Interviews, my reading life

Valley of the Moms by Hannah Selinger is a thriller very much rooted in place

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Valley of the Moms by Hannah Selinger is a thriller very much rooted in place

Hannah Selinger is the author of the memoir Cellar Rar: My Life in the Restaurant Underbelly and a James Beard Award-nominated writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Eater, Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, and elsewhere. Now, her debut novel has arrived on bookshelves, bringing her sharp eye for power, class, and human behavior into the world of fiction.

Valley of the Moms is a sharp, twisty thriller set in an affluent Massachusetts suburb where school politics can be as vicious as any crime. When Anna Plummer challenges an exclusionary PTO policy, she inadvertently sets off a chain of events that culminates a year later with her death and her husband’s determination to uncover what really happened. Told through alternating timelines and perspectives, the novel explores grief, privilege, social status, and the secrets that lurk beneath the polished surface of a seemingly idyllic community.

We asked Selinger to answer our recurring My Reading Life so readers could get to know the books that shaped her life and influenced her writing.

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Interviews, my reading life

Fancy Meeting You author Louise Marburg wishes she had read Our Bodies, Ourselves as a teenager

by AdamLeave a Comment on Fancy Meeting You author Louise Marburg wishes she had read Our Bodies, Ourselves as a teenager
Fancy Meeting You author Louise Marburg wishes she had read Our Bodies, Ourselves as a teenager

Louise Marburg‘s debut novel, Fancy Meeting You, follows Laura Harrigan, a middle-aged woman whose life is built on a foundation of carefully crafted lies. Depending on the audience, Laura is a psychiatrist, a business consultant, or the mother of Yale-bound twins, but in reality she’s single, childless, underemployed, and spending many of her evenings at a Baltimore dive bar. Over the course of her fiftieth year, Laura navigates awkward family gatherings, questionable romances, and unexpected friendships, forcing her to reckon with who she is beneath the stories she tells. Funny, sharp, and unsentimental, the novel offers a fresh take on midlife reinvention through a heroine who is neither seeking marriage nor motherhood, but her own version of fulfillment.

Marburg is an acclaimed short story writer whose previous collection received reviews in The New York Times and The Washington Post. At age sixty-five, Fancy Meeting You marks her debut novel.

We asked Marburg to answer our recurring My Reading Life series so readers could get to know the books that shaped her life and influenced her writing.

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book list, Recommendations

Seven Novels About Trips Gone Wrong Recommended by Vincent Chu

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Seven Novels About Trips Gone Wrong Recommended by Vincent Chu

The fantasy of leaving home for a faraway place has always held my imagination. As a boy, I dreamed of running away from our comfortable home to find new joys in the woods behind the Safeway. As an adult, I’ve twice sold my furniture and moved overseas. In novels, we know that when a character leaves for a trip, things are bound to go sideways. Still, there are levels to it, and it’s those travel novels that don’t just surprise, but unravel into something wholly bizarre and subversive and painfully human, that I love and come back to.

In my debut novel, Nice Places, a thirty-something named Georgie decides to travel the world for one year to escape the “daily existential discomfort” of his conventional life. But before he can even make it to the airport, a meditation guru robs him and he finds himself at a guesthouse in the bad part of his city, just miles from home. With only his phone and an unexpected community of guests and locals, his trip quickly takes a turn.

Here are some of my favorite novels that also feature trips going wrong.

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Interviews, my reading life

F. Scott Fitzgerald is Debut Author Haili Blassingame’s Literary Daddy

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F. Scott Fitzgerald is Debut Author Haili Blassingame’s Literary Daddy

Haili Blassingame’s debut novel, They All Fall in Love at the End, follows Cat St. Clair, a twenty-four-year-old writer trying to balance an open relationship, artistic ambition, and the chaos of the 2024 election. What begins as a quest for freedom and self-determination spirals into a complicated love triangle involving her boyfriend’s best friend and his girlfriend, forcing Cat to confront the consequences of pursuing everything she wants. Set against a backdrop of political tension and creative uncertainty, the novel explores nonmonogamy, desire, identity, and the challenge of imagining new possibilities for love and liberation.

Blassingame is a producer for NPR’s 1A and has written for publications including The New Republic and The New York Times, where her Modern Love essay “My Choice Isn’t Marriage or Loneliness” went viral. She previously worked on NPR’s Code Switch and Weekend Edition and is pursuing an MFA in creative writing from American University.

We asked Blassingame to answer our recurring My Reading Life so readers could get to know the books that shaped her life and influenced her writing.

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Interviews, my reading life

P.C. Verrone read through all of Toni Morrison while writing Rabbit, Fox, Tar

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P.C. Verrone read through all of Toni Morrison while writing Rabbit, Fox, Tar

P.C. Verrone’s debut novel, Rabbit, Fox, Tar, is a fable-like story about a mysterious young Black woman whose arrival in a tightly knit neighborhood threatens to unravel its foundations. When Baby appears in Original Hill and begins a romance with the ambitious Lucius “Lucky” Foote, her presence upends a contentious city council race and intensifies long-simmering tensions over a Black neighborhood destroyed decades earlier to make way for a highway. As Baby becomes entangled in the lives of the community’s residents and begins questioning her origins, the novel explores race, power, belonging, memory, and the stories communities tell about themselves.

Verrone’s work has appeared in FIYAH, PodCastle, Nightmare, and numerous anthologies. He has been a Tin House Resident, a Playwrights’ Center Fellow, and a WNDB Black Creatives Revisions Workshop winner.

We asked Verrone to answer our recurring My Reading Life so readers could get to know the books that shaped his life and influenced his writing.

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News

See the cover for Hafa Adai by E.E. Hussey

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See the cover for Hafa Adai by E.E. Hussey

E.E. Hussey is a Philippine-born writer and professor whose work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, PANK, and elsewhere. She has received support from Goodyear Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, the Virginia G. Piper Center, Tin House, and the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference. Currently, she lives in North Carolina. 

Hussey’s debut novel, Hafa Adai, explores sisterhood, identity, and death. It will be published by Curbstone Books/Northwestern University Press on January 15, 2027, and is available for pre-order now.

Debutiful is honored to reveal the cover of Hafa Adai, designed by Morgan Krehbiel, along with a Q&A with Hussey about its creation.

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Interviews

Boyhood, Bruce, and Boots: Steven Pfau Discusses Say Nephew

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Boyhood, Bruce, and Boots: Steven Pfau Discusses Say Nephew

When I received my galley of Steven Pfau’s Say Nephew: On Boyhood, Unclehood and Queer Mentorship. I was really excited to read it. Book covers are my love language, so when I saw the cover of Steven’s book, I thought, This is going to be a good read. I chatted with Steven over Zoom about being under the tutelage of his loud, humorous, and swagger-filled Uncle Bruce. We chatted about nephews, guncles, and cowboy boots. 

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