Tag archieven: Amerikaanse schrijfster

New American novels

New American novels and stories. What new novels from US writers are coming out soon? Who is the author of the new novel or the stories from the United States? When will the book be released and by which publisher? Who is the author of the novel?

What new American novels are coming out?

This page provides an overview of new American novels and stories that are being released or will soon be available in bookstores. Besides information about the books’ content, you’ll also find information about the author, the publication, and ordering options. Published reviews of the thrillers are also included.

New American novels and stories 2025

The list of new novels in 2025 from American writers is organized by publication date, with the newest books at the top. Links lead to detailed information about the book, ordering options, and often to reviews.

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore Terry Dactyl reviewMattilda Bernstein Sycamore – Terry Dactyl

American feminist novel
Publisher: Coffee House Press
Released: 11 November 2025
Terry Dactyl has lived many lives. Raised by boisterous lesbian mothers in Seattle, she comes of age as a trans girl in the 1980s in a world of dancing queens and late-night house parties just as the AIDS crisis ravages their world. After moving to New York City, Terry finds a new family among gender-bending club kids bonded by pageantry and drugs, fiercely loyal and unapologetic. She lands a job at a Soho gallery, where, after partying all night, she spends her days bringing club culture to the elite art world…read on >

Eshani Surya Ravishing reviewEshani Surya – Ravishing

Debut novel
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Released: 11 November 2025
A provocative, razor-sharp novel about two Indian American siblings caught in the clutches of a beauty tech company, Ravishing is an incisive portrait of a predatory industry and its dangerous ability to capitalize on our deepest insecurities. Full of heart and vulnerability, Eshani Surya’s dazzling debut shines a light on the dark enticements of wellness culture and the ill-fated pursuit of perfection…read on >

John Irving Queen Esther novel reviewJohn Irving – Queen Esther

American novel
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Released: 6 November 2025
Dutch translation: Queen Esther
John Irving’s sixteenth novel is a testament to his enduring ability to weave complex characters and intricate narratives that challenge and captivate. Queen Esther is not just a story of survival but a profound exploration of identity, belonging, and the enduring impact of history on our personal lives showcasing why Irving remains one of the world’s most beloved, provocative, and entertaining authors—a storyteller of our time and for all time…read on >

Brigitte Dale The Good Daughters reviewBrigitte Dale – The Good Daughters

historical novel
Author: Brigitte Dale (United States)
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Released: November 4, 2025
Length: 352 pages
Format: hardcover/ ebook
Prize: $ 27.95 / $ 18.99
Order book from: Amazon / Bol
A moving and vivid story of three suffragettes in London and the battle for equality that tests the strength of their will and the bonds of their friendship. In 1912, three young women from wildly different backgrounds are bound together by their desire to have a say in their future. With the dangerous stakes of the suffrage campaign becoming a fight for the women’s bodies and lives, they enter a treacherous world where the laws and justice system are stacked against them. They face violent protests, hunger strikes, and brutal forced feedings, and the women must decide how much they are willing to risk for their freedom and for each other…read on >

Anika Jade Levy Flat Earth reviewAnika Jade Levy – Flat Earth

American novel, debut novel
Author: Anika Jade Levy (United States)
Publisher: Catapult
Released: November 4, 2025
Length: 224 pages
Format: hardback / ebook
Prize: € 26.00
Order book from: Amazon / Bol
Avery is a grad student in New York working on a collection of cultural reports and flailing financially and emotionally. She dates older men for money, and others for the oblivion their egos offer. In an act of desperation, Avery takes a job at a right-wing dating app. The “white-paper” she is tasked to write for the startup eventually merges with her dissertation, resulting in a metafictional text that reveals itself over the course of the novel…read on >

Salman Rushdie The Eleventh HourSalman Rushdie – The Eleventh Hour

Stories
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Released: 4 November 2025
Do we accommodate ourselves to death, or rail against it? How can we bid farewell to the places that we have made home? How do we achieve fulfilment with our lives if we don’t know the end of our own stories? The Eleventh Hour ponders life and death, legacy and identity with the penetrating insight and boundless imagination that have made Salman Rushdie one of the most celebrated writers of our time…read on >

Gish Jen Bad Bad Girl reviewGish Jen – Bad Bad Girl

autobiographical novel
Publisher: Knopf
Released: 21 October 2025
The award-winning author of The Resisters returns with an engrossing, blisteringly funny-sad autobiographical novel tracing a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship. Spanning continents, generations, and cultures, Bad Bad Girl is a novel only Gish Jen could have written: genre-bending, courageous, wise, and as immensely incisive as it is compassionate…read on >

Ha Jin Looking for Tank Man reviewHa Jin – Looking for Tank Man

novel about Tiananmen Square protests
Publisher: Other Press
Released: 21 October 2025
When the Chinese premier visits Harvard, international student Pei Lulu encounters a lone protester, who will drastically change her understanding of the People’s Republic and her own place in the world. For the first time, Lulu learns of the 1989 protest movement and the government’s violent response. Determined to find out more, she seeks answers from her family, who share surprising stories of their involvement, and from a formative university course based on powerful firsthand accounts…read on >

Thomas McGuane A Wooded Shore reviewThomas McGuane – A Wooded Shore

American stories
Publisher: Knopf
Released: 14 October 2025
Nine shattering, hilarious tales of men on the outskirts of America, habituating the motels, hot dog stands, and dive bars time forgot, grappling with a world that is swiftly changing, and dreaming of a return to the wooded shores of their youth. In these nine peerless stories, a family boating trip veers into emotional disaster while very narrowly avoiding the physical; a would-be cheater hands over his car—his prized possession—for a shot with a pretty girl; a furniture magnate and his filmmaker daughter visit his impoverished hometown…read on >

Brandon Taylor Minor Black Figures reviewBrandon Taylor – Minor Black Figures

American novel
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Released: 14 October 2025
The story of a gay Black painter navigating the worlds of art, desire, and creativity. New York simmers with heat and unrest as Wyeth, a painter, finds himself at an impasse in his own work. After attending a dubious show put on by a collective of careerist artists, he retreats to a bar in the West Village where he meets Keating, a former seminarian. Over the long summer, as the two get to know each another, they talk and argue about God, sex, and art. Meanwhile, at his job working for an art restorer, Wyeth begins to investigate the life and career of a forgotten, minor black artist…read on >

Ron Rindo Life, and Death, and Giants reviewRon Rindo – Life, and Death, and Giants

American novel, Wisconsin novel
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Released: 11 October 2025
In Life, and Death, and Giants, Gabriel’s extraordinary, timeless story is told by those whose lives are transformed by him: the veterinarian who delivers him and becomes his mentor; his grandmother, who is troubled by a deep void in her faith; the salty bar owner who acts as a bridge between the Amish and English communities in Lakota; and the football coach who tries to counsel Gabriel as his fame explodes, with consequences that no one could have anticipated…read on >

Shannon Bowring In a Distant Valley reviewShannon Bowring – In a Distant Valley

Maine novel, winter novel
Publisher: Europa Editions
Released: 8 October 2025
Both a love letter and a window into the rural places that have shaped many, In a Distant Valley sets the stage for a final act to play out across a deep winter in snowy Maine…read on >

Chris Kraus The Four Spent the Day Together reviewChris Kraus – The Four Spent the Day Together

American novel
Publisher: Scribner
Released: 7 October 2025
On the Iron Range of northern Minnesota, at the end of the last decade, three teenagers shot and killed an older acquaintance after spending the day with him. In a cold, depressed town, on the fringes of the so-called “meth community,” the three young people were quickly arrested and imprisoned. At the time of the murder, Catt Greene and her husband, Paul Garcia, are living nearby in a house they’d bought years earlier as a summer escape from Los Angeles,,,read on >

Thomas Pynchon Shadow Ticket reviewThomas Pynchon – Shadow Ticket

Milwaukee novel, crime novel
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Released: 7 October 2025
Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation business shifting from labour-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, a onetime strikebreaker turned private eye, thinks he’s found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who’s taken a mind to go wandering…read on >

