In a STARRED review, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY praises Lavie Tidhar’s forthcoming novel UNHOLY LAND.

World Fantasy Award winner Tidhar (CENTRAL STATION) will leave readers’ heads spinning with this disorienting and gripping alternate history. Author Lior Tirosh, grieving a personal tragedy, travels home after years abroad and immediately has a series of strange encounters that pull him into a complex plot to destroy the border between worlds. He arrives in Palestina, the land that the Jews were offered on the Ugandan border in 1904, which both closely resembles and is profoundly different from the Israel of our world, and is followed by two government agents who are trying to stop the destruction of “borders,” though it’s unclear whose side they are really on.

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“No matter what we do, human history always attempts to repeat itself,” Tidhar writes, even as he explores the substantial differences in history that might arise from single but significant choices. Readers of all kinds, and particularly fans of detective stories and puzzles, will enjoy grappling with the numerous questions raised by this stellar work.

Gary K. Wolfe on The Coode Street Podcast (Episode 336) recommends UNHOLY LAND.

Readers talk to other readers. They share information about the books and stories they love. They recommend. It’s as natural as breathing. Those recommendations lead to a broader commentary, to lists and canons and all sorts of other things. This week Jonathan and Gary discuss the way we talk about books, the nature of recommending, and much more.

As promised, this episode contains recommendations for books published during 2018 that Jonathan and Gary thought were of interest and might make for rewarding reads for Coode Streeters. As always, these are personal recommendations and not a whole lot more. There’s some fine reading on the lists below, which we both hope you’ll seek out.

Photo: Kevin Nixon

Tidhar on his eponymous site announced a 3 book deal with Blackstone Audio.

Delighted to say I’ve signed a new deal with Blackstone Publishing, for audiobook versions of the upcoming UNHOLY LAND and The Circumference of the World, plus an audiobook edition of Martian Sands!

The first books will be UNHOLY LAND, which should be available around the same time as the print edition – so, shortly!

For more info on UNHOLY LAND, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton