Leverage the power of place. Books with a regional personality often resonate best with the readers who live there. Midwest Connections gathers the best of publishers’ frontlist books that have a connection to the Midwest and incentivizes booksellers to promote and sell these titles.
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Praise for Alex George’s A Good American
“A Good American is a quixotic immigration tale wrapped in exquisite finery, from the opening promise of everlasting music, to the closing declaration that one’s own ordinary life is anything but ordinary. Don’t miss this new voice in American fiction.” —Sarah Bagby, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kansas
“Stunning, just stunning. Meet the Meisenheimer family through the eyes of grandson James as he relates the story of his immigrant family through nearly a century of American history. Peppered with remarkable characters: a jazz trumpeter who cooks a mean gumbo, a promiscuous school teacher, a dwarf… need I say more? You will laugh out loud, then cry your eyes out. This novel is priceless, and a gem of a read.” —Carol Katsoulis, Anderson’s Bookshop, Naperville, Illinois
An uplifting novel about the families we create and the places we call home.
It is 1904. When Frederick and Jette must flee her disapproving mother, where better to go than America, the land of the new? Originally set to board a boat to New York, at the last minute, they take one destined for New Orleans instead (“What’s the difference? They’re both new”), and later find themselves in the small town of Beatrice, Missouri. Not speaking a word of English, they embark on their new life together.
Beatrice is populated with unforgettable characters: a jazz trumpeter from the Big Easy who cooks a mean gumbo, a teenage boy trapped in the body of a giant, a pretty schoolteacher who helps the young men in town learn about a lot more than just music, a minister who believes he has witnessed the Second Coming of Christ, and a malevolent, bicycle-riding dwarf.
A Good American is narrated by Frederick and Jette’s grandson, James, who, in telling his ancestors’ story, comes to realize he doesn’t know his own story at all. Poignant, funny, and heartbreaking, A Good American is a novel about being an outsider—in your country, in your hometown, and sometimes even in your own family. 
Publicity contact: Katie Grinch, Katie.Grinch@us.penguingroup.com.
Alex George is an Englishman who lives, works, and writes in Missouri. He studied law at Oxford University and worked for eight years as a corporate lawyer in London and Paris before moving to the United States in 2003.
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“This smoothly written debut . . . captures the innocence and impetuousness of youth . Wurtele carefully looks beyond religious
and cultural stereotypes and her heroine’s character growth is moving and realistic.” –Booklist
“Offers a strong sense of time and place.” –Publishers Weekly
“Set in the danger and drama of Italy during the Second World War, The Golden Hour is an enthralling story of love, family, and courage. Margaret Wurtele has delivered a lush, suspenseful, and thoroughly engaging read.” –Lynn Sheene, author of The Last Time I Saw Paris
World War II-set fiction captivates readers with its irresistible combination of fear and hope set against one of the most turbulent times in history. New American Library is proud to publish talented debut novelist Margaret Wurtele, whose beautiful and moving story is a testament to the indomitable spirit of the people struggling to survive during the strife of the World War II era. The Golden Hour begins in the summer of 1944 in Tuscany and portrays love and hope in a war-torn nation. In a story woven with historical detail, Wurtele explores the emotion, fear, and hope that permeate the rarely explored landscape of World War II Italy.
Seventeen-year-old Giovanna Bellini sees firsthand the devastating effects of the war. Following the Italian government’s peace agreement with the Allies, Giovanna watches as the German military invades her town, forming a hostile occupying army. At first, Giovanna is fascinated by the Nazi officers, but as the war strips away Giovanna’s naïveté and harsh realities are exposed, her brother Giorgio recruits her to aid in the Italian Resistance. When she is asked to hide wounded Jewish freedom fighter Mario Rava, Giovanna finds herself falling for the brave young man. The world around her is in constant turmoil and when terrible truths are revealed, threatening the lives of everyone Giovanna cares about, she is forced to make unimaginable sacrifices and decisions.
Publicity contact: Erin Galloway, Erin.Galloway@us.penguingroup.com.
Margaret Wurtele is the author of two memoirs. She and her husband split their 
time between Minnesota and Napa Valley, where they are owners of Terra Valentine Winery.
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Confirmed bookstore dates for Margaret Wurtele:
2/8/2012 – St. Paul, MN – Literary Loft, 7 PM
2/9/2012 – Wayzata, MN – The Bookcase, 7 PM
2/18/2012 – Corte Madera, CA – Book Passage, 4 PM
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Up a short flight of stairs, inside a former bank in a small rural town 100 miles northwest of Detroit, there is a special place, rich in history, and 100,000 brides-to-be from across the Midwest have made pilgrimages to find it. Just 10 foot by 8 foot, it has floor-to-ceiling mirrors on every wall, carrying the brides’ images to infinity. It is called the Magic Room.
