I second the nod toward L. R. Dorn’s The Anatomy of Desire (Morrow, May) because I love books that are modern retellings of American classics. This one is a retelling of Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, which he famously based on a real-life murder. Dorn (pseudonym of Suzanne Dunn and her husband, Matt Dorff) re-creates the true crime element by revealing the story through transcripts (think Serial). Socially ambitious Claire Griffith repackages herself as lifestyle and fitness guru, Cleo Ray. A young woman ends up dead after a canoe ride with Cleo, and both are missing. As intriguing here as the mystery itself will be the way the authors pace and deliver it.

 

Jhumpa Lahiri wrote Whereabouts (Knopf, Apr.; see starred review, LJ 2/21) in Italian first and then translated it, so I am looking forward to experiencing her writing as it emerges from that process. A young woman spends a year wandering a lonely Italian city, both moving toward and pulling away from human contact. The themes of loneliness and tentative connection seem so apt for a time when we will be emerging from our collective forced isolation. Will we want to reconnect? I am looking to Lahiri for guidance on this one.