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    Buzz Books 2018: Spring/Summer: Exclusive excerpts from forthcoming titles by Patrick DeWitt, Sheila Heti, Kristan Higgins, Ottessa Moshfegh Allison Pearson and 35 more
    Buzz Books 2018: Spring/Summer: Exclusive excerpts from forthcoming titles by Patrick DeWitt, Sheila Heti, Kristan Higgins, Ottessa Moshfegh Allison Pearson and 35 more
    Buzz Books 2018: Spring/Summer: Exclusive excerpts from forthcoming titles by Patrick DeWitt, Sheila Heti, Kristan Higgins, Ottessa Moshfegh Allison Pearson and 35 more
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    Buzz Books 2018: Spring/Summer: Exclusive excerpts from forthcoming titles by Patrick DeWitt, Sheila Heti, Kristan Higgins, Ottessa Moshfegh Allison Pearson and 35 more

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    About this ebook

    Our biannual Buzz Books captures all the excitement of the American Booksellers Association’s Winter Institute and takes it much further. Start off a year of new reading discoveries with substantial excerpts from 40 talked about Buzz Books due to be published in the months ahead.

    Be among the first to get a taste of new fiction from major bestselling authors including Allison Pearson’s follow up to I Don’t Know How She Does It and beloved romance writer Kristan Higgins’ work of general fiction, Good Luck with That. Samples from award-winning literary authors include Chris Offutt, with his first novel in 20 years, Country Dark; Ottessa Moshfegh with My Year of Rest and Relaxation; bestselling nonfiction author Sheila Heti’s Motherhood, and Peter Swanson’s thriller All the Beautiful Lies.

    The new Buzz Books shines a light on 11 promising debuts. Bestselling nonfiction author Aimee Molloy’s forthcoming novel The Perfect Mother already has been optioned for film by Kerry Washington. Accomplished comic book writer Charles Soule writes a novel that is part comedy, part thriller, The Oracle Year. Other featured debut authors include Luke Allnutt, Alice Feeney, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, and Zoje Stage.

    Our fascinating nonfiction section is filled with memoir this time around. In The Fox Hunt, Mohammed Al Samawi describes fighting in the Yemeni Civil War before fleeing to the United States while Tessa Fontaine’s The Electric Woman is about running away to join the circus.

    Regular readers know that each Buzz Books collection is filled with early looks at titles that will go on to top the bestseller lists and critics' "best of the year" lists. And our comprehensive seasonal preview starts the book off with a curated overview of hundreds of notable books on the way later this year.

    For still more great previews, check out our separate Buzz Books 2018: Young Adult Spring/Summer as well. For complete download links, lists and more, just visit buzz.publishersmarketplace.com.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPublishers Marketplace
    Release dateJan 8, 2018
    ISBN9780999137345
    Buzz Books 2018: Spring/Summer: Exclusive excerpts from forthcoming titles by Patrick DeWitt, Sheila Heti, Kristan Higgins, Ottessa Moshfegh Allison Pearson and 35 more

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      Book preview

      Buzz Books 2018 - Publishers Lunch

      cover.jpg

      Buzz Books 2018

      Spring/Summer

      Contents

      Introduction

      The Spring/Summer 2018 Publishing Preview

      Buzz Books Authors Appearing at Winter Institute

      Part One: Fiction

      Louise Candlish, Our House (Berkley)

      Katherine Center, How To Walk Away (St. Martin’s Press)

      Lauren Denton, Hurricane Season (Thomas Nelson)

      Patrick deWitt, French Exit (Ecco)

      Charlie Donlea, Don’t Believe It (Kensington)

      Aminatta Forna, Happiness (Atlantic Monthly)

      Keith Gessen, A Terrible Country (Viking)

      Mario Giordano, Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions, (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

      Araminta Hall, Our Kind of Cruelty (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

      Lindsay Harrel, The Heart Between Us (Thomas Nelson)

      Sheila Heti, Motherhood (Holt)

      Kristan Higgins, Good Luck with That (Berkley)

      Ann Mah, The Lost Vintage (William Morrow)

      Stephen McCauley, My Ex-Life (Flatiron)

      Jenny Milchman, Wicked River (Sourcebooks Landmark)

      Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation (Penguin Press)

      Chris Offutt, Country Dark (Grove)

      Allison Pearson, How Hard Can It Be? (St. Martin’s Press)

      Katy Regan, Little Big Love (Berkley)

      Peter Swanson, All the Beautiful Lies (Morrow)

      Beatriz Williams, The Summer Wives (William Morrow)

      Sarah Winman, Tin Man (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

      Part Two: Debut Fiction

      Luke Allnutt, We Own the Sky (Park Row Books)

      Eldonna Edwards, This I Know (John Scognamiglio Books)

      Alice Feeney, Sometimes I Lie (Flatiron)

      Jane Rosenberg LaForge, The Hawkman: A Fairy Tale of the Great War (Amberjack)

      James McLaughlin, Bearskin (Ecco)

      Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother (Harper)

      Amanda Skenandore, Between Earth And Sky (Kensington)

      Charles Soule, The Oracle Year (Harper Perennial)

      Zoje Stage, Baby Teeth (St. Martin’s)

      Katie Williams, Tell The Machine Goodnight (Riverhead)

      Spencer Wise, The Emperor of Shoes (Hanover Square Press)

      Part Three: Nonfiction

      Mohammed Al Samawi, The Fox Hunt: A Refugee’s Memoir of Coming To America (Morrow)

      Eugenia Bone, Microbia: A Journey into the Unseen World Around You (Rodale)

      Tessa Fontaine, The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

      Meredith Goldstein, Can’t Help Myself (Grand Central)

      Barbara K. Lipska, The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

      Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund, Ola Rosling, Factfulness (Flatiron)

      Massimo Vacchetta, A Handful of Happiness: How a Prickly Creature, Softened a Prickly Heart (Rodale)

      Credits

      Copyright

      Introduction

      Our biannual Buzz Books captures all the excitement of the American Booksellers Association’s Winter Institute and takes it much further. Start off a year of new reading discoveries with substantial excerpts from 40 talked about Buzz Books due to be published in the months ahead.

      Be among the first to get a taste of new fiction from major bestselling authors including Allison Pearson’s follow up to I Don’t Know How She Does It and beloved romance writer Kristan Higgins’ work of general fiction, Good Luck with That. Samples from award-winning literary authors include Chris Offutt, with his first novel in 20 years, Country Dark; Ottessa Moshfegh with My Year of Rest and Relaxation; bestselling nonfiction author Sheila Heti’s Motherhood, and Peter Swanson’s thriller All the Beautiful Lies.

      The new Buzz Books shines a light on 11 promising debuts. Bestselling nonfiction author Aimee Molloy’s forthcoming novel The Perfect Mother already has been optioned for film by Kerry Washington. Debut novelist Eldonna Edwards was the subject of the award-winning documentary Perfect Strangers and author of the memoir Lost in Transplantation, both of which follow her choice to donate a kidney to an anonymous person. Accomplished comic book writer Charles Soule writes a novel that is part comedy, part thriller, The Oracle Year. Other featured debut authors include Luke Allnutt, Alice Feeney, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, and Zoje Stage.

      Our always fascinating nonfiction section is filled with memoir this time around. In The Fox Hunt, Mohammed Al Samawi describes fighting in the Yemeni Civil War before fleeing to the United States while Tessa Fontaine’s The Electric Woman is about running away to join the circus. You’ll find more memoirs by Boston Globe’s Love Letters columnist Meredith Goldstein, neuroscientist Barbara Lipska, and Massimo Vacchetta, an Italian vet who falls in love with hedgehogs.

      Regular readers know that each Buzz Books collection is filled with early looks at titles that will go on to top the bestseller lists and critics’ best of the year lists. And our comprehensive seasonal preview starts the book off with a curated overview of hundreds of notable books on the way later this year.

      While Buzz Books feels like your own insider access to book publishing, these collections are meant to be shared, so spread your enthusiasm and to be read picks online. For still more great previews, check out our separate Buzz Books 2018: Young Adult Spring/Summer as well. For complete download links, lists and more, just visit buzz.publishersmarketplace.com

      .

