Last of the December Fiction: Dec. 2022, Pt. 3 | Prepub Alert

Historical and contemporary, fantasy and horror. 

Click here for additional new Prepub Alert columns  

Cornwell, Bernard. Sharpe’s Command. Dec. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9780063219298. $28.99. lrg. prnt. CD. HISTORICAL

Gallen, Michelle. Factory Girls. Nov. 2022. 240p. ISBN 9781643752457. pap. $17.99. POLITICAL

Jemisin, N.K. The World We Make. Orbit: Hachette. Nov. 2022. 448p. ISBN 9780316509893. $30. Downloadable. FANTASY

Kapelke-Dale, Rachel. The Ingenue. St. Martin’s. Dec. 2022. 320p. ISBN 9781250834560. $27.99. CONTEMPORY

Malhotra, Aanchal. The Book of Everlasting Things. Flatiron: Macmillan. Dec. 2022. 480p. ISBN 9781250802026. $29.99. HISTORICAL

Quick, Matthew. We Are the Light. Avid Reader: S. & S. Nov. 2022. 256p. ISBN 9781668005422. $27.99. CONTEMPORARY

Roanhorse, Rebecca. Tread of Angels. Gallery/Saga. 208p. ISBN 9781982166182. $22.99. FANTASY

Ross, Rebecca. A Fire Endless. Harper Voyager. Dec. 2022. 368p. ISBN 9780063056039. $27.99. CD. FANTASY

Swanson, Tegan Nia. Things We Found When the Water Went Down. Catapult. Dec. 2022. 256p. ISBN 9781646221691. pap. $22.95. CONTEMPORARY/SMALL TOWN

Wurth, Erika T. White Horse. Flatiron: Macmillan. Dec. 2022. 320p. ISBN 9781250847652. $27.99. CD. HORROR

Zeldis, Kitty. The Dressmakers of Prospect Heights. Harper. Dec. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9780063026346. $27.99. CD. HISTORICAL

Richard Sharpe returns to the mayhem of the early 19th-century Peninsular War in Cornwell’s Sharpe’s Command (75,000-copy first printing). Following the LJ-starred Big Girl, Small Town, Gallen’s Factory Girls features a young woman in Northern Ireland working a grinding summer job made harder by a sleazy boss. In The World We Make, three-time Hugo Award–winning Jemisin returns to New York City, whose six protective avatars must work with the world’s other great cities to waylay a populist mayoral candidate threatening the city’s very soul (225,000-copy first printing). Following Kapelke-Dale’s well-received debut, The Ballerinas, The Ingenue features a former piano prodigy Saskia Kreis, shocked to learn that her recently deceased mother left the family estate to a man with whom Saskia shares a painful past (200,000-copy first printing). In The Book of Everlasting Things, a debut from Delhi-based oral historian Malhotra, two lovers—perfumer’s apprentice Samir, who is Hindu, and calligrapher’s apprentice Firdaus, who is Muslim—are violently torn apart during India’s Partition in 1947. FromSilver Linings Playbook author Quick, We Are the Light limns the relationship between a sorrowing widower and an ostracized teenager. The multi-award-winning Rebecca Roanhorse returns with Tread of Angels, set in a late 1800s Colorado mining town where card-sharp Celeste defends a sister accused of murdering a Virtue, one of the town’s ruling class. Having successfully entered the adult arena with A River Enchanted, YA author Ross wraps up her duology with A Fire Endless, set on a magical island whose uneasy balance of human and faerie is threatened by the power-hungry spirit of the North Wind (50,000-copy first printing). In debuter Swanson’s Things We Found When the Water Went Down, a 16-year-old struggles to find her mother, a crusading environmentalist who vanished in a blizzard after being blamed for a miner’s death. Of Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee heritage, Wurth debuts with White Horse, featuring young, Indigenous Kari James, who inadvertently summons both her mother’s ghost and a dangerous, blood-eyed creature when she discovers an old bracelet belonging to her mother (100,000-copy first printing). The pseudonymous Zeldis (Not Our Kind) brings together Beatrice, The Dressmaker of Prospect Heights, Brooklyn; her assistant, orphaned teenager Alice; and their newlywed neighbor Catherine, amid shifting relationships and secrets bubbling up from the past (50,000-copy first printing).

Click here for additional new Prepub Alert columns  

Author Image
Barbara Hoffert

Barbara Hoffert (bhoffert@mediasourceinc.com, @BarbaraHoffert on Twitter) is Editor, LJ Prepub Alert; winner of ALA's Louis Shores Award for reviewing; and past president, awards chair, and treasurer of the National Book Critics Circle, which awarded her its inaugural Service Award in 2023.

Comment Policy:
  • Be respectful, and do not attack the author, people mentioned in the article, or other commenters. Take on the idea, not the messenger.
  • Don't use obscene, profane, or vulgar language.
  • Stay on point. Comments that stray from the topic at hand may be deleted.
  • Comments may be republished in print, online, or other forms of media.
  • If you see something objectionable, please let us know. Once a comment has been flagged, a staff member will investigate.


RELATED 

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?