In 2022, Dan Saltzstein ’95 went viral with a tweet asking, “New Yorkers: what’s the most New York thing that’s ever happened to you?” The responses have inspired That’s So New York: Short (and Very Short) Stories About the Greatest City on Earth (Chronicle Books). Some stories in this volume are written by Saltzstein himself—a deputy editor at The New York Times—while others come from Molly Jong-Fast, Michael Ian Black, Alexander Chee, Josh Gondelman and more. Also featured are tales from bartenders, “Kids Who Love the Subway” and other everyday residents, as well as illustrations by Emily Carpenter.
A Gothic mystery and 2024 Edgar Award finalist based on actual 19th-century events, Jennifer Cody Epstein ’88’s The Madwomen of Paris (Ballantine Books) centers on a friendship between two women in the infamous Salpêtrière asylum. One of them, diagnosed with hysteria, may have committed a gruesome crime—or have her memories been manipulated by the doctor in charge? Epstein’s earlier novels include Wunderland and The Gods of Heavenly Punishment, which received a 2014 Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association Honor Award. She has written for such outlets as McSweeney’s and The Wall Street Journal.
“The princess is fake. The murders are real,” says the tagline for The Princess of Las Vegas (Doubleday), the latest thriller from bestseller Chris Bohjalian ’82. Cabaret performer Crissy Dowling has built a career and an adoring fanbase by impersonating Diana Spencer. She finds herself entangled in the dangerous world of cryptocurrency and organized crime when her estranged sister comes to town and a casino owner turns up dead. Bohjalian’s many previous novels include The Lioness and The Flight Attendant, which has been adapted into a hit series on Max.
Illustration by Fernando Cobelo