Akashic Books Ignition: 146 books

From an American Book Award winner, “a poetic thriller . . . A very different and rewarding mystery” (Booklist).   When Puerto Rican ladies’ man Alex awakes one morning to find a mysterious woman in his bed, he assumes he’s suffered another embarrassing blackout. He soon learns, however,...

This detective story set in a dystopian New York stars “a seriously weird dude . . . A good time for fans of the likes of Charlie Huston and Charles Stross” (Kirkus Reviews). Nicknamed Dewey Decimal for his obsessive attempts to bring order to the New York Public Library in the wake of...

Set in Guatemala and based on a true story, “this intriguing literary thriller will appeal to lovers of international crime fiction” (Booklist). Guillermo Rosensweig is a member of the Guatemalan elite, runs a successful law practice, has a wife and kids—and a string of gorgeous lovers....

In an idealistic utopian community in the early twentieth-century West, a father and daughter engage in a battle of wills: “Transcendent.” —Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The House of Broken Angels   Set in a remote stretch of desert near the border of West Texas and Mexico at the turn of the...

A brutal and “fascinating” novel of an American held captive in an asylum in Afghanistan (Stewart O’Nan).   Set in Afghanistan in 2002, No Space for Further Burials is a chilling indictment of the madness of war and our collective complicity in the perpetuation of violence. The novel’s narrator,...

“A vivid portrait of second-generation immigrants . . . Sawhney is pitch-perfect when describing the uneasy relationship between adolescents and their parents.” —The Times Literary Supplement   Siddharth Arora lives an ordinary life in the New England suburb of South Haven, but his childhood...

“[A] diaspora of black culture and strong emotions, bordering the fine line between love and madness between two troubled people.” —Booklist   A prominent Jamaican reggae singer falls in love with an African-American woman while on tour in South Carolina. The two struggle to forge a relationship...

This moody murder mystery set during an overnight train journey in 1950s South America “delights like strong coffee savored in a cosmopolitan cafe” (Publishers Weekly).   In 1952, a train makes its way from La Paz, Bolivia, to the Chilean seaport of Arica. Among the passengers are: a businessman...

A winner of the prestigious poetry award named for the Nobel laureate Octavio Paz—in a special bilingual edition featuring English and Spanish translations. These poems were written during days spent clearing river debris while the author was living along the Hudson River in Manhattan. They...

A young man stumbles into danger in his Brooklyn neighborhood in this “inspired” crime novel that is “part coming-of-age story, part thriller” (Entertainment Weekly).   In working-class Bay Ridge, Michael drives for a car service and gives lifts to his father, a former sanitation worker and...

The international bestselling author of The Corsican delivers “a carefully constructed and evocative Civil War-era tale.” —John Lutz, New York Times–bestselling author When Johnny Came Marching Home is a mystery, a love story, and William Heffernan’s best book to date. The novel tells...

Short stories featuring “crimes of passion, politics, and perversity,” set in this tumultuous South American city (Publishers Weekly). It is a city of contradictions and chaos; crude, transitory violence, the lack of law and order, the ubiquitously hurled insult, the thunderous boom of...

One man sees an atomic apocalypse coming—and tries to warn the world—in this novel with “a sly, Hitchcockian touch”from an Edgar Award finalist (Publishers Weekly).   High on a mesa in the mountains of New Mexico, a small town hides a dreadful secret. On a morning very soon there will be...

“James Baldwin meets Aldous Huxley” in this “highly original” speculative fable (Chicago Tribune). Nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Fiction In a post-human world, creatures called oafs keep humanlike “mans” as beloved pets. One day, a poor boy oaf brings home...