> Zed Book Club / May Days: 12 Noteworthy Novels
Photo: Alberto Gagliardi/Getty Images
> Bookshelf
May Days: 12 Noteworthy Novels
A real housewife of Toronto, a former fashion editor and Tom Hanks drop readers into complicated female friendships, class conflict and Hollywood moviemaking / BY Nathalie Atkinson / April 27th, 2023
In our pick of the best May fiction, acclaimed novelists pen scathing satires of privilege and fascinating explorations of family history, generational trauma and legacy, and subversive thrillers examine society’s ideas around diet culture and what constitutes entertainment. There is a slew of impressive debut novels, including one from Tom Hanks that takes readers behind the scenes of a Hollywood movie, while former Real Housewives of Toronto cast member Kara Alloway leans on her experience to provide an insider’s POV on the reality-TV genre.
Obsessive Book Buyers: Zoomer editors have carefully curated our book coverage to ensure you find the perfect read. We may earn a commission on books you buy by clicking on the cover image.
1Chain-Gang All-StarsThe Bronx-based writer follows up his acclaimed short story debut with a novel about the riveting dystopian terrain of BattleGround, a wildly popular gladiator circuit on reality TV that pits convicted murderers (most of whom are African American) against one another for a chance at freedom – think Squid Game meets Get Out, then up the ante. The book, which follows Loretta, a Black woman who is the reigning contestant, and her partner, is a sobering and furious satire, an indictment of violence as entertainment and the American penal system’s systemic racism. (May 2)
The Bronx-based writer follows up his acclaimed short story debut with a novel about the riveting dystopian terrain of BattleGround, a wildly popular gladiator circuit on reality TV that pits convicted murderers (most of whom are African American) against one another for a chance at freedom – think Squid Game meets Get Out, then up the ante. The book, which follows Loretta, a Black woman who is the reigning contestant, and her partner, is a sobering and furious satire, an indictment of violence as entertainment and the American penal system’s systemic racism. (May 2)
2A History of BurningWhen 13-year-old Pirbhai inadvertently migrates to England for a job to help support his family and escape poverty, his act of a survival has a profound impact on subsequent generations. Beginning in 1898 Gujarat, India, the Toronto-based writer’s multi-generational epic spans England, Uganda (through the regime of Idi Amin) and Canada to weave a story of colonialism, family and inheritance. (May 2)
When 13-year-old Pirbhai inadvertently migrates to England for a job to help support his family and escape poverty, his act of a survival has a profound impact on subsequent generations. Beginning in 1898 Gujarat, India, the Toronto-based writer’s multi-generational epic spans England, Uganda (through the regime of Idi Amin) and Canada to weave a story of colonialism, family and inheritance. (May 2)
3Blood of the VirginThis expressive graphic novel by the acclaimed Los Angeles-based cartoonist – originally serialized over 14 years in Crickets – is the tragicomic story of Seymour, a frustrated young film editor in 1971 Los Angeles who has loftier artistic ambitions than working on grindhouse B movies. There are alternating black-and-white and full-colour sections and art styles for each timeline, as Harkham recently explained to the New Yorker, and flashbacks to the rise of an innocent stagehand in early and classic Hollywood put the epic (and its insights) at the intersection of the American immigrant experience and Seymour’s Hungarian-Jewish in-laws’ experiences during the Holocaust. (May 2)
This expressive graphic novel by the acclaimed Los Angeles-based cartoonist – originally serialized over 14 years in Crickets – is the tragicomic story of Seymour, a frustrated young film editor in 1971 Los Angeles who has loftier artistic ambitions than working on grindhouse B movies. There are alternating black-and-white and full-colour sections and art styles for each timeline, as Harkham recently explained to the New Yorker, and flashbacks to the rise of an innocent stagehand in early and classic Hollywood put the epic (and its insights) at the intersection of the American immigrant experience and Seymour’s Hungarian-Jewish in-laws’ experiences during the Holocaust. (May 2)
4The PostcardA mysterious postcard addressed to an ancestor who perished at Auschwitz – featuring a picture of Opéra Garnier, the Nazi headquarters during the occupation of Paris –spurred the French writer to investigate and confront her family’s Holocaust story. The true story and research uncovered by Bérest (author of How to be Parisian Wherever You Are and a seasoned television writer) and her mother was turned into this novel, where historical fiction meets memoir. It was a massive bestseller in France (and winner of the American Prix Goncourt), and is now translated into English. (May 9). Bonus: Bérest will be in conversation with Zoomer contributor Elizabeth Renzetti on May 15 at Toronto Public Library.