Jerome Charyn Maria La Divina reviewJerome Charyn – Maria La Divina

biographical of opera singer Maria Callas
Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press
Released: 16 September 2025
Maria Callas, called La Divina, is widely recognized as the greatest diva who ever lived. Jerome Charyn’s Callas springs to life as the headstrong, mercurial, and charismatic artist who captivated generations of fans, thrilling audiences with her brilliant performances and defiant personality…read on >

Catherine Dang What Hunger reviewCatherine Dang – What Hunger

American novel
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Released: 12 August 2025
A haunting coming-of-age tale following the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, Ronny Nguyen, as she grapples with the weight of generational trauma while navigating the violent power of teenage girlhood…read on >

Nick Fuller Googins The Frequency of Living Things reviewNick Fuller Googins – The Frequency of Living Things

Family novel
Publisher: Atria Books
Released: 12 August 2025
A heartbreaking American epic about three sisters who unearth lifetimes of family tensions as they are forced to rescue one of their own from peril, testing the limits of sacrifice, sisterhood, and forgiveness…read on >

C. Mallon Dogs reviewC. Mallon – Dogs

Debut novel
Publisher: Scribner
Released: 12 August 2025
A singular, devastating debut novel, Dogs traces the fallout of one catastrophic night in the lives of five high school wrestlers, asking what can survive in the blast radius of latent trauma and violence…read on >

Princess Joy L. Perry This Here Is Love reviewPrincess Joy L. Perry – This Here Is Love

debut novel
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
Released: 5 August 2025
A breathtaking, haunting, and epic saga, This Here Is Love intimately intertwines us with these beautifully drawn, unforgettable American characters. Bless, taken to serve the slaveowner’s daughter, must decide where she belongs: with the enslaved or above them…read on >

Victor Suthammanont Hollow Spaces reviewVictor Suthammanont – Hollow Spaces

American novel
Publisher: Counterpoint Press
Released: 5 August 2025
The only Asian American partner at a prestigious law firm sees his professional and personal life demolished when he is put on trial for murder. Three decades later, his children reunite to uncover the truth and try to salvage what remains of their family…read on >

Ivonne Lamazares The Tilting House reviewIvonne Lamazares – The Tilting House

Cuba novel
Publisher: Counterpoint Press
Released: 22 July 2025
Spanning two countries and three decades, The Tilting House explores identity and family loyalty, the effects of losing one’s mother and motherland, the scars of political and historical upheaval, and an immigrant’s complex quest both to return “home” and to be free from the past. Through her long journey, Yuri comes to understand that the past cannot be fully recovered, or fully escaped, even as she approaches the possibility of compassion for Mariela, for Ruth, for others, and for herself…lees verder >

Katie Yee Maggie reviewKatie Yee – Maggie

or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar
debut novel
Publisher: S&S/Summit Books
Released: 22 July 2025
A Chinese American woman spins tragedy into comedy when her life falls apart in a taut, wry debut novel that grapples with grief, motherhood, and myths…read on >

Joyce Maynard How the Light Gets In reviewJoyce Maynard – How the Light Gets In

American novel
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
Released: 17 July 2025
How the Light Gets In follows Eleanor and her family through fifteen years (2010 to 2024) as their story plays out against a uniquely American backdrop and the events that transform their world (climate change, the January 6th insurrection, school violence) and shape their lives (later-life love, parental alienation, steadfast)…read on >

Susan Choi Flashlight reviewSusan Choi – Flashlight

American novel
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Released: 10 July 2025
Shortlist Booker Prize 2025
The astonishing story of one family swept up in the tides of the twentieth century, ranging from post-war Japan to suburban America and the North Korean regime…read on >

New American novels in 2026

The list of new novels in 2026 from American writers is organized by publication date, with the newest books at the top. Links lead to detailed information about the book, ordering options, and often to reviews.

Colson Whitehead Cool Machine reviewColson Whitehead – Cool Machine

Harlem trilogy part 3
American novel
Publisher: Doublesher
Released: July 21, 2026
With his usual pitch-perfect prose Whitehead paints a portrait of a city in transition, where shimmering skyscrapers rise to the heavens as displaced people huddle in abandoned tunnels below. In a dazzling display of protean imagination, Cool Machine roves all over the city, from Windows on the World to the Meadowlands, to show that in New York, and in the lives of Whitehead’s vivid characters, it’s what’s below the surface that reveals the truth…read on >

Portia Elan Homebound reviewPortia Elan – Homebound

coming-of-age novel, debut novel
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Released: 7 May 2026
It’s 1983 and Becks can’t wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. In the meantime, she has work to do: her uncle, the only person who understood her, has left her a half-finished game to complete. What Becks is coding will outlast her by centuries and shape the lives of a scientist, an astronaut and a desperate sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. It will connect these four pioneering women across time, vast oceans and far-distant planets and introduce them to a remarkable robot destined to gather together this disparate crew and bring them home…read on >

Jay McInerney See You on the Other Side reviewJay McInerney – See You on the Other Side

American novel
Publisher: Knopf
Released: April 14, 2026
The celebration of the thirty-fifth wedding anniversary of Russell Calloway’s best friend, Washington Lee—the least likely monogamist of his acquaintance somehow having become over the years a model husband and father—at the Odeon in the Spring of 2020 sparks an at once funny and moving autumnal reckoning with mortality as the specter of the Covid-19 virus spreads…read on >

Jennifer Niven Meet the Newmans reviewJennifer Niven – Meet the Newmans

American Family Novel
Publisher: Pan macmillan
Released: January 15, 2026
Los Angeles, 1964. For two decades, Del and Dinah Newman and their sons, Guy and Shep, have ruled television as America’s Favourite Family. Millions of viewers tune in every week to watch them play flawless, black-and-white versions of themselves. But now the Sixties are in full swing, and the Newmans’ perfection suddenly feels woefully out of touch. Ratings are in free fall, as are the Newmans themselves…read on >

Sara Levine The Hitch reviewSara Levine – The Hitch

American novel, comic novel
Publisher: Roxanne Gay Books
Released: 13 January 2026
Rose Cutler defines herself by her exacting standards. As an anti-racist, Jewish secular feminist eco-warrior, she is convinced she knows the right way to do everything, including parent her six-year-old nephew Nathan. When Rose offers to look after him while his parents visit Mexico for a week, her brother and sister-in-law reluctantly agree, provided she understands the rules—routine, bedtime, homework—and doesn’t overstep. But when Rose’s Newfoundland attacks and kills a corgi at the park, Nathan starts acting strangely…read on >

Related books and information

Afbeelding bovenzijde: The Last Bookstore, South Spring Street, Los Angeles (I. Shalyminov, Unsplash)

American female writers best novels

American female writers best novels. What are the best novels written by female authors from the United States? When was the novel published and what is its content? Which women’s novels from the United States are considered the best?

American female writers best novels

Of course, you can debate at length what the best American novels by female authors are. In fact, every reader will have their own personal preferences. So a top-so list of the best novels by American female authors isn’t entirely useful.

What are the best novels written by female authors from America?

Our editors have chosen to compile an alphabetical overview of American women’s novels that many consider more than worth reading. We will also be adding new, excellent novels by American authors.

Jane Bowles Two Serious Ladies 1943 novel first editionJane Bowles – Two Serious Ladies

1943 novel
Editorial rating: ∗∗∗∗
(excellent)
Miss Goering, an eccentric, impulsive New York heiress, resides in her house and tries not to be unhappy. Mrs Copperfield, an anxious, dutiful married woman, has a great fear of drowning, of lifts, of intruders in the night. Two serious ladies, nothing is natural for them and anything is possible.

Willa Cather The Song of the Lark review en recensieWilla Cather – The Song of the Lark

1915 novel
Editorial rating: ∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Thea Kronberg, a young girl from a small town in Colorado has a great gift – her beautiful singing voice. Her talent takes her to the great opera houses of Europe, and through ambition and hard work, she forges a life as an artist. But if she can never go home again, nor can she leave behind her past.

