Your black friend and other strangers

THE DEATH OF TRUTH: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump, by Michiko Kakutani. (Tim Duggan Books, $22.) The former Times book critic draws on her extensive reading to portray an America that is creeping toward authoritarianism by way of the current administration's distortions and manipulations. EARLY WORK, by Andrew Martin. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26.) This marvelous debut novel, about a male writer's romantic entanglements, is like one of those restaurant dishes that present multiple preparations of a vegetable on the same plate - "beets, three ways" - to capture its essence. "Early Work" is books, three ways. MILK! A 10,000-Year Food Fracas, by Mark Kurlansky. (Bloomsbury, $29.) Kurlansky, chronicler of food and its history, from "Salt" to "Cod," now turns to milk and how it has wended its way through many civilizations and cultures, exploring everything from breast-feeding to the qualities of camel milk. CONFESSIONS OF THE FOX, by Jordy Rosenberg. (One World, $27.) A mind-bending romp through a gender-fluid, 18th-century London, Rosenberg's debut novel is a joyous mash-up of literary genres shot through with queer theory and awash in sex, crime and revolution. POGROM: Kishinev and the Tilt of History, by Steven J. Zipperstein. (Liveright, $27.95.) Before the Holocaust, POGROM Jewish suffering was synonymous with the name of the city, Kishinev, where in 1903,49 Jews were killed in a paroxysm of violence. Zipperstein examines not just the event but also its far-reaching repercussions. FRUIT OF THE DRUNKEN TREE, by Ingrid Rojas Contreras. (Doubleday, $26.95.) This beautifully rendered novel, rich in specific detail inspired by the author's experience, explores the responsibility of those with choices to those without, against the backdrop of a terrifying subject - coming of age amid the uncontrolled violence of the Colombian civil war. YOUR BLACK FRIEND AND OTHER STRANGERS, by Ben Passmore. (Silver Sprocket, $20.) Passmore, a young artist who cut his teeth in the anarchist punk scene of New Orleans, draws on the daily stress of his encounters with white people in this graphic novel collecting his recent strips. LOULOU AND YVES: The Untold Story of Loulou de La Falaise and the House of Saint Laurent, by Christopher Petkanas. (St. Martin's, $45.) This flashy, gossip-packed oral history details how de La Falaise changed fashion as muse to Yves Saint Laurent. THE FOREST, by Ricardo Bozzi. Translated by Debbie Bibo. Illustrated by Violeta Lopiz and Valerio Vidali. (Enchanted Lion, $25.95; ages 4 and up.) This oversize picture book, with beautiful die-cut pages, follows explorers through a forest at once literal and existential. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books .

It's okay to fail, says Passmore, but "we just have to learn to fail upward." The award-winning titular story lays out hopes, miscommunications, and contradictions common in black-white relationships, not omitting static within black-black conversations. Other targets of this culturally charged satire include white supremacy, activism, Confederate monuments, free speech, pronouns, and punk reparations. Dense, loose-limbed drawings in lush color or black and white. © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.