Fish Tales, by Nettie Jones, is a lost classic taking its rightful place in the spotlight – a mesmerizing spin through the high-rolling high times of 1970s New York and Detroit.
Literary LitStackers, listen up! Another beauty is in presale now. This one is a reissue of a classic almost-lost novel. Publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux invites readers on a journey into Fish Tales, a new reissue of the novel by Nettie Jones. Almost lost, but now considered a work of profound literary exploration, the novel provides a reading experience sure to resonate with discerning readers. Here’s the cover, and publisher’s words, and advance reader praise on the reissue. Consider Fish Tales a literary must own and pre-order today.
Presales are a crucial indicator of a book’s potential success. Presales generate buzz and excitement before a book hits the shelves. Strong presale numbers translate to increased visibility, higher initial print runs, and a greater range of exposure. A high volume of presales signals to bookstores that a book is in demand, leading to better placement and more prominent displays. Ultimately, robust presales can significantly boost a book’s overall performance and reach a wider audience. Buy a presale now to support the author.
In This Spotlight On Fish Tales
About Fish Tales
Lewis Jones is a party girl for the ages. Confident and cavalier, she seeks freedom and a good time, leaving mayhem in her wake. Strutting between the bohemian demimonde of New York City and the affluent Black community of Detroit, she is supported in her adventures by her husband, Woody, and accompanied by her friend Kitty-Kat, a gay hustler with impeccable style and a knack for finding all the best spots.
She guzzles champagne, snorts piles of cocaine, wakes up on silk sheets with a variety of lovers. And then she is upended by the handsome, erudite, often cruel Brook—a man who has his own bevy of admirers. Soon, Lewis and Brook are ensnared in a struggle for dominance that launches them into a shock of violence.
A bold exploration of the blurred line between love and control, pleasure and addiction, Fish Tales offers a glittering, devastating portrait of a woman’s pursuit of her own kind of freedom. It is a striking deluge of longing, anxiety, ego, identity, and love. As provocative as it is moving, as profane as it is artful, Nettie Jones’s Fish Tales illuminates the warring forces of power, desire, intimacy, and fear, and exposes the raw nerve of our yearning to be loved on our own terms.
Praise for Fish Tales
A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of 2025
A novel of desire, pleasure, drugs and sex….We’ll all be better for it having been rediscovered.”—Emily Firetog, Literary Hub (Most Anticipated Books of 2025)
“Fish Tales is a fast, fearless book, told in snatches, and so full of life it practically vibrates in your hands. The fashion, the rollicking orgies, the sex, the coke, the bubbles, the queens, the most head-spinning combination of tenderness and toxicity—it ought to have been the sensation of its time. Thank heavens for the revival of Fish Tales; thank heavens for the fierce vision of Nettie Jones.”—Justin Torres, author of Blackouts
“Fish Tales is candid, fast, and alive. Nettie Jones renders everything as its own particular organism—cities, relationships, and of course the body and its grotesque eroticism.”—Raven Leilani, author of Luster
“Fish Tales is wondrous and outrageous, real and incandescent and alive. A genuine treasure.”—Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal
“Nettie Jones writes about sex, yearning, money, and friendship like nobody’s business. So much truth, hurt, and humor permeate this slim, enthralling novel, such that many of Jones’s observations about the nature of power and desire feel written for today. Fish Tales will certainly dazzle you, and it might even scandalize you, but it never tells a lie.”—Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House
About Nettie Jones, Author of Fish Tales
Nettie Jones is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Award, a Yaddo Foundation fellowship, a Michigan Council for the Arts grant, a New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study Student Choice Award, and a Carnegie Fund for Authors grant. Fish Tales, her debut novel, was first acquired by Toni Morrison, who was then an editor at Random House, and it was originally published in 1984. The New York Times named Jones a promising new novelist in 1985. Her second novel, Mischief Makers, was published in 1989. Her essays and short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies.
Source: Publisher
Publisher: macmillan publishers | Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 9780374608804
Pub Date: Apr 15, 2025
Other Recommended Titles
Other LitStack Resources
Be sure and check out other LitStack Spotlights that shine a light on books we think you should read.
As a Bookshop, Malaprop’s, BAM, Barnes & Noble, Audiobooks.com, Amazon, and Envato affiliate, LitStack may earn a commission at no cost to you when you purchase products through our affiliate links.