A mysterious postcard addressed to an ancestor who perished at Auschwitz – featuring a picture of Opéra Garnier, the Nazi headquarters during the occupation of Paris –spurred the French writer to investigate and confront her family’s Holocaust story. The true story and research uncovered by Bérest (author of How to be Parisian Wherever You Are and a seasoned television writer) and her mother was turned into this novel, where historical fiction meets memoir. It was a massive bestseller in France (and winner of the American Prix Goncourt), and is now translated into English. (May 9). Bonus: Bérest will be in conversation with Zoomer contributor Elizabeth Renzetti on May 15 at Toronto Public Library.
5Fit to DieThis timely thriller about a pop star who overdoses takes on weighty issues like the normalization of diet culture, body shaming and the dangers of off-label weight-loss medication. The fact that this story comes on the heels of recent headline news about the widespread use of diabetes medications like Ozempic for weight loss is almost eerie, making some of the set-up it explores — like influencer culture and social media — seem like almost too-easy targets. But Kalla, a Vancouver ER physician and toxicologist, has an insider’s knowledge of the milieu and the crisis, so he balances interesting medical details with empathy and a pacey plot, without getting preachy. (May 9)
This timely thriller about a pop star who overdoses takes on weighty issues like the normalization of diet culture, body shaming and the dangers of off-label weight-loss medication. The fact that this story comes on the heels of recent headline news about the widespread use of diabetes medications like Ozempic for weight loss is almost eerie, making some of the set-up it explores — like influencer culture and social media — seem like almost too-easy targets. But Kalla, a Vancouver ER physician and toxicologist, has an insider’s knowledge of the milieu and the crisis, so he balances interesting medical details with empathy and a pacey plot, without getting preachy. (May 9)
6The Almost WidowThe Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist (for The Cure for Death by Lightning) lives in the Shuswap region of B.C. and sets her new literary suspense novel in a community at the edge of a temperate rainforest. Residents of a former mill town are clashing over a park proposal and poachers are removing old-growth trees, so when Piper’s husband Ben goes missing while trying to catch a poacher in the act, she suspects the worst. But it could also be the mysterious bushman they’ve noticed lurking around and watching them. The simultaneous foreboding and solace that looms in nature comes alive in her prose. (May 9)
The Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist (for The Cure for Death by Lightning) lives in the Shuswap region of B.C. and sets her new literary suspense novel in a community at the edge of a temperate rainforest. Residents of a former mill town are clashing over a park proposal and poachers are removing old-growth trees, so when Piper’s husband Ben goes missing while trying to catch a poacher in the act, she suspects the worst. But it could also be the mysterious bushman they’ve noticed lurking around and watching them. The simultaneous foreboding and solace that looms in nature comes alive in her prose. (May 9)
7Wait Softly BrotherFinally, autofiction that isn’t about the romantic lives of 20-somethings! Celebrated Ottawa-born writer Kuitenbrouwer (All the Broken Things), who also teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto, blurs the line between fiction and autobiography in her new novel about Kathryn, a middle-aged woman who makes the devastating but necessary decision to leave her marriage and family. She escapes to her childhood home in Southern Ontario to learn more about the story of her stillborn brother, but her aging parents instead put her to work sifting through their “archive” – endless boxes with generations worth of keepsakes and photographs – in the pig shed. Family lore about an 18th-century ancestor hired for the American Civil War as a substitute soldier commingles with observations about truth, memory and reality. (May 9)
Finally, autofiction that isn’t about the romantic lives of 20-somethings! Celebrated Ottawa-born writer Kuitenbrouwer (All the Broken Things), who also teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto, blurs the line between fiction and autobiography in her new novel about Kathryn, a middle-aged woman who makes the devastating but necessary decision to leave her marriage and family. She escapes to her childhood home in Southern Ontario to learn more about the story of her stillborn brother, but her aging parents instead put her to work sifting through their “archive” – endless boxes with generations worth of keepsakes and photographs – in the pig shed. Family lore about an 18th-century ancestor hired for the American Civil War as a substitute soldier commingles with observations about truth, memory and reality. (May 9)
8Most HatedAlloway, a former fashion editor, was among the cast of Bravo’s short-lived 2017 Real Housewives of Toronto franchise, where she was painted as the villain. Write what you know: her debut novel is about the relationships between six women involved in a Real Housewives-type show called Talk of the Town. Rife with drama and petty squabbles, it’s billed as an inside glimpse into the genre and an examination of female friendship and rivalry. It’s been blurbed by a slew of RH cast and alumni, including longtime friend and RHOBH Kathy Hilton: “It had me declining calls and ignoring texts.” (May 9)
Alloway, a former fashion editor, was among the cast of Bravo’s short-lived 2017 Real Housewives of Toronto franchise, where she was painted as the villain. Write what you know: her debut novel is about the relationships between six women involved in a Real Housewives-type show called Talk of the Town. Rife with drama and petty squabbles, it’s billed as an inside glimpse into the genre and an examination of female friendship and rivalry. It’s been blurbed by a slew of RH cast and alumni, including longtime friend and RHOBH Kathy Hilton: “It had me declining calls and ignoring texts.” (May 9)
