The Unwanted is a stunning story of what the most powerless among us will do for dignity and safety.
Literary LitStackers, listen up! Another beauty is in presale now. HarperCollins invites readers on a journey into The Unwanted, a new novel by Boris Fishman. Early indications suggest a work of profound literary exploration. Though details remain carefully guarded, the publisher’s evocative description and the cover art hint at a reading experience sure to resonate with discerning readers. Here’s the advance reader word on the book. Consider The Unwanted a literary must own and pre-order your book today.
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In This Spotlight On The Unwanted
About The Unwanted
Susanna, George, and their eight-year-old daughter, Dina, have been lucky, so far, in these four years since war broke out in their country. Even as their fellow “minority-sect” neighbors and classmates are murdered or imprisoned, George’s loyal work teaching “dominant-sect” literature has kept them fed and protected. But then the day comes: the university fires George—despite his years of collaboration, he is no longer safe. Left without money or allies, it is time for the family to run.
Embarking on a harrowing trip through refugee camps and across the sea, both George and Susanna are forced in their own ways to make sacrifices to keep Dina safe, while Dina fights to understand the chaotic world crashing down around her. But with each member of the family struggling to survive in circumstances beyond their control, lies and betrayals multiply until it seems impossible for any of them to reach across the abyss. The Unwanted is a stunning story of what the most powerless among us will do for dignity and safety.
Praise for The Unwanted
“Breathtakingly propulsive, sweeping in scope, and astoundingly timely, The Unwanted depicts the before, during, and after of a refugee family’s terrifying flight from an unnamed war-torn region. With profound tenderness, the novel depicts its heroine’s hard-fought triumph over brutality in a world teeming with broken people, nations, and promises.”— Ada Calhoun, New York Times bestselling author of Why We Can’t Sleep
“The Unwanted is a tightrope of a novel: tense, precise, stunning in its scope and power.”—Téa Obreht, New York Times bestselling author of The Morningside and The Tiger’s Wife
“The Unwanted is Boris Fishman’s best book yet—one of the best books I’ve read in years, in fact. But don’t call it an allegory. It’s entirely too convincing, too human, and too humane for that. In telling the story of a family pushed to the brink by events and perceptions they can do nothing to alter, Fishman has delivered something truly sophisticated—sophisticated artistically but also morally. A harrowing novel for equally harrowing times.”—Tom Bissell, bestselling author of Creative Types
“Urgently contemporary and prescient in equal measure, Fishman’s The Unwanted channels the spectrum of literature’s finest, emotionally visceral dystopian masterworks, from Dune to The Handmaid’s Tale, in a fable of survival, resistance and, ultimately, maternal love.”—Lea Carpenter, author of Ilium
“….[a] rousing near-future saga…. Fishman’s worldbuilding is impeccable…. He skillfully ramps up the tension…. Fans of dystopian classics like 1984 will find much to savor.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
About Boris Fishman, Author of The Unwanted
Photo by Stephanie Kaltsas
Boris Fishman is the author of the novels A Replacement Life (which won the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and the American Library Association’s Sophie Brody Medal) and Don’t Let My Baby Do Rodeo, both New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and the memoir Savage Feast, all from HarperCollins, which will publish his new novel, The Unwanted, on March 25, 2025. He teaches at the University of Austin, and also writes about wine.
You can connect with Boris Fishman on their website, and on Facebook, and Instagram.
Source: Publisher, Boris Fishman
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780063387447
Pub Date: Mar 25, 2025
Titles by Boris Fishman
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