Save Me the Waltz Zelda Fitzgerald 1932 novel first editionZelda Fitzgerald – Save Me the Waltz

1932 novel
Editorial Rating∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
One of the great literary curios of the twentieth century Save Me the Waltz is the first and only novel by the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. During the years when Fitzgerald was working on Tender is the Night, Zelda Fitzgerald was preparing her own story, which strangely parallels the narrative of her husband, throwing a fascinating light on Scott Fitzgerald’s life and work.

Hannah Green I Never Promised You a Rose Garden novel 1964 first editionJoanne Greenberg – I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

1984 novel, published as Hannah Green
Editorial Rating∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Sixteen-year-old Deborah’s identity is shattering, as she retreats further and further from the ‘normal’ world into her imaginary kingdom of Yr, a fantastical inner refuge both lush and horrifying. Sent to a psychiatric hospital, she must, with the help of a gifted psychiatrist, try to find a way back.

Annie John Jamaica Kincaid novel from 1985 first editionJamaica Kincaid – Annie John

1985 coming of age novel uit 1985 about Antigua
Editorial Rating∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
An adored only child growing up in Antigua, Annie has until recently lived a peaceful and content life. She is inseparable from her beautiful mother, a powerful and influential presence, who sits at the very centre of the little girl’s existence. Loved and cherished, Annie grows and thrives within her mother’s shadow. When she turns twelve, however, Annie’s life changes, in ways that are often mysterious to her.

Elaine Kraf I Am Clarence reviewElaine Kraf – I Am Clarence

1969 novel
Editorial Rating∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
For Clarence’s mother, life revolves around her young son; she takes him to see specialists to find the cause of his blindness and developmental delays, protects him from the cruelty of other children, and loves him tenderly. But she has her own struggles too. Her sanity is precarious and fractured, making caregiving increasingly difficult.

Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird Amerikaanse roman uit 1960Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird

1960 novel
Editorial Rating∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Summers for Scout in the Deep South are long and golden. Her story is one of innocence, and growing up. It is also about justice. When Scout’s father Atticus Finch, a lawyer, agrees to defend a black man against an accusation by a white girl, he takes on the prejudice of the whole town.

Bernice L. McFadden Sugar review en recensieBernice L. McFadden –  Sugar

2000 novel
Editorial Rating∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
When she arrives in the southern town of Bigelow, it isn’t long before the neighbourhood is alight with gossip and suspicion. Sugar fears her past is catching up with her. Then she meets Pearl, a woman trying to forget her own trauma. As these next-door neighbours become unlikely friends, they wonder if their lives could finally be changing for the better. But small towns have long memories.

Toni Morrison – Beloved

1987 novel about slavery
Editorial Rating∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Sethe is now miles away from Sweet Home – the farm where she was kept as a slave for many years. Unable to forget the unspeakable horrors that took place there, Sethe is haunted by the violent spectre of her dead child, the daughter who died nameless and whose tombstone is etched with a single word, Beloved.

Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged roman uit 1957Ayn Rand – Atlas Shrugged

1957 novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Opening with the enigmatic question ‘Who is John Galt?’, Atlas Shrugged envisions a world where the ‘men of talent’ – the great innovators, producers and creators – have mysteriously disappeared. With the US economy now faltering, businesswoman Dagny Taggart is struggling to get the transcontinental railroad up and running. For her John Galt is the enemy, but as she will learn, nothing in this situation is quite as it seems.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith 1943 novel first editionBetty Smith – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

1943 Brooklyn novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
The Nolan family are first-generation immigrants to the United States. Originating in Ireland and Austria, their life in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn is poor and deprived, but their sacrifices make it possible for their children to grow up in a land of boundless opportunity. Francie Nolan is the eldest daughter of the family. Alert, imaginative and resourceful, her journey through the first years of a century of profound change is difficult – and transformative…read on >

The Mountain Lion Jean Stafford Novel from 1947 first editionJean Stafford – The Mountain Lion

1947 coming of age novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Ralph and Molly are inseparable siblings: united against the stupidity of daily routines, their prim mother and prissy older sisters, the world of adult authority. One summer, they are sent from their childhood home in suburban Los Angeles to their uncle’s Colorado mountain ranch, where they write, hunt, roam. But this untamed wilderness soon becomes tainted by dark stirrings of sexual desire.

The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein novel from 1925 first editionGertrude Stein – The Making of Americans

1925 novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Gertrude Stein sets out to tell “a history of a family’s progress,” radically reworking the traditional family saga novel to encompass her vision of personality and psychological relationships. As the history progresses over three generations, Stein also meditates on her own writing, on the making of The Making of Americans, and on America.

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocense novel from 1920 first editionEdith Wharton – The Age of Innocence

1920 novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
The return of the beautiful Countess Olenska into the rigidly conventional society of New York sends reverberations throughout the upper reaches of society. Newland Archer, an eligible young man of the establishment is about to announce his engagement to May Welland, a pretty ingénue, when May’s cousin, Countess Olenska, is introduced into their circle. The Countess brings with her an aura of European sophistication and a hint of scandal, having left her husband and claimed her independence.

Edith Wharton The Glimpes of the Moon first edition from 1922Edith Wharton – The Glimpses of the Moon

1922 novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
Nick Lansing and Susy Branch are young and attractive, but penniless. Gracefully moving through New York high society, they have the right connections but none of the wealth. When they inconveniently fall in love, Susy devises a plan. They will marry and spend a year flitting across Europe, staying in the homes of their rich friends and living off honeymoon gifts until either one of them meets a better, richer prospect.

Marguerite Young Miss MacIntosh, My Darling review en recensieMarguerite Young – Miss MacIntosh, My Darling

1968 novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
This novel is one of the most ambitious and remarkable literary achievements of our time. It is a picaresque, psychological novel—a novel of the road, a journey or voyage of the human spirit in its search for reality in a world of illusion and nightmare. It is an epic of what might be called the Arabian Nights of American life. Marguerite Young’s method is poetic, imagistic, incantatory; in prose of extraordinary richness she tests the nature of her characters—and the nature of reality.

Matching books

Afbeelding bovenzijde: Zelda Fitzgerald in 1922 (Public domain)

Betty Smith – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Betty Smith A Tree Grows in Brooklyn review and information about the 1943 American novel. In 1943, American author Betty Smith’s novel was published. Here you can read information about the novel’s content, reception, reviews and author.

Betty Smith A Tree Grows in Brooklyn reviews

  • “A profoundly moving novel, and an honest and true one. It cuts right to the heart of life … If you miss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn you will deny yourself a rich experience… It is a poignant and deeply understanding story of childhood and family relationships.” (New York Times)
  • “One of the books of the century.” (New York Public Library)

Betty Smith A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

  • Author: Betty Smith (United States)
  • Book type: 1943 American novel
  • Publisher: Vintage Classics
  • Length: 272 pages
  • Format: paperback / ebook
  • Prize: £ 9.99
  • Editorial Rating∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the 1943 novel by Betty Smith

Betty Smith’s debut novel is universally regarded as a modern classic. The sprawling tale of an immigrant family in early 20th-century Brooklyn, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of the great distinctively American novels.

The Nolan family are first-generation immigrants to the United States. Originating in Ireland and Austria, their life in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn is poor and deprived, but their sacrifices make it possible for their children to grow up in a land of boundless opportunity.

Francie Nolan is the eldest daughter of the family. Alert, imaginative and resourceful, her journey through the first years of a century of profound change is difficult – and transformative. But amid the poverty and suffering among the poor of Brooklyn, there is hope, and the prospect of a brighter future.

Betty Smith was born December 15, 1896 in Brooklyn. New York A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith 1943 novel first editionCity as  Elisabeth Lillian Wehner. She published four novels: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943), Tomorrow Will Be Better (1947), Maggie-Now (1958) and, Joy in the Morning (1963). She also wrote two plays: Jonica Stars (1930) and Becomes A Woman, originally titled Francie Nolan (1931). She died in died of pneumonia in Shelton, Connecticut on January 17, 1972 in Shelton, Connecticut, at the age of 75.

