Jill Bialosky. Publicist: Lauren Opper.

“According to Padilla, remembered Amalfitano, all literature could be classified as heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual.” Woes of the True Policeman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, November 2012) by the late Roberto Bolaño, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer. Twentieth book, thirteenth novel in translation. Agent: Andrew Wylie. Editor: Lorin Stein. Publicist: Jeff Seroy.

“What city and what night / since it’s night in the city / when a woman and a train station argue over / the same half of a man who is leaving.” Tales of a Severed Head (Yale University Press, October 2012) by Rachida Madani, translated from the French by Marilyn Hacker. Fifth book, fourth poetry collection. Agent: Frances Collin. Editor: John Donatich. Publicist: Julia Haav.

“I have lived in books, for books, by and with books; in recent years, I have been fortunate enough to be able to live from books.” Through the Window (Vintage, October 2012) by Julian Barnes. Seventeenth book, first essay collection. Agent: Helen Brann. Editor: LuAnn Walther. Publicist: Courtney Allison.

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