The town is Fowler, Michigan, a middle-class community with 1,100 residents – and 2,500 wedding dresses. The building is Becker’s Bridal, home to each of those dresses, a figurative blizzard of white. Jeffrey Zaslow takes readers to this remarkable small-town bridal shop to explore the hopes and dreams parents have for their daughters. He weaves this true story using a reporter’s research and a father’s heart. Jeff came to Fowler not just to write about wedding gowns and what they represent. He came to understand the women wearing them, their fears and yearnings, and through them, he tells a larger story about the love between parents and daughters today.
In this magical book, Zaslow examines women on the brink of commitment, whose stories, secrets, and memories will pull you in from the moment they first see their reflection in this iconic room.
Jeffrey Zaslow is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Girls from Ames. Through his writing, he has told the stories of some of the most inspirational people of our time. He is co-author, with Chesley Sullenberger, of Highest Duty, and with Randy Pausch, of The Last Lecture, the #1 New York Times bestseller now translated into forty-eight languages. Zaslow is currently collaborating with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, on their memoir. He lives in suburban Detroit with his wife, Sherry, and daughters Jordan, Alex, and Eden.
Publicity contact: Jessica Chun, Jessica.Chun@us.penguingroup.com.
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Twin Cities Metro magazine calls this reimagining of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol “light” and “witty.”
Mary Ann Grossman from the St. Paul Pioneer Press writes, “Tom Hegg turns his considerable talent loose on a book of light verse to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens’ birth.” Also, watch an interview with the author on Kare 11.
Tom Hegg, author of the modern holiday classic A Cup of Christmas Tea, takes several immortal Dickens characters from different novels, mixes them together with newly minted ones, puts them all in mortal danger, and sets the story to wickedly clever verse. This well-produces hardcover book is further enhanced by the lively illustrations of Kevin Cannon.
Tom Hegg is an American author, teacher, and theatrical professional who performed for many seasons as a member of the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, MN. Hegg lives with wife Peggy Hegg in Eden Prairie, MN. Hegg is best known for selling 1.5 million copies of his first book, A Cup of Christmas Tea, illustrated by Warren Hanson. Hegg and Hanson’s working relationship continued with nine more illustrated books including three books featuring a colorful bear named Peef. Hegg has also collaborated on The Handsome Prince with illustrator Kevin Cannon.
Publicity contact: Norton Stillman, nstill4402@aol.com.
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Praise for Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
“Soon the bread will be making itself… The crusty, full-flavored loaf that results may be the world’s easiest yeast bread.”–The New York Times
“If holiday gift-givers are aiming to buy one new cookbook title for the bakers in their lives, they should look no further.” –Minneapolis Star-Tribune
From the bestselling authors of the hugely popular Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day featuring the authors’ signature approach to yeast dough that the Chicago Sun-Times has called “quite simply, genius,” this new a cookbook applies their same revolutionary approach to bread-making to pizza and flatbreads. With nearly half a million copies of their books in print, Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François have proven that people want to bake their own bread—as long as they can do it quickly and easily. When fans hailed their pizza and flatbread recipes as the fastest in their books, Jeff and Zoe got busy creating all new recipes for lightning-fast pizzas, flatbreads, and sweet and savory tarts from stored, no-knead dough.
Jeff Hertzberg, M.D., is former practicing physician with 20 years of experience in health care as a practitioner, consultant, and faculty member at the University of Minnesota Institute for Health Informatics. He grew up eating New York pizza and spent years trying to figure out how to make dough that was convenient enough to use for daily pizza, flatbreads, and loaves. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife and two daughters.
Zoë François is a pastry chef trained at the Culinary Institute of America, but she is a pizzaiola at heart. While writing this book, she traveled far and wide to eat every pizza and flatbread she could find. In addition to tossing pizzas, she creates desserts on her pastry blog zoebakes.com. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two sons.
The authors met in their children’s music class in 2003 and wrote the best-selling Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Pizza or bread questions are answered at www.PizzaIn5.com.
Publicity contact: Nadea Mina, Nadea.Mina@stmartins.com.
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A beautiful collection of meditative essays on the everyday nothings of life in which meaning can be found. In the tradition of the meditative essay, the writing of Robert Vivian begins with a mundane moment and, through the delicate workings of curiosity, contemplation, and inspiration, reveals unsuspected meaning.