Matching books

Zelda Fitzgerald – Save Me the Waltz

Zelda Fitzgerald Save Me the Waltz review and information about the 1932 American novel. In 1932, American author Zelda Fitzgerald’s only novel was published. Here you can read information about the novel’s content, reception, reviews and author.

Zelda Fitzgerald Save Me the Waltz reviews

  • “The only published novel of a brave and talented woman who is remembered for het defeats.” (Matthew Bruccoli)
  • “A strangely evocative novel, episodic in structure, painterly in its description, almost hallucinatory in overall effect.” (The New York Times)

Zelda Fitzgerald Save Me the Waltz

Save Me the Waltz

  • Author: Zelda Fitzgerald (United States)
  • Book type: 1932 American novel
  • Publisher: Vintage Classics
  • Length: 272 pages
  • Format: paperback / ebook
  • Prize: £ 9.99
  • Editorial Rating∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the 1932 novel by Zelda Fitzgerald

“We couldn’t go on indefinitely being swept off our feet.”

One of the great literary curios of the twentieth century Save Me the Waltz is the first and only novel by the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. During the years when Fitzgerald was working on Tender is the Night, Zelda Fitzgerald was preparing her own story, which strangely parallels the narrative of her husband, throwing a fascinating light on Scott Fitzgerald’s life and work.

In its own right, it is a vivid and moving story: the confessional of a famous glamour girl of the affluent 1920s and an aspiring ballerina which captures the spirit of an era.

Zelda Fitzgerald was born July 24, 1900,  in Montgomery, Alabama, Save Me the Waltz Zelda Fitzgerald 1932 novel first editionin the United States was an American writer and artist, best known for personifying the carefree ideals of the 1920s flapper and for her tumultuous marriage to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Save Me the Waltz was the only novel she wrote and was published during her lifetime. She died March 10, 1948, at the age of 47 in the Highlight Mental Hospital Asheville, North Carolina during a fire.

Matching books

Jane Bowles – Two Serious Ladies

Jane Bowles Two Serious Ladies review and information about the 1943 American novel. In 1943, American author Jane Bowles’ only novel was published. Here you can read information about the novel’s content, reception, reviews and author.

Jane Bowles Two Serious Ladies reviews

  • “My favourite book. I can”t think of a modern novel that seems more likely to become a classic.” (Tennessee Williams)
  • “Jane Bowles”s literary output, small but perfect, puts her on a stylistic planet all her own.” (The New Yorker)
  • “The book I give as a gift. It feels like giving someone an exotic fruit.” (Sheila Heti)
  • “A modernist cult classic.” (Guardian)

Jane Bowles Two Serious Ladies

Two Serious Ladies

  • Author: Jane Bowles (United States)
  • Book type: American novel from 1943
  • Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Essentials
  • Length: 272 pages
  • Format: paperback / ebook
  • Prize: £ 9.99
  • Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the 1943 novel by Jane Bowles

Miss Goering, an eccentric, impulsive New York heiress, resides in her house and tries not to be unhappy.

Mrs Copperfield, an anxious, dutiful married woman, has a great fear of drowning, of lifts, of intruders in the night.

Two serious ladies, nothing is natural for them and anything is possible.

For Mrs Copperfield – a trip to Panama, where she abandons her husband for love of a local prostitute. For Miss Goering – a move to a squalid little house on an island and a series of sordid encounters with strangers. Both go to pieces -and both realise this is something they’ve wanted to do for years.

Jane Bowles was born as born Jane Sydney Auer, February 22, 1917 Jane Bowles Two Serious Ladies 1943 novel first editionin New York City. She has long had an underground reputation as one of the truly original writers of this century. She lived in Tangier, Morocco, with her husband, writer Paul Bowles, from 1952 until her death on May 4, 1973 in a clinic in Málaga, Spain at the age of 56. She was primarily a playwright and Two Serious Ladies was her only novel.

Matching books

Gish Jen – Bad Bad Girl

Gish Jen Bad Bad Girl review and information of the content of the new novel by the American author of Chinese descent. St. Martin’s Press will publish the new Gish Jen novel, on October 21, 2025. 

Gish Jen Bad Bad Girl review

  • “What an amazing f***ing novel, wild like love and twice as revealing. Gish Jen has written the multigenerational mother-daughter epic of our new century. Bad Bad Girl spans decades, oceans, continents, generations, languages, showing us we can escape almost anything—except the voices of our parents. Intergenerational mother-daughter mayhem of the absolute best smartest vexing most moving kind.” (Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao)
  • “Sharp and compassionate … Some relationships are so complex that truth can’t do them justice.” (Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times)

Gish Jen Bad Bad Girl

Bad Bad Girl

  • Author: Gish Jen (United States)
  • Book type: American novel
  • Publisher: Knopf
  • Released: 21 October 2025
  • Length: 353 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook / audiobook
  • Prize: $ 30.00
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the new novel by Gish Jen

The award-winning author of The Resisters returns with an engrossing, blisteringly funny-sad autobiographical novel tracing a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship.

My mother had died, but still I heard her voice. . .

Gish’s mother, Loo Shu-hsin, is born in 1924 to a wealthy Shanghai family whose girls are expected to restrain themselves. Her beloved nursemaid—far more loving to than her real mother—is torn from her even as she is constantly reprimanded: “Bad bad girl! You don’t know how to talk!” Sent to a modern Catholic school by her progressive father, she receives not only an English name—Agnes—but a first-rate education. To his delight, she excels. But even then he can only sigh, “Too bad. If you were a boy, you could accomplish a lot.” Agnes finds solace in books and, in 1947, announces her intention to pursue a PhD in America. As the Communist revolution looms, she sets sail—never to return.

Lonely and adrift in New York, she begins dating Jen Chao-Pe, an engineering student. They do their best to block out the increasingly dire plight of their families back home and successfully establish a new American life: Marriage! A house in the suburbs! A number one son! By the time Gish is born, though, the news from China is proving inescapable; their marriage is foundering; and Agnes, confronted with a strong-willed, outspoken daughter distinctly reminiscent of herself, is repeating the refrain—“Bad bad girl! You don’t know how to talk!”—as she recapitulates the harshness of her own childhood.

Spanning continents, generations, and cultures, Bad Bad Girl is a novel only Gish Jen could have written: genre-bending, courageous, wise, and as immensely incisive as it is compassionate.

Gish Jen is born August 12, 1955 in Long Island, New York. She is a second-generation Chinese American. Her parents emigrated from China in the 1940s. Bad Bad Girl is het sixth novel. She als published non-fiction. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a recipient of fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute and the Guggenheim Foundation as well as of a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction and of a Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her short work has appeared in the New Yorker and other magazines, and have been chosen for The Best American Short Stories five times, including The Best American Short Stories of the Century. She delivered the William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in American Studies at Harvard University.

Matching books

Beste Amerikaanse romans

Beste Amerikaanse romans. Wat zijn de allerbeste romans van Amerikaanse schrijvers en schrijfsters? Welke romans uit de Verenigde Staten worden gezien als de beste?

Beste Amerikaanse romans

Uiteraard kun je uitgebreid discussiëren over wat de beste Amerikaanse romans zijn? Sterker nog iedere lezer zal zijn persoonlijke voorkeur hebben. Dus een top zoveel lijst van de beste romans van uit de Verenigde Staten afkomstige auteurs is niet helemaal nuttig.


Nieuwsbrief boekentips en recensies

Elke week de nieuwste boekentips en recensies? Meld je aan voor de nieuwsbrief.


Wat zijn de beste Amerikaanse romans?

Onze redactie kiest ervoor om een alfabetisch overzicht te maken van Amerikaanse romans die volgens velen het lezen meer dan waard zijn. Er zullen bovendien nieuwe uitstekende en uitmuntende romans van Amerikaanse schrijvers en schrijfsters worden toegevoegd. Ook is er aandacht voor de Nederlandse vertaling van de roman, mits deze verschenen is, uiteraard.

