New on the Shelf

Here's a quick round-up of some recent additions to my TBR table.

I was thrilled to hear that Vintage was re-issuing one of my favorite books as a teen, Davis Grubb's The Night of the Hunter. A bizarre, creepy noir (is there any other kind?) about a preacher-turned-murderer after the buried treasure of a former cellmate, it was made into an equally creepy 1955 movie starring Robert Mitchum. The movie is now considered a classic even though it bombed at the time. The book is amazing and I can't wait to re-read it.

Farewell, Shanghai, by Angel Wagenstein, is translated from the Bulgarian and tells the story of World War 2 Jewish refugees seeking safe harbor in China. Wagenstein is the author of the wonderful Isaac's Torah and I'm looking forward to reading another book of his. Other Press.

Song for an Approaching Storm, by Peter Froeberg Idling, is a love triangle set in Cambodia and set during and after the 1955 election. I picked it up at Idlewild Books, a small travel-and-foreign-language bookstore in midtown Manhattan and it just looked intriguing. Pushkin Press.

And the ever-adorable and wonderful-to-read Simon Van Booy has a new collection, out in November, and I managed to snag a galley. Everyone loves Simon Van Booy. You just can't help it. Harper Perennial.

What's new on your shelf these days? Any big releases you're excited about?