      Finally, don’t miss our popular Buzz Books Monthly editions, available on Amazon, iBooks, and NetGalley, for up-to-the-minute monthly publication lists and excerpts.

      Michael Cader

      January 2018

      The Spring/Summer 2018 Publishing Preview

      To help you sift through the many thousands of planned spring and summer titles, we’ve selected what we think are among the most noteworthy literary, commercial, and breakout titles for adults, separated into four key categories. You’ll be able to sample many of the highlighted titles right now in Buzz Books 2018: Spring/Summer; they are noted with an asterisk.

      Please note: because we prepare this preview many months in advance, titles, content, and publication dates are all subject to change.

      Fiction

      Publishers normally save their most prominent literary titles for the fall, but this season is not lacking in notable names, with new books from:

      Megan Abbott, Give Me Your Hand (Little, Brown, 7/17)

      Julian Barnes, The Only Story (Knopf, 4/17)

      Kate Christensen, The Last Cruise (Doubleday, 7/10)

      Rachel Cusk, Kudos (FSG, 6/5)

      Patrick deWitt, French Exit (Ecco, 8/28)*

      Richard Flanagan, First Person (Knopf, 4/10)

      Lauren Groff, Florida (Riverhead, 6/5)

      Sheila Heti, Motherhood (Holt, 5/1)*

      Alan Hollinghurst, The Sparsholt Affair (Knopf, 3/13)

      Catherine Lacey, Certain American States (FSG, 8/7)

      Edouard Louis, History of Violence (FSG, 6/19)

      Rachel Kushner, The Mars Room (Scribner, 5/1)

      Lydia Millet, Fight No More: Stories (Norton, 6/12)

      Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation (Penguin Press, 7/10)*

      Michael Ondaatje, Warlight (Knopf, 5/8)

      Joseph O’Neill, Good Trouble: Stories (Pantheon, 6/12)

      Chuck Palahniuk, Adjustment Day (Norton, 5/1)

      Anna Quindlen, Alternate Side (Random House, 3/20)

      Curtis Sittenfeld, You Think It, I’ll Say It (Random House, 4/24)

      William Trevor, Last Stories (Viking, 5/15)

      Laura van den Berg, The Third Hotel (FSG, 8/7)

      Kevin Wilson, Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine (Ecco, 8/7)

      Meg Wolitzer, The Female Persuasion (Riverhead, 4/3)

      James Wood, Upstate (FSG, 6/5)

      Highly Anticipated

      Rumaan Alam, That Kind of Mother (Ecco, 5/8)

      Flynn Berry, Double Life (Viking, 8/7)

      Judy Blundell, High Season (Random House, 5/22)

      Melissa Broder, The Pisces (Hogarth, 5/1)

      Jonathan Evison, Lawn Boy (Algonquin, 4/3)

      Aminatta Forna, Happiness (Atlantic Monthly, 3/6)*

      Keith Gessen, A Terrible Country (Viking, 7/10)*

      Elisabeth Hyde, Go Ask Fannie (Putnam, 4/10)

      Charles Johnson, Night Hawks: Stories (Scribner, 7/10)

      Ariel Lawhon, I Was Anastasia (Doubleday, 3/27)

      Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers (Viking, 6/19)

      Madeline Miller, Circe (Little, Brown, 4/10)

      Chris Offutt, Country Dark (Grove, 4/10)*

      Mallory Ortberg, The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror (Henry Holt, 3/13)

      Gunnhild Oyehaug, Wait, Blink: A Perfect Picture of Inner Life (FSG 6/5)

      Caryl Phillips, A View of the Empire at Sunset (FSG, 5/8)

      Hannah Pittard, Visible Empire (HMH, 6/5)

      Tom Rachman, The Italian Teacher (Viking, 3/20)

      Simon Rich, Hits and Misses: Stories (Little, Brown, 7/24)

      Lori Roy, The Disappearing (Dutton, 7/17)

      Leah Stewart, What You Don’t Know About Charlie Outlaw (Putnam, 3/27)

      Tatjana Soli, The Removes (Sarah Crichton, 6/12)

      William Trevor, Last Stories (Viking, 5/15)

      Luis Alberto Urrea, The House of Broken Angels (Little, Brown, 3/6)

      John Edgar Wideman, American Histories (Scribner, 3/20)

      Tim Winton, The Shepherd’s Hut (FSG, 6/19)

      Emerging Voices

      Ramona Ausubel, Awayland: Stories (Riverhead, 3/6)

      Kenneth Bonert, The Mandela Plot (HMH, 5/22)

      Paolo Cognetti, The Eight Mountains (Atria, 3/20)

      Elizabeth Church, All the Beautiful Girls (Ballantine, 3/6)

      Jennifer Clement, Gun Love (Hogarth, 3/6)

      Adrienne Celt, Invitation to a Bonfire (Bloomsbury, 6/5)

      Thomas Clerc, Interior (FSG, 7/10)

      Sergio de la Pava, Lost Empress (Pantheon, 5/8)

      Maria Dahvana Headley, The Mere Wife (MCD, 5/22)

      Carys Davies, West (Scribner 4/24)

      Ceridwen Dovey, In the Garden of the Fugitives (FSG, 5/8)

      Nick Dybek, The Verdun Affair (Scribner, 6/12)

      Susan Froderberg, Mysterium (FSG, 8/14)

      Rebecca Harrington, Sociable (Doubleday, 3/27)

      Emma Healey, Whistling in the Dark (Viking, 7/24)

      Silas House, Southernmost (Algonquin, 6/5)

      Vanessa Hua, A River of Stars (Ballantine, 8/14)

      Debra Jo Immergut, The Captives (Ecco, 6/5)

      Joanna Luloff, Remind Me Again What Happened (Algonquin, 6/26)

      Eliza Kennedy, Do This For Me (Crown, 5/15)

      Andrea Kleine, Eden (HMH, 7/10)

      Christian Kracht, The Dead (FSG, 7/17)

      Amitava Kumar, Immigrant, Montana (Knopf, 7/31)

      Stephen McCauley, My Ex-Life (Flatiron, 5/8)*

      Jonathan Miles, Anatomy of a Miracle (Hogarth, 3/20)

      Marina Perezagua, The Story of H (Ecco, 8/14)

      Michael Farris Smith, The Fighter (Little, Brown, 3/20)

      Margaret Bradham Thornton, A Theory of Love (Ecco, 5/8)

      Katie Williams, Tell The Machine Goodnight (Riverhead, 6/19)

      Sarah Winman, Tin Man (Putnam, 6/5)*

      Koren Zailckas, The Drama Teacher (Crown, 8/7)

      Sofka Zinovieff, Putney (Harper, 8/21)

      Debut Fiction

      Spring and summer are prime time for new authors. We expect great things from new novels by Ecco associate publisher Miriam Parker, Kate Greathead, Christine Mangan, Alice Feeney, Blair Hurley, and Jana Casale, and expect to hear similar plaudits about works from these others listed below.

