With so many great books being published every month, some literary titles worth exploring can get lost in the stacks. Page One offers the first lines of a dozen recently released books, including Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma and Reading the Waves by Lidia Yuknavitch.
“Growing up, I despised the metronome, / its insistence on orderly time, the lie.” We Contain Landscapes (Tin House, March 2025) by Patrycja Humienik. First book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Alyssa Ogi. Publicist: Becky Kraemer.
“The pale ones have returned, their skin the dull pink of the early sun on snow.” Waiting for the Long Night Moon (Catapult Books, February 2025) by Amanda Peters. Second book, first story collection. Agent: Marilyn Biderman. Editor: Alicia Kroell. Publicist: Megan Fishmann.
“The prophet knew / I could be deported.” Cold Thief Place (Alice James Books, March 2025) by Esther Lin. First book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Carey Salerno. Publicist: Genevieve Hartman.
“Be strong-willed to upset your mother, except when she is sad, in which case, rub her back in silence as she stares out the window, like she does to you during the boring parts of Sunday morning service.” Thank You for Staying With Me (University of Nebraska Press, March 2025) by Bailey Gaylin Moore. First book, essay collection. Agent: None. Editor: Courtney Ochsner. Publicist: Tayler Lord.
“Standing in the shade of the deserted station, I awaited the arrival of a visitor whose face had half-vanished.” The Place of Shells (New Directions, February 2025) by Mai Ishizawa, translated from the Japanese by Polly Barton. First book, novel. Agent: None. Editor: Tynan Kogane. Publicist: Mieke Chew.
“There was this immigrant man, the landlord told me, Indian, like you, who came to this country around the time of the First World War and wanted to become a citizen.” Optional Practical Training (Graywolf Press, March 2025) by Shubha Sunder. Second book, first novel. Agent: Sarah Burnes. Editor: Yuka Igarashi. Publicist: Claire Laine.
“—Toward some maybe future book: A straight progression off what / happened.” The Figure Going Imaginary (Copper Canyon Press, March 2025) by Marianne Boruch. Seventeenth book, first hybrid memoir. Agent: None. Editors: Claretta Holsey and John Pierce. Publicist: Ryo Yamaguchi.
“Outside, the rain hammered down, relentless in its intensity.” Marginlands: A Journey Into India’s Vanishing Landscapes (Milkweed Editions, February 2025) by Arati Kumar-Rao. First book, nonfiction. Agent: Mita Kapur. Editor: Daniel Slager. Publicist: Morgan LaRocca.
“On Boxing Day, in Rome, after taking a comfortable walk to the Piazza del Popolo, followed by a stroll through the Villa Borghese, and then back to the apartment, I had a fall.” Shattered (Ecco Press, February 2025) by Hanif Kureishi. Nineteenth book, third memoir. Agent: Sarah Chalfant. Editor: Helen Atsma. Publicist: Cordelia Calvert.
“With what sex will you meet me, / if hotheaded Orpheus ignored me / and Eurydice was an idle streetwalker?” What Sex Is Death? (University of Wisconsin Press, February 2025) by the late Dario Bellezza, translated from the Italian by Peter Covino. Twenty-third book, fifteenth poetry collection. Agent: None. Editors: Sean Bishop, Jesse Lee Kercheval, and Dennis Lloyd. Publicist: Alison Shay.
“The American girl had done some real damage.” Casualties of Truth (Atlantic Monthly Press, February 2025) by Lauren Francis-Sharma. Third book, third novel. Agent: Victoria Sanders. Editor: Peter Blackstock. Publicists: Justina Batchelor and Kimberly Burns.
“This is not a hero’s journey, or a traditional memoir, though travel and memory and storytelling are all in these pages.” Reading the Waves (Riverhead Books, February 2025) by Lidia Yuknavitch. Twelfth book, second memoir. Agent: Rayhané Sanders. Editor: Jake Morrissey. Publicists: Sarah Jean Grimm and Glory Anne Plata.
