Fiction

September 13, 2011 Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber is structured like literary Chinese handcuffs: no character in this book can be free without first moving closer to the others, and no reader can finish it without looping backwards, too, through her own history. Abu-Jaber will discuss and sign copies of Birds of Paradise at the Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on September 21 at 6 p.m.

September 1, 2011 In his funny, whimsical debut novel, The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson creates a familiar family drama with an outrageous twist. Kevin Wilson will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.

August 26, 2011 Already pushing forty, Georgia Bottoms somehow remains the legendary bombshell of Six Points, Alabama, without missing a single Sunday service at the First Baptist Church, and despite a revolving-door cast of gentleman—including the pastor, the sheriff, a prominent judge, and a bank president—all of whom are devoted to her charms and completely unaware that they are not the only “caller” entertained by Miss Georgia in her garage-apartment boudoir. Mark Childress will read from his hilarious new novel, Georgia Bottoms, at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.

August 25, 2011 In Barry Kitterman’s new story collection, From the San Joaquin, ordinary men and women seeking a brighter future—a home, a job, a love affair, a wedding, a child—face defeat as a result of difficult circumstances and their own inadequacies. Often the painful events of the past intrude upon the characters’ lives to change the course of their future, and rarely for the better. Ultimately, though, the author suggests that a meaningful life lies less in the accomplishments of years and more in the significance of each small moment truly lived. Kitterman will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.

August 24, 2011 With a derelict, fourteen-year-old narrator whose voice is a cross between Holden Caulfield and Ramona Quimby, James Whorton Jr.’s Angela Sloan is structured like an essay on how the eponymous protagonist spent her summer vacation. But instead of a school report, it’s a 200-page letter addressed to the CIA. And instead of recounting Angela’s adventures at sleep-away camp or pedaling a Schwinn ten-speed around the block, it tracks her father’s recent ensnarement in the Watergate burglaries and their decision to hit the road with fake IDs. In fact, it’s more or less the furious story of one crazy-making event after another.