Svetlana's Reads and Views

  Title of the book: Salt Lakes; An Unnatural History  Author: Caroline Tracey  Publisher: W.W. Norton Publishing Date: 2026 ISBN: 978-1-324-08902-5 Summary: An acclaimed young nature writer’s intimate exploration into the history and imperiled future of these neglected–but–crucial ecosystems. Salt lakes are some of the world’s most extraordinary ecosystems, but nearly all of them—from the Great Salt Lake to the Aral Sea—are drying up, a harbinger of dust storms, rising sea levels, and worsening human health. In this dazzling love letter to strange and delicate waters and a moving odyssey into her own identity, Caroline Tracey takes readers across the American West and to Mexico, Argentina, and Kazakhstan to document salt lakes, their loss, and the efforts underway to save them. She explores how the lakes have reflected the fast–changing natural world through Mormon diaries, Soviet realist novels, and Australian Aboriginal paintings. And she unravels the lakes’ less...

  Name of Book: The Silent Period ( original: Il periodo del silenzio)  Author: Francesca Manfredi (trans Ekin Oklap) ISBN: 978-1-324-10609-8 Publisher: W.W. Norton Type of book: Italy, social media detox, silence, no talking, invisible, erasure, city, noise, 2020s?, relationships, friendships, projections  Year it was published: 2026 (original 2024)  Summary: A world–weary, disillusioned young woman grapples with the complexities of communication in this arresting novel from Italy’s “new Sally Rooney” (Corriere della Sera). Cristina Martino is 28 and adrift. Underemployed at a university library, she still lives at home with her parents in Turin, in the shadow of her married, affable older sister Elena. One night, as she listlessly scrolls through Instagram, Cristina decides to delete her social media profiles. What is at first a digital detox becomes an act of self– Cristina ceases to speak. While continuing her daily life, she deprives herself of words and ge...

  Name of Book: The Slain Divine Author: David Dalglish  ISBN: 978-0-7595-5716-1 Publisher: Orbit  Part of a Series: Vagrant Gods (THE BLADED FAITH and THE SAPPHIRE ALTAR are prequels)  Type of book: Fantasy, religion, faith, gods, conclusion, secrets, history, destruction, fights, conquer, righting wrongs  Year it was published: 2024 Summary: In the thrilling conclusion to USA Today bestselling author David Dalglish's new epic fantasy trilogy, a usurped prince must master the magic of shadows in order to reclaim his kingdom and his people. The Everlorn Empire's grip on Thanet is tighter than ever. The God-Incarnate himself has arrived on its shores to crush the struggling rebellion and carry out his final, sinister he will sacrifice the entire island in order to rise, reincarnated from its ashes.  The rebellion is struggling to separate allies from enemies, and to figure out a way to stop the slow destruction of everything and everyone they care for. Meanw...

  Name of Book: The End of the Sahara (Nihayat Al-Sahra in Arabic original) Author: Said Khatibi (trans Alexander E. Elinson) ISBN: 978-1-916725-22-5 Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press  Type of book: Algeria, Middle East, Islam, singing,  haram things,  club,  September to October 1988, revolution, movies, mystery, thriller  Year it was published: 2026 (2022) Summary: On an early autumn morning in 1988, on the outskirts of an unnamed Algerian city, a shepherd stumbles upon the lifeless body of Zaza Zaghouani, a stunning nightclub singer who left her hometown seeking a brighter future.  The story is set in 1988 Algeria. It takes place in just forty days, ending as mass protests erupt in the country. In a small town on the edge of the desert, plagued by a locust infestation and a food shortage, teetering on the brink of uprising, the body of Zakia Zaghouani—the singer at the Sahara Hotel—is discovered. Suspicion immediately falls on her lover, who is thrown i...

  Name of Book: The Cut Line ( original Lõikejoon)  Author: Carolina Pihelgas (trans Darcy Hurford)  ISBN: 9781642861624 Publisher: World Editions  Type of book: Estonia, summer, escape, 2020s, abusive relationships, toxicity, family, nature, threat, imminent war with Russia  Year it was published: 2026 (original 2024) Summary: In the dog days of an Estonian summer, Liine flees to the countryside to put a conclusive end to her toxic 14-year relationship. She undergoes every stage of separation in a lone farmstead amid forests. Physical labor and gardening help her withstand her ex-partner’s threats, the incredulity of friends and family, and her own anguish. Dread is pervasive in this novel. Set in the near future, it is filled with vivid depictions of the threat of climate change. All around Liine, nature is facing acute drought and heat. No less menacing is the presence of an expanding NATO base close to the cottage at the Russian border. The world’s largest m...

  Name of Book: Caledonian Road  Author: Andrew O'Hagan  ISBN: 9781324074878 Publisher: W.W. Norton Type of book: Classicism, 2021-2022, performative allyship, gender, parent/child relationships, friends, illegal immigration, LGBtQ+ relationships, art, marijuana, dark web, Eastern European, gang, Robin Hood, technology, elite, downtrodden, death  Year it was published: 2024 Summary: From the author of Mayflies, an irresistible, unputdownable, state-of-the-nation novel - the story of one man's epic fall from grace. May 2021. London. Campbell Flynn - art historian and celebrity intellectual - is entering the empire of middle age. Fuelled by an appetite for admiration and the finer things, controversy and novelty, he doesn't take people half as seriously as they take themselves. Which will prove the first of his huge mistakes. The second? Milo Manghasa, his beguiling and provocative student. Milo inhabits a more precarious world, has experiences and ideas which exc...