“Here is my mother, with wings instead of hands, and feathers instead of hair. Here is my mother, the reddest of brilliant reds, the color of my love and my fear, all of my fiercest feelings trailing after her in the sky like the tail of a comet.”
—The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
Confession: An awkward part about having a book come out is needing to do things like this very letter—shine the spotlight on myself. Promotion doesn’t come naturally for me, and it doesn’t always feel good. I started writing because I loved what books did to me: They shook me. They electrified me. They changed me. So every letter I’m going to share a current debut novel I admire that may shake and electrify and change you. The first debut I'm choosing could only be The Astonishing Color of After.
When I first read the opening pages of The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan, I remember the distinct tingle of awareness running up my spine. I knew I was holding something special in my hands. I knew it from the opening scene in which Leigh believes that her mother, who died by suicide, has come back, inexplicably, in the form of a red bird. The story plunges the wilds of emotion and every color on the spectrum from there. The Astonishing Color of After is an extraordinary debut novel at turns magical and strange and gutting and hopeful and vividly alive. It's the kind of book that makes me love words and want to sit down at my desk to write, in acknowledgment.
It's available now, so if you haven’t read it yet, you should go grab a copy at your closest indie bookstore, library, or other bookseller.
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3.
Upcoming Events & News
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A Room Away from the Wolves comes out Sept. 4, 2018. New Yorkers, save the date for my launch event on pub day at McNally Jackson (Prince Street) on Tuesday, Sept. 4, at 7pm.
You can also find me here in the coming weeks:
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Wed., May 30: SLJ's Day of Dialog, NYU Kimmel Center, New York, NY
Fri., June 1, 1:00-2:00pm: BookExpo In-Booth Signing of A Room Away from the Wolves (Algonquin/Workman Booth 2007), New York, NY
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Sat., June 2, 2:00-3:00pm: BookCon In-Booth Signing of A Room Away from the Wolves (Algonquin/Workman Booth 2007), New York, NY
Details about ALA Annual in New Orleans coming.
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A Room Away from the Wolves comes out in September, but someone here has the chance to read it early!
I'll choose one subscriber, by the intuitive magic of randomness, after Thursday, May 17 at 11:59pm Eastern to win a *signed* advance reading copy of the book. Keep an eye on your email inbox, as it may very well be you! New subscribers must be signed up by the cut-off time in order to win.
If you're on Instagram, I'm also giving away a signed ARC there. Check out the giveaway on this post.
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A Room Away from the Wolves
by Nova Ren Suma
coming Sept. 4 from Algonquin
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Bina has never forgotten the time she and her mother ran away from home. Her mother promised they would hitchhike to the city to escape Bina’s cruel father and start over. But before they could even leave town, Bina had a new stepfather and two new stepsisters, and a humming sense of betrayal pulling apart the bond with her mother—a bond Bina thought was unbreakable.
Eight years later, after too many lies and with trouble on her heels, Bina finds herself on the side of the road again, the city of her dreams calling for her. She has an old suitcase, a fresh black eye, and a room waiting for her at Catherine House, a young women’s residence in Greenwich Village with a tragic history, a vow of confidentiality, and dark, magical secrets. There, Bina is drawn to her enigmatic downstairs neighbor Monet, a girl who is equal parts intriguing and dangerous. As Bina’s lease begins to run out, and nightmare and memory get tangled, she will be forced to face the terrible truth of why she’s come to Catherine House and what it will take for her to leave . . .
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