WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 41Review_FICTION
Virginia “Zinny” Beale’s friend group are
tested after the death of Zinny’s boyfriend
Gray’s father, a firefighter who died putting
out a fire. Soon after, Zinny overhears a
fight between her mother, Adela, and
Zinny’s beloved older brother, Trevor.
Trevor loathes Adela, a wealthy, steely
matron, and after his fights with Adela
persist, he leaves for college and never
returns. The tension at home causes Zinny
to withdraw from her friends, including
Gray. Twenty years later, Zinny is Ginny
Beale McCue, married to the bland,
dependable Harris. After Harris loses his
job due to a scandal resulting from affec-
tionate emails he sent to an 18-year-old
intern, Ginny turns her attention to their
precocious 15-year-old daughter, Avery. As
Avery investigates her father’s behaviors,
Ginny looks back on her regrets about
losing cherished teenaged friendships and
her decision to settle with Harris.
Thoughtful musings, engaging dialogue,
and ironic wit (“It has adult bone struc-
ture,” Harris says, defensively describing
his intern’s face) add to the drama. De
los Santos’s seemingly light tale is full of
surprises. (May)A Strange Country
Muriel Barbery trans. from the French by
Alison Anderson. Europa, $18 trade paper
(288p) ISBN 978-1-60945-585-9
In the convoluted follow-up to The Lives
of Elves, Barbery pits humans and elves
against a common enemy bent on
destruction. In an alternate history, it’s
1938, a world war rages, and Spain is mired
in civil war. Gen. Alejandro de Yepes and
his right-hand man, Maj. Jesús Rocamora,
are at de Yepes’s ancestral home,
Extremaduro, when a snowstorm begins
and three strangers appear on the property
without leaving footprints. The three—Petrus, Marcus, and Paulus—are elves,
sent to Extremaduro to make an alliance
in an attempt to stop Aelius, an elf who is
responsible for the war ravaging both the
human and the elven worlds. Petrus leads
the way over a magical bridge into “the fog”
of the elven world, which is disappearing
for unclear reasons. Due to the recently
discovered notebook of a 16th-century
painter, the elves believe Alejandro may
be the chosen person to save their world
in a battle foretold for the next day. At its
best, Barbery’s imaginative tale reads as a
mix of J.R.R. Tolkien and Hayao Miyazaki,
epic in scope yet grounded by humor.
However, the plot is often confusing and
gets bogged down by Barbery’s florid scene-
setting. Meanwhile, the poetic prose (the
elves are big fans of verse) regarding the
allegorical nature of the elven fog and
climactic finale hint at a deeper message—
but what that message is remains frus-Boys of Alabama
Genevieve Hudson. Liveright, $26.95 (304p) ISBN 978-1-63149-629-5
In Hudson’s luminous debut novel (after the collection Pretend
We Live Here), a German teenager with a supernatural power
moves to Delilah, Ala., with his parents. Max delightfully takes
in the “exotic” sights—rivers “rushing like arteries cut open
across the earth”; a Confederate flag flying from a truck. Despite
Max’s mother’s unease, Max adjusts easily to
his new life by joining the high school foot-
ball team, though the homophobic culture
causes him to question his burgeoning feel-
ings for his friend Pan, a goth outsider from
school. Max reveals his power of resurrection
to Pan by reanimating a dead squirrel. After
Max gets caught up in a fervent evangelical
group led by a man known around town as the Judge, his
parents weigh their concern about his involvement with the
Judge against their support for his efforts to find himself. (“The
Judge man called his supporters a Christian army,” his mother
exclaims to his father. “He’s trying to draft our son!”) After Pan
tells Max about the dark side of the Judge’s evangelism, it
pushes him to help resurrect people who can speak the truth
about the Judge, putting both Max and Pan in danger. While
the conclusion feels rushed, leveraging the characters’ strong
bond in service of a melodramatic climax, Hudson writes
tenderly about cultural displacement, toxic masculinity, and
friendship. This complex tale achieves a startling variation on
the theme of teenage rebellion. (May)Shiner
Amy Jo Burns. Riverhead, $27 (272p) ISBN 978-0-525-53364-1
Trauma and hope pass from mother to daughter in a West
Virginia family in Burns’s layered, evocative debut novel
(after the memoir Cinderland). Wren Bird is the 15-year-old
daughter of a one-eyed snake-handling preacher, Briar Bird,
and his wife, Ruby Day. Superstitious, charismatic, and
devoted to a wife who openly despises him,
Briar forces his family to live isolated in the
mountains, resulting in few chances for
Ruby and Wren to interact with the people
of Trap, the nearest town. Their only reg-
ular visitor is Ruby’s childhood best friend,
Ivy, whose deep connection with Ruby led
her to settle with her family nearby. “It
started with a burn,” begins the novel—Ivy visits Ruby and
Wren one fateful day, and her dress and hair catch on fire.
Briar heals her, with nary a scar, but when she starts calling
Briar “White Eye,” Ruby and Wren question what happened
to Ivy. As Wren contends with the ramifications of her
father’s “miracle,” she also begins to uncover the history
behind his faith. Though the recursive structure stutters
toward big reveals, making it difficult for readers to fully
connect with any of the characters, Burns beautifully renders
the isolated Appalachian landscape and the urgent despera-
tion of her characters. Burns’s stunning prose is reason
enough to keep an eye out for this promising writer’s next
effort. (May)Beware the Snake Handler
Domineering preachers and supernatural powers drive the action in these two novels.