In this second collection of essays, Vivian finds his occasions in Midwestern towns and European cities. He explores the spiritual significance of circumstances and places and those who inhabit them, from the Jewish dead in a long-neglected cemetery in Poland to a dog slaughtered on a highway fronting the Black Sea to gunshots ringing out in rural Michigan. Again and again, Vivian probes what such phenomena suggest about the times we live in—and what they share with every time that ever was.
Robert Vivian is a professor of English and creative writing at Alma College in Michigan and a core faculty member in the low-residency MFA program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. His stories, poems, and essays have appeared in numerous publications, and his plays have been produced in New York City. He is the author of Cold Snap as Yearning and the Tall Grass Trilogy, which includes The Mover of Bones, Lamb Bright Saviors, and Another Burning Kingdom, all available from the University of Nebraska Press.
Publicity contact: Kim Mahrt, kmahrt2@unlnotes.unl.edu.
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“Beautifully layered and lovingly detailed, White Truffles in Winter is a tale of extraordinary people entangled in a captivating love story. Filled with lush and decadent longing, this novel will dazzle the mind as well as the senses.” —Diana Abu-Jaber, author of Birds of Paradise: A Novel
A breathtaking novel, rare and moving, about the world’s greatest chef and his unruly heart.
White Truffles in Winter imagines the world of the remarkable French chef Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935), who changed how we eat through his legendary restaurants at the Savoy and the Ritz. A man of contradictions—kind yet imperious, food-obsessed yet rarely hungry—Escoffier was also torn between two women: the famous, beautiful, and reckless actress Sarah Bernhardt and his wife, the independent and sublime poet Delphine Daffis, who refused ever to leave Monte Carlo. In the last year of Escoffier’s life, in the middle of writing his memoirs, he has returned to Delphine, who requests a dish in her name as he has honored Bernhardt, Queen Victoria, and many others.
How does one define the complexity of love on a single plate? N. M. Kelby brings us the sensuality of food and love amid a world on the verge of war in this work that shimmers with beauty and longing.
N. M. Kelby is the critically acclaimed author of In the Company of Angels, Whale Season, White Truffles in Winter, and the Florida Book Award winner A Travel Guide for Reckless Hearts, among others. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Publicity contact: Jessica Purcell, jpurcell@wwnorton.com.
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“This novel is so good-hearted, so life-affirming, it’s a joy to read. . . . What Katz does so well is evoke the feelings of love the people have for their town and their close connections, even when the football team keeps losing. Katz clearly has compassion for all of his characters, and some of his descriptions of their feelings are so beautiful you’ll want to read whole paragraphs several times.” —Mary Ann Grossman, St. Paul Pioneer Press
“Katz has offered us a smart, moving, beautiful and important book.” —E. J. Dionne Jr., syndicated columnist, NPR commentator
A haunted stranger seeking a second chance in life helps a struggling Midwest factory town 
rediscover its better self. Think: Friday Night Lights meets It’s a Wonderful Life.
Winner of the 2011 Independent Book Publishers Association Award for popular fiction, Third and Long tells the story of a dying Midwest factory town that finds new life when a former Notre Dame football star is hired as the local plant manager. Soon he is handed not just the job of saving Made Right clothing, but the far more daunting task of saving the town.
Laced with keen insights into contemporary issues—the importance of community, pitfalls of the global economy, the skewed importance of sports in the lives of people who desperately need a victory—Third and Long is a moving portrait of a vanishing America hanging by a thread, with perhaps just enough time remaining for one last miraculous play.
Bob Katz is the author of several widely praised books, including Hot Air, a novel about a charismatic Latin American revolutionary who comes to the U.S. for a speaking tour of Midwest colleges, which was optioned for a movie by MGM, and the nonfiction book Elaine’s Circle about an Alaskan schoolteacher.
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The bestselling author of Montana 1948 returns to Milkweed Editions with American Boy, a classic tale of desire, betrayal, and coming of age in 1960’s Minnesota. Already chosen as one of the top 20 Indie Sleeper hits for Fall 2011, as well as an IndieNext selection for October, American Boy is shaping up to be the Midwestern novel of the year.
