6 New Books for Fall 2025

 

Vera, or Faith

By Gary Shteyngart

Judging by the chapter titles of Columbia writing professor Gary Shteyngart’s newest novel, the guide’s ten-year-old protagonist, Vera, has weighty tasks on her thoughts: “She had to survive recess,” “She had to hatch a plan,” and naturally “She had to hold the family together,” to call only a few. That household consists of her Russian-immigrant dad, her WASP stepmom (whom she calls “Anne mom,” in distinction to her estranged Korean start mother, often called “mom mom”), and her youthful brother. Set in a dystopian near-future filled with self-driving automobiles, authoritative AI bots, and a troubling political local weather, Shteyngart’s newest is a brilliant satire with allure to spare.

Just Pills

By Rebecca Kelliher ’13BC, ’21JRN

The improvement of the abortion tablets mifepristone and misoprostol within the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties was in some ways a medical miracle, offering thousands and thousands of ladies typically lifesaving methods to finish pregnancies. In her first book, science journalist Rebecca Kelliher delves into their invention, the battle for his or her legalization, and their adoption around the globe, speaking to greater than 200 individuals who have used, administered, and advocated for the tablets. In a post-Dobbs America, the struggle for abortion rights has turn into more and more pressing, and Kelliher’s challenge is bold and well timed.

The Eternal Forest

By Elena Sheppard ’20SOA

Before Fidel Castro seized energy in 1959, Elena Sheppard’s grandparents, Gustavo and Rosita, had been elevating their two women in idyllic Cifuentes, Cuba. But when Gustavo was positioned on an inventory of political undesirables, the household left for the US, taking just one suitcase and 5 American {dollars}. Elena arrived almost three a long time later; she was the primary American-born in her clan, however she was raised on her household’s reminiscences of “that crocodile-shaped island fueled by God and music and sugar money and rum.” She tells those stories warmly and elegantly right here, weaving collectively household lore and Cuban historical past to create a vibrant portrait of exile and repatriation.

An Oral History of Atlantis

By Ed Park ’95SOA

Technology is seeping into each nook of our lives, and the AI revolution threatens to upend the way in which our world works. So how, on this robot-run society, will we retain our humanity? That query is central to Pulitzer Prize finalist Ed Park’s latest work of fiction — a unusual, Barthelme-esque story assortment. In one piece, a person contemplates his life through a collection of password-recall prompts. In one other, a hacker figures out find out how to make an e-reader splice the texts of books collectively, making a disorienting (however perhaps revolutionary?) new solution to learn. Together, the tales are an amusing have a look at our new regular.

The Unbroken Coast

By Nalini Jones ’01SOA

In a small Catholic enclave of Mumbai, Francis Almeida, a retired historical past professor teetering getting ready to dementia, runs his bike into Celia D’Mello, a feisty eight-year-old from the close by fishing village. Missing their globe-scattered grown kids, Almeida and his spouse take Celia beneath their wing, and two households’ lives turn into intertwined in sudden methods. Nalini Jones’s debut novel, which follows the Almeidas and D’Mellos by three a long time and numerous tragedies, is a beautiful and sometimes heartbreaking portrait of a neighborhood barreling into modernity.

No Ordinary Bird

By Artis Henderson ’10JRN

When Artis Henderson was 5 years previous, she boarded a small aircraft piloted by her father, Lamar Chester. Moments later, it crashed, leaving Artis injured and her father lifeless. For the remainder of her childhood, it was known as “the accident.” But a long time later, she discovered that it hadn’t been an accident in any respect, and that her beloved father wasn’t who she thought he was. Oddly, that is Henderson’s second memoir a few devastating crash — her first guide, Unremarried Widow, chronicled life after her husband was killed in a helicopter accident in Iraq. There’s extra drama to her new book, a stranger-than-fiction story full of sabotage, betrayal, and worldwide intrigue. But on the coronary heart, each books are about gut-wrenching grief, which Henderson writes about with outstanding grace.