Paperbacks new and noteworthy

by Lidia Yuknavitch. (Harper Perennial, $15.99.) It’s 2049, and a satellite colony has been taken over by a despot who has claimed victory over a child-warrior, Joan. The story’s narrator, Christine, is determined to honor Joan by burning her story into her own skin. Times reviewer Jeff VanderMeer praised this “brilliant and incendiary” novel for its“maniacal invention and page-turning momentum.”

by Yiyun Li. (Random House, $16.) Li, an acclaimed MacArthuraward-winning novelist, charts her transformation into a writer in this series of essays. Written over a two-year period when she was critically depressed, this collection considers her relationship to English and her literary forebears, and explores two central questions: Why write? And why live?

by Pajtim Statovci. Translated by David Hackston. (Vintage, $16.95.) In 1980s Yugoslavia, Emine, a young Kosovan bride, flees with her son, Bekim, to Finland. Years later, after growing up an outcast — the boy was not only a refugee but also gay — Bekim is prodded to confront his family’s history by his roommate: a talking cat, whom Times reviewer Téa Obreht described as “a vainglorious, labile, impulsively abusive bigot.”

by Chris Hayes. (Norton, $15.95.) Hayes, a white journalist for MSNBC, draws on his childhood growing up in the Bronx to explore race, subjugation and power. He frames his discussion around what he sees as two “distinct regimes” in the United States: “In the Nation, you have rights,” he writes.“In the Colony, you have commands.” His analysis draws on the country’s colonial roots to expose what he sees as a founding hypocrisy: White colonists fought for independence — and the right to subjugate others.

19602014, by Bill Knott. Edited and with an introduction by Thomas Lux. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $16.) In poems that touch on estrangement and desire, Knott embraced experimentation and provocation. This posthumous collection is helped along by Lux’s introduction and appraisal, including what he called“Knott’s high imagination, great skills, singular music and crazybeautiful heart.” by Alia Malek. (Nation Books, $16.99.) Malek, raised by Syrian-American parents, came to Damascus in 2011 to reclaim her grandmother’s apartment, and began reporting in secret on the war. She interviewed citizens and documented their courage; as she restored her family’s home, she was forced to confront her fears for Syria’s future.