      Luke Allnut, We Own the Sky (Park Row Books, 4/3)*

      Amy Bonnafons, The Wrong Heaven (Little Brown, 7/17)

      Jamel Brinkley, A Lucky Man: Stories (Graywolf, 8/1)

      Bryan Camp, The City of Lost Fortunes (HMH, 4/17)

      Jana Casale, The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky (Knopf, 4/17)

      Elaine Castillo, America Is Not the Heart (Viking, 4/3)

      Elisabeth Cohen, The Glitch (Doubleday, 5/22)

      Jane Delury, The Balcony (Little, Brown, 3/27)

      Katharine Dion, The Dependents (Little, Brown, 6/19)

      Rebekah Frumkin, The Comedown (Henry Holt, 4/17)

      Aja Gabel, The Ensemble (Riverhead, 5/15)

      Kate Greathead, Laura & Emma (Simon & Schuster, 3/13)

      Alice Feeney, Sometimes I Lie (Flatiron, 3/13)*

      Julia Fine, What Should Be Wild (Harper, 5/8)

      Caz Frear, Sweet Little Lies (Harper, 8/7)

      Lexi Freiman, Inappropriation (Ecco, 7/24)

      DeSales Harrison, The Waters and the Wild (Random House, 4/3)

      Jack Heath, Hangman (Hanover Square Press, 8/7)

      Rachel Heng, Suicide Club (Holt, 7/31)

      JM Holmes, How Are You Going to Save Yourself (Little, Brown, 8/21)

      Blair Hurley, The Devoted (Norton, 8/7)

      Caleb Johnson, Treeborne (Picador, 6/5)

      Steve Kistulentz, Panorama (Little, Brown, 3/6)

      Randall Klein, Little Disasters (Viking, 5/22)

      Akil Kumarasamy, Half Gods: Stories (FSG, 6/5)

      Nova Jacobs, The Last Equation of Isaac Severy (Touchstone, 3/6)

      Caleb Johnson, Treeborne (Picador, 6/5)

      Lillian Li, Number One Chinese Restaurant (Holt, 6/19)

      Ling Ma, Severance (FSG, 8/14)

      Will Mackin, Bring Out the Dog: Stories (Random House, 3/3)

      Ian MacKenzie, Feast Days (Little, Brown, 3/13)

      Andrew Martin, Early Work (FSG, 7/3)

      Christine Mangan, Tangerine (Ecco, 3/1)

      James A. McLaughlin, Bearskin (Ecco, 6/1)*

      Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother (Harper, 5/1)*

      Miriam Parker, The Shortest Way Home (Dutton, 7/31)

      Neel Patel, If You See Me, Don’t Say Hi (Flatiron, 7/10)

      Jen Silverman, The Island Dwellers: Stories (Random House, 5/1)

      Zoje Stage, Baby Teeth (St. Martin’s, 7/17)*

      Zulema Renee Summerfield, Every Other Weekend (Little, Brown, 4/17)

      Lucy Tan, What We Were Promised (Little, Brown, 7/10)

      August Thomas, Liar’s Candle (Scribner, 4/17)

      Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Heads of the Colored People: Stories (Atria/37 Ink, 4/10)

      Meghan McLean Weir, The Book of Essie (Knopf, 6/12)

      Julia Whicker, Wonderblood (St. Martin’s, 4/3)

      Chris White, The Life List of Adrian Mandrick (Touchstone, 4/17)

      Commercial Fiction

      Our sampler alone is full of great commercial titles from Araminta Hall, Kristan Higgins, Ann Mah, and Beatriz Williams. Keep an eye out in particular for new titles by Elizabeth George, Anthony Horowitz, Ruth Ware, Lisa Jewell, and much more.

      Cristina Alger, The Banker’s Wife (Putnam, 7/3)

      VC Andrews, Echoes in the Walls (Gallery, 8/28)

      Dathan Auerbach, Bad Man (Doubleday, 8/7)

      Fredrik Backman, Us Against You (Atria, 6/5)

      Linwood Barclay, A Noise Downstairs (William Morrow, 7/24)

      J. D. Barker, The Fifth to Die (HMH, 7/3)

      Chris Bohjalian, The Fight Attendant (Doubleday, 3/13)

      Michele Campbell, She Was the Quiet One (St. Martin’s, 7/31)

      Gail Carriger, Competence (Orbit, 7/17)

      Mary Higgins Clark, I’ve Got My Eyes on You (Simon & Schuster, 4/13)

      Daniel Cole, Hangman (Ecco, 7/24)

      Jenny Colgan, The Endless Beach (William Morrow, 5/22)

      John Connolly, The Woman in the Woods (Artria, 6/12)

      Clive Cussler and Graham Brown, The Rising Sea (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 3/13)

      JP Delaney, Believe Me (Ballantine, 8/14)

      Judith Flanders, A Howl of Wolves (Minotaur, 5/15)

      Jamie Ford, Love and Other Consolation Prizes (Ballantine, 6/19)

      Alison Gaylin, If I Die Tonight (William Morrow, 3/6)

      Elizabeth George, The Punishment She Deserves: A Lynley Novel (Viking, 3/20)

      Emily Giffin, All We Ever Wanted (Ballantine, 6/26)

      Lauren Graham, In Conclusion, Don’t Worry About It (Ballantine, 4/3)

      Elly Griffiths, The Dark Angel (HMH, 5/15)

      Araminta Hall, Our Kind of Cruelty (MCD/FSG, 5/1)*

      Julia Haeberlin, Paper Ghosts (Ballantine, 5/15)

      Kristan Higgins, Good Luck With That (Berkley, 8/2)*

      Elin Hilderbrand, The Perfect Couple (Little, Brown, 6/19)

      Jennifer Hillier, Jar of Hearts (Minotaur, 6/12)

      Linnea Hartsuyker, The Sea Queen (Harper, 8/14)

      Anthony Horowitz, The Word Is Murder (Harper, 6/5)

      Steve Israel, Big Guns (Simon & Schuster, 4/17)

      Caroline Kepnes, Providence (Lenny, 6/19)

      Alice LaPlante, Half Moon Bay (Scribner, 7/10)

      Harriet Alida Lye, The Honey Farm (Liveright, 5/29)

      Arnaldur Indridason, Dark Deeds (Minotaur, 5/29)

      J.A. Jance, Duel to the Death (Touchstone, 3/20)

      Lisa Jewell, Then She Was Gone (Atria, 4/24)

      Ragnar Jonasson, Blackout (Minotaur, 7/24)

      Alma Katsu, The Hunger (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 3/6)

      Stephen King, The Outsider (Scribner, 5/5)

      Michael Koryta, How It Happened (Little, Brown, 5/15)

      Joe R. Lansdale, Jackrabbit Smile (Mulholland, 3/27)

      Owen Laukkanen, Gale Force (Putnam, 5/8)

      Malcolm Mackay, For Those Who Know the Ending (Mulholland, 5/8)

      Clare Mackintosh, Let Me Lie (Berkley, 3/13)

      Ann Mah, The Lost Vintage (William Morrow, 6/19)*

      Aaron Mahnke, The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals (Del Rey, 5/29)

      Frances Mayes, Women in Sunlight (Crown, 4/3)

      Paula McLain, Love and Ruin (Ballantine, 5/1)

      Derek B. Miller, American by Day (HMH, 4/3)

      Christopher Moore, Noir (William Morrow, 4/17)

      Jason Mott, The Crossing (Park Row, 5/15)

      Fredrik Olsson, Acts of Vanishing (Little, Brown, 4/24)

      Carla Neggers, Impostor’s Lure (Mira, 8/21)

      Jo Nesbo, Macbeth (Hogarth, 4/10)

      B. A. Paris, Bring Me Back (St. Martin’s 6/6)

      James Patterson, Texas Ranger (Little, Brown, 8/13)

      Allison Pearson, How Hard Can It Be? (St. Martin’s, 6/5)*

      Camille Perri, When Katie Met Cassidy (Putnam, 6/19)

      Lori Rader-Day, Under a Dark Sky (William Morrow, 8/7)

      Bryan Reardon, The Real Michael Swann (Dutton, 6/12)

      Suzanne Rindell, Eagle & Crane (Putnam, 7/3)

      Nora Roberts, Shelter in Place (St Martin’s, 5/29)

      Sebastian Rotella, Rip Crew (Mulholland, 3/13)

      Michelle Sacks, You Were Made for This (Little, Brown, 6/19)

      Riley Sager, The Last Time I Lied (Dutton, 7/10)

      Marisa de los Santos, I’ll Be Your Blue Sky (William Morrow, 3/6)

      Lisa Scottoline, Feared (St. Martin’s, 8/14)

      William Shaw, Salt Lane (Mulholland, 6/26)

      Sara Shepard, The Elizas (Atria, 4/17)

      Graeme Simsion & Anne Buist, Two Steps Forward (William Morrow, 5/1)

      Karin Slaughter, Pieces of Her (William Morrow, 7/31)

      Sarah Sparrow, A Guide for Murdered Children (Blue Rider, 3/20)

      Danielle Steel, The Cast (Delacorte, 5/15)

      Wallace Stroby, Some Die Nameless (Mullholland, 7/10)

      Carsten Stroud, The Shimmer (Mira, 6/5)

      Jake Tapper, The Hellfire Club (Little, Brown, 5/1)

      Paul Tremblay, The Cabin at the End of the World (William Morrow, 6/26)

      Ruth Ware, Untitled Book 4 (Gallery/Scout Press, 5/29)

      Lauren Weisberger, When Life Gives You Lululemons (Simon & Schuster, 6/5)

      Kim Wilkins, Daughters of the Storm (Del Rey, 3/6)

      Beatriz Williams, The Summer Wives (William Morrow, 7/10)*

      Nonfiction

      The spring and summer nonfiction crop promises to provoke many fascinating conversations as a result of books by former FBI director James Comey and former director of National Intelligence James Clapper; former NYT executive editor Jill Abramson’s look at the media landscape; New York Times obituary writer Margalit Fox on a turn of the 20th century murder trial; essay collections from Lorrie Moore and Richard Russo; filmmaker David Lynch’s memoir; and much more.

