We’ve kept pretty busy this year, publishing a mix of books we’re tremendously proud of: fiction and history, poetry and journalism, translations, debuts, reissues of epochal classics, and more. As we look with energy and excitement to 2019, we know there’s one more hurdle to be cleared before the big ball drops: holiday shopping. To that end, and with warm gratitude to our community of readers, booksellers, librarians, and other friends, we’re delighted to offer our 2018 Gift Guide, featuring end-of-year highlights, new paperbacks, histories, reissued classics, international offerings, thrillers, and other terrific gift ideas. Enjoy, and happy holidays from all of us. Here’s to 2019!

 

Small Fry
by Lisa Brennan-Jobs

The acclaimed memoir from the eldest child of Apple founder Steve Jobs. One of the New York Times’ 10 Best Books of the Year. A Best of the Year at Amazon, GQ, NPR, People, and Vogue UK. “The sleeper critical hit of the season.” — Vulture. “Beautiful, literary, and devastating.” — New York Times Book Review. “Extraordinary… aching, exquisitely told.” — People

 

Virgil Wander
by Leif Enger

The first book in a decade by the bestselling author of Peace Like a River tells the story of man who survives an accident and, robbed of his memories, must rely on his quirky Minnesotan neighbors to piece himself back together. A Best of the Year at Amazon and Library Journal. “A lush crowd-pleaser about meaning and second chances and magic.” — New York Times Book Review. “Brings out the charm and downright strangeness of the defiantly normal.” — Wall Street Journal

 

John Woman
by Walter Mosley

This new novel of ideas from the legendary Walter Mosley is both a thrilling story of identity on the run and an examination of the principle that whoever controls the past controls the present as well. “Mosley is at his commanding, comfort-zone-blasting best in this heady tale of a fugitive genius.” — Booklist

 

Freshwater
by Akwaeke Emezi

The indelible debut novel about Ada, a troubled child from Nigeria whose identity begins to subdivide into an increasing proliferation of selves, which soon overtake her life and send it careening in a perilous direction. A New York Times Notable Book and a Best Book of the Year at the New Yorker, Entertainment Weekly, Shelf Awarness, Amazon, NPR, the Globe and Mail, the Chicago Public Library, Bustle, and BookPage.  “An extraordinarily powerful and very different kind of physical and psychological migration story.” — Edwidge Danticat, New Yorker

 

Convenience Store Woman
by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori

An anthem for noncomformists and good-natured oddballs everywhere, Convenience Store Woman tells the story of Keiko, who has worked her entire adult life at a Japanese convenience store, and deels just fine about it. A Book of the Year at the New Yorker, Library Journal, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Bustle. “Small, elegant and deadpan… casts a fluorescent spell.” — Dwight Garner, New York Times

 

Evolution
by Eileen Myles

Eileen Myles is one of America’s foremost poets and a leading voice in queer letters, and Evolution is their first collection since 2011, reflecting on daily life, social media, sex, politics, and poetry itself, in exuberant language that bursts with vitality. A New Statesman Best of the Year. “Myles has long excelled at capturing outsiderness, and feelings of being lost and misunderstood are plenty evident here.” — Publishers Weekly

 

Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion
by Michelle Dean

A timely, trenchant look at ten of the women who helped define intellectual culture, from one of the savviest and most admired critics writing today. Figures considered include Susan Sontag, Nora Ephron, Dorothy Parker, and Janet Malcolm. A Best of the Year at NPR, the Progressive, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Refinery29. “There’s so much… to savor, ruminate on, learn from and, certainly, argue with in this splendid book.” — Wall Street Journal. “Sharp is a dinner party you want to be at.” — NPR

 

 

The End We Start From
by Megan Hunter

An elegant, pocket-sized story of motherhood and ecological collapse, soon to be a major motion picture. “A striking and frighteningly real story of a family for survival that will make everyone stop and think about what kind of planet we are leaving behind for our children.” — Benedict Cumberbatch

 

Ayiti
by Roxane Gay

The debut collection from outspoken powerhouse Roxane Gay, exploring the experience of Haitian disapora from many angles. “Smart, emotional, and wholly brilliant.” — Shondaland. “An impeccably readable antidote to the patronizing news coverage Haitians have received in the past two decades.” — Village Voice

 

Fire Sermon
by Jamie Quatro

A stunning debut novel of smoldering obsession, burning desire, and spiritual crisis. A New York Times Editors’ Choice. “The sentences burn with desire and disquiet.” — New York Times Book Review. “Profound… Quatro makes us feel the absolute necessity of desire.” — The Atlantic

 

A History of France
by John Julius Norwich

The capstone in the career of a legendary historian, John Julius Norwich’s History of France gives a definitive account of Gallic life, from Julius Caesar through World War II. “A delightful book — engaging, enthusiastic, sympathetic, funny and sometimes, one has to add, quirky.” — Wall Street Journal

 

Big Week
by James Holland

From one of our wisest and most generous historians, the vivid and dramatic story of the Allied air campaign that paved the way for D-Day. An Amazon Best Book of the Year. “Highly detailed… a fascinating must-read for World War II aficianados.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred)

 

1968 in America
by Charles Kaiser

A look, from a veteran New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek journalist, at the year that defined one of the most turbulent eras in American history.“Charles Kaiser aims to convey not only what happened during the period but what it felt like at the time.” — New York Times Book Review

 

The Unknowns
by Patrick K. O’Donnell

Acclaimed and bestselling military historian Patrick K. O’Donnell offers a complete history of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, from its conception and concentration to the present day — a must-read for servicemembers, their families, and military history buffs. “Prods our consciences to heap fresh honor upon the Unkown Solider of World War I, renewing his station as the mortal embodiment of every American who has fallen on a battlefield far from home.” — Wall Street Journal

