New Bites: New Books by Douglas Nicholas, T.C. Boyle, Michael Kimball and Simon Kernick

Something Red by Douglas Nicholas

During the 1200s in northwest England, in one of the coldest winters in living memory, a formidable middle-aged Irishwoman and the troupe she leads are trying to drive their three wagons across the mountains before the heavy snows set in. Molly, her powerful and enigmatic lover, her fey granddaughter, and her young apprentice, soon discover that something terrible prowls the woods. As the group travels from refuge to refuge, it becomes apparent that the mysterious evil force must be faced and defeated—or else they will surely die.


     An intoxicating and spirited blend of fantasy, mythology, and history, Something Red features the most fascinating of characters including shapeshifters, Irish battle queens, Norman knights, Templars, pilgrims, Saracens, a Lithuanian noblewoman, warrior monks, strong—even dangerous—women, and ten murderous mastiffs, as well as an epic snowstorm that an early reader described as “one of the coldest scenes since Snow Falling on Cedars.”

     
Douglas Nicholas is an award-winning poet whose work has appeared in numerous poetry journals, and the author of four previous books including Iron Rose, a collection of poems inspired by New York City. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Big Ray by Michael Kimball

A short potent novel revealing a son's complicated feelings in the aftermath of his obese father's death.
Big Ray's temper and obesity define him. When Big Ray dies, his son feels mostly relief, dismissing his other emotions. Yet years later, the adult son must reckon with the outsized presence of his father's memory. This stunning novel, narrated in more than five hundred brief entries, moves between past and present, between his father's death and his life, between an abusive childhood and an adult understanding. Shot through with humor and insight that will resonate with anyone who has experienced a complicated parental relationship, Big Ray is a staggering family story-at once brutal and tender, sickening and beautiful.


Michael Kimball is the author of The Way the Family Got Away, Dear Everybody, and, most recently, Us, and his novels have been translated into a dozen languages. His work has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered, Guardian, Vice, Bomb, and New York Tyrant. He is also responsible for the project Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard) and a couple of documentary films. He lives in Baltimore.

San Miguel by T.C. Boyle

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Women, a historical novel about three women's lives on a California island.


On a tiny, desolate, windswept island off the coast of Southern California, two families, one in the 1880s and one in the 1930s, come to start new lives and pursue dreams of self-reliance and freedom. Their extraordinary stories, full of struggle and hope, are the subject of T.C. Boyle's haunting new novel.


Rendered in Boyle's accomplished, assured voice, with great period detail and utterly memorable characters, this is a moving and dramatic work from one of America's most talented and inventive storytellers.

Relentless by Simon Kernick

From #1 internationally bestselling author Simon Kernick, RELENTLESS is a race-against-time thriller about a man on the run with his two children from the police - who think he has murdered his missing wife - and the far more dangerous organization that actually probably did.