13 New Books to Read in April

Forget what you know about mermaids,” commands Ren Yu, the teen narrator of Jade Song’s blood-soaked Chlorine (William Morrow), calling to mind—and dismissing—red-haired Ariel and pre-Raphaelite beauties. 

The directive is a fitting tagline for a crop of new novels with resonances that lean more Homeric than Disney and narratives geared toward a plugged-in audience. (Halle Bailey, star of the forthcoming live-action The Little Mermaid, has said the film, too, will be “updated with the current times.”) Chlorine sees a high school swimmer go to drastic lengths to assume what she believes is her true form; in Cassandra Khaw’s taut, bewitching The Salt Grows Heavy (Tor Nightfire), a mermaid is betrayed by her husband; their daughters devour his body and destroy his kingdom. And in Julia Langbein’s American Mermaid (Doubleday), when a Hollywood studio adapts—and drains the salty life force from—a novel about a wheelchair-bound mermaid, fiction collides with real life. The creatures have traded languid hair combing for power brokering on their own terms. It’s a welcome tidal shift.—Keziah Weir

ON BEAUTY

Lush coffee-table books—and an aesthetics-bent essay collection—invite readers to revel in the details. 

‘Ateliers of Europe’ by John Whelan

Writer John Whelan and photographer Oskar Proctor capture the magic of 28 European ateliers: replica statuary crowd a Rome workshop, pictured here; a Paris studio specializes in decorative paint and glimmers in gold. (Prestel)

‘Chronorama’ from The Pinault Collection and Condé Nast Archive

This sumptuous volume couples with a Palazzo Grassi exhibition of 20th-century art from the Condé Nast archive, including photographs by Diane Arbus, Helmut Newton, and, as pictured here, an illustration of a model by George Wolfe Plank from a 1917 edition of Vanity Fair. (Abrams)

‘Richard Avedon: Relationships’ edited by Rebecca A Senf

A display of more than 100 of the late seminal photographer’s works in fashion (as in this 1970 shot of the model Jean Shrimpton in an evening gown) and portraiture (from Malcolm X to Linda Evangelista). (Skira)

‘Onyx’

A famed Houston strip club lends its name to Adrienne Raquel’s glimmering monograph, which celebrates the performance and artistry of its dancers. (Damiani/D.A.P.)

‘The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Essays On Desire And Consumption’ by Katy Kelleher

Katy Kelleher’s engrossing collection takes a magnifying glass to the murk and grime lurking beneath that which we covet. An essay on floral fascination, which begins with Kelleher devouring violets, delves into the uncanny valley of “eternity” roses and traces the symbolism of “lotus-eaters”; one on silk includes a memory of a disappointing prom and a live-fast-die-young description of caterpillars boiled alive. 

FICTION

Three love stories, a Western, and two more to enjoy

‘Lone Women’ by Victor LaValle

Victor LaValle’s deft genre bender opens on Adelaide, a Black farmer, setting her home ablaze with the bloodied bodies of her parents inside. She flees California for Montana with a padlocked steamer trunk and secrets to spare. (One World)

‘Community Board’ by Tara Conklin

Recently dumped Darcy returns home, where she loses and finds herself in a Nextdoor-esque website, in Tara Conklin’s droll investigation of what we owe our neighbors and ourselves. (Mariner)

‘Biography of X’ by Catherine Lacey

In Catherine Lacey’s newest, a widowed writer attempts to understand her late wife, an enigmatic artist, through a series of interviews; the resulting “biography” is prismatic and brilliant. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

‘Calling Ukraine’ by Johannes Lichtman

In this biting comedy, Johannes Lichtman offers a glimpse of Ukraine (pre-2022 Russian invasion) through the blinkered eyes of a young American working abroad. (Marysue Rucci Books)

‘The Great Reclamation’ by Rachel Heng

In Singapore, a fraught, decades-long love story unfurls against the upheaval of Japan’s invasion and the country’s renewal in this precisely and elegantly rendered epic from Rachel Heng. (Riverhead)

‘Romantic Comedy’ by Curtis Sittenfeld

Curtis Sittenfeld presents a romantic formula flip—woman comedy writer, pop star man—and investigates gender expectations and dynamics amid the humor. (Random House)—KW

IN THE KITCHEN

Spring’s cookbooks skew sweet, with a side of personal history. 

‘More Than Cake’ by Natasha Pickowicz

Celebrated for her fine-dining pastry work and fundraiser bake sales, Natasha Pickowicz brings a community spirit to this soulfully precise book from Artisan: both festive (black sesame layer cake) and savory (kabocha galette).

‘Mayuma’ by Abi Balingit

Abi Balingit’s colorful debut via Harvest has a coming-of-age arc, with classic Filipino dishes filtered through a no-rules multicultural lens. Pichi-pichi (like cassava Sno Balls) uses Mexican chamoy sauce; chewy rice cakes sneak in Oreos.

‘Sweet Enough’ by Alison Roman

A bid for deliciously unkempt desserts, Alison Roman’s latest with Clarkson Potter treats “salty” as a compliment (chocolate pudding, lemon shortbread). She dotes on pies but also offers a primer on judiciously seasoned fruit salad.

‘Love Is a Pink Cake’ by Claire Ptak

Claire Ptak, the Chez Panisse alum who runs London’s Violet Cakes, divides this sumptuous book (W.W. Norton) into two. “California” is produce-forward, while Harry and Meghan’s wedding cake is the talk of “England.”—Laura Regensdorf