Fiction

Greg Howard’s Social Intercourse is a raucously unvarnished tale of teen lust, family values, and social mores. Howard will appear on June 5 at Parnassus Books in Nashville.

It’s an old tale—boy meets girl; boy trades girl for a shot at fame; boy comes to regret that last part. Gabriel’s Songbook by Michael Amos Cody is a love song to music—but not to the music business.

Matthew Baker’s new story collection, Hybrid Creatures, tracks the quests of four brilliant, lonely misfits. Together they add up to something like a collage of one anguished archetype.

David Arnold’s depiction of teen life is heavily seasoned with dialogue in which teens have their say—in authentic, funny voices—about the absurdities of the now. Arnold will discuss The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 22 at 6:30 p.m. He will appear in conversation with novelists Courtney J. Stevens and Jeff Zentner.

“In 1945 our parents went away and left us in the care of two men who may have been criminals.” Thus begins Michael Ondaatje’s newest novel, an engrossing literary mystery with echoes that hearken back to The English Patient. Ondaatje will discuss Warlight at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 19.

Charles Frazier’s Varina returns to the era of Cold Mountain but focuses on the Southern elite who bear the historical burden of instigating the Civil War. Frazier will discuss Varina, in conversation with novelists Paula McLain and Ann Patchett, at the Nashville Public Library on May 14.