      Politics & Current Events

      Jill Abramson, News Wars (Simon & Schuster, 8/7) – Insights into the current media landscape from the former NYT executive editor.

      Kate Andersen Brower, First in Line: Presidents, Vice Presidents, and the Quest for Power (Harper, 6/5)

      John Butman and Simon Targett, New World, Inc.: The Making of America by England’s Merchant Adventurers (Little, Brown, 3/20)

      C.J. Chivers, The Fighters (Simon & Schuster, 8/14)

      James Clapper (with Trey Brown), Facts and Fears: Hard Truths From a Life in Intelligence (Viking, 5/22)

      Anna Clark, The Poisoned City: Flint’s Water and the American Urban Tragedy (Metropolitan, 5/22)

      James Comey, A Higher Loyalty (Flatiron, 5/1) – The highly anticipated memoir from the former FBI director.

      Sam Dagher, Assad, Or We Burn the Country: How One Family’s Lust for Power Destroyed Syria (Little, Brown, 6/12)

      Jonah Goldberg, Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy (Crown Forum, 4/24)

      Michael R. Gordon, Degrade and Destroy: The Inside Story of the War Against the Islamic State (FSG, 6/5)

      Greg Grandin, The Wall: The Meaning of the Border in the New America (Metropolitan, 8/14)

      Alison Green, Ask A Manager: How to Navigate Clueless Colleagues, Lunch-Stealing Bosses, and the Rest of Your Life at Work (Ballantine, 5/1)

      Chris Hamby, Soul Full of Coal Dust: The True Story of an Epic Battle for Justice (Little, Brown, 7/17)

      Aleksandar Hemon, Behind the Glass Wall: Inside the United Nations (MCD, 8/21)

      Dan Kaufman, The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics (Norton, 7/10)

      John McCain (with Mark Salter), The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations (Simon & Schuster, 4/10)

      Michael McFaul, From Cold War to Hot Peace: The Inside Story of Russia and America (HMH, 5/8)

      Dinny McMahon, China’s Great Wall of Debt: Shadow Banks, Ghost Cities, Massive Loans, and the End of the Chinese Miracle (HMH, 3/13)

      Martha C. Nussbaum, The Monarchy of Fear: A Philosopher Looks at Our Political Crisis (Simon & Schuster, 7/3)

      Earl Swift, Going Under: A Year on the Chesapeake with the Watermen of Tangier Island, America’s First Climate Casualty (Dey Street, 6/1)

      Lawrence Wright, God Save Texas: A Journey Into the Soul of the Lone Star State (Knopf, 4/17)

      Social Issues

      Anna Badkhen, Fisherman’s Blues: A West African Community at Sea (Riverhead, 3/13)

      Kim Brooks, Small Animals: Parenthood in the Age of Fear (Flatiron, 8/21)

      Benjamin Crump, Open Season: The Systemic Legalization of Discrimination (Amistad, 6/19)

      Ross Douthat, To Change The Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism (Simon & Schuster 3/27)

      Roxane Gay, ed. Not That Bad: Notes from Rape Culture (Harper, 5/1)

      David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory (Simon & Schuster, 5/15)

      Eliza Griswold, Amity and Prosperity: The Cost of Fracking in Two American Towns (FSG, 6/12)

      Lauren Hilgers, Patriot Number One: American Dreams in Chinatown (Crown, 3/20)

      Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon: The Story of the Last Slave (Amistad, 5/8) – A never-before published work about the last known survivor of the Atlantic slave trade.

      Annie Lowrey, Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World (Crown, 7/24)

      Hector Macdonald, Truth: How the Many Sides to Every Story Shape Our Reality (Little, Brown, 3/3)

      Beth Macy, Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America (Little, Brown, 8/7)

      Abby Norman, Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women’s Pain (Nation Books, 3/6)

      James Pogue, Chosen Country: A Rebellion in the West (Holt, 5/22)

      Joy Press, Stealing the Show: How Women Are Revolutionizing Television (Atria, 3/6)

      Arlene Stein, Unbound: Transgender Men and the Remaking of Identity (Pantheon, 6/5)

      Alissa Quart, Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America (Ecco, 6/26)

      Science & Technology

      Eugenia Bone, Microbia: A Journey Into the Unseen World Around You (Rodale, 4/3)*

      Lawrence D. Burns and Christopher Shulgan, Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car—And How It Will Reshape Our World (Ecco, 8/8)

      Kari Byron, Crash Test Girl: An Unlikely Experiment in Using the Scientific Method to Answer Life’s Toughest Questions (Harper One, 5/1)

      Claire L. Evans, Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet (Portfolio, 3/6)

      Tim Fernholz, Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race (HMH, 6/12)

      Blake J. Harris, The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook and the Quest to Resurrect Virtual Reality (Dey Street, 7/10)

      Eric R. Kandel, The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves (FSG, 8/28)

      Robert Kurson, Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon (Random House, 4/3)

      Nathan H. Lents, Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, From Pointless Bones to Broken Genes (HMH, 5/1)

      Alan Lightman, Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine (Pantheon, 3/27)

      Lisa Margonelli, Underbug: A Tale of Termites and Technology (FSG, 8/21)

      Byron Reese, The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity (Atria, 4/24)

      Hans Rosling, Factfulness: The Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World (Flatiron, 8/3)*

      Alan Stern and David Grinspoon, Chasing New Horizons: Inside the First Mission to Pluto (Picador, 5/1)

      Edward Tenner, The Efficiency Paradox: What Big Data Can’t Do (Knopf, 4/17)

      Helen Thomson, Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World’s Strangest Brains (Ecco, 6/26)

      William T. Vollmann, No Immediate Danger: Volume One of Carbon Ideologies (Viking, 4/10)

      Simon Winchester, The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World (Harper, 5/8)

      Carl Zimmer, She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potentials of Heredity (Dutton, 5/29)

      History and Crime

      Alice Sparberg Alexiou, Devil’s Mile: The Rich, Gritty History of the Bowery (St. Martin’s, 7/24)

      J. Reuben Appelman, The Kill Jar: Obsession, Descent, and a Hunt for Detroit’s Most Notorious Serial Killer (Gallery, 8/14)

      Bret Baier and Catherine Whitney, Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire (William Morrow, 5/15)

      Michael Benson, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece (Simon & Schuster, 4/3)

      Alice Bolin, Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession (William Morrow, 7/24)

      Taylor Downing, 1983: Reagan, Andropov, and a World on the Brink (Da Capo, 4/24)

      Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken, A Deal with the Devil: The Dark and Twisted True Story of One of the Biggest Cons in History (Atria, 8/7)

      T.J. English, The Corporation: An Epic Story of the Cuban American Underworld (William Morrow, 3/20)

      Robert W. Fieseler, Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation (Liveright, 6/5)

      Margalit Fox, Conan Doyle for the Defense: A Sensational British Murder, the Quest for Justice, and the World’s Greatest Detective Writer (Random House, 6/26)

      Joanne B. Freeman, The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War (FSG, 9/4)

      Paul French, City of Devils: How Two Adventurers Ruled the Pre–World War II Shanghai Underworld and How Fate Turned Against Them (Picador, 7/3)

