What's new in the world of books? A lot, actually. Curtis Sittenfeld has dropped her anticipated novel, Romantic Comedy. Omar Sakr's latest collection of poetry has landed on shelves across the country. And later in the month, British journalist Kieran Yates will deliver All the Houses I've Ever Lived In, a non-fiction work that takes aim at the housing crisis in Britain. Something we imagine will resonate with an Australian audience. For all the best new book releases to arrive in April 2023, keep scrolling.
1. Romantic Comedy, Curtis Sittenfeld
Release date: April 4
A tale of the heart written through the eyes of Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Help Yourself and Rodham. Here, her protagonist is a successful TV script writer who observes all the average but interesting men around her coupling up with accomplished, beautiful women. Built off the premise that this would never happen in reverse to women, this is tested when Sally crosses paths with pop idol Noah, who has a reputation for dating models. Would he ever date her? That remains to be seen.
2. Non-Essential Work, Omar Sakr
Release date: April 4
Moving away from the novel, the latest release from Omar Sakr is a collection of poetry, serving as his third since The Lost Arabs which won the 2020 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry. In Non-Essential Work, Sakr winds his way through themes like self-doubt, queerness, culture and identity with the energy of a boy scout and the wisdom of a wizened man seasoned enough to hold answers.
3. On Nobody Famous, Kaitlyn Tiffany and Lizzie Plaugic
Release date: April 4
At the start of April, The Atlantic announced a handful of new titles to arrive from its Atlantic Editions imprint for the month. One of those is On Nobody Famous, which binds together essays from Kaitlyn Tiffany and Lizzie Plaugic's joint newsletter for the publication that covers aimless nights, small dinner parties and other random evenings in New York City.
4. Natural Beauty, Ling Ling Huang
Release date: April 4
Huang examines the extremes of the beauty industry in her debut, though an unnamed protagonist who picks up a job at high-end beauty and wellness store in New York City after an accident leaves her parents debilitated meaning she is no longer able to continue studying music at the Conservatory. The new job is the woman's ticket to a world of privilege previously unreachable, and as she falls in love with the store owner's niece, testing new products and creams on herself, Huang reveals a sinister underbelly.
5. The Return of Faraz Ali, Aamina Ahmad
Release date: April 4
Aamina Ahmad pulls off one of those rare and remarkable debuts that has The New York Times and NPR in awe. Her novel, The Return of Faraz Ali, follows the titular character as he returns to Lahore's red light district where he grew up with his mother and sister before he was stolen away by his powerful father, Wajid, with the intention of giving him a better life. Years later, it's on Wajid's orders that he returns to head up the Mohalla police station in order to cover up the violent death of a young girl. But Faraz Ali's homecoming dredges up old memories, and he finds himself disobeying orders to uncover old secrets about his family that could tear down his fragile existence.
6. Girl in a Pink Dress, Kylie Needham
Release date: April 12
A novel that holds court in the Sydney art scene. Girl in a Pink Dress explores the damaging relationship between artists and muse through two timelines – in the present day, with Frances as she quietly makes art in the mountains and in the past, where she is forced to dredge up old memories when a former lover invites her to his exhibition opening.
7. Monsters, Claire Dederer
Release date: April 25
After Me Too, the question of what to do with the art of monstrous men remains frustratingly unanswered, despite all the discourse. Here, Dederer expands on her viral essay for The Paris Review which begins with the line of questioning, asking: "How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work?" I look forward to reading what she's come up with.
8. The Albatross, Nina Wan
Release date: April 26
Primrose Li is stuck between a rock and a hard place. There's the competing forces of her marriage and first love, desire and duty, fear and freedom, and one day when it all becomes too much, she crashes her car into the bushes of a long forgotten golf course. Unexpectedly, the golf course and the sport becomes a lifeline. It's here where the novel takes off.
9. Greek Lessons, Han Kang
Release date: April 27
A compelling dynamic unfolds in Han Kang's Greek Lessons, where a South Korean student has lost her voice and her Greek teacher is gradually losing his sight. But it's not just these losses that bind them closer, rather it's the death of her mother and the ongoing custody battle for her son. For the teacher, it's the threat of losing his independence and grieving being torn between cultures. A participant of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Kang also won the Man Booker International Prize for her novel The Vegetarian.
10. All the Houses I've Ever Lived In, Kieran Yates
Release date: April 27
A book that takes aim at Britain's housing crisis, but will resonate wholeheartedly with an Australian audience. By the time she turned 25, journalist Kieran Yates had lived in more than 20 homes, and it was her own experience of unstable housing that forced her to confront the all too common reality. Through interviews with tenants across the country, stories from behind closed doors and her own personal experience, Yates pieces together the issues plaguing housing in Britain – be it the rental rat race or neglected public housing – building a case for the way we can fight back.
11. SEMI PERMANENT: 20 YEARS FORWARD & BACK
Designed in-house to platform the last two decades of creativity and artistry seeded by Semi Permanent, this new book is impeccably put together, spanning previous projects and with contributions from filmmaker Roman Coppola, industrial designer Sabine Marcelis, architect Bjarke Ingels, and artist CJ Hendry.
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