Warren Adler The War of the Roses recensieWarren Adler – The War of the Roses

roman uit 1981
Nederlandse vertaling: The War of the Roses
Waardering redactie: ∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Jaren 80-klassieker over een huwelijk in verval, een onvergetelijk portret van een scheiding. In deze vlijmscherpe, zwarte komedie doen beide echtgenoten er alles aan om hun wederhelft te vernietigen – tot elke prijs…lees verder >

James Baldwin Giovanni's Room 1956 novel first editionJames Baldwin – Giovanni’s Room

roman uit 1956
Nederlandse vertaling: Giovanni’s kamer
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
In het Parijs van de jaren vijftig valt de jonge Amerikaan David voor de Italiaanse barman Giovanni. Als Davids verloofde Hella terugkeert van een reis raakt hij verscheurd tussen zijn verlangens en de conventionele moraal. Ondertussen neemt het leven van Giovanni een vreselijke wending…lees verder >

Djuna Barnes Nachtwoud recensieDjuna Barnes – Nightwood

roman uit 1936
Nederlands vertaling: Nachtwoud
Waardering redactie: ∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
In Nachtwoud vertelt Djuna Barnes de verhalen van een groep Amerikaanse en Europese ontwortelden in het Parijs van de jaren twintig van de vorige eeuw, die in de marges van de maatschappij leven: circusartiesten, homoseksuelen, transgenders, travestieten – een nachtelijke onderwereld, excentriek, louche en mooi…lees verder >

Jane Bowles Two Serious Ladies 1943 novel first editionJane Bowles – Two Serious Ladies

roman uit 1943
Nederlandse vertaling: Twee dames die het leven ernstig nemen
Waardering redactie: ∗∗∗∗
(excellent)
Miss Goering, an eccentric, impulsive New York heiress, resides in her house and tries not to be unhappy. Mrs Copperfield, an anxious, dutiful married woman, has a great fear of drowning, of lifts, of intruders in the night. Two serious ladies, nothing is natural for them and anything is possible…lees verder >

The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles novel from 1949 first editionPaul Bowles – The Sheltering Sky

roman uit 1949
Nederlandse vertaling: Het dak van de hemel
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Port and Kit Moresbury, a sophisticated American couple, are finding it more than a little difficult to live with each other. Endeavouring to escape this predicament, they set off for North Africa intending to travel through Algeria – uncertain of exactly where they are heading, but determined to leave the modern world behind. The results of this casually taken decision are both tragic and compelling…lees verder >

Truman Capote In Cold Blood recensie en reviewTruman Capote – In Cold Blood

A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences
true crime roman uit 1966
Nederlandse vertaling: In koelen bloede
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Controversial and compelling, In Cold Blood reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. Truman Capote’s comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved…lees verder >

Willa Cather The Song of the Lark review en recensieWilla Cather – The Song of the Lark

Amerikaanse roman uit 1915, The Prairie Trilogy 2
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Thea Kronberg, a young girl from a small town in Colorado has a great gift – her beautiful singing voice. Her talent takes her to the great opera houses of Europe, and through ambition and hard work, she forges a life as an artist. But if she can never go home again, nor can she leave behind her past…lees verder >

Stanley Elkin The Franchiser reviewStanley Elkin  – The Franchiser

roadnovel uit 1976
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
The Franchiser follows Ben Flesh—one of the men “who made America look like America, who made America famous.” He collects franchises, traveling from state to state, acquiring the brand-name establishments that shape the American landscape. But both the nation and Ben are running out of energy. As blackouts roll through the West, Ben struggles with the onset of multiple sclerosis, and the growing realization that his lifetime quest to buy a name for himself has ultimately failed…lees verder >

Ralph Ellison Invisible Man recensie, review en informatieRalph Ellison – Invisible Man

sociale roman uit 1952
Nederlandse vertaling: Onzichtbare man
Waardering redactie: ∗∗∗∗∗
(uitmuntend)
Defeated and embittered by a country which treats him as a non-being, the ‘invisible man’ retreats into an underground cell, where he smokes, drinks, listens to jazz and recounts his search for identity in white society: as an optimistic student in the Deep South, in the north with the black activist group the Brotherhood, and in the Harlem race riots. And explains how he came to be living underground…lees verder >

Wait Until Spring, Bandini John Fante novel from 1938 first editionJohn Fante – Wait Until Spring, Bandini

roman uit 1938, Bandini Quartet 1
Nederlandse vertaling: Wacht op het voorjaar, Bandini
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
A powerful, lyrical and touching tale of a turbulent adolescent trying to break out of the suffocating, prison-like confinements of family, poverty and religion in a small town, Wait Until Spring, Bandini tells the story of a winter in the childhood of Arturo Bandini, oldest son of Italian immigrants living in Colorado during the Great Depression…lees verder >

F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby

roman uit 1925
Nederlandse vertaling: De grote Gatsby
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach … Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing and debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby – young, handsome, fabulously rich – always seems alone in the crowd, watching and waiting…lees verder >

Save Me the Waltz Zelda Fitzgerald 1932 novel first editionZelda Fitzgerald – Save Me the Waltz

1932 novel
Editorial Rating∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
One of the great literary curios of the twentieth century Save Me the Waltz is the first and only novel by the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. During the years when Fitzgerald was working on Tender is the Night, Zelda Fitzgerald was preparing her own story, which strangely parallels the narrative of her husband, throwing a fascinating light on Scott Fitzgerald’s life and work…read on >

Jonathan Franzen – The Corrections

familieroman uit 2001
Nederlandse vertaling: De correcties
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
The Lamberts – Enid, Alfred and their three grown-up children – are a troubled family living in a troubled age. After fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid is ready to have some fun, but her husband Alfred is losing his mind to Parkinson’s. As his condition worsens, and the Lamberts are forced to face the long-buried secrets and failures that haunt them, Enid sets her heart on gathering everyone together for one last family Christmas…lees verder >

Jewelle Gomez The Gilda Stories reviewJewelle Gomez – The Gilda Stories

futuristische slavernijroman uit 1991
Waardering redactie: ∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Louisiana, 1850. A young girl escapes slavery and is taken in by two mysterious women. Rumoured to be witches, the pair travel only at night, dress in men’s clothing and seem to know others’ innermost thoughts. But the girl sees the promise of true freedom in their dark glittering eyes: the promise to ‘share the blood’ and live forever. They name her Gilda. Over the next two hundred years, Gilda moves through unseen spaces: through antebellum brothels, gold-rush bars, Black women’s suffrage groups, hair salons and jazz clubs, searching for a way to exist in the world…lees verder >

Hannah Green I Never Promised You a Rose Garden novel 1964 first editionJoanne Greenberg – I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

roman uit 1964, gepubliceerd als Hannah Green
Nederlandse vertaling: Ik heb je nooit een rozentuin beloofd  
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Sixteen-year-old Deborah’s identity is shattering, as she retreats further and further from the ‘normal’ world into her imaginary kingdom of Yr, a fantastical inner refuge both lush and horrifying. Sent to a psychiatric hospital, she must, with the help of a gifted psychiatrist, try to find a way back…lees verder >

Joseph Heller Catch-22 first edition 1961Joseph Heller – Catch-22

roman over de Tweede Wereldoorlog uit 1961
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Nederlandse vertaling: Catch-22
It’s the closing months of World War II and Yossarian has never been closer to death. Stationed in an American bomber squadron off the coast of Italy, each flight mission introduces him to thousands of people determined to kill him. But the enemy above is not Yossarian’s problem – it is his own army intent on keeping him airborne…lees verder >

S.E. Hinton The Outsiders Amerikaanse roman uit 1967S.E. Hinton – The Outsiders

coming of age-roman uit 1967
Nederlandse vertaling: De outsiders
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
The bestselling American classic of youthful rebellion and coming of age on the streets, adapted into an award-winning film by Francis Ford Coppola. The Greasers and the rich-kid Socs are at war on the Tulsa streets. Ponyboy, a fourteen-year-old brawler, chainsmoker and dreamer, is a fiercely loyal greaser. But a single, murderous catastrophe is to wrench him from his old life and overturn everything he thinks he knows…lees verder >

