Angel Down, Beasts of Carnaval, The Conjuring of America, and extra : NPR

There is magic at work on this week’s batch of latest books. Not simply the previous literary sorcery by which phrases summon worlds for readers, but additionally literal, honest-to-goodness magic: angels, conjurers, otherworldly points of interest and dances of mysterious energy.

Don’t mistake these phenomena for miracles, although. In American historical past, as in conflict fiction, brief tales or luxurious sluggish burns, this brush with the supernatural tends to bear a worth — and I do not simply imply the one on the again cowl.

Angel Down, by Daniel Kraus

Never one to draw back from an bold premise, Kraus has studded his again catalog with audacious opening gambits. On his mud jackets, you may discover themes like resurrection, teddy-bear sentience, merman romance — even, in 2023’s Whalefall, a determined escape from the stomach of a sperm whale. Now the novelist has launched into one other nice leap of plot, utilizing only one very lengthy sentence to lend momentum and immediacy to his gory story of World War I troopers who discover a fallen angel among the many our bodies littering No Man’s Land

Beasts of Carnaval, by Rosália Rodrigo

Seriously, of us, please watch out for the isle of hedonistic delights already. We’ve heard sufficient public service bulletins — from luminaries like Homer to Zoë Kravitz — that even essentially the most innocuous paradise should elicit a raised eyebrow by now. At least Sofía, the character main Rodrigo’s debut novel, would not want these sorts of warnings — her brother went lacking on Isla Bestia years in the past, and the enchanting Caribbean island holds risks that invoke the area’s real-life colonial previous. But anticipating is one factor, experiencing is one other, and in any case, how dangerous can these lavish — and solely a bit creepy — events actually be? Partaking in only one or two of the isle’s delights certainly could not damage … might it?

The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine and 400 Years of Black Women’s Magic, by Lindsey Stewart

A thinker and professor on the University of Memphis, Stewart brings scholarly rigor and literary sensibility to a lesser-known a part of American historical past: the position performed by conjure ladies, matriarchal figures of magic and therapeutic, in Black historical past and American tradition writ massive. Stewart traces the affect of the idea, and the Black ladies who skilled it, alongside branching paths by way of seemingly distant — but surprisingly linked — historic landmarks, such because the Civil Rights Movement, VooDoo and even Vicks VapoRub.

An Oral History of Atlantis, by Ed Park

Although that is his first short-story assortment, Park told Lit Hub that the tales had been truly written over a span of about 25 years. No shock, then, that readers of his earlier two novels will acknowledge the identical playful wit and eclectic, often difficult type that animate his two novels, together with the 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist Same Bed Different Dreams. But in contrast to that e book, which pulls from Korea’s previous for a grandly wrought different historical past, the tales in Atlantis stay squarely in our personal absurd current, a workaday wonderland the place lives will be informed in sleep-medication unintended effects and Internet login passwords.

The Dance and the Fire, by Daniel Saldaña París, translated by Christina MacSweeney

Set in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and break up between three 30-somethings with an advanced previous, this triptych of a novel takes its title actually. There is certainly a cluster of wildfires casting an ominous pall over town, and there is additionally a dance, dreamed up by one character who’s a choreographer. But do not count on issues to remain easy. Some surprising, borderline surreal turns await on this one, which was first printed in Spanish in 2021 and introduced into English by a translator who has labored with Paris’ earlier novels.