It's time for our annual roundup of CHP titles that made headlines in 2019. Take a moment to browse these award winners and list makers, and add anything you missed to your 2020 reading list. Here's to another great year (and decade) of books!
Fiction
The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán, trans. Sophie Hughes
Shortlisted for the 2019 International Booker Prize
“A lyrical evocation of Chile’s lost generation, trying ever more desperately to escape their parents’ political shadow.”
Kirkus, “Best Fiction in Translation of 2019”
“Thanatofiction at its best and a debut that leaves the reader wanting more.”
Los Angeles Times, “An authoritarian leader's shadow looms over a weary country in ‘The Remainder’”
“Truly stunning, full of deft turns of phrase, and shines especially bright when unwinding Felipe’s melodic monologues.”
Song for the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson
The New York Times, “Best Horror Fiction”
“Missing persons, paranoia and psychosis . . . the kind of writer who leads you into the labyrinth, then abandons you there. It’s hard to believe a guy can be so frightening, so consistently.”
The Washington Post, “Best Horror Fiction of the Year”
“Enigmatic, superbly rendered slices of fear, uncertainty and paranoia.”
Reinhardt's Garden by Mark Haber
Longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel
The Millions, “Most Anticipated of 2019”
“Haber, who has been called 'one of the most influential yet low-key of tastemakers in the book world,' is about to raise it up a level with the debut of his novel.”
Jakarta by Rodrigo Márquez Tizano, trans. Thomas Bunstead
Translated Lit, “Most Anticipated Titles of 2019”
The Millions, “Most Anticipated of 2019”
“Tizano fashions an original, astonishing, and terrifyingly unhinged dystopia. . . . Thomas Bunstead adds to an impressive resumé with a seamlessly literary and peppery translation from the Spanish.”
I Hotel, Tenth Anniversary Edition, by Karen Tei Yamashita
The Nation, “In the Shadow of the I Hotel”
“The extraordinary testimony of a revolutionary past. . . . I Hotel is crammed with detail, with real-life pamphlets, speeches, quotes, and news reports humming and crackling in the background. The whole thing makes for an astonishing, and carefully structured, collage of both local and global movement.”
Nonfiction
Socialist Realism by Trisha Low
Kim Gordon recommends Socialist Realism in GQ
Autostraddle, “Best Queer Books of 2019”
“In this genre-blending book-length essay, Trisha Low combines politics, art criticism, memoir, speculation, and interrogation of America’s casual racism, sexism, and homophobia. Is there somewhere better? Where can you find home? Low knows there may not be answers.”
When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back: Carl's Book by Naja Marie Aidt, trans. Denise Newman
Finalist for the 2019 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction
“This book is an alchemical feat, giving shape to the most profound sense of absence. A stirring, inventive masterpiece of heartbreak.”
Longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature
Longlisted for the 2020 PEN Translation Prize
Literary Hub, Best Memoirs of the Decade
Poetry
Mitochondrial Night by Ed Bok Lee
T Magazine, Actor Colman Domingo reads “Summer Open Window”
BookRiot, “50 Must-Read Poetry Collections of 2019”
“Using lush, exact imagery, whether about the corner bar or a hilltop in Korea, Lee is a careful observer, tracking and documenting the way that seemingly small moments can lead to larger insights.”
Still Making Headlines
Indecency by Justin Phillip Reed
Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry
Entertainment Weekly, “12 brilliant new collections to read this National Poetry Month”
Not Here by Hieu Minh Nguyen
Winner of the 2019 Publishing Triangle Thom Gunn Award
Good Stock, Strange Blood by Dawn Lundy Martin
Winner of the 2019 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award
After the Winter by Guadalupe Nettel, trans. Rosalind Harvey
Longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award
Comemadre by Roque Larraquy, trans. Heather Cleary
Longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award
Spectra by Ashley Toliver
Finalist for the 2018 Believer Book Award