Langston Hughes Not Without Laughter first edition form 1930Langston Hughes – Not Without Laughter

Harlem Renaissance roman uit 1930
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
In a poor town in Kansas, an African American family struggles. At its centre sits Sandy Rodgers – a young boy attempting to find purpose amid the chaos, meagreness and music of his surroundings. His narrative intertwines with those of his family – his wandering father, his fervent grandmother, his blues-singing aunt – to create a brilliantly intricate portrait of Black life in the early twentieth century…lees verder >

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man James Weldon Johnson novel from 1912 first editionJames Weldon Johnson – The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

Amerikaanse roman uit 1912
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
In deze baanbrekende, nog altijd actuele roman uit 1912 beschrijft de Afro-Amerikaanse schrijver James Weldon Johnson op indrukwekkende wijze de innerlijke ontwikkeling van een zwarte en getalenteerde man, die in een door segregatie doordrongen maatschappij probeert om te gaan met de beperkingen die het geïnstitutionaliseerde racisme hem oplegt…lees verder >

Ken Kesey One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Eerste drukKen Kesey – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

roman uit 1962
Nederlandse vertaling: En ééntje zag ze vliegen
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Tyrannical Nurse Ratched rules her ward in an Oregon State mental hospital with a strict and unbending routine, unopposed by her patients, who remain cowed by mind-numbing medication and the threat of electroshock therapy. But her regime is disrupted by the arrival of McMurphy – the swaggering, fun-loving trickster with a devilish grin who resolves to oppose her rules on behalf of his fellow inmates…lees verder >

Annie John Jamaica Kincaid novel from 1985 first editionJamaica Kincaid – Annie John

coming of age roman uit 1985 over Antigua
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
An adored only child growing up in Antigua, Annie has until recently lived a peaceful and content life. She is inseparable from her beautiful mother, a powerful and influential presence, who sits at the very centre of the little girl’s existence. Loved and cherished, Annie grows and thrives within her mother’s shadow. When she turns twelve, however, Annie’s life changes, in ways that are often mysterious to her…lees verder >

Elaine Kraf I Am Clarence reviewElaine Kraf – I Am Clarence

roman uit 1969
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
For Clarence’s mother, life revolves around her young son; she takes him to see specialists to find the cause of his blindness and developmental delays, protects him from the cruelty of other children, and loves him tenderly. But she has her own struggles too. Her sanity is precarious and fractured, making caregiving increasingly difficult…lees verder >

Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird Amerikaanse roman uit 1960Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird

roman uit 1960
Nederlandse vertaling: Spaar de spotvogel
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Summers for Scout in the Deep South are long and golden. Her story is one of innocence, and growing up. It is also about justice. When Scout’s father Atticus Finch, a lawyer, agrees to defend a black man against an accusation by a white girl, he takes on the prejudice of the whole town…lees verder >

Jack London The Call of the Wild recensie en reviewJack London – The Call of the Wild

roman uit 1903
Nederlandse vertaling: De roep van de wildernis
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
The biting cold and the aching silence of the far North become an unforgettable backdrop for Jack London’s vivid, rousing, superbly realistic wilderness adventure stories featuring the author’s unique knowledge of the Yukon and the behavior of humans and animals facing nature at its cruelest…lees verder >

William Maxwell So Long, See You Tomorrow reviewWilliam Maxwell – So Long, See You Tomorrow

roman uit 1980
Nederlandse vertaling: Tot ziens, tot morgen
Waardering redactie: ∗∗∗∗
(uitstekend)
In the quiet farmlands of Illinois, two lonely teenagers – bound by the burden of their rural lives – forge a delicate friendship. But when jealousy ignites between their farming families, it leads to unthinkable tragedy, and severs their bond forever. Fifty years later, haunted by the past, the narrator seeks to piece together those harrowing events and find redemption for a lifetime of regret…lees verder >

Cormac McCarthy The Border TrilogyCormac McCarthy – The Border Trilogy

Amerikaanse westernromans
All the Pretty Horses (1992)
The Crossing (1994)
Cities of the Plain (1998)
Nederlandse vertaling: De grenstrilogie
Waardering redactie: ∗∗∗∗∗ (uitmuntend)
De jongemannen in deze drie klassieke meesterwerken groeien op in de jaren dertig op ranches in het zuidwesten van de VS. Aan de andere kant van de grens lonkt Mexico, met zijn desolate schoonheid en zijn wrede belofte van een plek waar dromen met bloed bekostigd worden…lees verder >

Bernice L. McFadden Sugar review en recensieBernice L. McFadden –  Sugar

roman uit 2000
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
When she arrives in the southern town of Bigelow, it isn’t long before the neighbourhood is alight with gossip and suspicion. Sugar fears her past is catching up with her. Then she meets Pearl, a woman trying to forget her own trauma. As these next-door neighbours become unlikely friends, they wonder if their lives could finally be changing for the better. But small towns have long memories…lees verder >

Claude McKay Home to Harlem review en recensieClaude McKay – Home to Harlem

Harlem Renaissance roman uit 1928
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
When Jake Brown joins the army during the First World War, he is treated more like a slave than a soldier. After deserting his post to escape the racial violence he is facing, Jake travels back home to Harlem. But despite the distance, Jake cannot seem to escape the past and the explosive ways in which it can culminate…lees verder >

Larry McMurtry Lonesome Dove Western novel from 1985 first editionLarry McMurtry – Lonsesome Dove

Amerikaanse westernroman uit 1971
Winnaar Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1986
Waardering redactie: ∗∗∗∗
(uitstekend)
This is the story of a group of audacious cowboys on a perilous cattle drive across the sprawling wilderness, from Texas to Montana. Bound by duty and hardened by the relentless frontier, their shared journey embodies the enduring spirit of the West. The saga paints the American West with a palette of nuanced characters, from heroes to outlaws, in a narrative that is as unflinching as it is captivating…lees verder >

Herman Melville Moby-Dick recensie en reviewHerman Melville – Moby-Dick

avonturenroman uit 1851
Nederlandse vertaling: Moby-Dick
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗∗ (uitmuntend)
Moby-Dickis a haunting social commentary, populated by some of the most enduring characters in literature; the crew of the Pequod, from stern, Quaker First Mate Starbuck, to the tattooed Polynesian harpooner Queequeg, are a vision of the world in microcosm, the pinnacle of Melville’s lifelong meditation on America…lees verder >

Henry Miller Sexus reviewHenry Miller – Sexus

The Rosy Crusifixion 1

autobiografische erotische roman uit 1949
Nederlandse vertaling: Sexus
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Henry Miller called the end of his life in America and the start of a new, bohemian existence in 1930s Paris his ‘rosy crucifixion’. His searing fictionalized autobiography of this time of liberation was banned for nearly twenty years. Sexus, the first volume in The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy, looks back to his early sexual escapades in Brooklyn, and his growing infatuation with the playful, teasing dance hall hostess who will become the great obsession of his life…lees verder >

Toni Morrison – Beloved

historische slavernijroman uit 1987
Nederlandse vertaling: Beminde
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗∗ (uitmuntend)
Sethe is now miles away from Sweet Home – the farm where she was kept as a slave for many years. Unable to forget the unspeakable horrors that took place there, Sethe is haunted by the violent spectre of her dead child, the daughter who died nameless and whose tombstone is etched with a single word, ‘Beloved’…lees verder >

Ann Petry De straat RecensieAnn Petry – The Street

Afro-Amerikaanse roman over Harlem uit 1946
Nederlandse vertaling: De straat
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗∗ (uitmuntend)
De straat, de roman van de Afro-Amerikaanse schrijfster Ann Petry verscheen in 1946 en werd een verkoopsucces met zo’n 1 miljoen verkochte exemplaren. Het boek is gesitueerd in de New Yorkse wijk Harlem in de veertiger jaren van de vorige eeuw en schetst het leven van een alleenstaande jonge vrouw die samen met haar zoon zo goed en zo kwaad als het kan verbetering aan te brengen in haar miserabele leefomstandigheden en een bestaan probeert op te bouwen…recensie lezen >

