10 new books we can’t wait to read in March

Forget the old adage about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb — at least when it comes to new book releases. This month’s titles start out strong and wind up even stronger. In fiction that means a darkly comic novel about a gay married couple on the vacation from hell on to a debut portrait of first-gen Asian American angst. In nonfiction, a soulful look at how we interact with the natural world leads to an equally soulful look at why the American West’s human diversity enriches us all. Happy reading!

FICTION:

The Disappointment: A Novel
By Scott Broker
Catapult: 320 pp., $28
(March 3)

Renowned photographer Randy and his playwright husband Jack are vacationing on the Oregon coast, but their trip sours. Between Randy’s baggy of his late mother’s ashes and swinger neighbors into tantric massage, the weirdness sends Jack to a sexting app instead of his beloved’s embrace. Yet, as a new play begins to brew in his mind, Jack resolves to mend their relationship. Trouble follows, but ultimately, hope remains for the couple.

Repetition: A Novel
By Vigdis Hjorth
Verso Books: 144 pp., $20
(March 3)

This slim, powerful novel could be spoiled by too much information, but lingering too long on the 60-something narrator’s encounter with a teenager that makes her remember her own teenaged self — seems too simple. The title matters both as style and theme, as the unnamed woman recalls the past with uncanny accuracy. As she says, ”I repeat and recall and relive and retell and redress because. . . [the] future is an ongoing process.”

Whidbey: A Novel
By T. Kira Madden
Mariner Books: 384 pp., $30
(March 10)

Madden (“Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls”) makes her fiction debut with a propulsive and twisty story of how a ghostwritten celebrity memoir detailing childhood sexual abuse turns the lives of several women inside out. Protagonist Birdie Chang, now in her 20s, has gone to Whidbey Island to escape TV anchor Linzie King’s book about their abuser Calvin Boyer, but no one can get away from reckoning with the real truth of the past.

Sisters in Yellow: A Novel
By Mieko Kawakami
Knopf: 448 pp., $30
(March 17)

In Kawakami’s novels, such as “Breasts and Eggs” and “All the Lovers in the Night,” women confront different kinds of loneliness, all the more striking since, like Hana in this new book, they’re often surrounded by other women. When Hana reads a newspaper story about her mother Ai’s old friend Kimiko, she’s plunged back into a time when Kimiko functioned as her caregiver and Hana, as an adolescent, had almost no say over her own life.

American Han: A Novel
By Lisa Lee
Algonquin Books: 288 pp., $29
(March 31)

The Korean word “han” can be loosely translated as a mix of sorrow and anger. For the Kim family, whose parents are immigrants to the United States, han is exacerbated by the pressure to assimilate alongside the impossibility of ever doing so. Their daughter Jane wants to leave law school and pursue creative writing, but when their son Kevin, a policeman, commits a violent act and then disappears, everyone’s dreams threaten to turn into deep regrets.

NONFICTION:

The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary
By Terry Tempest Williams
Grove Press: 320 pp., $28
(March 3)

A Glorian, according to Williams — one of our finest writers on the natural world — is a “moment of grace” when we humans connect deeply with our environment. Her essays include an elegy to her great friend and fellow writer Barry Lopez, a tribute to a beloved lost red oak on the grounds of Harvard Divinity School (where she teaches), and a meditation on having badgers as cemetery caretakers. After reading this, you’ll look for more Glorians.

Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age
By Ibram X. Kendi
One World: 592 pp., $35
(March 17)

Consider that one early proponent of Great Replacement Theory, the American Madison Grant, was a eugenicist whose ideas Hitler called “my bible.” Grant and subsequent racist thinkers like 21st century Frenchman Renaud Camus believe that white people need authoritarian protection. Kendi (“Stamped from the Beginning”) argues brilliantly that we must work across race and class lines to eradicate social ills and eliminate fascism.

Western Star: The Life and Legends of Larry McMurtry
By David Streitfeld
Mariner Books: 464 pp., $35
(March 24)

What does a town without books look like? Acclaimed novelist Larry McMurtry knew, because he grew up in Archer City, Texas, which he immortalized in his 1966 novel “The Last Picture Show,” and where he established his “book town.” Journalist Streitfeld spends less time on creating a full biography of his subject than he does in showing how McMurtry reinvigorated his state’s literary status through works like “Lonesome Dove.”

When the Forest Breathes: Renewal and Resilience in the Natural World
By Suzanne Simard
Knopf: 336 pp., $31
(March 31)

Begun in 2015, Canadian forest ecologist Simard’s “Mother Tree Project” has studied the effects of logging on forests. Her findings demonstrate that commercial logging releases greenhouse gases and stops the natural cycle of regrowth, preventing the forest floor from sharing carbon resources. While Simard has copious data to show how damaging clearcutting can be, she’s often at her best when describing small creatures and quiet moments.

The Westerners: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier
By Megan Kate Nelson
Scribner: 464 pp., $31
(March 31)

Maria Gertrudis Barcelo earned a fortune in early 19th century Santa Fe. Jim Beckwourth, who was of mixed race, negotiated between white men and Indigenous tribes (and, sadly, caused the Sand Creek Massacre). Chinese immigrant Polly Bemis epitomized the pioneer-woman ideal. Historian Nelson considers what it means that characters like these and others were left out of earlier narratives, as well as what they add to the ones we write now.

Patrick is a freelance critic and author of the memoir “Life B.”

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