 

The Thief’s Journal
by John Genet, translated by Bernard Frechtman

One of the brightest stars of transgressive writing to emerge from the twentieth century, and the ferocious book that brought Jean Genet to international preeminence, The Thief’s Journal is a wild ride through amorality, counterintuition, and, in the words of Patti Smith’s new introduction, “holy disobedience.” “One of the strongest and most vital accounts of a life ever set down on paper… Will undoubtedly establish Genet as one of the most daring literary figures of all time.” — New York Post

 

The Erasers
by Alain Robbe-Grillet, translated by Richard Howard

Alain Robbe-Grillet’s first novel, which set the pace for a wildly influential career, is simultaneously a classic detective story and a thorough deconstruction of all literary conventions; it has to be read to be believed. “I doubt that fiction as art can any longer be seriously discussed without Robbe-Grillet.” — New York Times

 

Candy
by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg

The impossibly winsome Candy Christian roves across a landscape of mystics, sexologists, and doctors, in this subversive American classic. “Wickedly funny to read and morally bracing as only good satire can be.” — William Styron. “Coyly subverts the male gaze… The authors wage a guerilla war on prudery.” — Dwight Garner, New York Times

 

Blood and Guts in High School
by Kathy Acker

Simply put, no writer has ever gone farther out, or deeper in, than Kathy Acker; hallucinatory, sensuous, violent, weird, and walloping, Blood and Guts may be her signature work. “Virtuoso, maddening, crazy, so sexy, so painful, and beaten out of a wild heart that nothing can tame… a landmark writer.” — Jeanette Winterson

 

The Day the Sun Died
by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas

A sinister, allegorical tale from the preeminent voice of Chinese fiction, Yan Lianke, who has been called his country’s “most feted and most banned author.” A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and a Best Fiction in Translation Selection at Kirkus Reviews. “A riveting, powerful reading experience.” — Publishers Weekly (starred). “[A] preternatural gift for metaphor spills out of him unbidden.” — New Yorker

 

One Part Woman
by Perumal Murugan, translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan

A scandal when it was first published in India, this story of a loving couple who’ll do almost anything to conceive is, by turns, sweet, rebellious, and deeply moving. Nominated for the National Book Award. “Intimate and affecting… The true pleasure of this book lies in [Murugan’s] adept explorations of male and female relationships, and in his unmistakable affection for people who find themselves pitted against the world.” — New York Times Book Review

 

Don’t Send Flowers
by Martín Solares, translated by Heather Cleary

Gritty and sharp, Martín Solares’s story of the investigation into a kidnapping in northern Mexico will have readers turning pages at a frantic pace, right up until the incredibly satisfying conclusion. “Rich in conception and execution… full of odd twists and strange surprises.” — Wall Street Journal

 

Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China
by Xiaolu Guo

Xiaolu Guo’s memoir about her life, from the rural fishing village where she was born to her intellectual and artistic maturity in Beijing and abroad, is the perfect gift for anyone seeking a life beyond prescribed borders. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. “Vivid — and funny… [Guo] has done far more than simply ‘survive’ the hardships and dislocations of her life. She has triumphed. Nine Continents shows the rewards of listening to an unleashed voice remembering and speaking with full freedom.” — Wall Street Journal

 

Broken Ground
by Val McDermid

A mysterious bog body leads investigators on a chase through a web of deception and criminality in the latest from one of the most internationally acclaimed authors of crime fiction. “As always, McDermid’s story lines are as richly layered as her protagonist.” — Publishers Weekly

 

Snap
by Belinda Bauer

A knife-wielding home invader continues to haunt the family of one of his victims as he terrorizes a woman in a quaint community. Nominated for the Man Booker Prize. “The best crime novel I’ve read in a very long time.” — Val McDermid

 

Firefly
by Henry Porter

A thirteen-year-old boy races to make his way to safety in Germany, where the information he has — on the identity of a top ISIS operative — can be put to use. M16 is pursuing him — and they’re not the only ones. “Splendid… tension is high throughout.” — The Times

 

 

Christmas Days
by Jeanette Winterson

A collection of enchanting stories around the themes of Christmas — family, gift-giving, feasting, and magic. Comes complete with twelve delicious recipes for the twelve days of Christmas. “One of the most daring and inventive writers of our time.” — Elle. “Wickedly funny… [a] holiday treasure.” — New York Times Book Review

 

Wine Reads
edited by Jay McInerney

A collection of insightful, stylish, and passionate writing about wine and its place in culture, edited by one of the world’s leading devotees of Bacchus. Casual enthusiasts and the most refined palettes alike will guzzle it down. “The best wine writer in America.” — Salon

 

 

Babel
by Gaston Dorren

A riveting, accessible, and sometimes incredible look at the world’s twenty most-spoken languages, considering their distinctive histories, flavors, potentialities, and challenges. “A book that’s as joyful as it is educational, and above all, it’s just so much fun to read.” — Michael Schaub, NPR

 

The Curse of Oak Island
by Randall Sullivan

For centuries, an unassuming island in Nova Scotia has drawn the interest of treasure hunters as diverse as Errol Flynn and FDR, with the alluring mystery of a treasure it’s rumored to hold. An ideal accompaniment to the hit History Channel show. “Sullivan writes with open-minded balance, rendering the Oak Island story into a weirdly fascinating mystery.” — Booklist

 

None of My Business
by P.J. O’Rourke

In his latest, P.J. O’Rourke skewers cryptocurrency, smartphone apps, Facebook, and high finance — all while explaining, with his signature wit, why he’s not rich and neither are you. “The funniest writer in America.” — Wall Street Journal. “If his wry essays have a mission statement… it’s this: Starchy Republicanism is really, really fun.” — New York Times Book Review