“Watson has penned some of the best contemporary fiction about small-town America, and his new novel does not disappoint. . . . With his graceful writing style, well-drawn characters, and subtly moving plot, Watson masterfully portrays the dark side of small-town America. Highly readable and enthusiastically recommended.” —Library Journal (starred review)
Larry Watson is the author of seven widely acclaimed novels, including the best-selling Montana 1948. Over the course of his career, Watson has been praised for the “unflinching honesty and complete respect” he shows to his characters (Booklist), and his novels have been called “captivating and haunting” (Washington Post), “remarkable” (Baltimore Sun), “utterly mesmerizing” (The Nation), and lauded as small masterpieces which “pull you immediately into [their] depths and settle inside your bones for a long and haunting stay” (San Francisco Chronicle). Larry Watson lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his family.
Publicity contact: Ethan Rutherford, ethan_rutherford@milkweed.org.
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Thirteen-year-old Travis has a secret: he can’t read. But a shrewd teacher and a sassy girl named Velveeta are about to change everything in this witty and deeply moving novel. With sympathy, humor, and disarming honesty, Pat Schmatz brings to life a cast of utterly believable characters — and captures the moments of trust and connection that make all the difference. Schmatz addresses an issue — illiteracy — that is very real, but does so in a fresh, teen-friendly voice, and the masterfully realized characters include not only the main character, Travis, and his new friend, outrageous Velveeta, but also a brilliant teacher and a determined, dedicated librarian. The characters in this book come from very sad circumstances, but this is ultimately a very hopeful and, indeed, entertaining read.
Growing up in rural Wisconsin, Pat Schmatz‘s passions were reading, basketball, and the woods. She lived in Michigan, California, and Minnesota before landing back in central Wisconsin. She still travels whenever she can, from Japan to Rhode Island to Vancouver to New Zealand. When she’s not traveling, Pat does administrative work for the Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis. She is currently at work on a new novel.
Publicity contact: Tracy Miracle, Tracy.Miracle@candlewick.com.
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Expanding upon the genre-breaking form he invented in his trailblazing debut novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick creates another awe-inspiring, multilayered reading experience. Wonderstruck weaves together two compelling independent stories, set fifty years apart — Ben’s story, which takes place in 1977, is told in words; Rose’s story in 1927 is told in pictures. Ever since his mother died, Ben feels lost. At home with her father, Rose feels alone. When Ben finds a mysterious clue hidden in his mother’s room, and when a tempting opportunity presents itself to Rose, both children risk everything to find what’s missing. Rich, complex, affecting and beautiful, Wonderstruck is a stunning achievement from a uniquely gifted artist and visionary.
Publicity contact: Charisse Meloto, cmeloto@scholastic.com. Also go to Scholastic’s media room for many more materials to promote Wonderstruck.
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Told from the alternating perspectives of a husband and wife, In Caddis Wood explores the competing rhythms of romantic love, family life, and professional ambition, refracted through the changing seasons of a long marriage. Beneath the surface, affecting their collective future, beats the resilient and endangered heart of nature. As the memories multiply and the family gathers at their longtime summerhouse in the woods of Wisconsin, Hallie and Carl’s grown-up daughters offer unexpected avenues toward forgiveness and healing. With warmth and generosity, Mary François Rockcastle captures the way that the aging mind imbues the present with all the many layers of the past as she illuminates the increasingly unbreakable bonds borne of a shared life.
“As she did in her debut, Rockcastle once again melds family drama with a palpable sense of place. . . . Suffused, appropriately, with imagery of the natural and man-made worlds, Rockcastle’s skillful pacing weaves together the family’s tumultuous history with its uncertain present. A mature love story offering a clear-eyed glimpse of the challenges and rewards of a long marriage.”—Publishers Weekly
Publicity contact: Marisa Atkinson, atkinson@graywolfpress.org.
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In this valley, songs live . . . and kill. The Hum & the Shiver is the first novel in a new series that spins a new Celtic mythology in the mountains of Tennessee and has drawn comparisons to the magical realism of Charles de Lint and to Holly Black’s Modern Faerie Tales series. No one knows where the Tufa came from, or how they ended up in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, yet when the first Europeans arrived, they were already there. Dark-haired, enigmatic, and suspicious of outsiders, the Tufa live quiet lives in the hills and valleys of Cloud County. While their origins may be lost to history, there are clues in their music — hints of their true nature buried in the songs they have passed down for generations.
A resident of Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, Alex Bledsoe worked as a reporter, editor, and photographer before taking up writing full time. His Eddie LaCrosse series has earned rave reviews from critics, including starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Alex builds buzz for his novels and discusses a myriad of current event and pop culture topics on his blog www.alexbledsoe.com/blog, and is a regular contributor to Tor.com where his insightful pop culture posts are always sure to spark intriguing conversations among readers.
Publicity contact: Alexis Nixon, Alexis.Nixon@tor.com.
