Listed: Under the Radar August Books
Hello!
I’m back this month with 10 under the radar August releases that I think sound really good, maybe you will too. I love a list of buzzy new releases as much as the next person, but many of the lists I've seen are mentioning the same group of books. There are plenty of under the radar books coming out this month that are arriving without fanfare and tons of shares, so I decided to find ten and shout them out:)
This list is by no means complete, these are just the books that caught my eye.
I hate that I have so say this, but all research was done by me, not AI. I personally scoured publisher’s websites, Netgalley, and Edelweiss to find ten books that I think sound good (I found a lot more than 10 hence the curation). I like to filter the synopsis myself. I don’t want to give you too much information and I also like to include additional details from the publisher that “sells” the book to us readers. This takes time but I love doing it! I hope you find value (and maybe a book or two you didn’t know about) from this list.
10 Under the Radar August Books
All That Is Left of Life by Roberta Recchia, Antonella Lettieri (Translated by) August 4 from Scribner
A debut set in 1980s Rome. It’s a sultry August night when sixteen-year-old Betta Ansaldo convinces her cousin Miriam to sneak out to the local beach for a party. Only Miriam returns. Traumatized by the violence she’s witnessed, she remains silent. The small community is riven with grief, none more so than the Ansaldos, who search for answers they cannot find. Who did Betta cross paths with on that fateful night? And how could such a horrific crime happen in such a peaceful place?
As the years pass, and Betta’s murder goes unsolved, the Ansaldo family fractures under the weight of their loss. When Miriam meets Leo, a sweet-natured young man with a dark past, their romance seems to turn her life around. But when Leo starts to pull loose the threads of Betta’s story, determined to find out what really happened, his search for the truth risks unraveling everything.
Wow! From the publisher….”With more than 200,000 copies already sold in Italy, All That Is Left of Life is a deeply atmospheric and unputdownable family saga that explores love, loss, and the secrets we carry, from a riveting new voice in international fiction.”
Solstice by Carol Gilligan - August 4 from Random House
A brilliant but restless dancer discovers the true meaning of love and intimacy through the ebbs and flows of her marriage. Sweeping across decades and continents, this is a provocative and profound portrait of what it takes to truly love another.
Why the publisher is excited - Solstice is “an honest, grown up portrait of love and marriage that draws from the author's expert voice about gender dynamics. It reflects the messy authenticity of how women manage in (and outside of) marriage.”
Ten Seconds by Robert Gold - August 4 from Grand Central Publishing
After a tense birthday celebration in Haddley, journalist Ben Harper watches his boss, Madeline, get into the car that has come to collect her. He walks home, never imagining that by the next morning, Madeline will be missing.
To find Madeline, Ben will have to return to the now infamous murder case that made her journalism career over a decade ago. A case which, Ben quickly discovers, was never as simple as it seemed. But time is of the essence, and soon it's not just Madeline's life on the line
From the publisher….This is the first book in a series and fans of The Housemaid and Verity take note.
Because of a Dog: How an Enchanted Italian Village Mended a Broken Heart by Matthew Sigman - August 11 from Sourcebooks Landmark
When Matthew Sigman’s beloved dog, Augie, died, his world fell apart. His boyfriend broke up with him. His work dried up. Even the ceiling of his West Village apartment collapsed. Heartbroken and adrift, Matthew did the only thing he could--he ran.
An impulsive escape to Europe didn’t lead to the cafés of Paris or the islands of Greece. Instead, thanks to a fluke in an Airbnb map, he landed in Quarna, a remote Italian mountain village seemingly hidden from tourists--and from time itself. With Wit and poignancy Matthew traces a journey from profound grief to unexpected renewal, from isolation to connection.
Why the publisher is excited- “Heart and Humor: This story offers a mix of profound grief, laugh-out-loud humor, and madcap adventures with eccentric local villagers like Valerio the innkeeper.” Italy, a dog lover, uplifting exploration of grief and community, this is for me!
The Nobody Code by Miciah Bay Gault - August 11 from Union Sq & Company (Hachette Book Group)
One fateful night in the 1990s, Dinah, a small-town Vermont teen, sneaks out on a mission to jump on the neighbor’s forbidden trampoline. There she comes upon a handsome, seductive boy named Rex, who leads a group of underground vigilante teenagers who call themselves "Nobody." Dinah falls under Rex's sway and joins the group. She'll do anything to impress him, even when it's dangerous. After an incident orchestrated by Rex results in steep repercussions for herself and others, Dinah leaves the town and her adolescent years behind.
