Today in Bookish and Literary History, January 18

 1934 Days Without End by Eugene O'Neill - US

Days Without End is a novel written by Eugene O'Neill, an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. The book is a historical fiction set in the mid-19th century during the Indian Wars and the American Civil War. The story follows the life of Thomas McNulty, an Irish immigrant who flees the Great Famine and ends up in America, where he meets and falls in love with John Cole, a fellow soldier.

1987 The Child in Time by Ian McEwan - UK

With extraordinary tenderness and insight, the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement takes us into the dark territory of a marriage devastated by the loss of a child.

2018 Three Poems by Hannah Sullivan - UK

Hannah Sullivan’s debut collection is a revelation – three long poems of fresh ambition, intensity, and substance.

• WINNER of the T.S. Eliot Prize 2018

2022 Tides by Sara Freeman - CAN

An intoxicating, compact debut novel by the winner of Columbia’s Henfield Prize, Tides is an astoundingly powerful portrait of a deeply unpredictable woman who walks out of her life and washes up in a seaside town.

• Winner of the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award

2022 How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu - US

For fans of Cloud Atlas and Station Eleven, a spellbinding and profoundly prescient debut that follows a cast of intricately linked characters over hundreds of years as humanity struggles to rebuild itself in the aftermath of a climate plague—a daring and deeply heartfelt work of mind-bending imagination from a singular new voice.

2022 You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays by Zora Neale Hurston - US

Spanning more than 35 years of work, the first comprehensive collection of essays, criticism, and articles by the legendary author of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston, showcasing the evolution of her distinctive style as an archivist and author.

2022 Last Resort by Andrew Lipstein - US

In his blazing debut novel, Andrew Lipstein blurs the lines of fact and fiction with a thrilling story of fame, fortune, and impossible choices.

• Shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction

2022 Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang - China/US

Deceptively spare yet quietly powerful, laced with sharp humor, Joan Is Okay touches on matters that feel deeply resonant: being Chinese-American right now; working in medicine at a high-stakes time; finding one’s voice within a dominant culture; being a woman in a male-dominated workplace; and staying independent within a tight-knit family. But above all, it’s a portrait of one remarkable woman so surprising that you can’t get her out of your head.

• LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL

2024 Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon - Ireland

Told in a contemporary Irish voice and as riotously funny as it is deeply moving, Glorious Exploits is an unforgettable ode to the power of art in a time of war, brotherhood in a time of enmity, and human will throughout the ages.

• Winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction
• Winner of the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize
• Winner of the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award
• Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
• Shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year by the Irish Book Awards
• Shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards Debut Fiction Prize
• Shortlisted for the British Book Award for Debut Fiction Book of the Year
• Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal of Excellence

2024 Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar - Iran/US ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (My Review)

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others.

• SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD