20 new books to read in June

We’re in the heat of summer which means there’s no shortage of great books to tear through on those lazy beach days. Click through for brilliant fiction, eye-opening memoirs, bracing thrillers, and a few powerful queer stories perfect for Pride month. (And click the release dates for pre-orders.) —Additional reporting by Isabella Biedenharn and Clark Collis

These lush short stories were inspired by the Fates and Furies author’s own complex feelings about motherhood — and living in Florida. “I think fiction comes out of ambivalence,” Groff explains to EW. “You have this passionate love [for something], and an equal and opposite feeling of distrust or danger.” (June 5)

At long last, South Korea’s preeminent author of psychological thrillers has arrived stateside. The Good Son is her first novel to be translated in English, and it’s a perfect introduction: an ingeniously twisted mother-son saga that keeps your heart pumping — and then breaks it. (June 5)

This sweet, sensitive romance resembles a gender-flipped Pretty Woman. A woman living with Asperger’s Syndrome hires an escort to give her a crash-course in all things love-making, but discovers much more in the process. (June 5)

The inventive, award-winning author completes her unconventional Outline trilogy with this brilliant novel, about a female writer whose trip to Europe leads to provocative and revelatory self-examination. (June 5)

Thomson, author of nine novels including the celebrated Secrecy and The Insult, returns with a rich and sweeping story of forbidden love: a romance between two women living in pre-WWI France, whose lives tangled in most unexpected ways. (June 5)

Mystery and murder cloud this feminist story set in the heart of Los Angeles’ art scene. When an avant-garde artist goes missing on the day of her groundbreaking exhibition opens, the story spins out in many provocative directions. (June 5)

White, a rising queer fiction writer, wows with this dreamy, spooky short story collection which tackles themes of sexuality and masculinity in the American South. The best of the book may be its very first entrant, snapshotting the lives of a widow and her late husband’s lover and tracing the moment they unexpectedly converge. (June 5)

A profound investigation of Native American life in Oakland, There There follows a dozen characters, each on their own complicated path — a newly sober woman hoping to win back her family, a man trying to honor his late uncle’s memory — and brings them together in a grand finale at a huge community gathering. (June 5)

It’s been a long time since Lydia Millet published her Pulitzer-finalist short story collection, Love in Infant Monkeys, but the wait is finally over. Fight No More interweaves various tales that center on a lonely real estate broker working in the heart of wealthy Los Angeles. (June 12)

Founding Simpsons writer Reiss offers a funny and factoid-filled glimpse behind the curtain — or, brown couch — of the beloved sitcom. It’s not entirely perfect (see: a tin-eared defense of Apu) but offers a surprising view of Springfield you’ve never heard before. (June 12)

How’s this for a mash-up? Knecht’s novel is a slow-burn espionage thriller, a complex treatment of queer identity, and an immersive period piece all rolled into one delectable page-turner. Moving between grimy ‘60s New York and sparkling Argentina, and tracing one woman’s simultaneous CIA recruitment and sexual awakening, Vera Kelly introduces a fascinating new spy to literature’s mystery canon — one we hope sticks around long beyond this snappy, intimate debut. (June 12)

The Vanity Fair writer spent years researching and tracking the lives of President Trump’s children, and this juicy memoir that’s sure to make headlines is the result of that work. (June 19)

Dion’s wise debut asks compelling questions about memory and grieving, as a widower’s nostalgia over the life he built with his wife is challenged by his daughter. His eyes are soon opened to a stunning realization. (June 19)

This isn’t Makkai’s first novel, but it is her most ambitious yet. The time-shifting epic juxtaposes the journeys of a gay man in 1980s Chicago losing friends to AIDS and a woman in contemporary Paris searching for her estranged daughter. It asks big questions about redemption, tragedy, and connection. (June 19)

In this sweet, nuanced memoir, revered historian Painter recounts her late-in-life (and post-retirement) decision to earn a BFA and MFA in painting, and how getting an up-close view to all things art changed her life. (June 19)

This paranormal thriller (by a former EW staffer!) follows two friends who are separated after one is kidnapped, and then reappears years later with no memory of what happened. As the two friends struggle with the repercussions, Providence delves into what the author describes as “the supernatural power of love and the monsters we become when luck isn’t on our side.” (June 19)

This psychological thriller explores the mysteries surrounding a family still reeling from profound tragedy, and the terrifying uncertainty that meets their relocation in a distant country manor. (June 19)

One of the month’s most hyped debuts, about a doping professional cyclist (sound familiar?) and his brilliant scientist wife, has already generated raves from the likes of George Saunders and Mary Karr. (June 19)

2018 has already brought plenty of twisted, gripping thrillers about marriage, but be sure to leave room for Sacks’ searing first novel. A picture-perfect family leading picture-perfect lives in Sweden is gradually, unnervingly unpeeled. (June 19)

Rosenberg, a professor of queer studies, makes his mark with an ambitious, thought-provoking novel. There’s a lot to Confessions: It explores everything from gender identity to mass incarceration, moves between centuries, and even features footnotes. But stick with it and you’ll find yourself immersed, and maybe even changed. (June 26)