Editors’ Choice

11 New Books We Recommend This Week

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First novels rate highly among our offerings this week, from Matthew Klam’s “Who Is Rich?” to a debut by the Nigerian author Ayobami Adebayo that drew raves from Michiko Kakutani. Globe-trotting types might want to pick up Andrew Sean Greer’s “Less” or Lynn Freed’s “The Last Laugh,” both tales of transformation that happen overseas. And Patricia Highsmith, the author of “Strangers on a Train” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” stars as the subject of “The Crime Writer,” a novel by Jill Dawson that plays with the conventions of noir and suspense to blur the lines between reality and imagination. Is it all in your head? Read and find out.

Radhika Jones, Editorial Director, Books

DYING: A Memoir, by Cory Taylor. (Tin House Books, $18.95.) In her short, electrifying memoir, Taylor — who died last year at age 61 — grapples with cancer, regret and her determination to take control of her own death. Our critic Jennifer Senior wrote: “‘Dying’ is bracing and beautiful, possessed of an extraordinary intellectual and moral rigor. Every medical student should read it. Every human should read it.”

STAY WITH ME, by Ayobami Adebayo. (Alfred A. Knopf. $25.95.) This debut novel is a portrait of a marriage in Nigeria beginning in the politically tumultous 1980s. Through her two narrators, Yejide (the wife) and Akin (the husband), Adebayo explores the tensions between the personal and political, between tradition and modernity, and community and individual identity. Michiko Kakutani, in her last review before stepping down as chief book critic, wrote: “Adebayo, who is 29, is an exceptional storyteller. She writes not just with extraordinary grace but with genuine wisdom about love and loss and the possibility of redemption.”

CHOKEHOLD: Policing Black Men, by Paul Butler. (New Press, $26.95.) A law professor and former federal prosecutor argues in this provocative book that releasing prisoners who are not dangerous would free up resources to combat the segregated poverty that underlies our criminal justice system.

LESS, by Andrew Sean Greer. (Lee Boudreaux/Little, Brown, $26.) On the eve of his 50th birthday and a former lover’s wedding, a mediocre novelist takes refuge in literary invitations that enable him to travel around the world. The novel is smart, humane and laugh-out-loud funny.

THE RETREAT OF WESTERN LIBERALISM, by Edward Luce. (Atlantic Monthly, $24.) Luce, a columnist for The Financial Times, employs fluid prose and telling statistics to argue that the tradition of liberty and democracy, and by extension the open international and economic system that has characterized the Western world since 1945, is under mortal threat. Though his focus is on the West’s decay, he also acknowledges the challenge from rising powers in Asia.

THE ANSWERS, by Catherine Lacey. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26.) Funny, eerie and idea-dense, Lacey’s novel features a woman hired by a team of researchers to perform the transactions that make up a romantic relationship for a famous actor. She is “Emotional Girlfriend,” bound to affirm his opinions and text him often. Whether this division of labor is a trick, a game or simply a narcissistic form of self-indulgence is unclear until the novel’s satisfying end.

WHO IS RICH?, by Matthew Klam. Illustrated by John Cuneo. (Random House, $27.) Klam’s first book, a story collection titled “Sam the Cat,” was published 17 years ago to rapturous reviews. “Who Is Rich?” is his much anticipated first novel. The protagonist of this new novel, a middle-aged illustrator, is a conflicted adulterer. Klam agilely balances an existentially tragic story line with morbid humor and self-assured prose.

LIGHTS ON, RATS OUT: A Memoir, by Cree LeFavour. (Grove, $25.) This gritty account of a woman’s struggle with self-abuse describes nearly gothic suffering. It is also a love story about a dedicated and gifted analyst and his difficult but equally gifted patient. Courageous and unsettling, LeFavour’s memoir is infused with humor and wry insight as well as pain.

THE LAST LAUGH, by Lynn Freed. (Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25.) Three friends, nearing 70, decide to spend a year in Greece in this darkly, mordantly funny novel. There they encounter sexy locals and their angry wives, while people from their pasts keep turning up, reminding them (and readers) that aging doesn’t necessarily translate into a life of peace and quiet.

HOUSMAN COUNTRY: Into the Heart of England, by Peter Parker. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30.) “A Shropshire Lad,” A. E. Housman’s best-known work, is a cornerstone of English popular verse and has stayed in print since its first publication in 1896. This critical biography attributes Housman’s contemporary popularity to his ability to evoke a timeless countryside while England was becoming increasingly urban.

THE CRIME WRITER, by Jill Dawson. (Harper Perennial, paper, $15.99.) Dawson’s novel uses the life of the writer and celebrated misanthrope Patricia Highsmith to probe the territory between reality and fantasy that so fascinated her. Told in both the first- and the third-person, it is full of postmodern fun.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page 23 of the Sunday Book Review with the headline: Staff Picks From the Book Review. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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