Two November books with grit: ‘Uprising’ and ‘Between the River and the Railroad Tracks’
A fierce short novel set on a sinking island and a memoir of a Black Ohio family both arrive Nov. 17, and early critics are paying attention.
November’s new releases lean cozy. These two do not, and that is the point. Both arrive Nov. 17, both are by women and both center on women who refuse the roles they were handed.
“Uprising” by Tahmima Anam (Scribner, 192 pages) is set on a sinking island off the coast of Bangladesh, where women are bought, sold and held under a brutal madam. According to the publisher, it is told in the collective voice of the island’s children, who watch an educated newcomer named Kusum Khan refuse to submit as the women’s resignation begins to turn. Ms. magazine notes the book was a finalist for the Orwell Prize.
Critics who reviewed the U.K. edition are enthusiastic. In The Guardian, Sana Goyal called it an “unwaveringly political and unflinchingly forthright novel.” In Outlook India, Mohammad Farhan praised its portrait of women’s defiance and said Anam leaves readers with hope rather than despair.
“Between the River and the Railroad Tracks” by Nicole R. Fleetwood (Little, Brown, 320 pages) is a memoir of the Second Ward of Hamilton, Ohio, a Black neighborhood shaped by redlining, where Fleetwood was born in 1973. Kirkus Reviews describes a family history that runs through gun violence, incarceration, addiction and economic decline, and through the 1970s and ’80s Ohio funk scene that included her uncle Roger Troutman of Zapp. Kirkus framed it as a counternarrative to the “Hillbilly Elegy” portrait of southwestern Ohio. Fleetwood is a MacArthur Fellow whose earlier book, “Marking Time,” won a National Book Critics Circle Award.
Both are by women and both center on women who refuse the roles they were handed.
A content note: Both books deal with hard material, including trafficking and sexual exploitation in “Uprising” and violence and addiction in the memoir.
The Day Room verdict: Both are out Nov. 17 in print, ebook and audio editions. “Uprising” is short enough for two evenings and has the kind of moral argument that makes for a lively book club. Fleetwood’s memoir is a solo read for a long weekend, best taken a chapter at a time, and a natural next pick for any group that read “Hillbilly Elegy” and wants a fuller picture.
