The books to read in April

For this month's reading recommendations, we can choose to follow a dystopian world where love is not considered, the story of a mouth, a dozen girls in fragments of their lives, or what happens to four sisters when one of them is no longer there.

The books to read in April

Vanishing World – Sayaka Murata

If I had to describe Sayaka Murata through an image, it would be that of a clean, sterile house—perfectly ordinary—yet with a blood-stained knife hidden in a drawer: the Japanese author questions whether this unsettling element is, in fact, society itself. Coming out on April 16th for Edizioni E/O, Vanishing World envisions a future where artificial insemination has advanced to the point that everyone reproduces this way. Given this premise, what happens to sex and love? Known for writing Convenience Store Woman, all of Murata’s books are published in Italy by E/O.

The Blue Sisters – Coco Mellors

A year and a half ago, our social media feeds were flooded with an oil painting of a blonde woman with an inquisitive gaze—the cover of Cleopatra and Frankenstein, the debut novel by British writer Coco Mellors. The author is set to make a return to our feeds: her second book, The Blue Sisters, will be released in Italy on April 8th by Einaudi, in the Stile Libero Big collection. While love and addiction were explored through a dysfunctional romance in her first novel, the second book delves into a very different kind of love: the bond between three sisters grieving the loss of their fourth, who died in an accident. Mellors has often been compared to Sally Rooney, albeit unjustifiably—an expectation placed upon all young female authors rather than a true resemblance. She has stated that her inspirations for depicting family relationships include Wes Anderson’s film The Royal Tenenbaums and writer Jonathan Franzen.

Send Nudes – Saba Sams

A short story collection is often the perfect way to determine whether to dive into an author’s work—like a series of first dates with limited time. Hitting bookstores on March 18th, Send Nudes by Saba Sams, published by Mondadori, is an excellent first encounter. In ten stories, the British author explores women, their bodies, and the bodies of those around them: a butcher’s daughter meets a man on Tinder, a young woman juggling studies and a bar job befriends a peer, a twelve-year-old seeks admiration from her stepsister’s older friend.

Pathemata. Or, the Story of My Mouth – Maggie Nelson

Set for release on April 11th by Nottetempo, Pathemata is an exploration of physical pain, the everyday, and grief. The American author uses chronic jaw pain as a narrative device—often a symptom of something else: anxiety, nervousness, silent illnesses. What happens when we analyze this pain? This book serves as the second panel in a diptych that began in 2008 with Bluets—published in Italy at the end of 2023 by Nottetempo—where Nelson used the discipline of numbered fragments (240) to explore love, loss, and loneliness through the color blue.