Wild seas and alien wonder: Get carried away with January’s best books

The Waters, by Bonnie Jo Campbell

Bonnie Jo Campbell is one of the chief practitioners of Midwestern Gothic, and the National Book Award finalist’s first novel in a dozen years is reason to rejoice. “The Waters” is an indelible portrait of rural Michigan and the women tough enough to live there, with writing so evocative it practically sprouts in your hands. Lush, brackish, and bracing, “The Waters” is not so much read as steeped in.

Wild and Distant Seas, by Tara Karr Roberts

This inventive historical novel is spun from a minor female character in “Moby-Dick.” Melville’s narrator, Ishmael, and his sidekick, Queequeg, are served chowder in Mrs. Hussey’s inn before they sail off on the Pequod with Captain Ahab. Ishmael’s short stay has lasting ramifications on the lives of the innkeeper and her female descendants.

The Curse of Pietro Houdini, by Derek B. Miller

Sheltering in a hilltop abbey southeast of Rome, a maverick and a 14-year-old orphan hatch a plan to save the abbey’s priceless paintings from the Nazis. Even as the pair endure war’s horrors, they refuse to abandon their crusade. Derek B. Miller delivers an irresistible story of defiance. 

My Friends, by Hisham Matar

A teenager leaves his cherished family in Libya to pursue higher education at the University of Edinburgh. Protesting against the Qaddafi regime results in exile from his homeland. Hisham Matar provides insights into life under revolution and in exile. 

Beautyland, by Marie-Helene Bertino

Adina, a human-looking alien growing up in 1980s Philadelphia, adores astronomer Carl Sagan. “He is looking for us!” she enthuses to her otherworldly superiors in a one of many life-on-Earth dispatches. Adina navigates human childhood while her single mom, unaware of her daughter’s true identity, struggles to keep them afloat. 

The Wharton Plot, by Mariah Fredericks

In this mystery set in early 20th-century New York City, Edith Wharton, the arch, imperious novelist of “The House of Mirth” takes center stage. When an American writer gets shot, Edith agrees to shepherd his finished manuscript to publication. Censorship, corruption, and class privilege brush up against jealousy and regret in Mariah Fredericks’ pitch-perfect tale.

The Survivors of the Clotilda, by Hannah Durkin

Historian Hannah Durkin’s gripping account uncovers the stories of the 110 enslaved people kidnapped from what is now modern-day Nigeria and forced onto the last slave ship to transport captives to America. The Clotilda landed in Alabama months before the start of the Civil War; Durkin, with a focus on its female survivors, compellingly reconstructs their lives post-emancipation.

Our Enemies Will Vanish, by Yaroslav Trofimov

Yaroslav Trofimov, the Ukrainian-born chief foreign affairs correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, spent the early days of the war in Ukraine watching as ordinary citizens turned what looked like a certain defeat into a stalemate that inspired the world. Told with empathy and sensitivity, the story is both heartbreaking and inspiring.

The MAGA Diaries, by Tina Nguyen 

Political journalist Tina Nguyen uses her own coming-of-age story to explain how conservatives play the long game by providing intellectual training and professional guidance to young people. Her chronicle is entertaining yet unsettling.

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here, by Jonathan Blitzer

Jonathan Blitzer traces the roots of the immigration crisis back to what he terms America’s misguided Cold War-era interventions in El Salvador and Guatemala. The author’s powerful, compassionate account highlights individual stories, creating an epic portrayal of migration’s human stakes.