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Lesley Kagen returns with the sequel to her national bestselling debut, Whistling in the Dark. “Kagen does a remarkable job of balancing the goofiness of being an 11-year-old with the sinister plot elements, creating a suspenseful yarn that still retains an air of genuine innocence. Readers who enjoyed the first book are in for a treat.” —Publishers Weekly
Whistling in the Dark captivated readers with the story of ten-year-old Sally O’Malley and her sister, Troo, during Milwaukee’s summer of 1959. The novel became a New York Times bestseller and was named a Midwest Honor Award winner. In Good Graces, it’s one year later, and a heat wave has everyone in the close-knit Milwaukee neighborhood on edge. None more so than Sally O’Malley, who remains deeply traumatized by the sudden death of her daddy and her near escape from a murderer and molester the previous summer.
Lesley Kagen is a writer, actress, and restaurateur. She lives in Wisconsin. Visit her web site at www.lesleykagen.com
Publicity contact: Katie Burns, Katherine.Burns@us.penguingroup.com.
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Publicity contact: David Brown, David.Brown@simonandschuster.com.
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Terese Svoboda is the author of five volumes of poetry and four novels, including Tin God (Nebraska 2006); a collection of short stories, Trailer Girl and Other Stories (available in a Bison Books edition); and a nonfiction book, Black Glasses like Clark Kent: A GI’s Secret from Postwar Japan, winner of the Graywolf Nonfiction Prize.
Publicity contact: Cara Pesek, cpesek2@unlnotes.unl.edu.
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The haunting call of a loon is quintessential summertime for many people, and it’s also the state bird of Minnesota. These majestically beautiful birds breed on northern lakes during the spring and
summer, and when fall arrives, they migrate to open coastal waters. This gorgeously illustrated prose poem follows two baby chicks through this cycle. We witness their birth, and how they learn to swim, find food, and avoid predators such as snapping turtles and big bass. In the fall, they imitate their parents as they learn to fly and are eventually large and strong enough to make their own migration to the coast.
An afterword supplies other interesting facts about the common loon, which some scientists believe has inhabited lakes and oceans for millions of years.
Susan Vande Griek is a teacher and writer. Her junior novel, A Gift for Ampato, received high praise from teachers and journalists alike and was shortlisted for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction. She divides her time between Halifax, Nova Scotia, and St. Andrews, New Brunswick.
Karen Reczuch has illustrated many children’s books, including The Auction by Jan Andrews, Just Like New by Ainslie Manson, and The Story of Life on Earth, winner of the BC Book Prize for illustrated children’s literature. She lives in Acton, Ontario.
Publicity contact: Bridget Haines, Bridget@anansi.ca.
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In the vein of Jennifer McMahon’s Promise Not to Tell and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold comes a haunting story about the lengths to which people will go to keep their pasts buried. Love, Lies, Bleeding is a winning combination of family drama and gripping mystery.
To what lengths would you go to keep a past buried? Samantha Moore is the golden girl—with a perfect job, a perfect man, a perfect life—until a random act of violence changes everything. Unconscious for two months, Sam awakens from her coma a different person—bitter, in constant pain, and forced to endure medications that leave her nauseous, paranoid, and struggling to keep a grip on reality. Furious with her family for sending her away to a small, remote town to recuperate—placed completely under a physical therapist’s care and robbed of what little freedom she has left—Sam lashes out, with violent outbursts the by-product of her condition–or something else entirely? Strange things are happening—and either Samantha Moore is losing her mind or her friendly new neighbors are far more dangerous than they appear to be.
Jess McConkey (aka Shirley Damsgaard) is an award-winning writer of short fiction. She lives in a small Iowa town and is currently working on her next novel.
Publicity contact: Megan Swartz, Megan.Swartz@harpercollins.com, (212) 207-7034.
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Forever is the thrilling conclusion to Maggie Stiefvater’s #1 New York Times bestselling Shiver trilogy.
In Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. In Linger, they fought to be together. Now, in Forever, the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in.
Follow this link for Maggie’s fall tour schedule, including her Midwestern store visits. And here’s a link to her video trailer.
Maggie Stiefvater is a writer, artist, musician, and the New York Times bestselling author of Shiver, hailed by Publishers Weekly in a starred review as, “a lyrical tale,” and by Bookpage as “beautifully written, even poetic at times, and a perfect indulgence for readers of all ages.” Since publication, rights to more than thirty-five foreign editions of Shiver have been licensed. Linger, the second book in the Shiver trilogy debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. Maggie is also the author of Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception and Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie. She lives in Virginia with her husband and their two children.
