Six Pack

Uncanny novels, hyperreal nonfiction, and more fresh reads

NO FAULT

Haley Mlotek presents a fascinating and fraught history of marriage and divorce, offering sweeping context alongside intimate specificity, from her own split from her high school sweetheart to those of writers like Audre Lorde, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Deborah Levy. (Viking)

STAG DANCE

In three novellas and a novel, Torrey Peters moves nimbly between scenes of a hormoneaffecting pandemic and a logging camp plagued by a mysterious beast, with vivid characters ever exploring gender and connection. (Random House)

FIRSTBORN

Lauren Christensen details learning, while pregnant, of her daughter's grave chromosomal abnormality. Amid the political ramifications and devastating loss, the memoir teems with life and love. (Penguin Press)

LIQUID: A LOVE STORY

An Iranian Indian American adjunct studying marriage plots and seeking middle-class comfort (permanent health care) makes a strategic plan to marry rich in Mariam Rahmani's smart, addictive debut novel. (Algonquin)

THE ANTIDOTE

Karen Russell conjures a surreal story of the American Dust Bowl; told from the perspectives of a prairie witch, a scarecrow, a photographer with a mystical camera, and others, it reckons with a legacy of violence and whitewashed history. (Knopf)

I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER: NOTES FROM A K-POP FAN

In layered essays, Giaae Kwon fetes and dissects the juggernaut genre of K-pop, from the phenomenon of fandom to the influence of particular artists. (Holt)

Keziah Weir