Editors Recommend: 8 Summer New Releases Getting Industry Love

June 5 2023
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Editors often spend years helping authors craft and fine-tune their books, and their love is overflowing in these new release recommendations coming out this summer. In this edition, Simon & Schuster editors advocate for emotional gems, language that captured them from line one, and perhaps most intriguingly: the “weirdest submission that I received in 2021.” Spend some time in literary style with these superstar summer 2023 books editors recommend.

Ripe
by Sarah Rose Etter

“Reading RIPE felt like stumbling upon Eden’s forbidden fruit: a key to unlocking language I didn’t have to describe those dark nights of the soul but also the tender moments of love and desire that help us survive them. Sarah Rose Etter brilliantly contrasts the absurdities of modern life with an unsettling element of surrealism—a black hole that stalks our protagonist through her soul-sucking start-up job. The plot cuts like a knife through the protective exocarp of a pomegranate to its bloody center, from the ergosphere surrounding a black hole over its event horizon, hurtling you toward the mysterious singularity at its center. When you make it there and back (a guarantee fiction offers us that deep space cannot), don’t be surprised if life feels a little different, here on the other side of RIPE.” —Emily P., Assistant Editor, on Ripe

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Ripe
Sarah Rose Etter

From an award-winning writer whose work Roxane Gay calls “utterly unique and remarkable” comes a surreal novel about a woman in Silicon Valley who must decide how much she’s willing to give up for success—for fans of My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Her Body and Other Parties.

A year into her dream job at a cutthroat Silicon Valley start-up, Cassie finds herself trapped in a corporate nightmare. Between the long hours, toxic bosses, and unethical projects, she also struggles to reconcile the glittering promise of a city where obscene wealth lives alongside abject poverty and suffering. Ivy League grads complain about the snack selection from a conference room with a view of houseless people bathing in the bay. Start-up burnouts leap into the paths of commuter trains, and men literally set themselves on fire in the streets.

Though isolated, Cassie is never alone. From her earliest memory, a miniature black hole has been her constant companion. It feeds on her depression and anxiety, growing or shrinking in relation to her distress. The black hole watches, but it also waits. Its relentless pull draws Cassie ever closer as the world around her unravels.

When her CEO’s demands cross an illegal threshold and she ends up unexpectedly pregnant, Cassie must decide whether the tempting fruits of Silicon Valley are really worth it. Sharp but vulnerable, funny yet unsettling, Ripe portrays one millennial woman’s journey through our late-capitalist hellscape and offers a brilliantly incisive look at the absurdities of modern life.

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The Summer of Songbirds
by Kristy Woodson Harvey

“Pull out the sunscreen, grab your favorite camp t-shirt, and settle in with a big pile of s’mores. In THE SUMMER OF SONGBIRDS by New York Times bestselling author Kristy Woodson Harvey, four women come together to save their beloved childhood summer camp from closing forever—uncovering old secrets, rediscovering camp crushes, and finding themselves along the way. A heartwarming ode to the power of sisterhood, found family, and endless summer, this nostalgic book club read will have you yearning for long days under the sun and cozy nights by the campfire.”—Molly G., Editor, on The Summer of Songbirds

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The Summer of Songbirds
Kristy Woodson Harvey

Four women come together to save the summer camp that changed their lives and rediscover themselves in the process in this moving new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Veil and the Peachtree Bluff series.

Nearly thirty years ago, in the wake of a personal tragedy, June Moore bought Camp Holly Springs and turned it into a thriving summer haven for girls. But now, June is in danger of losing the place she has sacrificed everything for, and begins to realize how much she has used the camp to avoid facing difficulties in her life.

June’s niece, Daphne, met her two best friends, Lanier and Mary Stuart, during a fateful summer at camp. They’ve all helped each other through hard things, from heartbreak and loss to substance abuse and unplanned pregnancy, and the three are inseparable even in their thirties. But when attorney Daphne is confronted with a relationship from her past—and a confidential issue at work becomes personal—she is faced with an impossible choice.

Lanier, meanwhile, is struggling with tough decisions of her own. After a run-in with an old flame, she is torn between the commitment she made to her fiancé and the one she made to her first love. And when a big secret comes to light, she finds herself at odds with her best friend…and risks losing the person she loves most.