Publicity contact: Becky Amsel, BAmsel@scholastic.com.
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Andrea Cremer is a professor of history at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, where she teaches courses on sexuality and power, and focused her Ph.D. studies on how sexuality and power intersect in history. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/andreacremer.
Publicity contact: Shanta Newlin, Shanta.Newlin@us.penguingroup.com, (212) 414-3630.
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The next page-turner in Julie Kramer’s bestselling series featuring TV reporter Riley Sparks, the most irresistible heroine since Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum.
As TV reporter Riley Spartz discovers a serial killer drawing angel-shaped chalk outlines around the bodies of his victims, she unearths an eerie legend dating back nearly a century. Tracking the story to an Iowa cemetery, Riley finds an infamous Black Angel monument that may be connected to the string of homicides throughout the Midwest. Now she is up against a delusional young man who believes the statue is urging him to kill.
Julie Kramer is a freelance network news producer. She formerly ran WCCO-TV’s nationally award-winning investigative unit in Minneapolis. Her debut thriller, Stalking Susan, won the Minnesota Book Award and the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best First Mystery, was a finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award, and is also a finalist for the Anthony Award. She lives with her family in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
Publicity contact: Mellony Torres, Mellony.Torres@SimonandSchuster.com.
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In this delightful, funny, and moving first novel, a librarian and a young boy obsessed with reading take to the road. The Borrower is an Indie Next pick and has garnered rave reviews in O Magazine, BookPage, and Booklist(starred review) among others.
“[Lucy's] relationship with Ian is charming and original. A stylish and clever tale for bibliophiles who enjoy authors like Jasper Fforde and Connie Willis.”
–Library Journal
“Makkai takes several risks in her sharp, often witty text, replete with echoes of children’s classics from Goodnight Moon to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, as well as more ominous references to Lolita . . . the moving final chapters affirm the power of books to change people’s lives even as they acknowledge the unbreakable bonds of home and family. Smart, literate, and refreshingly unsentimental.”
–Kirkus Reviews
“The Borrower proves [Makkai] is a great writer… This is a wonderfully entertaining story packed with moral conundrums and beautiful writing.”
–Patrick Neale, co-owner, Jaffe & Neale Bookshop & Cafe
Rebecca Makkai‘s short fiction will appear in The Best American Short Stories this fall for the fourth consecutive year, and appears regularly in journals like Tin House, Ploughshares, New England Review, and Shenandoah. She lives north of Chicago with her husband and two daughters.
Publicity contact: Holly Watson, Holly.Watson@us.penguingroup.com.
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Filled with her “unflinching honesty” (Melissa Senate) and “nuanced, relatable characters: (Allison Winn Scotch), Kristina Riggle’s evocative novels
beautifully capture the realities of women’s lives today. In Things We Didn’t Say, this acclaimed writer probes the emotional depth of family and the challenges that can break — or unite — us.
Publicity contact: Megan Traynor, Megan.Traynor@harpercollins.com.
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Kristina Riggle lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with her husband, two kids, and dog. A freelance journalist, short story writer, and coeditor for fiction at the e-zine Literary Mama, she is the author of two previous novels, Real Life & Liars and The Life You’ve Imagined.
Starred Review. “A dramatic and rhapsodic American odyssey. A female Huckleberry Finn. A wild-child-to-caring-woman story as intricately meshed with the natural life of the river as a myth. Bonnie Jo Campbell conveys all that Margo does, thinks, and feels with transfixing sensuous precision, from the jolt of a gun to the muscle burn of rowing a boat against the current to the weight of a man. From killing and skinning game to falling in with outlaws and finding refuge with kind if irascible strangers, Margo’s earthy education and the profound complexities of her timeless dilemmas are exquisitely rendered and mesmerizingly suspenseful. A glorious novel destined to entrance and provoke.” –Booklist
Publicity contact: Erin Lovett, elovett@wwnorton.com.
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Bonnie Jo Campbell is the author of three previous books, including American Salvage, a National Book Award finalist. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
With no way into the house’s magical paintings, and its three guardian cats reluctant to help, Olive’s friend Morton is still trapped inside Elsewhere. So when Rutherford, the new oddball kid next door, mentions a grimoire — a spellbook — Olive feels a breathless tug of excitement. If she can find the McMartins’ spellbook, maybe she can help Morton escape Elsewhere for good. Unless, that is, the book finds Olive first.
The house isn’t the only one keeping secrets anymore. Mystery, magic, corruption, and betrayal abound (plus just enough laughs to take the edge off). You’ll never guess what happens next in this thrilling, chilling second volume in the critically acclaimed series.