Thomas Pynchon – Vineland

roman uit 1990
Nederlandse vertaling: Vineland
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Vineland, a zone of blessed anarchy in northern California, is the last refuge of hippiedom, a culture devastated by the sobriety epidemic, Reaganomics, and the Tube. Here, in an Orwellian 1984, Zoyd Wheeler and his daughter Prairie search for Prairie’s long-lost mother, a Sixties radical who ran off with a narc…lees verder >

Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged roman uit 1957Ayn Rand – Atlas Shrugged

roman uit 1957
Nederlandse vertaling: De kracht van Atlantis
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Opening with the enigmatic question ‘Who is John Galt?’, Atlas Shrugged envisions a world where the ‘men of talent’ – the great innovators, producers and creators – have mysteriously disappeared. With the US economy now faltering, businesswoman Dagny Taggart is struggling to get the transcontinental railroad up and running. For her John Galt is the enemy, but as she will learn, nothing in this situation is quite as it seems…lees verder >

J.D. Salinger The Catcher in the Rye roman uit 1951J.D. Salinger – The Catcher in the Rye

coming of age-roman uit 1951
Nederlandse vertaling: De vanger in het graan
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
The Catcher in the Rye is an all-time classic coming-of-age story: an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind…lees verder >

James Salter A Sport and a Pastime reviewJames Salter – A Sport and a Pastime

Amerikaanse roman uit 1967
Nederlandse vertaling: Spel en tijdverdrijf
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
A Sport and a Pastime is a seductive classic that established James Salter’s reputation as one of the finest writers of our time. It is remarkable for its eroticism, its luminous prose and its ability to explore the boundaries between what is dreamt and what is lived, between body and soul…lees verder >

Leslie Marmon Silko Ceremony Indiaanse roman uit 1977Leslie Marmon Silko – Ceremony

native American roman
Nederlandse vertaling: Ceremony
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Tayo, a young Second World War veteran of mixed ancestry, is coming home. But, returning to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation, he finds himself scarred by his experiences as a prisoner of war, and further wounded by the rejection he finds among his own people. Only by rediscovering the traditions, stories and ceremonies of his ancestors can he start to heal, and find peace…lees verder >

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith 1943 novel first editionBetty Smith – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

1943 Brooklyn novel
Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
The Nolan family are first-generation immigrants to the United States. Originating in Ireland and Austria, their life in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn is poor and deprived, but their sacrifices make it possible for their children to grow up in a land of boundless opportunity. Francie Nolan is the eldest daughter of the family. Alert, imaginative and resourceful, her journey through the first years of a century of profound change is difficult – and transformative…read on >

The Mountain Lion Jean Stafford Novel from 1947 first editionJean Stafford – The Mountain Lion

coming of age-roman uit 1947
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Ralph and Molly are inseparable siblings: united against the stupidity of daily routines, their prim mother and prissy older sisters, the world of adult authority. One summer, they are sent from their childhood home in suburban Los Angeles to their uncle’s Colorado mountain ranch, where they write, hunt, roam. But this untamed wilderness soon becomes tainted by dark stirrings of sexual desire…lees verder >

Wallace Stegner Angle of Repose review en recensieWallace Stegner – Angle of Repose

westernroman uit 1971
Nederlandse vertaling: De fundamenten van ons leven
Winnaar Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1972
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
An iconic novel of the American West — a deeply moving narrative of one family and the traditions of the past. Lyman Ward is a retired professor of history and author of books about the Western frontier, who returns to his ancestral home of Grass Valley, California, in the Sierra Nevada. Living with a debilitating bone disease, he embarks on a search of monumental proportions, as he strives to rediscover the life of his grandmother – now long dead…lees verder >

The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein novel from 1925 first editionGertrude Stein – The Making of Americans

roman uit 1925
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Gertrude Stein sets out to tell “a history of a family’s progress,” radically reworking the traditional family saga novel to encompass her vision of personality and psychological relationships. As the history progresses over three generations, Stein also meditates on her own writing, on the making of The Making of Americans, and on America…lees verder >

John Steinbeck – The Grapes of Wrath

roman uit 1939
Nederlandse vertaling: De druiven der gramschap
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗∗ (uitmuntend)
Shocking and controversial when it was first published, The Grapes of Wrath is Steinbeck’s Pultizer Prize-winning epic of the Joad family, forced to travel west from Dust Bowl era Oklahoma in search of the promised land of California. Their story is one of false hopes, thwarted desires and powerlessness…lees verder >

John Steinbeck East of Eden roman uit 1952John Steinbeck – East of Eden

roman uit 1952
Nederlandse vertaling: Ten oosten van Eden
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
East of Eden was considered by Steinbeck to be his magnum opus, and its epic scope and memorable characters, exploring universal themes of love and identity, ensure it remains one of America’s most enduring novels…lees verder >

Wallace Thurman – The Blacker the Berry

Harlem Renaissance roman uit 1929
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
One of the most widely read and controversial works of the Harlem Renaissance, and the first novel to openly address prejudice among black Americans and the issue of colorism, The Blacker the Berry is a book of undiminished power about the invidious role of skin color in American society…lees verder >

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocense novel from 1920 first editionEdith Wharton – The Age of Innocence

roman uit 1920
Waardering redactie∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Nederlandse vertaling: De jaren van onschuld
The return of the beautiful Countess Olenska into the rigidly conventional society of New York sends reverberations throughout the upper reaches of society. Newland Archer, an eligible young man of the establishment is about to announce his engagement to May Welland, a pretty ingénue, when May’s cousin, Countess Olenska, is introduced into their circle. The Countess brings with her an aura of European sophistication and a hint of scandal, having left her husband and claimed her independence…lees verder >

Edith Wharton The Glimpes of the Moon first edition from 1922Edith Wharton – The Glimpses of the Moon

roman uit 1922
Waardering redactie: ∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Inhoud roman: Nick Lansing and Susy Branch are young and attractive, but penniless. Gracefully moving through New York high society, they have the right connections but none of the wealth. When they inconveniently fall in love, Susy devises a plan. They will marry and spend a year flitting across Europe, staying in the homes of their rich friends and living off honeymoon gifts until either one of them meets a better, richer prospect…lees verder >

Marguerite Young Miss MacIntosh, My Darling review en recensieMarguerite Young – Miss MacIntosh, My Darling

roman uit 1968
Waardering redactie: ∗∗∗∗ (uitstekend)
Inhoud roman: This novel is one of the most ambitious and remarkable literary achievements of our time. It is a picaresque, psychological novel—a novel of the road, a journey or voyage of the human spirit in its search for reality in a world of illusion and nightmare. It is an epic of what might be called the Arabian Nights of American life. Marguerite Young’s method is poetic, imagistic, incantatory; in prose of extraordinary richness she tests the nature of her characters—and the nature of reality…lees verder >


Bijpassende boeken en informatie

Afbeelding bovenzijde: E, Robertson (Unsplash)

Eshani Surya – Ravishing

Eshani Surya Ravishing review and information of the content of the debut novel by the Indian American writer. Grove Atlantic will publish the first Eshani Surya novel, on November 11, 2025. 

