> NEW AND NOTABLE

The pre-fall releases are starting to pick up and this week include YA and true crime.

“Facing the Sun” by Janice Lynn

Mather, (Simon and Schuster) This is one of those crossover books categorized as YA fiction that will appeal as a beach read for slightly older readers, too. This one has at its heart the stories of four young women coming of age in the Bahamas. When a developer buys their local beach, everything threatens to change. It’s got love, gentrification, social issues and some truly beautiful writing. Mather’s first novel, “Learning to Read” was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for young people’s literature.

Where Things Touch by Bahar Orang,

(Book*hug) This book was ‘discovered’ by then McMaster University writer-in-residence Gary Barwin (perhaps best-known for his Giller-nominated book “Yiddish for Pirates”) when a young medical student came with manuscript and asked for advice. His take? Send it to a publisher, asap. Subtitled “A Meditation on Beauty,” it is a series of lyrical thoughts on everything from Goethe to the colour yellow.

“Blood in the Water: A True Story of Revenge in the Maritimes” by Silver David Cameron,

(Penguin Canada) This author knows intimately the Cape Breton community where the brutal murder of a local who was vandalizing lobster traps occurred. But instead of that knowledge giving him too narrow a focus, it enables him to see beyond the broad strokes of the story — and so bring to life ideas about power, law, vigilantism and community.

Also out: “A Delhi Obsession” by venerable Canadian author M.G. Vassanji. It’s set in present-day Delhi and features a recent widower from Toronto who decides to visit the city of his forebears. Vassanji can always be counted on for a powerful, immersive story.