New Book Releases: April 5, 2022

Each week, I’ll catalog the biggest and most exciting adult and YA fiction — and the occasional nonfiction — coming out that Tuesday.

SEA OF TRANQUILITY, Emily St. John Mandel. The lives and stories of an exiled son of an earl, a famous writer traveling the universe on book tour, and a detective in a far-off future intersect in surprising and poignant ways, from the brilliant acclaimed author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel. “Even more boldly imagined than Station Eleven. Exciting to read, relevant, and satisfying,” writes Kirkus in a starred review. “As in Ishiguro, this is not born of some cheap, made-for-television, faux-emotional gimmick or mechanism, but of empathy and hard-won understanding, beautifully built into language,” writes Laird Hunt for the New York Times. Read an excerpt here. Aggregated critical reviews, Amazon, Bookshop.

DELPHINE JONES TAKES A CHANCE, Beth Morrey. A single mother begins to reclaim her life with her teen daughter’s help. “An uplifting, earnest book with layered, complicated characters,” writes Kirkus. Amazon, Bookshop.

LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY, Bonnie Garmus. In the 1960s, a brilliant chemist suddenly finds herself a single mother out of a job, but soon becomes the star of an idiosyncratic, hugely popular new cooking show. “Lessons in Chemistry is a page-turning and highly satisfying tale: zippy, zesty, and Zotty,” says Maggie Shipstead. “A more adorable plea for rationalism and gender equality would be hard to find,” writes Kirkus in a starred review. Lessons in Chemistry is the New York Times’ Group Text book club pick for April. Already optioned for an AppleTV show starring Brie Larson. Amazon, Bookshop.

LITTLE FOXES TOOK UP MATCHES, Katya Kazbek. A young man in the Soviet Union who swallowed a sewing needle at two years old embarks upon a journey in the Moscow underworld to find himself. “A relief, really, to read a debut novel as original as this — as cunning, wild and free,” says Alexander Chee. “A rich and moving look at a child in the midst of self-discovery. As dark as a Brothers Grimm fairy…