Akashic Books Announces New Releases in Noir and Caribbean Fiction

By: Jan. 11, 2016
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New Noir

New Orleans Noir: The Classics
edited by Julie Smith

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each volume comprises stories set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city.

Classic reprints from: James Lee Burke, Armand Lanusse, Grace King, Kate Chopin, O. Henry, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, Shirley Ann Grau, John William Corrington, Tom Dent, Ellen Gilchrist, Valerie Martin, O'Neil De Noux, John Biguenet, Poppy Z. Brite, Nevada Barr, Ace Atkins, and Maurice Carlos Ruffin.

From the introduction by Julie Smith:

"A glittering constellation of writers has passed through New Orleans-including Mark Twain, Sherwood Anderson, O. Henry, and even Walt Whitman, to name some of the not-so-usual suspects. Then there are the ones whose sojourns here are better known, the ones on whom we pride ourselves, such as Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Ellen Gilchrist, and James Lee Burke.

It was an anthologist's feast-just about everybody who came to New Orleans wrote about it. But there were surprises as well . . .

If you're from New Orleans, the neighborhood theme will resonate like Tibetan temple bells. And yet, surely every city has similar hoods, similar behavior patterns, similar travails-and has had them forever. 'Indeed,' wrote Voltaire, 'history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.'"

Stockholm Noir

edited by Nathan Larson and Carl-Michael Edenborg

"Larson and Edenborg manage to unearth a dark side to a city that is verdant, clean, and surrounded by crystalline water. . . . Stockholm may not be Marseille, but Larson and Edenborg's contributors show that even a verdant place with socialized medicine can have its seamy side."
-Kirkus Reviews

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city.

Brand-new stories by: Unni Drougge, Inger Edelfeldt, Carl-Michael Edenborg, Åke Edwardson, Torbjörn Elensky, Inger Frimansson, Carl Johan De Geer, Martin Holmén, Nathan Larson, Malte Persson, Anna-Karin Selberg, Johan Theorin, and Lina Wolff.

From the introduction by Nathan Larson & Carl-Michael Edenborg:

"To the tourist, the city of Stockholm appears a shimmering dream. Laid out on a series of islands, it is verdant, clean, and surrounded by crystalline water. On paper, Stockholm is paradise. And in some respects, it truly is. But in most respects, it is anything but . . .

In Stockholm Noir, the city is presented as a gaping maw ready to devour your soul should you wander down the wrong alley . . . Everywhere is noir. Even, and especially, in a paradise like Sweden, where the citizen is given every tool to go out and become a great success but is paradoxically held to an almost subliminal expectation to fall in line . . . and never shine so brightly that you disturb your neighbor . . .

In this anthology it's our aim to showcase the darker, grittier, more intense world of Swedish noir fiction. Here the dangers lurking beneath the IKEA lifestyle are given free rein, and words are given to the ambivalence and despair of a model society."

New Caribbean Fiction

On the Way Back
by Montague Kobbé

Nathaniel Jones, a middle-aged businessman from England, travels to the Caribbean island of Anguilla to spend a fortnight on holiday when he's captivated by a brilliant and beautiful member of the local community, Sheila Rawlingson. After a secret, intense hundred-day courtship, Nathaniel proposes to Sheila, whose agreement to marry this white man is seen as a betrayal by her family and fellow Anguillans.

Recognizing the value Anguillan society places on economic projects, Nathaniel attempts to set up an airline business to gain the support and favor of the Rawlingsons. Nathaniel sends for his son, Dragon Jones, to travel to Anguilla and cofound Dragon Wings, the nation's first commercial airline. Nathaniel, Dragon, and Sheila turn to her uncle for financial backing. Sheila's uncle, however, foils Nathaniel's best-laid plans at every turn. Kobbé's hilarious social novel brilliantly echoes A Confederacy of Dunces and Herman Wouk's Don't Stop the Carnival.


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