From My Desk: April 2025

A quirky, big-hearted road trip novel, a charming epistolary novel, and a book that will make your head spin

I got a little sidetracked in March, but I’m back today with some truly excellent April reads. I hope you enjoy!

The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett (4/29/25) — PJ Halliday won the lottery, literally, but that’s about the only thing going for him. He drinks too much, his marriage fell apart after the tragic death of his eldest daughter, and his surviving daughter isn’t his biggest fan. When he hears that his high school sweetheart’s husband has passed away, he decides that his second chance has arrived and he’s going to drive across the country to woo her back. He’s accompanied by his brother’s two grandchildren (whom he’s just met, when he was given custody after his brother’s death) and (begrudgingly) by his daughter. And then there’s Pancakes, the cat who can predict death.

This level of setup wouldn’t normally appeal to me, but gosh I love this book. It’s funny, quirky, and deeply grounded in its flawed characters, who are doing their best in a world that often isn’t kind. For a book where death looms large, it’s astonishingly warm and big-hearted.

For: fans of Annie Hartnett and other quirky fiction (Kevin Wilson comes to mind, although he has his own road trip novel this year); fans of a road trip novel; anyone looking for some feel-good fiction that isn’t too treacly

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (4/29/25) — Who doesn’t love an epistolary novel? Sibyl Van Antwerp writes letters (and occasionally emails) nearly every day, to close friends and relations, customer service reps, the son of a friend, and more. She has conducted correspondences with Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry about their writing. The Correspondent is the story of Sibyl’s life told through a few years (I think) of those letters. Sibyl can be a little cantankerous, but as her story unfolds, we see her needs, her insecurities, her little tragedies, and her big heart. Given everything happening in the world, this idea of slow, thoughtful, sustained correspondence is refreshing, and I think will inspire many readers to pull out their stationery and write to a friend.

For: readers of epistolary novels; fans of novels will older protagonists (Olive Kitteridge, for example); readers looking for connection

Audition by Katie Kitamura (out now) — This isn’t technically one of “my” books, but it’s published by my company, and it’s a banger. The main characters are a successful stage actress and a young man who she meets for lunch. If you’ve read anything about it, you’ve probably heard that their relationship is hard to describe and that the whole narrative hinges on a twist, or change of perspective, or reset in the middle of the book. It’s a book that’s very hard to talk about cogently with someone who hasn’t read it, but that you will NEED to talk to someone about once you have finished it. It’s described as a Möbius strip of a novel about relationships and performance, and I think that’s apt. I really loved it. If you read it, please reach out so we can talk about it!

For: fans of Kitamura’s previous work (A Separation and Intimacies are the most recent); readers of structurally interesting literary fiction; readers who are willing to think deeply without any clear answers