But in spite of their personal problems, nothing is more important to these songbirds than Camp Holly Springs. When the women learn their childhood oasis is in danger of closing, they band together to save it, sending them on a journey that promises to open the next chapters in their lives.

From an author whose “writing coats your soul with heart” (E! Online), The Summer of Songbirds is a lyrical and unforgettable celebration of female friendship, summertime freedom, and enduring sisterhood—and a love letter to the places and people that make us who we are.

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The East Indian
by Brinda Charry

“Brinda Charry captured me from the first line. Language! Hers is exquisite. From there she gave me character—Tony, the curious and clever young protagonist, the East Indian, of the title. And the world he encountered, from 17th-century India to the London docks, to Jamestown, Virginia. His questions are our questions; his understanding expands our understanding; his pain, we feel; the beauty he sees, we can appreciate. The East Indian illuminates and transports; there is very little fiction written about colonial Virginia, and even less about the South Asian presence during that period. The novel stays with you, doing its work even after the final page is turned, as the best books do.” —Kathy B., V.P., Editorial Director, on The East Indian

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The East Indian
Brinda Charry

Inspired by a historical figure, an exhilarating debut novel about the first native of the Indian subcontinent to arrive in Colonial America—for readers of Esi Edugyan and Yaa Gyasi.

Meet Tony: insatiably curious, deeply compassionate, with a unique perspective on every scene he encounters. Kidnapped and transported to the New World after traveling from the British East India Company’s outpost on the Coromandel Coast to the teeming streets of London, young Tony finds himself in Jamestown, Virginia, where he and his fellow indentured servants—boys like himself, men from Africa, a mad woman from London—must work the tobacco plantations. Orphaned and afraid, Tony initially longs for home. But as he adjusts to his new environment, finding companionship and even love, he can envision a life for himself after servitude. His dream: to become a medicine man, or a physician’s assistant, an expert on roots and herbs, a dispenser of healing compounds.

Like the play that captivates him—Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream—Tony’s life is rich with oddities and hijinks, humor and tragedy. Set during the early days of English colonization in Jamestown, before servitude calcified into racialized slavery, The East Indian gives authentic voice to an otherwise unknown historic figure and brings the world he would have encountered to vivid life. In this coming-of-age tale, narrated by a most memorable literary rascal, Charry conjures a young character sure to be beloved by readers for years to come.

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At the End of Every Day
by Arianna Reiche

“I say this with love: AT THE END OF EVERY DAY was weirdest submission that I received in 2021. This debut is a wonderfully strange journey through a dark, unsettling theme park that’s closing down—mostly because it doesn’t get many visitors and also because an actress, after seeing something during one of the rides, lights herself on fire at the entrance. This novel calls to mind Meredith Westgate, John Darnielle, Iain Reid, Alexandra Kleeman, and Samanta Schweblin—all of whom write the strangest, psychologically probing concoctions that can’t properly be summed up. You just have to read it.” —Loan L., Editor, on At the End of Every Day

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At the End of Every Day
Arianna Reiche

In this haunting debut novel—perfect for fans of Iain Reid, Jeff VanderMeer, and Julia Armfield—a loyal employee at a collapsing theme park questions the recent death of a celebrity visitor, the arrival of strange new guests, her boyfriend’s erratic behavior, and ultimately her own sanity.

Delphi has spent years working at a vast and iconic theme park in California after fleeing childhood trauma in her rural hometown. But after the disturbing death of a beloved Hollywood starlet on the park grounds, Delphi is tasked with shuttering The Park for good.

Meanwhile, two siblings with ties to The Park exchange letters, trying to understand why people who work there have been disappearing. Before long, they learn that there’s a reason no one is meant to see behind The Park’s curtain.

What happens when The Park empties out? And what happens when Delphi, who seems remarkably at one with The Park, is finally forced to leave?

At once a novel about the uncanny valley, death cults, optical illusions, and the enduring power of fantasy, Reiche’s debut is a mind-bending teacup ride through an eerily familiar landscape, where the key to it all is what happens at the end of every day.

