Business Up Front
Today begins publication week for Fruit of the Dead.
The book comes out tomorrow, but if you’re in Massachusetts you can get a copy today, 3/4, at Odyssey Books, where I’ll be in conversation at 7PM with the very excellent Andrew Leland (The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight). You can register for that free event right here.
Tomorrow, 3/5, I’ll drive down to New York to chat with the kind and brilliant Julia Phillips (Disappearing Earth, Bear) at Powerhouse Arena in DUMBO, my neighborhood of origin. That event starts at 7, too, and will be followed by some light partying: cake, wine, chitchat, merriment. Register here.
On Wednesday 3/6 at 7PM I’ll be at the Princeton Public Library in conversation with Lynn Steger Strong, whose novels (Flight, Want, Hold Still) and Substack I have admired so much and for so long I’m afraid I will have to work very hard not to go mute with starstruck awe.
The next day—Thursday, 3/7—I’ll drive up to Madison, CT, where I’ll read from and discuss the book at 6:30 PM at RJ Julia Booksellers.
I’ll be back home long enough to do a reading / party at The Ashfield Lake House at 7PM on Friday, 3/8, where I’m sure to be totally outclassed by the charming and accomplished Alexis Schaitkin (Saint X, Elsewhere) and Manuel Gonzales (The Miniature Wife and Other Stories, The Regional Office Is Under Attack!, and the forthcoming Blackthorne Island)—
—but I’ll turn right around the following morning and drive up to Maine for the weekend, where I’ll discuss the book with Meghan Gilliss (author of the exquisite novel Lungfish) at 6:30 PM at Back Cove Books in Portland, ME.
If you can’t make it to any of the above, please feel free to check this list of upcoming shenanigans on my website. In MA, you may be free to join me at, e.g., the Whately Public Library at 6PM on 3/12, or to come hear me in conversation with the wonderful Elizabeth Gonzalez James (The Bullet Swallower) at the Harvard Bookstore on 3/29. In New York, hot tip, you’ll truly enjoy any / all of these incredible reading series, featuring a few absolute literary stars:
Franklin Park on 4/8, with Clare Beams (The Illness Lesson, The Garden), Vanessa Chan (The Storm We Made), and Alexandra Tanner (Worry)
Ditmas Lit on 4/24, with Gina Chung (Sea Change, Green Frog), Christina Cooke (Broughtupsy), and Jessie Ren Marshall (Women! In! Peril!)
Pete’s on 5/16, with Gina Chung again (yay!), Crystal Hana Kim (If You Leave Me, The Stone Home), and Andy Jiaming Chang (Cinema Love)
Tables of Contents on 6/17, with Ayana Mathis (The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, The Unsettled) and Sally Wen Mao (Ninetails, The Kingdom of Surfaces, Oculus, Mad Honey Symposium)
Feelings in the Back
It can be difficult to let a book out of one’s own little control freak’s clutches, and into the real world. There is very little left for me to do, now, aside from sharing my calendar and news with you, and encouraging you to order the book.
You might think that, having relatively little left to do, I’d be sitting here at my desk feeling relaxed, even serene. You might think I’d be, you know, accepting the things I cannot change. You would be incorrect! Turns out, accepting the things one cannot change is not. Easy. Perhaps that’s why they cooked it into a prayer. As my little tour approaches, and various other uncontrollables loom on the horizon, I have been feeling very anxious indeed. I’ve been waking up at four in the morning, bug-eyed with inane concerns. What if there’s a snowstorm!?!? (Nothing to be done about the weather!) What shoes shall I wear to all these events!?!? (Does it matter?) Do my wedding shoes still fit!?!? (They never did!)
My own sleep problems have been compounded by the sleep problems of my 3 1/2 year-old, who has been wandering out of his newly converted toddler bed every morning before dawn, animated by some tragic hope of playing with me (“Make the dump truck talk, Mama”), or reading with me (“Read the truck book, Mama”), or generally having me to himself for a couple hours. It’s sweet, but, wow, to be woken up by him in this way, after a night of sleep already plagued by restlessness and worry, is to be torn to pieces, eyelids first, by pity, exhaustion, love, and seething rage.
You might think it would be reassuring to have this lovely little tour to look forward to. To know that I will get to sleep and wake—a couple mornings, anyway—alone, in hotel rooms, with no bodies to tend to but my own. You would be correct! The primary reason to go on a mini book tour like this one is to celebrate with friends, admired colleagues, and maybe even a few strangers who happen to be interested in the book—and, truly, unreservedly, I cannot wait to hug the friends I’ll see, to sign some books, to have some real, wide-ranging, joyful, fascinating conversations! But, for me, the second reason for going on tour—and it’s a close second—is to get the hell away from my beloved family.
Which is all the more infuriating because I know that I will miss the crap out of those little boogers while I’m gone. Already I’ve been welling up like a goon when the baby comes over to spontaneously smash her face into my thigh, becoming glassy-eyed composing little notes for my partner to read to our 3-year-old at bedtime. But there you have it. Love and work are endless tunes that rarely play in the same key or tempo. If they do happen to unfold in harmony, it’s often accidental. The problem of my ambivalence is a side effect of this rich life, which I feel exquisitely lucky to have.*
In Other News
I’m very happy to report that People Magazine listed Fruit of the Dead among their six best books to read in March.
LitHub mentioned Fruit among nine of “March’s Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books”—which, you know, I’d maybe challenge that designation? Like, if you’re a hard-core sci-fi/fantasy nerd you’ll probably be disappointed in my “lit fic” style “mythical retelling,” but, whatever, maybe not! Give it a shot!
Publishers Weekly re-upped their review of Fruit, calling it a “highly anticipated sophomore novel,” which was very nice.
Tertulia’s presale campaign for Fruit of the Dead continues through publication day. If you order the book through them, you can get 20-50% off.
I hope to see you soon.
*If you too have been feeling lucky to be alive, not to mention free, housed, adequately nourished, and for the most part unafraid for your loved ones, especially in light of the bloodshed, famine, and 30,000+ dead in Gaza, please join me in taking a few simple actions through Jewish Voice for Peace.