The title is the name one of the novel’s two children gives to a horse grazing in a field; the animal will reappear later in the British modernist writer’s poetic high-concept tale. The first half of the near-future dystopian fable follows the siblings, from an “unverified” subclass, after they are separated from their activist mother, while the second traces where they find themselves a decade later. How the cruel totalitarian state came to be is only vaguely explained, by design, allowing anyone reading real-world news to fill in the blanks with their own worst fears – which makes it all the more chilling. (Feb. 4)

Jessie Redmon Fauset’s 1924 novel There is Confusion, about middle-class Black families striving for social equality in Philadelphia, was part of the Harlem Renaissance. A century later, Murray, a leading contemporary African American novelist, illuminates Fauset’s fascinating life, reviving a key figure whose legacy has been all but forgotten. As literary editor of NAACP journal The Crisis, Fauset discovered and nurtured promising young authors like Langston Hughes, and this historical novel dramatizes the luminary’s complicated life, including her secret affair with Black activist and Civil Rights pioneer W.E.B. Du Bois. (Feb. 4)

The cosmopolitan Madrid-based writer delivered an accomplished thriller about the paranoid fantasy of a mid-century Manhattan housewife in her 2021 debut, Mrs. March. Her follow-up is no less tense, and another deep, dark dive into the recesses of a woman’s psyche, this time in rural England. It’s a delirious psychological study of Winifred, a rage-filled governess at a remote manor who is attempting to resist her violent impulses. “A Fleabag sort of personality stuck in the world of A Christmas Carol, “the author told People magazine, “but with more cleavers.” A movie adaptation is in development, with The Substance star Margaret Qualley as Winifred. (Feb. 4)

When I read this enchanting historical fiction last fall, I couldn’t wait to tell everyone about the unforgettable, deeply imagined story of entwined lives in Gilded Age New York. The Brooklyn-based author leads us from the turn of the century through industrial and social progress in the lives of Vivian, Oscar and Squire, outsiders who find one another. They pool their respective talents (charisma, financial acumen and old money status) and settle into successful business and domestic arrangements. The novel, which richly details the fashions, milieu and class structures, immersively and tenderly breathes life into the complicated realities of queer life in the period. (Feb. 4)

Fair warning: This buzzy dystopian revenge story set in 22nd century Argentina is not for everyone. It’s brutal and shocking, but those who buckle up are in for a wild and visceral ride. The Argentinian author, currently a PhD student in environmental humanities at New York University, writes in the nascent genre called gauchopunk, a radical, body horror-influenced science fiction that draws on Latin American literary traditions. The last Antarctic ice cap has just melted, but climate collapse is the least of what’s on offer in this deranged future that might make even David Cronenberg shudder. (Spoiler: there are autonomous sexual organs for hire). The boy of the title is a sentient, half-mosquito, half-human mutant – the result of inhumane medical experiments by corporations, who profit as new viruses emerge. Separate timelines converge in a gory, imaginative examination of colonialism, ultra-capitalism and climate change denial. (Feb. 4)

The prolific Pulitzer Prize-winner’s 25th novel is a touching and humorous marriage story. Gail, an ordinary heroine, finds herself unemployed and rooming with her ex-husband, Max, (and his foster cat) on the eve of her daughter’s wedding. A revelation about the groom means she has to contend with crises and chaotic family dynamics, while also addressing unresolved issues around her divorce and stalled career. The short book takes place over just three days, yet the Baltimore writer manages to pack in a lifetime. (Feb. 11)

The latest from the bestselling Canadian-British tech and social critic is one of his Martin Hench novels. Fluency in the previous books isn’t required, however, because this thriller functions as an origin story for Doctorow’s main character, a forensic accountant-turned-computer security expert. With the same insight and incision as his legendary X threads, the L.A.-based journalist reconstructs the rise of the personal computer era in 1986 San Francisco. Before the tech bros arrived, it was an innovation landscape populated by software freedom fighters and female-led startups. The audiobook is read by Wil Wheaton, and if you listen carefully you can almost hear the rhythmic scriiiitch of a dot matrix printer in the background. (Feb. 18)

If anyone can balance the delicate politics and insecurities of awards season and give the beautiful people pathos, it’s this longtime Variety correspondent. The Brooklyn-based entertainment journalist brings authentic detail to his debut, following five Best Actress nominees (and a few snubs) on the long red carpet to Hollywood’s big night. As they pose, do publicity and attend special screenings during their respective Academy Award campaigns, the roman à clef potential keeps it juicy: There’s the oft-awarded grande dame (think: Meryl Streep) and her never-won, Glenn Close-like counterpart, along with a slew of canny upstarts vying for the statuette. It’s a suspense tale with character. The envelope, please… (Feb. 25)

Comparisons to Nora Ephron’s revenge fiction Heartburn may be inevitable, especially when the acclaimed New York non-fiction author (Also a Poet, a memoir about her relationship with her father, poet Frank O’Hara) is open about the premise of her fiction debut being inspired by personal experiences. The novel plunges readers headlong into the heady, giddy momentum of an unexpected new crush that develops when a happily married, middle-aged couple decides to open up their relationship. It’s the husband’s idea, but the invigorating emotional affair is all hers in a story that asks big questions about what healthy contemporary relationships can, and should, look like. (Feb. 25)

The Australian novelist’s amusing satire literalizes the experience that women of a certain age experience: feeling unseen. Specifically, the 52-year-old protagonist notices her body parts starting to disappear from view. She joins a support group for this apparently incurable condition and embarks on experimental treatments to reverse it. (They include working on herself by processing failures while quieting recriminations and self-doubt.) Sure, it reads like a TV-series pitch of a GOOP essay if produced by Reese Witherspoon, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable – or  relatable. (Feb. 25)

In the summer of 1966, Robert, a war orphan who is now an adult, fulfills his dream of opening a café. While he never quite gets around to naming the place, it nevertheless becomes an institution in its downtrodden Vienna neighborhood. Over the years, regulars from different walks of life overlap and entangle, dropping in to quell their loneliness, mark milestones or share hope, and the reader gets to know them through their stories. The human empathy on every page of this heartwarming novella, from the Booker-shortlisted Austrian writer of A Whole Life, is an antidote for these anxious times. (Feb. 25)