9YellowfaceKuang’s ingenious fantasy novel Babel was a towering achievement that debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list last year when she was just 25. The follow-up is as provocative as it is entertaining: When celebrated author Athena Liu dies, a white woman steals her manuscript and publishes it under an Asian-sounding pseudonym. The premise allows the Chinese-American writer (currently doing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale) to probe ideas around envy, privilege, cultural appropriation and cancel culture in a vicious and ambitious takedown of the white gaze. (May 16)
Kuang’s ingenious fantasy novel Babel was a towering achievement that debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list last year when she was just 25. The follow-up is as provocative as it is entertaining: When celebrated author Athena Liu dies, a white woman steals her manuscript and publishes it under an Asian-sounding pseudonym. The premise allows the Chinese-American writer (currently doing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale) to probe ideas around envy, privilege, cultural appropriation and cancel culture in a vicious and ambitious takedown of the white gaze. (May 16)
10The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece“Every character in the book does something I’ve experienced while making a movie, as well as discovered a philosophy or learnt an important lesson,” the Academy Award-winning actor, 66, told People last fall when he announced his debut novel. Naturally, it’s set primarily in Hollywood, and spans about 75 years, beginning in 1947 up to the making (during COVID-19) of a superhero movie by an acclaimed Spielberg/Zemeckis-type filmmaker. The long title gives you some idea of his meandering but good-natured yarn: there’s extensive backstory on all the production’s key players (from the director and his personal assistant to the cartoonist’s own childhood inspiration—his Second World War-veteran uncle). It’s all interspersed with pages of the fictional war comics that inspire the movie, illustrated in pitch-perfect period style by R. Sikoryak. It’ll be a crowd-pleaser. (May 9)
“Every character in the book does something I’ve experienced while making a movie, as well as discovered a philosophy or learnt an important lesson,” the Academy Award-winning actor, 66, told People last fall when he announced his debut novel. Naturally, it’s set primarily in Hollywood, and spans about 75 years, beginning in 1947 up to the making (during COVID-19) of a superhero movie by an acclaimed Spielberg/Zemeckis-type filmmaker. The long title gives you some idea of his meandering but good-natured yarn: there’s extensive backstory on all the production’s key players (from the director and his personal assistant to the cartoonist’s own childhood inspiration—his Second World War-veteran uncle). It’s all interspersed with pages of the fictional war comics that inspire the movie, illustrated in pitch-perfect period style by R. Sikoryak. It’ll be a crowd-pleaser. (May 9)
11The GuestWith her 2016 breakout The Girls, the Los Angeles writer became a literary darling for delving inside the psyche of teenage girls who fall under the spell of a Charles Manson-like cult leader. Her new novel examines class conflict through Alex, a young woman who finds herself adrift in another sort of oppressive cult: the wealthy denizens of a posh seasonal Long Island community. Over the course of a week at the end of the summer, after Alex is evicted from her apartment, she navigates the strict social hierarchies and concocts various grifts to secure food and shelter. Frankly, it’s as chilling as her debut. (May 17)
With her 2016 breakout The Girls, the Los Angeles writer became a literary darling for delving inside the psyche of teenage girls who fall under the spell of a Charles Manson-like cult leader. Her new novel examines class conflict through Alex, a young woman who finds herself adrift in another sort of oppressive cult: the wealthy denizens of a posh seasonal Long Island community. Over the course of a week at the end of the summer, after Alex is evicted from her apartment, she navigates the strict social hierarchies and concocts various grifts to secure food and shelter. Frankly, it’s as chilling as her debut. (May 17)
12Bad Summer PeopleImagine any of Elin Hilderbrand’s Nantucket novels, populated by hateful people and told from different gossipy points of view, and you have this whodunit set among the rich manipulative couples who dominate an exclusive Fire Island enclave. The New York writer, a former editor of ELLE, Glamour and at Bloomberg Businessweek, combines the best and worst of those worlds in her debut about a backstabbing (perhaps literally: a body is discovered on the boardwalk at the start of the book) beach community that Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan likens to The White Lotus. Make this your long-weekend read and ease into the beach-book season that lies ahead. (May 23)
Imagine any of Elin Hilderbrand’s Nantucket novels, populated by hateful people and told from different gossipy points of view, and you have this whodunit set among the rich manipulative couples who dominate an exclusive Fire Island enclave. The New York writer, a former editor of ELLE, Glamour and at Bloomberg Businessweek, combines the best and worst of those worlds in her debut about a backstabbing (perhaps literally: a body is discovered on the boardwalk at the start of the book) beach community that Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan likens to The White Lotus. Make this your long-weekend read and ease into the beach-book season that lies ahead. (May 23)