Welcome to the ABC Arts wrap of the best new books out in April. Our critics’ picks this month have something for every type of reader. In “Yesteryear,” Caro Claire Burke imagines what would happen if a tradwife influencer woke up one day to find herself living in the 19th century, with hilarious results. In “London Falling,” Patrick Radden Keefe’s investigation of the mysterious death of a teenager who fell from a luxury apartment building takes him into the city’s underworld. And a prison inmate goes on the run with his canine companion in “Good Boy,” a moving novel by Australian author Michelle Wright exposing the failings of the criminal justice system. Happy reading!
“Yesteryear” by Caro Claire Burke – “Fourth Estate” – Anne Hathaway is slated to co-produce and star in the film adaptation of Yesteryear.
Sometimes a book captures the Zeitgeist, popping up in every literary conversation until you just have to dive in. Right now, that book is “Yesteryear,” a buzzy debut that has captured readers in a saturated attention economy with a simple hook: what if a tradwife influencer was forced to live in ‘yesteryear’? Natalie Heller Mills is our unlikeable and unreliable anti-heroine who spends her days showing the world her faultless life. She has created an online version of herself where she is a perfect mother, wife, and woman. Natalie is, of course, living a lie. She is determined for her millions of viewers not to see the truth. To achieve this, she hides the insecticides on her organic farm, the fortune she married into that she uses to pave over mistakes, the nannies who care for her children, and her disdain for her husband, who is more interested in spending his days on manosphere forums than with her.
Then, one day, she wakes up in 1855 and is forced to put her tradwife skills to the test in a world without electricity and running water – or Instagram. What follows is a dark and twisting yet hilarious narrative exposing the truth behind the carefully curated facade. “Yesteryear” interrogates our fascination with the tradwife movement and its signature blend of traditional values, regressive politics, and glitzy capitalism. Caro Claire Burke – who co-hosts the pop culture podcast Diabolical Lies – asks big questions about religion, politics, feminism, and the fabled American Dream. And while “Yesteryear” may not answer all the questions it poses, this is a fun, biting, and fast-paced read that is perfect fodder for debate. – Rosie Ofori Ward
“A Rising of the Lights” by Steve Toltz – “Penguin”
Poor old Rusty Wilson. As a kid, his divorcing parents decided his fate with a roll of the dice: below six, he’d live with his mum; above seven, he’d live with his dad. Now, as an adult, those same parents don’t want to see him, he’s lost his job, and his wife’s having an affair with an Uber driver. Rusty’s hit rock bottom. But that’s where Australian author Steve Toltz (Booker-shortlisted for his 2008 debut “A Fraction of the Whole”) likes his characters to be.
Plot lovers, rejoice: this is a book where lots of stuff happens. And it’s wild. Rusty’s warring parents are unexpectedly reunited when they’re kicked out of their respective nursing homes to live in Rusty’s apartment; Rusty gets an ill-advised job as a school guidance counsellor; and he’s reunited with a friend who is haunted by PTSD from her traumatic nightmares. It’s weird and funny and deep – in other words, trademark Toltz.
“A Rising of the Lights” is set in a near-future Australia where robot nurses care for the elderly and a dour chatbot doles out relationship counselling. This has great comic potential, but Toltz also has some serious ideas to explore here: what will our purpose be as technological advances make us wilfully redundant? And, in a world where an algorithm can tend to our broken hearts, is human connection more important than ever? Our narrator needs to confront his vulnerability and loneliness and build relationships – even if it’s with those rotten parents of his. – Claire Nichols
“Good Boy” by Michelle Wright – “Allen & Unwin”
It’s 1997, and with just a couple of months left on his sentence, Cookie is apprehensive about his looming freedom. At a warden’s suggestion, Cookie joins a program where inmates train abandoned dogs. The dogs that pass a behavioural test have the chance to be adopted, while those that fail are put down.
In quietly moving scenes, Cookie starts to warm to his allocated animal, Nigel, whom he soon renames Good Boy, partly to circumvent a rule that trainers can only praise their dogs once they complete a task. Unwilling to give up on Good Boy, Cookie makes a run from the low-security facility as the other prisoners watch Princess Diana’s funeral, vowing to turn himself in as soon as he finds a safe home for the dog.
As the unlikely pair survive on their wits, the narrative stretches back to Cookie’s bleak childhood. His mother left when he was an infant, leaving him to be raised by his father, a callous conman. Bullied at school, he gravitated towards Mrs Mitten, an empathetic school nurse and remedial class teacher who saw sensitivity and potential in Cookie where others saw unruliness. Rendered in plainspoken prose that only heightens its heartbreaking power, “Good Boy” is a deeply moving work. Simultaneously a gripping tale of two world-weary outsiders learning to trust each other and a searing critique of how institutions fail those on the margins of society, it will stay with you long after its final page. – Daniel Herborn
“Transcription” by Ben Lerner – “Granta”
First, props to Granta for a frankly fabulous cover. Look at that glossy black surface! Reflecting the face of you, the reader, back to yourself. Swipe left on this particular touchscreen, though, and what greets you is not a dull parade of online advertising posing as information or entertainment, but a sly, funny, enigmatically provocative novel.