      Jonathan Green, Sex Money Murder: A Story of Crack, Blood, and Betrayal (Norton, 5/15)

      Jean Hatzfeld and Joshua Jordan, Blood Papa: Rwanda’s New Generation (FSG, 8/21)

      William I. Hitchcock, The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s (Simon & Schuster, 3/20)

      Carl Hoffman, The Lost Wild Men of Borneo: A True Story of Death and Treasure (William Morrow, 3/6)

      Astrid Holleeder, Judas: How a Sister’s Testimony Brought Down a Criminal Mastermind (Mullholland, 8/14)

      Benjamin Carter Hett, The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic (Holt, 4/17)

      Yunte Huang, Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous With American History (Liveright, 4/3)

      Kirk Wallace Johnson, The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century (Viking, 4/24)

      Daniel Kalder, The Infernal Library: On Dictators, the Books They Wrote, and Other Catastrophes of Literacy (Henry Holt, 3/6)

      Gilbert King, Beneath a Ruthless Sun (Riverhead, 4/24)

      Gary Krist, The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles (Crown, 5/15)

      Robert Kurson, Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey on the Moon (Random House, 4/3)

      Andrew Lawler, The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke (Doubleday, 6/5)

      Nelson Mandela, The Prison Letters (Liveright, 7/10)

      Alex Perry, The Good Mothers: The True Story of the Women Who Took On the World’s Most Powerful Mafia (William Morrow, 8/21)

      Al Roker, Ruthless Tide: The Tragic Epic of the Johnstown Flood (William Morrow, 5/22)

      Priya Satia, Empire of Guns: The Violent Making of the Industrial Revolution (Penguin Press, 4/10)

      Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, Brazil: A Biography (FSG, 8/7)

      Peter Stark, Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America’s Founding Father (Ecco, 5/1)

      James Swanson, The Great Crime (William Morrow, 8/16)

      Haroon Ullah, House of Heroin: Inside the Secret Billion-Dollar Narco-Terror Empire (William Morrow, 7/10)

      Richard Vinen, 1968 (Harper, 7/3)

      Heidi Waleson, Mad Scenes and Exit Arias: The Death of the New York City Opera and the Future of Opera in America (Metropolitan, 10/16)

      Elaine Weiss, The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote (Viking, 3/6)

      Essays, Criticism, & More

      Rick Bass, The Traveling Feast: On the Road and At the Table With America’s Finest Writers (Little, Brown, 6/5)

      Guy Branum, It’s Lovely on the Outside (Atria, 6/12)

      Michael Chabon, Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces (Harper, 5/22)

      Joshua Cohen, Attention: Dispatches from a Land of Distraction (Random House, 8/14)

      Michelle Dean, Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion (Grove, 4/10)

      Donald Hall, A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety (HMH, 7/10)

      William Giraldi, American Audacity: In Defense of Literary Daring (Liveright, 8/7)

      Stephen Greenblatt, Tyrant (Norton, 5/8)

      Mitchell S. Jackson, Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family (Scribner, 8/14)

      Leslie Jamison, The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath (Little, Brown, 4/3)

      Penelope Lively, Life in the Garden (Viking, 6/12)

      Lorrie Moore, See What Can Be Done: Essays, Criticism & Commentary (Knopf, 4/3)

      Francine Prose, What to Read and Why (Harper, 7/3)

      Adrienne Rich, Essential Essays: Culture, Politics, and the Art of Poetry (Norton, 8/14)

      Jacqueline Rose, Mothers: A Critical Anatomy (FSG, 5/1)

      Richard Russo, The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers, and Life (Knopf, 5/8)

      David Sedaris, Calypso (Little, Brown, 5/29)

      Paul Theroux, Figures in a Landscape: People and Places (Eamon Dolan/HMH, 5/8)

      J. Maarten Troost, I Was Told There’d Be Sexbots: Travels through the Future (Holt, 7/24)

      Biography & Memoir

      Mohammed Al Samawi, The Fox Hunt (William Morrow, 4/1)*

      Deborah Baker, The Last Englishmen: Love, War, and the End of Empire (Graywolf, 8/21)

      H. Jon Benjamin, Failure Is An Option: An Attempted Memoir (Dutton, 5/1)

      Sallie Bingham, The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke (FSG, 6/12)

      Christopher Bonanos, Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous (Holt, 6/5)

      Ian Buruma, A Tokyo Romance (Penguin Press, 3/3)

      Pat Cunnane, West Winging It: An Un-Presidential Memoir (Gallery, 5/22)

      Mark Duplass & Jay Duplass, Like Brothers (Ballantine, 5/1)

      Jules Feiffer, The Ghost Script: A Graphic Novel (Liveright 7/31)

      Lara Feigel, Free Woman: Life, Liberation, and Doris Lessing (Bloosmbury, 5/8)

      Tessa Fontaine, The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts (FSG, 5/1)*

      Glen David Gold, I Will Be Complete (Knopf, 6/26)

      Meredith Goldstein, Can’t Help Myself (Grand Central, 4/3))*

      Jean Guerrero, Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir (One World, 7/17)

      Kate Harris, Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road (Dey Street, 8/21)

      Seymour M. Hersh, Reporter (Knopf, 6/5)

      Dave Itzkoff, Robin (Holt, 5/15) – A biography of the comedian Robin Williams.

      Mira Jacob, Good Talk (Random House, 8/7) – A graphic memoir from a noted novelist.

      Barbara K. Lipska, Elaine McArdle, The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery (HMH, 4/3)*

      David Lynch (with Kristine McKenna), Room to Dream (Random House, 6/12)

      Jeanne McCulloh, All Happy Families (Harper Wave, 8/1)

      Eileen McNamara, Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World (Simon & Schuster, 4/3)

      Glynnis McNicol, No One Tells You This (Simon & Schuster, 7/10)

      Corey Mead, The Lost Pilots: The Spectacular Rise and Scandalous Fall of Aviation’s Golden Couple (Flatiron, 5/8)

      Rick Moody, The Long Accomplishment: A Memoir of Struggle and Hope in Matrimony (Holt, 5/1)

      Meaghan O’Connell, And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready (Little, Brown, 4/10)

      Alison Pataki, May We Always Remember How Lucky We Are (Random House, 5/1)

      Gregory Pardlo, Air Traffic: A Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America (Knopf, 4/10)

      Dawn Raffel, The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies (Blue Rider, 7/31)

      Elizabeth Smart, Where There’s Hope: Healing, Moving Forward, and Never Giving Up (St. Martin’s, 3/27)

      Mike Stanton, Unbeaten: Rocky Marciano’s Fight for Perfection in a Crooked World (Holt, 6/26)

      Hilary Spurling, Anthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of Time (Knopf, 8/14)

      Sheila Tate, Lady in Red: An Intimate Portrait of Nancy Reagan (Crown Forum, 4/10)

      Miles J. Unger, Picasso and the Painting That Shocked the World (Simon & Schuster, 3/13)

      Ryan H. Walsh, Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968 (Penguin Press, 3/3)

      Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil, The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After (Crown, 8/24)

      Piper Weiss, You All Grow Up and Leave Me: A Memoir of Teenage Obsession (William Morrow, 4/17)

      Edmund White, The Unpunished Vice: A Life of Reading (Bloomsbury, 6/26)

      Anya Yurchyshyn, My Dead Parents: A Memoir (Crown, 3/27)

      Buzz Books Authors Appearing at Winter Institute

      Luke Allnutt

      Aminatta Forna

      Mario Giordano

      Sheila Heti

      Stephen McCauley

      Jenny Milchman

      Chris Offutt

      Allison Pearson

      Charles Soule

      Beatriz Williams

      Spencer Wise

      Part One: Fiction

      Louise Candlish, Our House (Berkley)

      SUMMARY

      From an internationally acclaimed author, a disturbing and addictive novel of domestic suspense where secrets kept hidden from spouses cause shocking surprises that hit home.

      EXCERPT

      Chapter One

      Friday, January 13, 2017

      London, 12:30 p.m.

