Fiction

Ostensibly the story of a kidnapping, Leah Stewart’s clever new novel, What You Don’t Know About Charlie Outlaw, is also an examination of the cult of celebrity. Stewart, a Vanderbilt graduate, will appear at Novel in Memphis on April 11 and at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 13.

In Alternate Side, bestselling novelist Anna Quindlen writes a bittersweet love letter to Manhattan, as well as a meditation on the passage of time. Quindlen will appear at the Nashville Public Library on March 28.

Adding tension to the well-known story of the Romanovs, Ariel Lawhon constructs her new historical novel of two intertwining tales: one featuring Anastasia, and one featuring Anna Anderson. Lawhon will discuss I Was Anastasia at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 27 and at Novel in Memphis on March 29.

Author-illustrator Peter Brown returns to Parnassus Books on March 22 to discuss his new middle-grade novel, The Wild Robot Escapes, the much-anticipated sequel to 2016’s The Wild Robot.

Robert Gipe’s new illustrated novel, Weedeater, brings back Dawn Jewell, the unforgettable protagonist of Trampoline, and adds a second narrator: the laconic title character, a lawn worker who watches the opioid crisis roll through coal country.

In his debut story collection, A Thousand Distant Radios, Woody Skinner captures the absurdity of contemporary life with spare language and offbeat humor. Skinner will appear at Novel in Memphis on March 18.