Hello again, FWR friends. Welcome to the latest installment of our “First Looks” series, which highlights soon-to-be released books that have piqued my interest as a reader-who-writes. We publish “First Looks” here on the FWR blog around the 15th of each month, and as always, I’d love to hear your comments and your recommendations of forthcoming titles. Please drop me a line anytime: erika(at)fictionwritersreview(dot)com, and thanks in advance.

Next, early June will bring the U.S. release of another debut novel: Francesca Segal’s The Innocents. Billed as a recasting of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence—but set within a modern-day London Jewish community—this one hits many of my readerly and writerly interests: reworkings of classics I’ve loved, Jewish literature, and the international accent.
P.S. In keeping with the internationalist focus: If you missed my recent reviewlet covering Anne Korkeakivi’s debut novel The Unexpected Guest (set mainly in Paris), now is a perfectly fine moment to read it.
Further Reading and Resources:
- Watch and listen: Patrick McGuinness recently visited Villanova University and read from his work there.
- Courtesy of The Man Booker Prize: a Reader’s Guide (PDF) for The Last Hundred Days.
- Listen to Francesca Segal read from The Innocents.
- Read Francesca Segal’s Granta essay, “In My Father’s Footsteps,” about her father, author Erich Segal.