ENTRAPMENT AND OTHER WRITINGS
Seven Stories Press; $19.95
Nelson Algren once compared the writing process to the slow geological layering that forms mountains. This novella compiles working fragments from Algren’s unfinished novel, Entrapment, alongside several of his lesser-known short stories, including three that Chicago published around the time of his death in 1981. On April 6th, Steppenwolf hosts a live reading with Don DeLillo, Estelle Parsons, and others. steppenwolf.org

MR. AMERICA
HarperCollins; $24.95
New York magazine columnist Mark Adams delves into the biography of the man who started America’s fitness craze: Bernarr Macfadden, who in 1909 opened up an alternative health emporium on the South Side. Taken by Macfadden’s mix of holistic advice and hokum, Adams tests out several famous recommendations—with mixed results.

THE WORLD IN HALF
Riverhead; $25.95
This is the first novel from Cristina Henríquez, a Chicago fiction writer who recently published short stories in The New Yorker and The Atlantic. It’s a beautifully written tale about a young woman who heads to Panama in search of a father she never knew.

from our contributors
NOW HIRING: WHITE HOUSE DOG
Walker Books for Young Readers; $16.99
President Barack Obama may have picked his cabinet early on, but the First Daughters search to fill one last position at the White House in this lighthearted tale by Gina Bazer and Renanah Lehner, with illustrations from Andrew Day.