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The Most Anticipated Books of 2011

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More from Mark Medley | @itsmarkmedley

Waiting for Sinterklaas, in Amsterdam

When a band is ready to drop a new album, they’ll usually leak a single months in advance, giving their fans a taste of what’s in store. With a movie, a slickly-edited trailer might be released a year in advance, building a deafening amount of buzz. Films have the benefits of cool posters, too. Books, on the other hand, have few options to drum up interest ahead of time. Sure, there’s been the emergence of the book trailer in recent years, but they sometimes do more harm than good. The release of the book’s cover ahead of time might be one way to draw attention, but it’s often difficult to glean much just from that. A book’s synopsis will let us know what the book is about, but won’t tell us if it’s any good. An excerpt is probably the best way to build  hype, but with the dwindling numbers of magazines publishing fiction, any sneak peak will reach a limited number of readers.

No, when it comes to new books, it’s all about gut instinct. Does the book sound cool? Did you enjoy the author’s last work? With that in mind, here’s what we’re looking forward to in the first part of 2011:

JANUARY

While Mortals Sleep by Kurt Vonnegut (Delacorte Press) — Since his death in 2007, three posthumous collections of Vonnegut’s writing have appeared: Armageddon in Retrospect, Look at the Birdie, and now While Mortals Sleep, which collects sixteen unpublished short stories written by a very young Vonnegut. We’ll read anything with Vonnegut’s name on it, though perhaps there’s a reason these remained unpublished during his lifetime. Dave Eggers, who writes the book’s introduction, calls Vonnegut “a hippie Mark Twain.” Far out. January 25.

The Beggar’s Garden by Michael Christie (HarperCollins Canada) — This skateboarder-turned-scribe releases his buzzed-about debut short story collection. These nine linked stories follow an odd assortment of characters (from crack heads and car thieves to bank managers and mental patients) as they live, work, and love in Vancouver’s infamous Downtown Eastside. A writer to watch. January 25.

The Quiet Twin by Dan Vyleta (HarperCollins Canada) — Vyleta, a German-born Canadian writer, achieved international acclaim on the strength of his debut novel, Pavel & I. Set in Nazi-occupied Vienna, his follow-up, The Quiet Twin, is about a young forensic psychologist named Anton Beer who is asked to investigate a spate of unsolved murders centered around one apartment building. January 25.

FEBRUARY

Scenes From An Impending Marriage by Adrian Tomine (Drawn & Quarterly) — A new book from renowned cartoonist Adrian Tomine (author of Shortcomings and Summer Blonde) is always a cause for celebration. His latest, though, is a bit different. This cute little volume began life as a gift to everyone who attending his nuptials. The perfect engagement gift. February 1.

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Knopf) — Russell established her name at a very young age with the short story collect St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, which was published in 2006. One of the stories in that collection, Ava Wrestles The Alligator, is the basis for her debut novel, Swamplandia!, about a 13-year-old girl named Ava Bigtree who is left to care for her family’s aging alligator-wrestling theme park in the Florida Everglades after her mother dies and her father disappears. February 1.

A Widow’s Story by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco) — In the tradition of Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, this memoir explores how we cope with loss. In early 2008, her husband of nearly half a century, the noted publisher and editor Ray Smith, passed away unexpectedly. I’ve only read the recent (devastating) excerpt in The New Yorker, but that was enough to place this book near the top of my list. February 15.

The Water Rat of Wanchai by Ian Hamilton (House of Anansi Press) — The venerable Toronto publisher launches its ambitious Spiderline crime fiction imprint with The Water Rat of Wanchai, the first in a massive new series following the adventures of Ava Lee, a young forensic accountant. In the first installment Ava journeys from Toronto to Hong Kong to the British Virgin Islands in search of a missing $5 million. If you like this, you won’t have to wait long for a sequel: The Disciple of Las Vegas comes out in July. February 19.

• When The Killing’s Done, by T.C. Boyle (Viking) –The ever-prolific American writer T. Coraghessan Boyle returns with this tale of nature-gone-wild on an island off the coast of California. February 22.

MARCH

The Blue Light Project by Timothy Taylor (Knopf Canada) — Taylor, an award-winning author (Stanley Park; Story House) and journalist delivers his much-anticipated third novel, The Blue Light Project, which combines the stories of a washed-up investigative journalist at the centre of a hostage taking, an Olympic gold medalist, and a reclusive street artist. March 1.

• Mid-Life, by Joe Ollman (Drawn & Quarterly) — This much-anticipated graphic novel tells the story of a middle-aged man who has a child with hiss much-younger wife and the lonely children’s performer he befriends. March 1.

The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht (Random House) — The story of a young doctor working at a remote orphanage in the Balkans who is investigating the strange circumstances surrounding her grandfather’s recent death intersects with the story of an escaped tiger who terrorizes a village during the Second World War. Obreht was the youngest writer on The New Yorker’s much-publicized “20 Under 40” list of writers to watch, and that was before she’d even published a single book. Does she live up to the hype? March 8.

• Underground, by Antanas Sileika (Thomas Allen) — The director of Toronto’s Humber School for Writers publishes his third novel, about two members of the underground Lithuanian resistance movement during the mid 1940s. March 26

The Free World by David Bezmozgis (HarperCollins Canada) — Bezmozgis, author of the stellar debut short story collection Natasha and Other Stories, was only one of two Canadian authors (the other being Rivka Galchen) on The New Yorker’s “20 Under 40” list. His first novel examines the plight of the Krasnansky family, a brood of Russian Jews, as they attempt to start a new life in Rome after escaping through the Iron Curtain. March 29.

