Eating Ashes, by Brenda Navarro, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell (Liveright). In this grief-ridden novel, a nameless narrator mourns the loss of her younger brother Diego. When they are children, their mother leaves the two of them in Mexico City, where they live in poverty, to go to Madrid, in hopes of improving their circumstances. Nine years later, the siblings finally go to join their mother, but find themselves marginalized and still poor. Avoiding melodrama, Navarro writes in a matter-of-fact tone, using short, clipped sentences suited to the wretchedness of her subject. This is a book that treats its characters and incidents seriously and—at its best—ruthlessly.
The Infamous Gilberts, by Angela Tomaski (Scribner). This droll yet mournful début novel, set in 2002, is constructed as a tour of a grand English manor on the occasion of its surrender to “hotel people.” At every stop, the narrator, Max, relates events—marriage, death, banishment—that precipitated the downfall of its last owners, the Gilbert family. Mysteries emerge: Why are there bloodstains all over one room’s floor? And what is Max’s connection to the family? He teases these questions while encouraging the reader to submit to the story’s melancholy. As he says in the estate’s pet cemetery, “Linger awhile. Linger, linger. Absorb a little pain.”