In most of the country, the next few months are time to hunker down with some absorbing reads that will help you forget the rain, snow, or plain old dreary winter weather outside. I’ve selected a half dozen books that should do the trick from January to March. So grab a blanket and happy hunkering!

The Bullet Swallower – Elizabeth Gonzalez James (Simon & Schuster, Jan. 20)

Antonio Sonoro is a bandit who’s running low on luck and money, and the tiny town in Mexico where he lives with his wife and children has run dry after a long drought. So when he hears about a train carrying gold, he thinks his problems are solved. But their trouble is just beginning. Sixty-nine years later, his grandson Jaime is Mexico’s most famous actor and singer. Unfortunately, his ancestor’s bad luck is about to visit him as well – unless he can find out the truth behind the violent criminal life of Antonio, the legendary El Tragabalas, The Bullet Swallower. This debut novel is a family drama, an adventure, and a mystery that takes on racism, Tex-Mex border politics, and the trauma that is passed from one generation to the next. The promotional material describes it as a cross between Cormac McCarthy and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which is the sort of praise that is hard to live up to. But it provides a good description of the style and approach to the subject matter.

My Side of the River: A Memoir – Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez (St. Martin’s Press, Feb. 13)

Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez tells the riveting and heartbreaking story of her experience as the U.S.-born daughter of immigrants who were forced back to Mexico when she was only fifteen. She was a top student preparing to start high school when her country suddenly took her parents from her. When her parents’ visas expired and they were forced to return to Mexico, Elizabeth was left to care for her younger brother and manage her education. She knew that there was no way she could let go of the opportunities the U.S. could provide. Armed with her passport and sheer stubborn determination, Elizabeth became what her school would eventually describe as an unaccompanied homeless youth, one of thousands of underage victims affected by family separation due to broken immigration laws.

The Turtle House – Amanda Churchill (Harper, Feb. 20)

It’s spring 1999, and 25-year-old Lia Cope and her prickly 73-year-old grandmother, Mineko, are sharing a bedroom in Curtain, Texas, the ranching town where Lia grew up and Mineko began her life as a Japanese war bride. Both women are at a turning point: Mineko moved in with her son and daughter-in-law after a suspicious fire destroyed the Cope family ranch house, while Lia, an architect with a promising career in Austin, has unexpectedly returned under circumstances she refuses to explain. Lia and Mineko become close as the latter shares stories of her early life in Japan, the war, and her two great loves, Akio Sato and the Turtle House, an abandoned country estate. Mineko’s sacrifices lead Lia to see her family in a new light. When Lia’s parents decide to move Mineko into an assisted living community, she and Lia devise an alternative plan that could be the answer to the emptiness and lack of security both are experiencing.  

The Great Divide – Cristina Henríquez (Ecco, March 5)

It’s been ten years since Cristina Henríquez’s previous novel, The Book of Unknown Americans. She returns with a moving story of one of the world’s great feats of engineering, the Panama Canal. In The Great Divide she tells the story of the canal’s construction through its impact on four characters: a local fisherman and his son who goes to work in the excavation zone; 16-year-old Ada Bunting from Barbados, who has come to Panama to earn money to pay for her sister’s surgery; and John Oswald, a scientific researcher who is determined to eradicate malaria. When his wife becomes ill, he hires Ada to be her caregiver, setting in motion this drama of ambition, loyalty, and sacrifice. The Great Divide is the story of the unsung people behind the construction of the canal, whose lives were changed by their work in Panama.

The Mars House – Natasha Pulley (Bloomsbury, March 19)

Natasha Pulley has made a name for herself as a writer of literary speculative fiction featuring queer characters. The Kingdoms, a page-turning alternative history/time travel story, was one of my favorite reads of 2021 and last year’s The Half Life of Valery K was another mindbender. She returns in March with her first novel set in space. Following an environmental catastrophe, January, a former dancer with the Royal Ballet, ends up a refugee in a colony on Mars. His second-class status leads him to cross paths with a xenophobic politician who is proposing harsher treatment of refugees from Earth. Their meeting changes both of their lives. Pulley examines populism, refugee status, media corruption, and the cost of personal compromise.  

A Great Country – Shilpi Somaya Gowda (Mariner Books, March 26)

Gowda, the author of Secret Daughter, The Golden Son, and The Shape of Family, returns with a novel that reconsiders the myth of the model minority and questions the price of the American Dream. A Great Country explores the ties and fractures of a close-knit Indian American family in the aftermath of a violent encounter with the police. The Shah family has moved into the wealthy community of Pacific Hills, California, fulfilling the parents’ dream for the 20 years since they immigrated. Their new life is a little more complicated for their children. When their 12-year-old son is arrested, their carefully constructed life begins to show cracks, forcing each of them to examine their roles as individuals, community members, and Americans. A Great Country probes themes of immigration, generational conflict, social class, and privilege with great insight.