Summertime and the livin’ is … literary.

If you’re a book lover looking to get your hands on some indie lit to lounge by the pool with, we’ve got you covered. Earlier this year, Small Press Distribution abruptly closed after a 55-year run, a move that jolted the literary community awake: Small presses need reader support.

We took the wake-up call seriously and compiled a list of the latest and forthcoming titles we’re most excited about. Hitting bookshop shelves this summer are clandestine tales of wife-swapping gone awry, a Korean American reimagining of Dostoyevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov,” a Soviet-Afghan war veteran’s descent into violent madness, and a hopeless cast of Angelenos looking for love in the wrong places — all from Southern California small presses and L.A. indie authors. Check out our full list:

“American Narcissus,” by Chandler Morrison

Publication date: Out from Dead Sky Publishing

Baxter Kent is a surfer with a porn addiction that’s made it impossible for him to be intimate with “real girls,” so he turns to a sex robot. Arden Coover just graduated from Berkeley with a philosophy degree but would rather hole up in his parents’ pool house and do acid while he peruses dating apps. His 18-year-old sister, Tess, is entangled with a narcissistic novelist who wants to make her his fourth wife (the first three were too predictable). Ryland Richter is a booze- and drug-addled insurance executive who’s sleeping with his new employee, an unstable claims adjuster who keeps threatening to ruin his life in myriad ways. In “American Narcissus,” the American dream is dead, Los Angeles is on fire and this motley crew of characters can’t help but search for love in all the wrong places.

“The Future Was Color,” by Patrick Nathan

Publication date: Out from Counterpoint

It’s 1950s Los Angeles and George Curtis, a gay, Hungarian-born Jew, is writing B-list monster movies. His true passion is political writing, so when a wealthy socialite offers George the chance to become the writer in residence at her glamorous Malibu mansion, he jumps at the chance to leave the studio behind. Soon, he’s shrouded in postwar decadence and sipping cocktails near the pool, but the people who’ve pulled him into their circle and the country he’s emigrated to aren’t as they initially seem. Nathan’s L.A. noir novel spans decades and countries and delves into the power of art, self-reinvention and the tether between the personal and the political.

“The Sisters K,” by Maureen Sun

Publication date: Tuesday, Unnamed Press

Sun’s debut novel is a modern reimagining of Dostoyevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” and follows three estranged Korean American sisters raised in Los Angeles. Brought together again by the looming death of their cruel and conniving father, sisters Minah, Sarah and Esther confront their past and present, and the potential fortune at their fingertips, from conflicting viewpoints. The starred Kirkus review calls “The Sisters K” a book that does “far more than retell a classic tale: it constructs a whole new vocabulary to discuss the most central of human conundrums: how to love and be loved in return.”

“Russian Gothic,” by Aleksandr Skorobogatov, translated by Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse

Publication date: Tuesday, Rare Bird Books

Nikolai, an unemployed veteran of the Soviet-Afghan war, begins his descent into madness when the elusive Sergeant Bertrand swings open his front door and kisses the hand of his wife, Vera. Or maybe he just rang the doorbell and whispered sweet nothings into her ear. Nikolai isn’t sure how Sergeant Bertrand came into his life; he isn’t sure of much. But Sergeant Bertrand’s presence becomes increasingly intrusive, with violent consequences for Vera and the people in her orbit. “Russian Gothic” examines the devastating toll of post-traumatic stress disorder, toxic jealousy, grief and misogyny. Skorobogatov is the author of five acclaimed novels, but “Russian Gothic,” originally published in Europe in 1991, is the first of his books to be translated into English. It’s been hailed as a masterpiece of post-Soviet literature.

“A Punishing Breed,” by DC Frost

Publication date: Tuesday, Red Hen Press

This is Frost’s mystery debut and the first in a series that follows Detective DJ Arias, a jaded but shrewd investigator who tends to see the worst in people. When Danny Mendoza calls in a murder that happens at the liberal arts college where he works, it’s Arias who’s assigned to the case, the same cop who locked up Mendoza a decade prior. At a campus that hides behind a facade of progressive curriculum, Arias begins to uncover seething jealousy, racial and sexual tension, and a hierarchy that buries dark secrets. He must confront his own biases and dwindling humanity to crack the case and stop the murderer before they strike again.

Frost will be in conversation with Saul Gonzalez at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena at 7 p.m. June 25.

“Reap the Whirlwind: Violence, Race, Justice, and the Story of Sagon Penn,” by Peter Houlahan

Publication date: July 23, Counterpoint

On March 31, 1985, Penn applied to be an officer for the San Diego Police Department and was scheduled to take the written exam the following week. But just hours later, the young Black man was pulled over by two patrol officers and things went horribly awry. The traffic stop escalated and Penn seized one of the officer’s guns, shooting both (killing one) and shooting a woman who was on a ride-along in one of the police cars. After two sensationalized trials, with the help of a fearless defense attorney, Penn was found not guilty on all charges. “Reap the Whirlwind,” written by “Norco ’80” author Houlahan, examines the long-fraught relationship between Black communities and the police and interrogates a question: What, if anything, could justify Penn’s actions?

“Blue Graffiti,” by Calahan Skogman

Publication date: Aug. 13, Unnamed Press

Cash is a handyman and sometime painter living in middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin. He inherited his childhood home from his dead mother, was abandoned by his bereft father, and he’s never known anything outside of the small town where he lives and the friends who fill the bar stools beside him. Cash spends most of his time reminiscing about the past or dreaming up big plans for the future, but one night, his world is upended when an emerald-eyed beauty strolls into the town bar. Cash falls head over heels in love, but he must confront the ghosts of his past before he can build a new future. Kirkus called Skogman’s poetic debut “a love letter to bar-stool philosophizing and a tender portrait of small-town life with a simple but powerful message: There’s always something special about home.”

Skogman will be in conversation with Leigh Bardugo at an event hosted by Skylight Books at Barnsdall Theater on Aug. 29.

“Watching Over You,” by Simon Delaney

Publication date: Aug. 13, Rare Bird Books

Alternating between London and Paris in the 1940s, the 1960s and the present, “Watching Over You” follows restaurateur Michel de la Rue and his brother, chef Antoine, as they take a foodie tour of France (which is being filmed by a documentary TV crew). Throw in a scheming art dealer, Alain Deschamps, and his pursuers, Interpol’s Lorenzo Pieters and Le Monde journalist Fabian Ritzier, and you have a page-turning story of Michel desperate to protect his family’s precious heirloom — paintings hidden from the plundering Nazis during World War II — and Alain’s ruthless search for the missing art.

“Post-Apocalyptic Valentine,” by Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Publication date: Sept. 3, 7.13 Books

The award-winning novelist and travel writer’s new poetry collection examines depression, humor and dark revelation. McFerrin’s poetry explores history as well as the modern challenges of living in a flawed society on a doomed planet. While McFerrin’s collection reaches as far as the galaxy in search of understanding, she narrows in on the minutia of day-to-day life to interrogate what it means to love.

“Olive Days,” by Jessica Elisheva Emerson

Publication date: Sept. 10, Counterpoint

Emerson’s debut novel follows Rina Kirsh, a modern orthodox Jew living in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles. She’s an exhausted young mom and a closet atheist, and her husband insists that a night of wife-swapping with a few other couples will bring a spark back to their marriage. When Rina caves, it’s not her marriage that’s reinvigorated, but her passion for painting, which leads her down a rabbit hole of lust, secrets and angst when she becomes entangled with her married Mexican American art teacher.