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Thicker Than Water
by Megan Collins

“I’ve been editing Megan’s dark and twisty stories since her debut novel THE WINTER SISTER. And, after years of chart-topping suspense, it’s sometimes hard to find a new angle. So, when Megan told me she wanted to write a novel about sisters-in-law and best friends, I thought ‘well, that’s a story I haven’t heard.’ She’s brought this relationship to life brilliantly here, showing the joys and frictions of family—and loyalty—in a situation none of us would ever want to be in. And trust me, the twists keep coming!” —Kaitlin O., Senior Editor, on Thicker Than Water

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Thicker Than Water
Megan Collins

Two sisters-in-law find themselves at painful odds when the man who connects them—the brother of one, the husband of the other—is accused of a brutal crime in this twisty thriller from the author of the “exceedingly entertaining” (The New York Times) The Family Plot.

Julia and Sienna Larkin are sisters-in-law, connected by Julia’s husband and Sienna’s brother, Jason. More than that, the two are devoted best friends and business partners, believing that theirs is a uniquely unbreakable bond. To Sienna, her protective brother can do no wrong, and although Julia knows he’s not perfect, they’ve built a comfortable life and family together. Recently, Jason has been putting in long hours to secure a promotion at work, so when his boss is found brutally murdered—his lips sewn shut—the Larkins are shocked and unsettled, especially as local gossip swirls.

A few days later, Julia and Sienna’s lives are upended when Jason gets into a car accident and is placed in a medically induced coma. Worse, the police arrive with news that he’s the prime suspect in the murder investigation. With Jason unable to respond—and with Julia and Sienna working to clear his name—the two women find their friendship threatened for the first time: Sienna staunchly maintains her brother’s innocence, but as their investigation uncovers a complicated web of secrets, Julia is less sure she’s willing to defend her husband.

With her signature “moody and atmospheric” (USA TODAY) writing, Megan Collins has crafted a rich, gripping story that explores just how fragile our closest bonds can be.

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Everything's Fine
by Cecilia Rabess

“At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, EVERYTHING’S FINE is one of the best novels I’ve read in years. I fell so much in love with Jess (and, to our surprise, with Josh) that I knew I had to acquire this book. Cecilia Rabess’s debut has it all: a one-of a kind character in the form of the brilliant and very funny Jess, who is fine-tuning her moral compass in the midst of one of the most divisive times in our history; a breathtaking romance between polar opposites who we’d never thought we’d root for, but who we truly shed tears (of laughter and of sadness over); and rich social commentary on our polarized times and current culture war. At a time when many of us are in our separate silos, when we can’t imagine having a civil conversation with someone on the opposite side of the political aisle, we were shocked to find the romance at the heart of this novel not only believable, but also heart-shattering. But ultimately, EVERYTHING’S FINE is a smart, hilarious, emotionally resonant look at how much we can (and should) sacrifice for love.” —Carina G., Senior Editor, on Everything’s Fine

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Everything's Fine
Cecilia Rabess

“Extraordinarily brave...plain funny as hell, too.” —Zakiya Dalila Harris, New York Times bestselling author of The Other Black Girl

“A subtle, ironic, wise, state-of-the-nation novel, sharp enough to draw blood, hidden inside a moving, intimate, sincere and very real love story--or vice versa.” —Nick Hornby

When Jess lands a job as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, she’s less than thrilled to learn she’ll be on the same team as Josh, her preppy, white, conservative sparring partner from college. Josh loves playing the devil’s advocate and is just…the worst.

But when Jess finds herself the sole Black woman on the floor, overlooked and underestimated, it’s Josh who shows up for her in surprising—if imperfect—ways. Before long, an unlikely friendship—one tinged with undeniable chemistry—forms between the two. A friendship that gradually, and then suddenly, turns into an electrifying romance that shocks them both.

Despite their differences, the force of their attraction propels the relationship forwards, and Jess begins to question whether it’s more important to be happy than right. But then it’s 2016, and the cultural and political landscape shifts underneath them. And Jess, who is just beginning to discover who she is and who she has the right to be, is forced to ask herself what she’s willing to compromise for love and whether, in fact, everything’s fine.

