[ Read our review. ]

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‘Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own,’ by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (Crown, April 21) by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (Crown, April 21)

[ Update: After this list was published, the release date of this title was changed to Sept. 14. ]

After the killings of the civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin became a far more political writer, grappling with the legacy and reality of racism in the United States. In “Begin Again,” Glaude, the chair of the African-American Studies department at Princeton, explores the parallels between that period and our current moment, blending biography, memoir and cultural criticism.

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‘Breasts and Eggs,’ by Mieko Kawakami. Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd. (Europa, April 7) by Mieko Kawakami. Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd. (Europa, April 7)

Mieko Kawakami, whose work deals with what is expected of women in patriarchal society, is one of Japan’s most acclaimed contemporary novelists. “Breasts and Eggs” won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize. It follows three women — Natsu, her sister and her niece — as they undergo a series of transformations. Natsu’s sister is consumed with a wish for breast implants, which alienates her from her teenage daughter, who is struggling with puberty. Later in the book, Natsu is intent on having a child via a sperm donor, an isolating process that causes her to second-guess her own needs and sense of self.

[ Read our review. ]

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Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family,’ by Robert Kolker (Doubleday, April 7) by Robert Kolker (Doubleday, April 7)

The Galvins, Kolker’s subject, suffered extraordinary heartbreak: By the 1970s, six of their 12 children had received diagnoses of schizophrenia. They became a case study for researchers, offering a window onto a poorly understood disease. Kolker, whose previous book, “Lost Girls,” was another feat of narrative journalism, tells the story of the family’s pain with compassion, and he details the enduring scientific legacy of their plight, weaving it with the stories of scientists who devoted themselves to studying the biology of schizophrenia.