10 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in April

Teenage sisters Eve and Vera are spending summer vacation in the Arctic, tagging along on their single mom’s scientific expedition. In Siberia with a bunch of biologists, the girls are just bored enough to cause trouble, and accidentally discover a perfectly preserved, 4,000-year-old baby mammoth. The discovery sets off a surprising chain of events, leading the sisters and their mother to go rogue, traveling from Siberia to Iceland to Italy, and resulting in the birth of a creature that could change the world.

When Leah meets Charlie in line at the grocery store, their attraction is immediate and intense. Charlie is older than Leah but lives with his parents, meets up with a friend at odd hours of the night, sleeps a lot and always seems to be coming down with something. He confesses that he's a recovering heroin addict, but he promises Leah that he's never going to use again. Still, Leah's friends and family are concerned. Even when Charlie's behavior becomes increasingly erratic, Leah can't help but feel that what exists between them is destined. I Could Live Here Forever, Halperin’s second book (after Something Wild) is about a woman's relationship with an addict, fraught with compassion and codependence, and her enduring search for love.

In this debut essay collection, comedian, New Yorker contributor and self-described ex-bible-belter Zach Zimmerman reflects on atheism, navigating queerness, mourning the loss of religiosity and more. Whether learning to absolve religious guilt or remembering Tinder dates gone horribly wrong, Is It Hot in Here (or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth)? is a funny and candid look at the author's journey toward making peace with the past and seeking hope in the future.

Anthony Chin-Quee is a board-certified otolaryngologist (an ear, nose and throat surgeon). As a self-described "not white, mostly Black and questionably Asian man," Chin-Quee grew up in a family with a background of depression and struggled with relationships, feelings of inadequacy and a fear of failure. To repair that, he began an unflinching examination of what it means to be both a physician and a Black man today, and by sharing stories from his life and career in this debut memoir, set out to learn how the truth can help you to forgive yourself and others as you chart a new way forward.

From the New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls, The Only Survivors is a gripping thriller about a group of former classmates. A decade ago, vans filled with high school seniors on a school service trip crashed into a ravine, killing multiple classmates and teachers. The nine students who managed to escape the river that night were irrevocably changed and bonded together, vowing to come together each year to commemorate that terrible night every year. But on the tenth anniversary, things are different. One of the survivors has died, another is working to distance herself from the group and a third is acting strange before disappearing. Will each remaining survivor do whatever they can to save one another, just as they promised years earlier?

The unnamed narrator of Tiffany Clarke Harrison’s debut novel is a 34-something half-Black, half-Japanese woman—a gifted photographer and teacher who’s struggling with infertility. As she navigates her own ambivalence about motherhood, a boy in her photography class is the victim of police brutality. Confronted by the grief of a recent miscarriage and Noah's fight for his life, she no longer wants to bring a Black child into the world. Her husband Asher, who’s white and Jewish, is just as desperate to keep trying. Then, she finds out she’s pregnant, forcing her to decide what she wants the future to look like.

In this latest from Curtis Sittenfeld (Rodham, Prep), Sally Milz is a late-night sketch comedy writer. She’s long abandoned the search for love, but gets annoyed when her friend and fellow writer begins dating a glamorous actress who guest-hosted the show, joining the group of talented but average-looking men who've gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Then, Sally meets Noah, a pop star signed on as both host and musical guest for this week's show. The two hit it off, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, Sally begins to wonder if there might actually be sparks flying.

When three best friends spent a summer in Greece, no one imagined only two would return home after the death of the third. Ten years later, the two surviving friends, Bess and Joni—who were cleared of having any involvement in the death—are on different paths. Opportunistic Joni has capitalized on her infamy to become a motivational speaker, while Bess has decided to make her life as small and controlled as possible. Now, Joni is tangled up in a crime eerily similar to that fateful night in Greece, and when she asks Bess to come back to L.A. to support her, Bess has to decide if it’s finally time to face up to what happened and expose herself as the young woman she once was—and maybe still is.

In 2018, Des Linden became the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon in 33 years. The Olympian’s career has always been defined by tenacity and an independent spirit, and her debut memoir centers on how she trains, how she thinks, her relationships with other great runners of her generation and how much she values her family and friends. Plus, of course, what makes her get up and run every day.

For fans of We Are the Brennans and All Adults Here, Cat Shook's debut novel is the witty and heartwarming story of a secret that sends shockwaves through the Williams family. When Gerry, the beloved patriarch, dies suddenly, his family returns to their home in Georgia. But when Gerry's best friend delivers his eulogy, he drops a bombshell. The children, grandchildren and cousins, left reeling and confused, try to get a handle on their grief and various private dramas, from recent heartbreaks and stints on The Bachelorette to reigniting old flames.