Four new books spanning fiction and memoir are being highlighted by (BookTrib), offering readers a wide range of perspectives on the human experience. The selections include a philosophical novel about free will, a poetry collection on mortality, a historical thriller and a memoir of abandonment and healing.
In "Over the Hills and Far Away" by Daniel Mack, protagonist John Merlan is a therapist nearing retirement who questions the modern world's insistence on telling people how to live. Newly settled in Central Florida, Merlan drives the back roads of the Lake Wales Ridge, researching local history and pondering the nature of free will. His inquiries grow stranger as mysterious encounters blur reality and imagination. Meanwhile, a clandestine experiment half a world away explores whether free will could be eliminated if the soul is its source. The novel blends humor, profanity and philosophy. It is available at https://tinyurl.com/over-the-hills-daniel-mack.
Poet Diane Skye Gropper's "Dancing Through Seafoam" draws on decades of Buddhist and Native American teachings to examine love, loss, past lives and healing. The collection moves from intimate family poems to broader meditations on karma, free will and humanity's responsibility to the planet. The title image—life as a dance through seafoam—captures the fleeting beauty of existence, yet Gropper suggests the soul's journey continues, shaped by love and memory. The book can be purchased at https://tinyurl.com/dancing-through-seafoam.
W. Kenneth Tyler Jr.'s "Hunting the Red Fox" opens in 1942, when Perry Barnes chooses Army conscription over prison for stealing jewelry. He joins a special operations unit, learning espionage, sabotage and lock picking—skills that could make him a first-class jewel thief. After the war, Perry works as a Hollywood stuntman and plays professional golf with legends Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer. He then becomes entangled with gem investigator Sophia Toscana in the theft of the Mecklenburg Diamond by a master thief called the Red Fox. The novel has won a World's Best Magazine Award, an Independent Press Award for humor and a NYC Big Book Award. It is available at https://tinyurl.com/hunting-the-red-fox.
Don Schofield's memoir "From the Cyclops Cave" recounts a childhood of abandonment and instability after his father left him with strangers. Carrying those wounds into adulthood, Schofield eventually travels to Greece, where from a primitive hut on Kýthnos—known locally as the Cyclops Cave—he revisits the past. The narrative shifts between his solitary life in the Cyclades and 1950s California, letting memory surface in fragments. Written with a poet's eye for image and place, the memoir explores resilience, identity and family. It is available at https://tinyurl.com/from-the-cyclops-cave.
These four titles reflect a broad literary moment: readers are gravitating toward stories that confront existential questions—free will, mortality, redemption and belonging—through both fiction and memoir. The range of awards and the diversity of voices suggest that independent and small-press publishing continues to deliver works that might otherwise be overlooked by mainstream imprints. For readers seeking substance and variety, this roundup offers a starting point.