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Jacqueline West, a two-time Pushcart nominee for poetry, lives in Red Wing, Minnesota.
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Join nature writer Candice Gaukel Andrews as she traverses the natural and human history of some of the most pristine places in the Upper Midwest: Wisconsin’s state and national forests. Richly illustrated with color photographs by the author’s husband, John T. Andrews, and other professional photographers, Beyond the Trees is an intimate visual portrait of these stunning landscapes. Archival images, informative sidebars, locator maps, and contact information for Wisconsin state and federal forests round out this unique book.
Publicity contact: Melanie Roth, melanie.roth@wisconsinhistory.org.
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Candice Gaukel Andrews is a former screenwriter for Paramount Pictures and now specializes in nature and travel writing. Her other books include Great Wisconsin Winter Weekends, The Minnesota Almanac, An Adventurous Nature: Tales form Natural Habitat Adventures, and Travel Wild Wisconsin.
From the former bookseller-author of Please Don’t Come Back from the Moon, a charming, disturbing, and funny story of a more-than-slightly deluded young man’s quest to find a bride. (One of the characters in the novel is in memory of former PW Rep of the Year Mark Gates, a dear friend of Dean’s.) Protagonist Zeke Pappas, the director of a humanities institute in Wisconsin, is conducting an epic survey of American unhappiness, a project he considers his life’s work. In his quest to chronicle what makes us all so unhappy, Zeke also focuses his energy on finding his own happiness — he wants to find the perfect mate so he can gain custody of his orphaned nieces. Following steps outlined in a women’s magazine, the ever-optimistic Zeke identifies some “prospects”: a newly divorced neighbor, a coffeehouse barista, his administrative assistant, and Sofia Coppola because as Zeke says, “Why not aim high?”
Kirkus writes, My American Unhappiness “shimmers with mischief and offbeat charm. A dark entertainment infused by a bluesy yearning for a better America.” Library Journal writes, “Bakopoulos writes with great heart and a cold eye, and his limpid, ironic prose will appeal to those who like the early work of Martin Amis.”
Publicity contact: Summer Smith, summer.smith@hmhpub.com, (212) 420-5818.
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Dean Bakopoulos is the author of the award-winning debut novel Please Don’t Come Back from the Moon, which was a New York Times Notable Book. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guggenheim Foundation. The founding director of the Wisconsin Book Festival and a former bookseller at Canterbury Bookstore in WI, he is now a professor in the MFA Program for Creative Writing & Environment at Iowa State University and a visiting profession of fiction at Grinnell. He lives in Ames, Iowa with his family.
When Madeline Stone walks away from Chicago and moves five hundred miles north to the coast of Lake Superior, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, she isn’t prepared for how much her life will change. Charged with caring for an aging family friend, Madeline finds herself in the middle of beautiful nowhere with Gladys and Arbutus, two octogenarian sisters — one sharp and stubborn, the other sweeter than sunshine. As Madeline begins to experience the ways of the small, tight-knit town, she is drawn into the lives and dramas of its residents.
“I was captivated by Ms. Airgood’s setting and her characters, they’re pitch perfect. South of Superior is a wonderful debut novel.” –Lesley Kagan, author of Whistling in the Dark
“An inviting read that transports the reader to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in a blink.” –Jessilynn, McLean and Eakin Booksellers
“A pleasantly paced story that takes place in the UP of Michigan where towns are small, winters long and hardships abound. Ellen Airgood has captured the beauty of the area, the isolation and cast of local characters.” –Barbara Siepker, The Cottage Book Shop
Publicity contact: Andrew Dudley, andrew.dudley@us.penguingroup.com.
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Ellen Airgood runs a diner in Grand Marais, Michigan. This is her first novel.
The Twin Cities serve as geographical entry point for this exploration of how selfhood can be inescapably split over the course of a lifetime and exist in separate moments in time. Carol Muske-Dukes has won acclaim for work that marries sophisticated intelligence, emotional resonance, and technical craft. What distinguishes her poetry from her contemporaries is her awareness of the complicated web into which the personal and the political, the familial and the feminist, are woven. This awareness deeply informs her latest collection, a book that plunges into the depths of both grief and joy with subtle precision.
“Exploding with capacity and ambition, Carol Muske-Dukes’s new poems are the strongest yet from a poet whose work has long been essential reading.” –Jorie Graham
“[The voice] veers from intimacy to an almost invulnerable shoot-from-the-hip dazzle, and it makes TWIN CITIES urgent, high-energy, and all-the-way-alive.” –Mark Doty
Publicity contact: Langan Kingsley, langan.kingsley@us.penguingroup.com.