      She must be mistaken, but it looks exactly as if someone is moving into her house.

      The van is parked halfway down Trinity Avenue, its square mouth agape, a large piece of furniture sliding down the ribbed metal tongue. Fi watches, squinting into the buttery sunlight—rare for the time of year, a gift—as the object is borne shoulder high by two men through the gate and down the path.

      My gate. My path.

      No, that’s illogical; of course it can’t be her house. It must be the Reeces’, two down from hers; they put their place on the market in the autumn and no one is quite sure whether a sale has gone through. The houses on this side of Trinity Avenue are all built the same—redbrick double-fronted Edwardians in pairs, their owners united in a preference for front doors painted black—and everyone agrees it’s easy to miscount.

      Once, when Bram came stumbling home from one of his quick drinks at the Two Brewers, he went to the wrong door and she heard through the open bedroom window the scrambling and huffing as her inebriated husband failed to fit his key into the lock of number 87, Merle and Adrian’s place. His persistence was staggering, his dogged belief that if he only kept on trying, the key would work.

      But they all look the same, he’d protested in the morning.

      The houses, yes, but even a drunk couldn’t miss the magnolia, Fi had told him, laughing. (This was back when she was still amused by his inebriety and not filled with sadness—or disdain, depending on her mood.)

      Her step falters: the magnolia. It’s a landmark, their tree, a celebrated sight when in blossom and beautiful even when bare, as it is now, the outer twigs etched into the sky with an artist’s flair. And it is definitely in the front garden of the house with the van outside.

      Think. It must be a delivery, something for Bram that he hasn’t mentioned to her. Not every detail gets communicated; they both accept that their new system isn’t flawless. Hurrying again, using her fingers as a sun visor, she’s near enough to be able to read the lettering on the side of the vehicle: PRESTIGE HOME REMOVALS. It is a house move, then. Friends of Bram must be dropping something off en route to somewhere. If she were able to choose, it would be an old piano for the boys (please, Lord, not a drum kit).

      But wait—the deliverymen have reappeared and now more items are being transported from van to house: a dining chair; a large, round metallic tray; a box labeled FRAGILE; a small, slim wardrobe the size of a coffin. Whose things are these? A rush of anger fires her blood as she reaches the only possible conclusion: Bram has invited someone to stay. Some dispossessed drinking pal, no doubt, with nowhere else to go. (Stay as long as you like, mate—we’ve got tons of room.) When the hell was he going to tell her? Well, there’s no way a stranger is sharing their home, however temporarily, however charitable Bram’s intentions. The kids come first: Isn’t that the point?

      Lately, she worries they’ve forgotten the point.

      She’s almost there. As she passes number 87, she’s aware of Merle at the first-floor window, face cast in a frown, arm raised for her attention. Fi makes only the briefest of acknowledgments as she strides through her own gate and onto the tiled path.

      Excuse me. What’s going on here? But in the clamor no one seems to hear. Louder now, sharper: What are you doing with all this stuff? Where’s Bram?

      A woman she doesn’t know comes out of the house and stands on the doorstep, smiling. Hello, can I help?

      She gasps as if at an apparition. This is Bram’s friend in need? Familiar by type rather than feature, she is one of Fi’s own—though younger, in her thirties—blond and brisk and cheerful, the sort to roll up her sleeves and take charge. The sort, as history testifies, to constrain a free spirit like Bram. I hope so, yes. I’m Fi, Bram’s wife. What’s going on here? Are you…are you a friend of his?

      The woman steps closer, purposeful, polite. Sorry. Whose wife?

      Bram’s. I mean ex-wife, really. The correction earns a curious look, followed by the suggestion that the two of them move off the path and out of the way of the guys. As a huge Bubble Wrapped canvas glides by, Fi allows herself to be steered under the ribs of the magnolia. What on earth has he agreed to here? she demands. Whatever it is, I know nothing about it.

      I’m not sure what you mean. There is a faint puckering of the woman’s forehead as she studies Fi. Her eyes are golden brown and honest. Are you a neighbor?

      No, of course not. Fi is becoming impatient. I live here.

      The puckering deepens. I don’t think so. We’re just moving in. My husband will be here soon with the second van. We’re the Vaughans? She says it as though Fi might have heard of them, even offers her hand for a formal shake. I’m Lucy.

      Gaping, Fi struggles to trust her ears, the false messages they are transmitting to her brain. Look, I’m the owner of this house, and I think I would know if I’d arranged to rent it out.

      The rose-pink of confusion creeps over Lucy Vaughan’s face. She lowers her hand. "We’re not renting it. We’ve bought it."

      Don’t be ridiculous!

      I’m not! The other woman glances at her watch. Officially, we became the new owners at twelve o’clock, but the agent let us pick up the keys just before that.

      What are you talking about? What agent? No agent has keys to my house! Fi’s face spasms with conflicting emotions: fear; frustration; anger; even a dark, grudging amusement, because this must be a joke, albeit on an epic scale. What else can it be? Is this some sort of prank? She searches over the woman’s shoulder for cameras, for a phone recording her bewilderment in the name of entertainment, but finds none—only a series of large boxes sailing past. Because I’m not finding it very funny. You need to get these people to stop.

      I have no intention of getting them to stop, Lucy Vaughan says, crisp and decisive, just like Fi usually is when she hasn’t been blindsided by something like this. Lucy’s mouth turns in vexation before opening in sudden wonder. Wait a minute. Fi, did you say? Is that Fiona?

      Yes. Fiona Lawson.

      Then you must be— Lucy pauses, notices the querying glances from the movers, lowers her voice. I think you’d better come inside.

      And Fi finds herself being ushered through her own door, into her own house, like a guest. She steps into the broad, high-ceilinged hallway and stops short, dumbstruck. This isn’t her hall. The dimensions are correct, yes; the silver-blue paint scheme remains the same and the staircase has not moved; but the space has been stripped, plundered of every last item that belongs in it: the console table and antique monks bench, the heap of shoes and bags, the pictures on the walls. And her beloved rosewood mirror, inherited from her grandmother, gone! She reaches to touch the wall where it should be, as if expecting to find it sunk into the plaster.

      What have you done with all our things? she demands of Lucy. Panic makes her strident and a passing mover casts her a correcting sort of look, as if she is the threatening one.

      "I haven’t done anything, Lucy says. You moved your stuff out. Yesterday, I’m assuming."

      I did nothing of the sort. I need to look upstairs, Fi says, shouldering past her.

      Well… Lucy begins, but it isn’t a request. Fi isn’t seeking permission to inspect her own home.

      Having climbed the stairs two at a time, she pauses on the upstairs landing, hand still gripping the mahogany curve of the banister rail as if she expects the building to pitch and roll beneath her. She needs to prove to herself that she is in the right house, that she hasn’t lost her mind. Good, all doors appear to lead to where they should: two bathrooms at the middle front and rear, two bedrooms on the left and two on the right. Even as she lets go of the banister and enters each room in turn, she still expects to see her family’s possessions where they should be, where they’ve always been.

      But there is nothing. Everything they own has vanished, not a stick of furniture left, only indentations in the carpet where twenty-four hours ago the legs of beds and bookcases and wardrobes stood. A bright green stain on the carpet in one of the boy’s rooms from a ball of slime that broke open during a fight one birthday. In the corner of the kids’ shower stands a tube of gel, the one with tea-tree oil—she remembers buying it at Sainsbury’s. Behind the bath taps her fingers find the recently cracked tile (cause of breakage never established) and she presses until it hurts, checking she is still flesh and bone, nerve endings intact.

      Everywhere, there is the sharp lemon smell of cleaning fluids.

      Returning downstairs, she doesn’t know whether the ache has its source inside her or in the walls of her stripped house.

      At her approach, Lucy disbands a conference with two of the movers and Fi senses she has rejected their offer of help—to deal with her, the intruder. Mrs. Lawson? Fiona?

      This is unbelievable, Fi says, repeating the word, the only one that will do. Disbelief is all that’s stopping her from hyperventilating, tipping into hysteria. I don’t understand this. Please, can you explain what the hell is going on here?

