Book world hopes for literary breakthrough

As the book world’s most literary season approaches, the industry still awaits the year’s big literary publication.

While critics have celebrated Mohsin Hamid’s “Exit West,’’ George Saunders’ “Lincoln in the Bardo’’ and other works, no 2017 releases have approached the sales or the impact of such older titles as Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale’’ and George Orwell’s “1984.’’

Publishers wonder if it’s a familiar syndrome, the Trump effect, with the public too caught up in the headlines to focus on new and challenging fiction.

“People are indeed distracted, and there’s no sign of it letting up,’’ says Paul Bogaards, an executive vice-president and executive director of publicity at the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

“Many are weary from their social feeds — mentally exhausted — and some, perhaps, are simply choosing to binge watch their favourite television series and eat copious amounts of ice cream rather than read a contemporary, literary novel.’’

“We’ve been disappointed in sales, and other publishers have been disappointed,’’ said Scribner publisher and senior vice-president Nan Graham, who hopes to break the spell this fall with new fiction from prize-winners Jennifer Egan and Jesmyn Ward.

Bogaards says good books can “still surface and stick’’ and readers able and willing can look forward to some of the most acclaimed writers of recent years.

Egan’s “Manhattan Beach’’ is her first novel since the Pulitzer Prize-winning “A Visit from the Goon Squad,’’ Ward’s “Sing, Unburied, Sing,’’ her first novel since the National Book Award winning “Salvage the Bones’’ and James McBride’s book of short stories, “Five-Carat Soul,’’ his first fiction since winning the National Book Award for “The Good Lord Bird.’’

Louise Erdrich, Celeste Ng, Salman Rushdie, Carmen Maria Machado and debut novelist Gabriel Tallent also have books coming. Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Eugenides, whose novels include “Middlesex’’ and “The Marriage Plot,’’ will release his first story collection, “Fresh Complaint.’’

“In some ways, it’s harder to write a short story than a novel,’’ Eugenides told The Associated Press in a recent email. “There’s no room for elaboration or expansion, both of which come naturally to the novelist. In creative writing courses, of course, we start students off writing short stories because they’re more manageable. But it’s like asking someone to pilot a jet on his first flying lesson.’’