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Carol Muske-Dukes is the author of seven books of poetry, four novels, and two collections of essays. She is professor of English/Creative Writing at the University of Southern California and was appointed Poet Laureate of California in 2008. The recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, she lives in Los Angeles and New York City.
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Timothy Schaeffert returns with a novel called “sublime” by Publishers Weekly. The Coffins of Little Hope features his most vivid and endearing character to date, Essie, otherwise known as “S,” an 83-year-old obituary writer for a struggling, small-town newspaper. Touching on the themes of the fragility of childhood, the strength of family, and the powerful rumor mills of small, rural towns — this is a novel you won’t want to miss. Check out the praise sheet below for numerous great review from independent booksellers. In a starred review, PW writes: “It’s small town, big drama in Schaffert’s sublime latest. Piercing observations and sharp, subtle wit make this a standout.”
Publicity contact: Libby Jordan, libby@unbridledbooks.com, (888) READ-UBB x112.
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Timothy Schaffert grew up on a farm in Nebraska and currently lives in Omaha. He’s the author of three previous critically acclaimed novels, including The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters and The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God. His novels have been a Book Sense Pick, Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and a New York Times Editor’s Choice. His writing has won numerous other awards and honors awards, including the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award, the Henfield/Transatlantic Review Award, and the Nebraska Book Award. He currently teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Lake Superior, the north country, the great fresh-water expanse. Frigid. Bountiful. Lethal. Wildly beautiful. The Long-Shining Waters gives us the stories of women separated by centuries and circumstance, yet connected across time by the place they inhabit. Haunting, rich in historical detail, and universal in its exploration of the human desire for meaning when faced with uncertainty, The Long-Shining Waters is an unforgettable and singular debut. PW says “Sosin writes sensuously detailed prose and distills the emotions of her characters into a profound and universal need for acceptance and love.”
Publicity contact: Ethan Rutherford, (612) 215-2556, ethan_rutherford@milkweed.org.
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Danielle Sosin is the author of Garden Primitives, a collection of stories (Coffee House Press, 2000). Her fiction has been featured in the Alaska Quarterly Review, and has been recorded for National Public Radio’s Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story, and Iowa Public Radio’s Live From Prairie Lights. The Long-Shining Waters, her debut novel, was awarded the Milkweed National Fiction Prize. Born in 1959, she lives in Duluth, Minnesota.
Jean Thompson has been celebrated by critics as “a writer of extraordinary intelligence and sensitivity” (O: The Oprah Magazine) and “one of our most lucid and insightful writers (San Francisco Chronicle). Now, Thompson brings together all her talents to deliver a career-defining novel. The Year We Left Home is a sweeping and emotionally powerful story of a single American family during the tumultuous final decades of the twentieth century, spanning from small-town Iowa to suburban Chicago to the coast of Italy. In a starred review, Booklist says, “Superb. Finely crafted. Thompson’s pithy humor, redolent details, and knowing compassion have never been sharper or more resounding as her characters’ follies and struggles reveal depthless truths about men and women, families and vocations, the lure of away and the gravitational pull of home.”
Publicity contact: Julia Prosser, Julia.Prosser@simonandschuster.com, (212) 698-7529.
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Jean Thompson is the author of Who Do You Love: Stories, a 1999 National Book Award finalist for fiction, and the novels City Boy and Wide Blue Yonder, a New York Times Notable Book and Chicago Tribune Best Fiction selection. She lives in Urbana, Illinois.
It’s the summer before seventh grade, and twelve-year-old Raine O’Rourke’s mother suddenly takes a job hours from home at mysterious Sparrow Road — a creepy, dilapidated mansion that houses an eccentric group of artists. As Raine tries to make sense of her new surroundings, she forges friendships with a cast of quirky characters. But it’s an unexpected secret from Raine’s own life that changes her forever. Collette Morgan of Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis, MN writes, “Sparrow Road has restored my faith in middle grade fiction. A beautiful ode to creativity, kindness, and the power of forgiveness.”
Publicity contact: Kristina Aven, Kristina.Aven@us.penguingroup.com, (212) 414-3639.
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Sheila O’Connor is the award-winning author of three novels. Her poems, stories, and essays have appeared in various anthologies and magazines and her work has been recognized with foundation grants and fellowships. Sheila teaches fiction for Hamline University MFA Program where she also serves as fiction editor for Water-Stone Review.
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