New books out this week offer catastrophes that at least profess to be just fantasies

Some weeks more than others demand that we take a breather or two from the news cycle, if only to mitigate the onset of debilitating ennui or despair. That’s not to say that everyone answers this call, or that a break should lapse into long-term indifference – but pausing the ol’ firehose of upheaval and violence every now and then can do wonders for one’s state of mind.

That’s a roundabout way of saying: Anybody else up for some fiction this week?

To be clear, this week’s publishing highlights often get quite heavy, laden as they are with family tragedy, psychopathy and heartbreak. But it’s a welcome relief to note that, for the most part, these catastrophes at least profess to be just fantasies.

Bug Hollow: A Novel by Michelle Huneven

Meet the Samuelsons: The middle-class Northern California family takes lead in Huneven’s latest novel, which opens with light comedy, madcap road trips — and unexpected tragedy. What follows is an expansive meditation on loss and grief and getting on however you can, lovingly rendered in the lives of the Samuelson children and their parents, year after year, decade after decade. It is the sixth book by the versatile author, who has won the Whiting Award for Fiction and a James Beard Award for her food writing.

Fox: A Novel by Joyce Carol Oates

As dextrous as she is relentless, Oates has demonstrated a truly staggering range across a back catalog that numbers north of 100 books. Sweeping epics, intimate dramas, gothic throwbacks, kids’ books, serial killers — turn virtually any direction in your local library and you’re likely to see at least a couple of dust jackets bearing her name. At the heart of her latest novel stands Francis Fox, a mysterious charmer who is nearly as protean as Oates, though — no offense to either novelist or character — profoundly more menacing. Tom Ripley, eat your heart out.

The Möbius Book by Catherine Lacey

If one were to subject Lacey’s fiction to the senseless indignity of being summed up in a word, you could find worse options than “destabilizing.” In previous novels, she has tried experiments with alternate history and dystopia, fictional biography, even a protagonist with no discernible characteristics whatsoever. The Möbius Book is just as likely as its predecessors to keep readers on their toes, and it’s even more difficult to pin down. Half-fictional-murder-mystery, half-breakup-memoir, both sides echoing and entwined, this book promises a conundrum for any librarian or book store worker just trying to figure out where to shelve it.

The Sisters: A Novel by Jonas Hassen Khemiri

The Swedish writer’s previous novel, The Family Clause, earned a National Book Award nod in 2020, for its English translation by Alice Menzies. This time, Khemiri has taken on the English translation himself. First published in Sweden in 2023, his newly translated novel spans decades and continents in an expansive saga that has elements of autofiction – centered not only on the three eponymous sisters, but also a writer of Swedish-Tunisian descent who bears a striking resemblance to the author.

Weepers: A Novel by Peter Mendelsund

Mendelsund has followed a rather unorthodox career path. At various points a classical pianist, graphic artist, magazine creative director and accomplished designer of book covers, the renaissance man lately has gotten into the habit of writing what’s inside those covers too. Weepers, a novel, is his seventh book and the second published just this month, after the memoir Exhibitionist. In his latest novel, weepers are paid professionals who literally cry on their clients’ behalf, at the kinds of occasions where emotion is expected. Of course, this tidy little industry — as well as our weeper of interest, Ed — are in for some surprises soon enough.