      That’s what I’ve been trying to do. Maybe if you see the evidence, Lucy suggests. Come into the kitchen—we’re blocking the way here.

      The kitchen too is bare but for a table and chairs Fi has never seen before, and an open box of tea things on the worktop. Lucy is thoughtful enough to push the door to so as not to offend her visitor’s eyes with the sight of the continuing invasion beyond.

      Visitor.

      Look at these e-mails, Lucy says, offering Fi her phone. They’re from our solicitor, Emma Gilchrist at Bennett, Stafford and Co.

      Fi takes the phone and orders her eyes to focus. The first e-mail is from seven days ago and appears to confirm the exchange of contracts on 91 Trinity Avenue, Alder Rise, between David and Lucy Vaughan and Abraham and Fiona Lawson. The second is from this morning and announces the completion of the sale.

      You called him Bram, didn’t you? Lucy says. That’s why it took me a minute to realize. Bram’s short for Abraham, of course. She has a real letter to hand too, an opening statement of account from British Gas, addressed to the Vaughans at Trinity Avenue. We set up all the utility bills to be paperless, but for some reason they sent this by post.

      Fi returns the phone to her. All of this means nothing. They could be fakes. Phishing or something.

      Phishing?

      Yes, we had a whole talk about neighborhood crime a few months ago at Merle’s house and the officer told us all about it. Fake e-mails and invoices look very convincing now. Even the experts can be taken in.

      Lucy gives an exasperated half smile.

      They’re real, I promise you. It’s all real. The funds will have been transferred to your account by now.

      What funds?

      The money we paid for this house! I’m sorry, but I can’t go on repeating this, Mrs. Lawson.

      I’m not asking you to, Fi snaps. "I’m telling you—you must have made a mistake. I’m telling you it’s not possible for you to have bought a house that was never for sale."

      "But it was for sale—of course it was. Otherwise, we could never have bought it."

      Fi stares at Lucy, utterly disorientated. What she is saying, what she is doing, is complete lunacy and yet she doesn’t look like a madwoman. No, Lucy looks like a woman convinced that the person she is talking to is the deranged one.

      Maybe you ought to phone your husband, Lucy says finally.

      Geneva, 1:30 p.m.

      He lies on the bed in his hotel room, arms and legs twitching. The mattress is a good one, designed to absorb sleeplessness, passion, deepest nightmare, but it fails to ease agitation like his. Not even the two antidepressants he’s taken have subdued him.

      Perhaps it’s the planes making him crazy, the pitiless way they grind in and out, one after another, groaning under their own weight. More likely it’s the terror of what he’s done, the dawning understanding of all that he’s sacrificed.

      Because it’s real now. The Swiss clock has struck. One thirty here, twelve thirty in London. He is now in body what he has been in his mind for weeks: a fugitive, a man cast adrift by his own hand. He realizes that he’s been hoping there’ll be, in some bleak way, relief, but now the time has come there is something bleaker: none. Only the same sickening brew of emotions he’s felt since leaving the house early this morning, somehow both grimly fatalistic and wired for survival.

      Oh, God. Oh, Fi. Does she know yet? Someone will have seen, surely? Someone will have phoned her with the news. She might even be on her way to the house already.

      He shuffles upright, his back against the headboard, and tries to find a focus in the room. The armchair is red leatherette, the desk black veneer. A return to a 1980s aesthetic, more unsettling than it has any right to be. He swings his legs over the side of the bed. The flooring is warm on bare feet—vinyl or something else man-made. Fi would know what the material is; she has a passion for interiors.

      The thought causes a spasm of pain, a new breathlessness. He rises, seeking air—the room, on the fifth floor, is ablaze with central heating—but behind the complicated curtain arrangement the windows are sealed. Cars, white and black and silver, streak along the carriageways between hotel and airport, and, beyond, the mountains divide and shelter, their white peaks tinged peppermint blue. Trapped, he turns once more to face the room, thinking, unexpectedly, of his father. His fingers reach for the red leatherette chair, grip the seat back. He does not remember the name of this hotel, which he chose for its nearness to the airport, but knows that it is as soulless a place as he deserves.

      Because he’s sold his soul; that’s what he’s done. He’s sold his soul.

      But not so long ago that he’s forgotten how it feels to have one.

      Chapter Two

      March 2017

      Welcome to the website of The Victim, the acclaimed crime podcast and winner of a National Documentary Podcast Listeners’ Award. Each episode tells the true story of a crime directly in the words of the victim. The Victim is not an investigation, but a privileged insight into an innocent person’s suffering. From stalking to identity theft, domestic abuse to property fraud, the experience of each victim is a terrifying journey that you are invited to share—and a cautionary tale for our times.

      Brand-new episode Fi’s Story is available now! Listen here on the website or on one of multiple podcast apps. And don’t forget to tweet your theories as you listen using #VictimFi.

      Caution: Contains strong language.

      Season Two, Episode Three: Fi’s Story > 00:00:00

      My name is Fiona Lawson and I’m forty-two years old. I can’t tell you where I live, only where I used to, because six weeks ago my husband sold our home without my knowledge or consent. I know I should say allege, that I should say it before everything, so how about this: I allege that what I say in this interview is the truth. I mean, legal contracts don’t lie, do they? And his signature has been authenticated by the experts. Yes, the finer details of the crime are still to be revealed—including the identity of his accomplice—but as you can appreciate I’m still coming to terms with the central fact that I no longer have a home.

      I no longer have a home!

      Of course, once you’ve heard my story you’ll think I have no one to blame but myself—just like your audience will. I know how it works. They’ll all be on Twitter saying how clueless I am. And I get it. I listened to the whole of season one and I did exactly that myself. There’s a thin line between a victim and an idiot.

      This could have happened to anyone, Mrs. Lawson, the police officer told me the day I found out, but she was just being kind because I was crying and she could see a cup of tea wasn’t going to cut it. (Morphine, maybe.)

      No, this could only happen to someone like me, someone too idealistic, too forgiving. Someone who’d deluded herself into thinking she could reform nature itself. Make a weak man strong. Yes, that old chestnut.

      Why am I taking part in this series? Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m a very private person, so why open myself to mockery or pity or worse? Well, partly because I want to warn people that this really can happen. Property fraud is on the rise; there are stories in the press every day. The police and legal profession are playing catch-up with technology. Homeowners need to be vigilant: there’s no limit to what professional criminals will try—or, for that matter, amateur ones.

      Also, this is an ongoing investigation and my story might nudge a memory, might encourage someone who has relevant information to get in touch with the police. Sometimes you don’t know what’s relevant until you hear the proper context. That’s why the police don’t mind my doing this. Well, they haven’t asked me not to—let’s put it that way. As you probably know, I can’t be compelled to testify against Bram in a trial, thanks to spousal privilege (that’s a laugh). We’re still married, though I’ve considered us exes since the day I threw him out. Of course I could choose to testify, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, my solicitor says.

      To be honest, I get the feeling she thinks there won’t ever be any prosecution. I get the feeling she thinks he’s got a new identity by now, a new home, a new life—all bought with his new fortune.

      She says it’s ever expanding, the lengths to which people will go to cheat one another.

      Even husband and wife.

      Speaking of which, you said this has a good chance of being heard by him, that it might be the factor that prompts him to get in touch? Well, let me tell you right now—let me tell him—and I don’t care what the police think:

      Don’t even think about coming back, Bram. I swear, if you do, I’ll kill you.

      #VictimFi

      @rachelb72 Where’s the husband then? Has he done a runner?

      @patharrisonuk @rachelb72 He must have disappeared with the cash. Wonder how much the house was worth.

      @Tilly-McGovern @rachelb72 @patharrisonuk Her HUSBAND did this? Wow. The world is a dark place.

      Bram Lawson, excerpted from a Word document

      e-mailed from Lyon, France, March 2017

      Let me remove any doubt straightaway and tell you that this is a suicide note. By the time you read this, I’ll have done it. Break the news gently, please. I may be a monster, but I’m still a father and there are two boys who’ll be sorry to lose me, who’ll have reason to remember me more kindly.

