Anticipated New Book Releases of 2022
Written By: Astrid Ramsay (Senior Book Seller)
One of the best things about joining the staff at Indigo Bridge is that it’s rekindled my love for books. Working here has exposed me to so many brilliant writers, and now one of the best parts of my day is looking for new authors to read and share with our community. So to start this year off right, I’d like to share a list of new books that I’m looking forward to reading. I hope you’ll enjoy them just as much as I do.
Happy New Year and happy reading, everyone!
Wahala by Nikki May (Harper Collins). Release date: January 11, 2022
“An incisive and exhilarating debut novel following three Anglo-Nigerian best friends and the lethally glamorous fourth woman who infiltrates their group—the most unforgettable girls since Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha.
When the high-flying, charismatic Isobel explodes into the group, it seems at first she’s bringing out the best in each woman. But the more Isobel intervenes, the more chaos she sows, and Ronke, Simi, and Boo’s close friendship begins to crack.
A sharp, modern take on friendship, ambition, culture, and betrayal, Wahala (trouble) is an unforgettable novel from a brilliant new voice.” - Harper Collins
You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays by Zora Neale Hurston (Harper Collins). Release date: January 18, 2022
“You Don’t Know Us Negroes is the quintessential gathering of provocative essays from one of the world’s most celebrated writers, Zora Neale Hurston. Spanning more than three decades and penned during the backdrop of the birth of the Harlem Renaissance, Montgomery bus boycott, desegregation of the military, and school integration, Hurston’s writing articulates the beauty and authenticity of Black life as only she could. Collectively, these essays showcase the roles enslavement and Jim Crow have played in intensifying Black people’s inner lives and culture rather than destroying it. She argues that in the process of surviving, Black people re-interpreted every aspect of American culture—"modif[ying] the language, mode of food preparation, practice of medicine, and most certainly religion.”” - Harper Collins
From Your Friend, Carey Dean: Letters from Nebraska’s Death Row by Lisa Knopp (Cascade Books). Projected publication date: March 2022
When Lisa Knopp, a member of the then-called Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty, first attended the group’s weekly bible study at the state penitentiary, she was introduced to Carey Dean Moore, a devout Christian who had been sentenced to death for the murder of two cab drivers. From 1996 until his execution in 2018, the two exchanged hundreds of letters, and their friendship changed Lisa’s philosophy and faith in ways that she couldn’t possibly have imagined.
Unlike all the other books on this list, I’ve already read this one–or at least a version of it. I edited the entire manuscript just before it was sent to Cascade Books, and I’ve been waiting very impatiently for its release. We’ll have it on the shelves as soon as we can!
The Myth of Surrender by Kelly O’Connor McNees (Simon & Schuster). Release date: March 1, 2022
“What if the most important decision of your life was not yours to make? This vivid and powerful novel follows two women whose paths intersect at a maternity home in the "Baby Scoop Era."
In 1960, free-spirited Doreen is a recent high-school grad and waitress in a Chicago diner. She doesn't know Margie, sixteen and bookish, who lives a sheltered suburban life, but they soon meet when unplanned pregnancies send them to the Holy Family Home for the Wayward in rural Illinois. Assigned as roommates because their due dates line up, Margie and Doreen navigate Holy Family’s culture of secrecy and shame and become fast friends as the weight of their coming decision — to keep or surrender their babies — becomes clear.” - Simon and Schuster
Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel (Redhook). Release date: April 26, 2022
“Before she was cast as Indian mythology’s most jealous queen, she had her own story….
In the spirit of Circe, Ariadne, and The Witch's Heart, this stunning debut reimagines the life of Kaikeyi, the vilified queen from the Indian epic the Ramayana. It is a tale of fate, family, courage, and heartbreak—of an extraordinary woman determined to leave her mark in a world where gods and men dictate the shape of things to come.” - Redhooki