Folk, by Jacob McArthur Mooney (McClelland & Stewart) — This talented young Canadian poet returns with his sophomore collection, Folk, which is partly about the Swiss Air 11 crash off the coast of Peggy’s Cove in 1998. March 29.

APRIL

Better Living Through Plastic Explosives by Zsuszi Gartner (Hamish Hamilton Canada) — Though she has only published one collection of short stories — 2000’s All The Anxious Girls on Earth — Vancouver’s Zsuzsi Gartner is already one of our foremost practitioners of the form. April 5.

• Methodist Hatchet, by Ken Babstock (House of Anansi) — Babstock, a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2007, releases a much-anticipated new collection. April 9.

The Pale King by David Foster Wallace (Little, Brown and Company) — Carefully assembled from an unfinished novel by his longtime editor Michael Pietsch, The Pale King is the final, posthumous novel from the post-modern genius. Fittingly, it is about a man named David Foster Wallace who goes to work at the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, Illinois. This is perhaps the year’s most anticipated book. April 15.

• Monoceros, by Suzette Mayr (Coach House Books) — The suicide of a young, gay man reverberates through his high school, affecting the odd assortment of students and teachers that roam within its halls. April 15.

Beggar’s Feast by Randy Boyagoda (Viking Canada) — This regular National Post contributor follows-up his Giller Prize-nominated debut, Governor of the Northern Province. This multi-generational saga follows a Sri Lankan shipping magnate named Sam Kandy from his small village in turn-of-the-century Ceylon to Australia and Singapore and back again. April 19.

The Great Night by Chris Adrian (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux) — Adrian is perhaps the writer with the most well-rounded education in America (he went to medical school, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and Harvard Divinity School) and a Guggenheim Fellow to boot. He’s also an incredibly talented and moving writer, evident by his two novels (Gob’s Grief and The Children’s Hospital) and one collection of stories (A Better Angel). His newest novel is a retelling of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but set in San Francisco. April 26.

MAY

The Meagre Tarmac, by Clark Blaise (Biblioasis) — Blaise’s first collection of stories in nearly 20 years explores he lives of several generations of Indo-Americans in post-9/11 America. May 1.

Dogs at the Perimeter, by Madeleine Thien (McClelland & Stewart) — Thien’s new novel tells the story of a woman, who years earlier escaped from a Cambodian prison camp during the Khmer Rouge regime, as she searches for her neurologist friend. May 3.

• Pulse, by Julian Barnes (Random House of Canada) — A new collection of stories from the author of History of the World in 10-and-1/2 Chapters and Flaubert’s Parrot. May 3.

• The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary, by Andrew Westoll (HarperCollins Canada) — Westoll established himself as one of the country’s best young journalists when The Riverbones was published in 2008. His latest chronicles his time volunteering in a facility for retired chimps. May 3.

Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul by David Adams Richards (Doubleday Canada) — Richards returns with his first novel since The Lost Highway, described as “an intricate story about the miscarriage of justice in the case of one man”s death in a shipping yard in New Brunswick in 1985.” May 11.

The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick DeWitt (House of Anansi) — DeWitt, a Canadian transplant now living in Portland, publishes a literary Western about a pair of outlaw brothers, Eli and Charlie Sisters, tracking down a man named Hermann Kermit Warm in 1850s California. This one looks ridiculously cool. May 14.

Paying For It, by Chester Brown (Drawn & Quarterly) — Brown’s first graphic novel since his acclaimed Louis Riel, Paying For It is a partly autobiographical exploration of the world’s oldest profession. May 29.

The Forgotten Waltz, by Anne Enright (McClelland & Stewart) — Not much is known about this new novel from the winner of the 2007 Man Booker Prize for The Gathering. May 31.

BEYOND

Adam Gopnik delivers this year’s Massey Lectures, which should be out in October; we’re intrigued by the sounds of Lynn Coady’s latest book, The Antagonist; David Cronenberg’s debut novel may finally see the light of day; the first part of IQ84, by Haruki Murakami, finally gets translated into English, as does Michel Houellebecq’s new novel The Map and the Territory; Booker Prize-winning Aravind Adiga publishes Last Man in Tower; James Frey returns with the sure-to-be-controversial Final Testament of the Holy Bible; plus, new novels from Zadie Smith, Guy Vanderhaeghe, David Davidar, and (rumour has it) Michael Ondaatje.

Topics:

Books Videos

Where I Belong, by Alan Doyle

“In a flawless transition from lyrical to prose, Doyle entertains with a great East Coast coming of age story.”

The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan

“Harrowing & poetic at the same time. Not for the faint of heart. I loved this book and couldn’t get it out of my mind when it was finished.”

Sweetland, by Michael Crummey

“Humorous at times, heartbreaking at others, Sweetland manages to capture the rugged, difficult life endured by so many Newfoundlanders.”

Elizabeth is Missing, by Emma Healey

“A little mystery, a little bit sad, a little poignant and completely lovable. Beautifully written and just a lovely read.”

@npbooks on Twitter
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