Ben Lerner’s fourth, “Transcription,” begins with an unnamed narrator, a writer, travelling to meet his intellectual mentor, Thomas, on the occasion of Thomas’s 90th birthday. Hoping to record the famous academic on his phone and then transcribe the results for the magazine interview he’s been commissioned to carry out, he promptly drops his phone into the sink soon after checking in at his hotel.
Resolving to proceed with the interview anyway, he tells Thomas theirs will be a preliminary conversation before the recording proper. Freed from habitual recourse to his phone, he discovers himself experiencing a heightened sense of time and place, one that allows him to vividly recall his earlier life as an undergrad, the twist of fate that led to him meeting his wife – and her romantic predecessor – and to connect more deeply to his present, where he has a 10-year-old daughter, a girl who is refusing school – and who longs, like many of her classmates, for a smartphone of her own.
Like being added to a long-standing group chat, Lerner introduces many of the novel’s narrative and thematic forces in the opening pages, albeit in ways that allow them to blossom more fully later on. An author known as much for his verse as his prose, it’s an impressively compact novel that displays Lerner’s poetic sensibilities.
Throughout “Transcription,” the question of what lasts – and what parts of our lives we might wish to make last – are juxtaposed with the risk of outsourcing our emotions, habits, attitudes, our entire lives and memories, to technology. Densely packed, “Transcription” rewards re-reading. Lerner suggests art is one of the purest forms of time travel because it encourages the capacity to dream, an engine of creation no device can replace. – Declan Fry
“London Falling” by Patrick Radden Keefe – “Picador”
In the early hours of November 29, 2019, 19-year-old Zac Brettler fell to his death from the balcony of a luxury apartment overlooking the Thames in London. Four years later, Patrick Radden Keefe – a staff writer at The New Yorker and author of several non-fiction titles, including “Empire of Pain” – learned about the teenager’s mysterious death while in London on the set of the television adaptation of his 2018 bestseller, “Say Nothing.”
A friend of the Brettler family explained to Keefe how, unbeknownst to his middle-class Jewish parents, Zac had been living a double life, masquerading as the son of a Russian oligarch. Zac’s concocted fortune earned him entrée into a dubious world of money and ostentation with links to the London underworld.
Zac’s parents made the canny decision early on to make voice notes of their thoughts and recordings of any discussions relating to their son’s death, including police interviews. Keefe draws from this huge and comprehensive archive, presenting much of the narrative in a close third-person point-of-view that gives the reader the sense of being in the room. The result is immersive and novelistic as we follow the same path of discovery as the grief-stricken Brettlers.
Keefe first wrote about Zac’s death in a feature article published in The New Yorker in 2024. The author makes use of the book’s expanded narrative to delve into London’s recent history: the waves of immigration that have shaped the city and its transformation from a busy 19th-century trading port at the heart of a colonial empire to a global finance hub awash with dirty money. – Nicola Heath
“Verbatim” by Ben Lerner – “Granta”
“First off, good on Granta for that cover that wouldn’t be out of place in a bold art gallery. The slick black surface gently captures your gaze and projects it back. Now, swipe left, and you’re not met with the usual boring online nonsense disguised as entertainment or information. Instead, Ben Lerner’s latest novel, “Verbatim,” greets you with its clever, enigmatic, and amusing plot.
The story begins with an unnamed author who embarks on a journey to meet his intellectual mentor, Thomas, celebrating his 90th birthday. Eager to record an interview for a magazine, the author encounters a mishap by dropping his phone into the sink. Despite this, the interview moves forward, leading to a unique exploration of time and place as the narrator delves into his past and present experiences.
Lerner’s ability to blend narrative and thematic elements early on sets the stage for a compact yet profound novel. He seamlessly integrates poetic elements with prose to create an engaging narrative that unfolds layers of meaning with each read. “Verbatim” tackles themes of memory, technology, and the power of art in shaping our perceptions of reality.
Ultimately, “Verbatim” invites readers to ponder the lasting impact of our experiences and the intricate connection between memory and storytelling. Lerner’s innovative storytelling approach challenges readers to reevaluate the role of art in preserving our most poignant moments. – Declan Fry
Acclaimed poet and author Kae Tempest’s latest novel, “Having Spent Life Seeking,” introduces us to Rothko – a non-binary character who returns to their hometown after 15 years in prison. As Rothko navigates the challenges of freedom and adulthood, they reconnect with past relationships and confronts personal demons. Tempest’s powerful storytelling and emotional depth shine through in this poignant exploration of identity, trauma, and human connection. Kleenex recommended! – Claire Nichols
Note: Fruit Fly by Josh Silver and Sororicidal by Edwina Preston have been mistakenly identified as new books in the collection. These are not actual books listed in the original text provided.
