The 20 Best New Books to Read in March

The beloved Mallory Ortberg — cofounder of The Toast and advice columnist for Slate's Dear Prudence — returns to fiction with the follow-up to 2014's Texts From Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations With Your Favorite Literary Characters, The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror. It's a weird, wild, and absolutely addicting collection of stories that will leave you breathless — and once you're finished, it will have more than earned a permanent spot on your bedside table.

Out March 13

Uzodinma Iweala's long-awaited follow-up to Beasts of No Nation — the book behind the critically acclaimed 2015 film — does not disappoint and is by far one of the most riveting books I've read so far this year. Speak No Evil traces a young man's reckoning of the privilege he's been born into and the sexuality that he can no longer keep repressed — and the toll it takes on not just his own journey to adulthood, but that of his best female friend. It's a story that will stay with you long after you turn the last page and should be seen as essential reading in 2018.

Out March 6

The stories in Ramona Ausubel's Awayland are galactic in scope, massive in scale, and universal in their flawless execution. From Mars to the streets of the Midwest, Ausubel tackles modern mythology in a way that is utterly original and endless fascinating — and, at the end of the day, it just might teach you something about yourself.

Out March 6

Will Mackin's first collection of stories, Bring Out the Dog, is not just one hell of a stunning debut — it's also proof that Mackin is one to watch going forward. Drawing from notes he took while working in special operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the stories illuminate the human condition in unimaginable, haunting ways — and bring to life a voice that is unlike any other in the modern canon.

Out March 6

Kirstin Chen's Bury What We Cannot Take is an incredibly moving exploration of family and identity, one that's set against a backdrop that we don't often hear about but which is infinitely fascinating: Maoist China. Heartbreaking and intricate, you'll be driven forward by Chen's prose from the very start.

Out March 20

Jesse Ball's Census tells the story of a widower who has just been told his days are numbered and the journey he takes with his adult son — who has Down syndrome and faces an uncertain future — in the time they have left together. Emotionally riveting and shot through with the most pressing issues of our time, Ball's exploration of humanity in modern America is not to be missed.

Out March 6.

Shobha Rao's entrancing debut, Girls Burn Brighter, tells the story of two women who grew impossibly close as children but have begun separate lives as adults — and how the connection they share is destined to bring them together, no matter what the circumstances they find themselves in might be.

Out March 6.

A fascinating look at culture, family, and the roots that ground us to one another; Luis Alberto Urrea's The House of Broken Angels may be set around a 100-year-old's birthday party, but it reaches into every area of modern American life.

Out March 6

Jon Pineda's Let's No One Get Hurt is a modern coming-of-age story centered on the American South, and there's no doubt that it's destined to be on reading lists for years to come.

Out March 20

Cult-favorite Lynn Tillman's latest novel, Men and Apparitions, takes readers for a rollicking, frolicking, outstandingly original ride that explores the roots of feminism, the death of masculinity, and the cultural identities we've gleaned along the way, all while making us question everything we've ever known and taken for granted.

Out March 13

My Dead Parents began as an anonymous Tumblr, evolved into a viral Buzzfeed story, and with the publication of Anya Yurchyshyn's memoir — well, the story of how one woman sought out her parents' history is bound to become one of those stories we talk about forever.

Out March 27

Nafkote Tamirat's The Parking Lot Attendant may take place within the Ethiopian community in Boston, but the coming-of-age story that unfolds is as universal as any and certainly more stirringly intricate and original than most.
Out March 13

Alan Hollinghurst's The Sparsholt Affair traverses nearly an entire century, exploring the evolution of mankind and the human condition as portrayed through the relationship between sons and fathers.
Out March 13

Charming, witty, and perfectly fast-paced, Chelsey Johnson's Stray City examines the modern family through the lens of one extraordinarily quirky family out of Portland, OR.

Out March 20

A fast-paced thriller that will keep you hooked until the very end, Christine Mangan's Tangerine is already set for a film adaptation — and with Scarlett Johansson as the lead, you just know it's got to be good.

Out March 27

The Astonishing Color of After is a moving, original tale set around a woman searching her homeland for the mother that she lost to a suicide — whom she is certain has come back as a bird. Wide-ranging and utterly unforgettable, Emily X.R. Pan's depiction of the search for one's identity will leave you with shivers.

Out March 20

The Gunners is Rebecca Kauffman's stunningly original, painstakingly beautiful second novel, and it's one that tackles the friends you held in the past and the future that no longer seems promising, all seen through the eyes of a man struggling with macular degeneration.

Out March 20

Elizabeth Acevedo is an award-winning slam poet and The Poet X is her first novel in verse: in other words, you won't read anything this original all year. Get yourself a copy immediately and lose yourself in one woman's powerful and oh-so-poignant truths.

Out March 6

A timely, telling look at rape culture on campus, Sarah Henstra's The Red Word boldly goes to the places where memoir can't but fiction can — and gives way to one hell of a realistic narrative.
Out March 13

With Whiskey and Ribbons, Leesa Cross-Smith mixes past and present, grief and victory, and men and women in a way that only a master storyteller can. From beginning to end, you'll be on the edge of your seat waiting to see what comes next.

Out March 6