Now, twenty years later, Rex has long vanished. Dinah is married with a baby and a job at the local zoo. But she is not at peace, and it seems as if someone from the past won’t let her go quietly…
Sometimes the publisher’s comps are so good I can’t resist—A spellbinding novel steeped in New England folklore following a woman who leaves her marriage to uncover who’s punishing her for the crimes of her adolescence—for fans of Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods and Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You (I loved the Ng and really liked the Moore)
Are They Dead Yet?: The Art of the Obit by Sam Roberts - August 11from Bloomsbury Publishing (Macmillan)
From celebrated New York Times obituarist Sam Roberts. Over the course of the nearly 1,500 obituaries he has written throughout his career, he has come to understand that the obituaries he writes are about distilling an entire life lived—for someone whose name he may have learned that morning.
With wit, wisdom, and behind-the-scenes intrigue, Roberts examines the practice of writing advance obituaries, of which there are more than 2,000 on hold and regularly updated at the New York Times, America's relationship to death in the wake of 9/11 and the pandemic, classic euphemistic language, and more. Through it all, Roberts brings his humor, shrewdness, and experience to prove what he has learned from a long career in death: There’s no such thing as an ordinary life.
From the publisher, a key selling point—Roberts is writing his long-awaited obit book. It's a subject that, unlike his previous histories, allows him to be unrestrainedly funny and voicey yet profound, appealing to his fans in the most direct way yet. Sounds so good right?
The Inevitable Undoing of Zahara Douglass by Leslye Penelope - August 11 From Redhook (Hachette Book Group)
In April 1995, Zahara watched her twin sister, Annica, get hustled into a stranger’s car and disappear—only to return to a world where no one has heard of Annica. Not her mother. Not the police. No one.
Four years later, as the world braces for the looming Y2K crisis, Zahara finds evidence proving her sister was real and hires a private investigator to dig into her family’s shadowed past.
Why the publisher is excited—Penelope blends mystery, multiple POVs, and a clear magical system to create a story that has a thrilling cat-and-mouse search but at its center is a sister who is willing to sacrifice everything to save her twin.
Nelly’s Version by Eva Figes - August 18 from Dalkey Archive Press
An inventive reshaping of the psychological thriller, Nelly’s Version—part dark comedy, part mystery novel—offers an unsettling journey into the mind of a witty woman stuck in a pastless present.
A middle-aged woman suffering from amnesia checks into a small-town hotel under the pseudonym Nelly Dean with a suitcase full of cash and no idea where it, or she, came from. Nelly fears she is part of a conspiracy. At the same time, however, she remains strangely indifferent to the clues that might explain her puzzling circumstances. Named after the housekeeper in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Nelly Dean is an endearingly unhinged character who will fascinate and excite readers.
Why the publisher is excited - “Bringing back into print a classic in English modernist literature: Reprinting of a novel from one of the UK’s most exciting and experimental novels from the mid-twentieth century.” This one is a wild card pick, I don’t tend to enjoy experimental stories but I loved the cover and there’s something very intriguing about the premise. It makes me already wonder is there a conspiracy?
Last Day of a Prior Life by Andrés Barba, Lisa Dillman (Translated by) - Aug 25 from HarperVia
While eagerly preparing a house for prospective buyers, a woman finds herself face to face with a strange sight: a seven-year-old boy who doesn't blink. Seemingly appearing and disappearing before her again and again, he sooner resembles an apparition. But one thing is clear: the boy wants something from her. Choosing to leave her everyday world behind, the woman steps through the looking glass, inadvertently nurturing a disturbing co-dependence and discovering a suspended time, a loop, and another life in the process.
Why readers should be excited - from the publisher “A HAUNTING GEM OF A NOVEL: Tinged with both horror and beauty, Last Day of a Prior Life inspires a tempest of emotion. Poignantly exploring the hold the past can have on us, as well as how we can heal from it, Barba conjures a hypnotic, haunting daydream that will linger in readers’ memories long after they have turned the final page.” I love being haunted long after I turn the page!
Gaining Ground by Joan Barfoot - August 25 from Faber & Faber
I swear I loved them all, and I did the best I could. And then I left them, left all of it.
Abra is a wife and mother living a suburban dream—until one day, she walks away. In a woodland cabin, her new life alone begins. There are no mirrors, no clocks, no memories: just the squirrels breathing in the forest, and the silence of vegetables growing. Years later, a young woman arrives, and the past-flashes begin. Daughter? A strange word. Is this her? And what will this mean?
Gaining Ground is a both a radical meditation on living on your own terms and an exquisite work of art. It calls to anybody who has ever wanted to escape—who has asked what it costs to be wild, to be sane, to be free.
Why the publisher is excited …A RADICAL MODERN CLASSIC, UNEARTHED AFTER 50 YEARS: A prize-winning lost feminist gem about a woman who leaves her family to live alone in a woodland cabin that has blown everyone's mind in-house! This is a book I want to get my hands on asap!
What August books, under the radar or buzzy, are you looking forward to reading?
Coming tomorrow for paid subscribers — It’s Book Talk: Behind the Scenes podcast episode! I’ll be sharing the books I didn’t finish in July (and why) and more…