A stunning debut that introduces Cecilia Rabess as a blazing new talent, Everything’s Fine is a painfully funny, poignant, heartfelt novel that doesn’t just ask will they, but…should they?

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Little Monsters
by Adrienne Brodeur

“I absolutely inhaled this beautifully written family drama, filled with secrets and lies and shifting allegiances, where Cape Cod is a character in itself. Adrienne Brodeur sees the wounded child in every member of the Gardner family, and this makes for exquisite tension as they careen in and out of each other’s orbits, alternately sharing and withholding secrets from each other and themselves. Also, Adrienne is a magnificent observer of the natural world, and her joy in the raw beauty of the Wellfleet Woods, the mysteries of the Stellwagen Marine Sanctuary, the moody tides along the Cape's beaches infuses and elevates every page of this gorgeous novel.” —Lauren W., Editorial Director, on Little Monsters

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Little Monsters
Adrienne Brodeur

From the author of the bestselling memoir Wild Games comes a riveting novel about Cape Cod, complicated families, and long-buried secrets—for fans of the New York Times bestsellers The Paper Palace and Ask Again, Yes.

Ken and Abby Gardner lost their mother when they were small and they have been haunted by her absence ever since. Their father, Adam, a brilliant oceanographer, raised them mostly on his own in his remote home on Cape Cod, where the attachment between Ken and Abby deepened into something complicated—and as adults their relationship is strained. Now, years later, the siblings’ lives are still deeply entwined. Ken is a successful businessman with political ambitions and a picture-perfect family and Abby is a talented visual artist who depends on her brother’s goodwill, in part because he owns the studio where she lives and works.

As the novel opens, Adam is approaching his seventieth birthday, staring down his mortality and fading relevance. He has always managed his bipolar disorder with medication, but he’s determined to make one last scientific breakthrough and so he has secretly stopped taking his pills, which he knows will infuriate his children. Meanwhile, Abby and Ken are both harboring secrets of their own, and there is a new person on the periphery of the family—Steph, who doesn’t make her connection known. As Adam grows more attuned to the frequencies of the deep sea and less so to the people around him, Ken and Abby each plan the elaborate gifts they will present to their father on his birthday, jostling for primacy in this small family unit.

Set in the fraught summer of 2016, and drawing on the biblical tale of Cain and Abel, Little Monsters is an absorbing, sharply observed family story by a writer who knows Cape Cod inside and out—its Edenic lushness and its snakes.

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Even If Everything Ends
by Jens Liljestrand

“Stories about the end of the world have always fascinated us. Apocalyptic novels entertain because they feel so distant from the world we live in. NOT THIS ONE. This is a family novel struck through with humor, but it is nervous laughter. Because Jens Liljestrand has nailed the terrifying truth which is that even as the world literally? ends, it is the great tragedy of the human to condition to wonder, ‘but what does it mean...FOR ME?’ If Greta Thunberg and Jonathan Franzen wrote a novel: this would be it. I couldn’t put it down, and it has stayed with me ever since.” —Alison C., VP, Executive Editor, on Even If Everything Ends

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Even If Everything Ends
Jens Liljestrand

Life goes on in the face of a climate crisis in this astonishing and unforgettable debut novel that follows four characters as they struggle to survive in a burning world.

Even when the climate crisis escalates beyond our worst nightmares and people become refugees, the world keeps turning and life carries on as usual: teenaged love stories, marital collapses, identity crises, and revolts against hopeless parents continue to play out.

Didrik is a forty-year-old media consultant whose misguided efforts to become the family hero render him a pathetic vision of masculine incompetence. Melissa is an influencer with a suitcase full of lost dreams after denying climate change for years. André is the nineteen-year-old loser son of an international sports star who uses the erupting violence around him to orchestrate his own personal vengeance on his negligent father. And Vilja is Didrik’s teenaged daughter who steps into a leadership role in the face of adult ineptitude.

“Simultaneously nerve-wracking, astute, and consumedly entertaining” (Sydsvenskan, Sweden) and through these four related stories, Even If Everything Ends eloquently illustrates a picture of a very near future that is at once extraordinary and entirely realistic.

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Photo credit: iStock / struvictory

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