Eshani Surya Ravishing review

  • “Ravishing is a marvel of a debut that hums with the ache of becoming—a place where even the mirror is a battleground and every shimmer of beauty carries the weight of longing: for love, for a face we can call our own, and for a world less cruel. Surya expertly reminds us that even though the body remembers grief and abandonment, there can also be a chance to bloom.” (Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author)
  • “This debut is thoughtful in its handling of tricky themes of identity, belonging, and, perhaps most compellingly, the intersection of wellness culture and chronic illness. Surya handles this latter with unflinching—even discomfiting—clarity. A speculative take on the all-too-real rot at the heart of the beauty and wellness industry.” (Kirkus Reviews)
  • “How far will you go to keep running from yourself? Eshani Surya’s Ravishing takes this question to new heights, conjuring a dazzling dystopia even as it points a hard finger at our present. You will never look in the mirror the same way again.” (Mira Jacob, author)

Eshani Surya Ravishing

Ravising

  • Author: Eshani Surya (United States)
  • Book type: debut novel
  • Publisher: Grove Atlantic
  • Released: 11 November 2025
  • Length: 320 pages
  • Format: hardback / ebook
  • Prize: $ 28.00
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the debut novel by Eshani Surya

A provocative, razor-sharp novel about two Indian American siblings caught in the clutches of a beauty tech company, Ravishing is an incisive portrait of a predatory industry and its dangerous ability to capitalize on our deepest insecurities. Full of heart and vulnerability, Eshani Surya’s dazzling debut shines a light on the dark enticements of wellness culture and the ill-fated pursuit of perfection.

For teenage Kashmira, it’s painful to look in the mirror; she has her father’s face, and every feature is a reminder of his abandonment. When a friend introduces her to Evolvoir, a beauty product that changes users’ features, Kashmira is quickly seduced by its ability to erase the triggers of her grief. Meanwhile, at Evolvoir corporate, Kashmira’s estranged brother Nikhil sees the product as an opportunity to make a difference, but is quickly mired in complicity as reports surface of severe side effects in some users. As Kashmira becomes more dependent on the escape the product offers, she is hospitalized with inexplicable symptoms and must negotiate the constraints of her new reality, while Nikhil uncovers a vicious truth that forces him to decide where his loyalties lie.

Deftly excavating the repercussions of living in white spaces, and fearlessly examining the realities of what it means to live with chronic illness,

Eshani Surya is a chronically ill South Asian writer living in Philadelphia. She holds an MFA from the University of Arizona, and is a 2022 Asian Women Writer’s Workshop mentee, a 2022 Kenyon Review Writer’s Workshop scholarship recipient, and a 2021 Mae Fellowship recipient. Ravishing is her first book.

Matching books

Jennifer Niven – Meet the Newmans

Jennifer Niven Meet the Newmans review and information of the content of the novel by the American writer. MacMillan will publish the new Jennifer Niven novel, on January 15, 2026. 

Jennifer Niven Meet the Newmans reviews

  • “This story of a famous fiction TV family in 1960’s America and their subsequent unravelling is as thoughtful as it is entertaining. The writing thrums with energy, and the characters feel wholly believable. Definitely a recommend from me.” (Jennie Godfrey, author of The List of Suspicious Things)
  • Very unique and cleverly written. A big fat family drama and huge slice of social history in the 1960s when life for each family member pivots, attitudes are challenged and relationships are tested. This family is like a simmering pot on the stove, waiting to boil over. And when it does, it’s a recipe for drama.” (Jo Thomas, author of Love in Provence)

Jennifer Niven Meet the Newmans

Meet the Newmans

No family is perfect

  • Author: Jennifer Niven (United States)
  • Book type: American novel
  • Publisher: Pan Macmillan
  • To be released: 15 January 2026
  • Length: 400 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook / audiobook
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the new Jennifer Niven novel

Los Angeles, 1964.

For two decades, Del and Dinah Newman and their sons, Guy and Shep, have ruled television as America’s Favourite Family. Millions of viewers tune in every week to watch them play flawless, black-and-white versions of themselves. But now the Sixties are in full swing, and the Newmans’ perfection suddenly feels woefully out of touch.

Ratings are in free fall, as are the Newmans themselves. Del is keeping an explosive secret from his wife, and Dinah is slowly going numb. Steady, stable Guy is hiding the truth about his love life, and rock ‘n’ roll idol Shep may finally be in real trouble.

When Del is in a mysterious car accident, Dinah decides to take matters into her own hands. She hires Juliet Dunne, an outspoken young reporter, to help her write the final episode. But Dinah and Juliet have wildly different perspectives about what it means to be a woman, and a family, in 1964 America.

Can Dinah Newman bring her family together to change television history? Or will she be cancelled before she ever had the chance?Maybe it’s time for perfection to fall out of style…

Jennifer Niven was 14 May 1968 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ze is an American author of thirteen books, fiction and nonfiction, including All the Bright Places, which she also adapted for film. Her award-winning books have been translated into more than seventy-five languages and have sold upward of 3.5 million copies worldwide. Jennifer has loved television and film her whole life and has been lucky enough to develop projects with Netflix, Sony, ABC and Warner Bros. She divides her time between coastal Georgia and Los Angeles with her husband and literary cat.

Matching books

Sara Levine – The Hitch

Sara Levine The Hitch review and information of the content of the novel by the American writer. Roxane Gay Books will publish the new Sara Levine novel, on January 13, 2026. 

Sara Levine The Hitch reviews

  • “I was slobberingly, tail-waggingly delighted to read The Hitch—which is one of the most wildly comedic and unhinged novels I have ever encountered, while at the same time also being deeply relatable and strangely emotionally accurate. Not only was I laughing on almost every page, I was reading parts of it aloud to anybody around me who would listen. Give this book a trophy. It’s perfect.” (Elizabeth Gilbert, author)
  • “A hilarious, madcap novel about our human obsession with getting life “right,” and how the best laid plans can go astray, especially when the dark haunted soul of a corgi gets involved. This is the book I’ll recommend to people as a test of their sense of humor: if they laugh at the corgi, the yogurt crisis, the hero who cannot recognize the obvious even when it’s chewing on her pant leg, then I’ll know we’re destined to be friends.” (Nathan Hill, author)
  • “Sara Levine’s long-awaited follow-up to cult classic Treasure Island!!! does not disappoint: we find in The Hitch a plot as dark and concise as those of Hilary Mantel’s early novels, but propelled by Levine’s signature prose, sharp and hilarious. In this pitch-perfect comedy of manners, Rose, equal parts Thomas Bernhard, Elaine Benes, and health guru, might be too well-informed to make an informed decision, but seeing her try is a true delight. A relentlessly funny novel about loneliness.” (Camille Bordas)

Sara Levine The Hitch

The Hitch

  • Author: Sara Levine (United States)
  • Book type: American novel
  • Publisher: Roxane Gay Books
  • To be released: 13 January 2026
  • Length: 304 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook
  • Prize: $ 27.00
  • Order book from: Amazon

Blurb of the novel by Sara Levine

From the author of the cult classic Treasure Island!!!, a delightfully unhinged comedy following a woman as she attempts to exorcise the spirit of a dead corgi from her nephew and renegotiate the borders of her previously rational world.

Rose Cutler defines herself by her exacting standards. As an anti-racist, Jewish secular feminist eco-warrior, she is convinced she knows the right way to do everything, including parent her six-year-old nephew Nathan. When Rose offers to look after him while his parents visit Mexico for a week, her brother and sister-in-law reluctantly agree, provided she understands the rules—routine, bedtime, homework—and doesn’t overstep. But when Rose’s Newfoundland attacks and kills a corgi at the park, Nathan starts acting strangely: barking, overeating, talking to himself. Rose mistakes this behavior as repressed grief over the corgi’s death, but Nathan insists he isn’t grieving, and the dog isn’t dead. Her soul leaped into his body, and now she’s living inside him. Now Rose must banish the corgi from her nephew before the week ends and his parents return to collect their child.

With the ferocious absurdity of Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch and the dark, brazen humor of Melissa Broder’s Death Valley, The Hitch is a tantalizingly bizarre novel about loneliness, bad boundaries, and the ill-fated strategy of micromanaging everything and everyone around you.

Sara Levine is the author of the novel Treasure Island!!! and the short story collection Short Dark Oracles. Her essays, stories, and aphorisms have appeared in various magazines including The Iowa ReviewNerveConjunctionsNecessary FictionSonora Review, and others. She holds a PhD in English from Brown University and teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Matching books