      Maybe even their mother too, a one-in-a-million woman whose life must be a nightmare now, thanks to me.

      And who, may I say for the record, I have never stopped loving.

      Chapter Three

      Fi’s Story > 00:03:10

      Ruinous though the situation is, catastrophic even, it is also quite fitting that it’s ended the way it has, because it has always been about the house. Our marriage, our family, our life: they seemed to make proper sense only at home. Take us out of it—even on one of the smart holidays we used to treat ourselves to when the kids were very young and we very sleep deprived—and the glue would ooze away. The house sheltered us and protected us, but it also defined us. It kept us current long after our expiry date.

      Plus—let’s be frank—this is London, and in recent years the house had earned more in capital growth than either Bram or I made from our salaries. It was the family’s primary breadwinner, our benign master. Friends and neighbors felt the same, as if our human power had been taken from us and invested in bricks and mortar. Spare cash was sunk not in pension funds or private education or marriage-salvaging weekends in Paris, but in the house. You know you’ll get it back, we told each other. It’s a no-brainer.

      That reminds me of something I’d forgotten till now. That day, that terrible day when I came home and discovered the Vaughans in my house, Merle asked them outright what I hadn’t yet thought to ask: How much did you pay for it?

      And even though my marriage, my family, my life had been annihilated, I still paused my sobbing to listen to the answer:

      Two million, Lucy Vaughan said in a broken whisper.

      And I thought, It was worth more.

      We were worth more.

      We bought it for a quarter of that, though still a substantial-enough sum at the time to have caused us sleepless nights. But once I’d set eyes on 91 Trinity Avenue, I couldn’t consider being an insomniac anywhere else. It was the bourgeois confidence of its redbrick exterior, with its pale stone details and chalky white paintwork, wisteria curling onto the wrought iron Juliet balcony above the door. Impressive but approachable, solid but romantic. Not to mention neighbors with the same sensibilities as ours. One after another, we’d rooted out this delightful spot, sacrificed a tube stop for that languidness you get in the suburbs, that sweetness, the air dusted with sugar like Turkish delight.

      Inside was a different story. When I think now of all the improvements we made over the years, the energy the house absorbed (the cash!), I can’t believe we took it on in the first place. There were, in no particular order: the remodeled kitchen, the refreshed bathrooms, the reimagined gardens (rear and front), the refurbished downstairs cloakroom, the repaired sash windows, the restored timber flooring. Then, when the re- verbs had run out, there was a slew of new: new French doors from kitchen to garden, new kitchen cupboards and worktop, new fitted wardrobes in the boys’ bedrooms, new glazed partition in the dining area, new railings and gate for the front, new playhouse and slide out back…On it went, a constant program of renewal, Bram and I (well, mostly I) like the directors of a charitable body carving up its annual budget, all free time spent canvassing for price quotes, booking and supervising labor, searching on- and offline for fittings and fixtures and the implements needed to fit and fix them, curating colors and textures. And the tragic fact is, never, ever did I stand back and say It’s done! The idea of the perfect house eluded me like a rake in an old romance novel.

      Of course, if I had my time again I probably wouldn’t touch a thing. I’d concentrate on the humans. I’d repurpose them before they destroyed themselves.

      #VictimFi

      @ash_buckley Wow, unbelievable how cheap property was back then.

      @loumacintyre78 @ash_buckley Cheap? 500K? Not in Preston. There is life outside London, you know!

      @richieschambers Reimagined gardens? Curating colors? Is this woman for real?

      The previous owners were an older couple, just the kind I imagined we would become. Moderately successful in their teaching careers (they’d bought the place when you didn’t need corporate careers like ours or, later, banking ones like the Vaughans’ to afford a decent family home) and confident of the job they’d done raising their kids, they’d wanted to release equity, release themselves. They planned to travel and I imagined them as born-again nomads making a desert crossing under the stars.

      It must be very hard to say good-bye to a house like that, I said to Bram as we drove back to our flat after a visit to measure for curtains that had ended with a bottle or two of wine. He would have been breaking the speed limit, possibly the drink-driving one too, but it didn’t bother me then, before the boys, when there were only our own lives at risk. I thought there was something a bit melancholy about them, I added.

      Melancholy? They’re crying all the way to the bank, Bram said.

      Bram, Word document

      So how did I get to this point? The point of terminal despair? Believe me, it would have been better for all concerned if I’d reached it a lot sooner. Even the short version is a long story (OK, so this is a bit more than a note—it’s a full-scale confession).

      Before I start, let me ask this: Was it in fact the house that was doomed? Did she simply take down all who sailed in her?

      The old couple we bought it from were splitting up, you see. The estate agent let that slip when he and I nipped into the Two Brewers for a drink on the way back from a visit with our builder. (Fancy trying out your new local, he said, and I don’t suppose I needed any second invitation.)

      Not the sort of information you share with prospective buyers, he admitted. No one likes to think they’re moving into a house that’s witnessed marital breakdown.

      Hmm. I gripped the glass, raised it to my lips, as I would at that bar thousands of times to come. The pale ale was more than acceptable and the place had an old-school feel to it, hadn’t yet gone the gastro route of most of the boozers in the area.

      You’d be surprised how common divorce is with these empty nesters, he went on. Pack the youngest off to university and then suddenly you and the wife have time to notice you hate each other and have done so for years.

      Really? I was surprised. I thought it was only our parents’ generation who stuck it out for the sake of the children.

      Not the case. Not in areas like this, people like this. It’s more traditional than you’d think.

      Well, it’s only divorce, I suppose. Could be worse. Could be body parts found in the drains.

      "I definitely wouldn’t have told you that," he said, laughing.

      I didn’t say anything about it to Fi. She had some romantic notion of this past-it pair collecting their final-salary pensions and riding camels across the desert like Lawrence of Arabia. Flying hot air balloons over Vesuvius, that kind of crap. Like they hadn’t already had forty years of teachers" holidays to travel the world.

      We’d seen at least a couple of dozen houses by then and the last thing I needed was her changing her mind about the first one to pass muster on the grounds that melancholy was some kind of airborne disease. Like smallpox or TB.

      Fi’s Story > 00:07:40

      Was I aware of the house’s escalating value? Of course I was. We were all on Rightmove constantly. But I never would have sold it. The opposite: I had hopes of keeping it in the Lawson family, of finding some tax-efficient way for the boys to raise their kids there, my grandchildren’s heads resting on the same pillows, under the same windows, as my sons" did then.

      How will that work? my friend Merle asked. She lives a couple of doors down from my place (my old place, it’s still hard to say it). I mean, what’re the chances their wives will want to share a house with each other?

      It went without saying that the women of the future would be making the decisions. Trinity Avenue, Alder Rise, was a matriarchy.

      I haven’t thought about the official negotiations, I said. Can’t you just allow me my little castle in the air?

      That’s all it is, I’m afraid, Fi. Merle pulled that small secret smile of hers that made you feel so chosen, as if she bestowed it only on the very special. Of the women in my circle she was the least concerned with her appearance—petite and nimble-bodied, dark-eyed, occasionally disheveled—and that made her, inevitably, one of the most attractive. You know as well as I do that we’ll all have to sell up sooner or later to fund our nursing homes. Our dementia care.

      Half the women on the street thought they had dementia, but they were really just overloaded or, at most, suffering generalized anxiety. That was what had caused Merle, Alison, Kirsty and I to gravitate toward one another: we didn’t do neurosis. We kept calm and carried on (we hated that phrase).

      When I hear myself now, it’s laughable: didn’t do neurosis? What about the kind caused by marital breakdown, betrayal, fraud? Who did I think I was?

      You’ve probably already decided that. I know everyone will be judging me—believe me, I’m judging myself. But what’s the point of me doing this if I’m not going to present myself honestly, warts and all?

      #VictimFi

      @PeteYIngram Hmm. IMO losing your posh house isn’t on a par with being the victim of violent crime.

      @IsabelRickey101 @PeteZIngram Wtf? She’s homeless!

      @PeteYIngram @IsabelRickey101 She’s not on the street, though, is she? She’s still got a job.

      What do I do for a living? I work four days a week

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