Boy, Interrupted
/For the protagonist of Jim Shepard's heartbreaking novel The Book of Aron it is terrible to be a poor Jew in anti-Semitic prewar Poland – but it is hardest of all to be a child, at the mercy of everyone else.
Read More"Cambridge should come to us"
/"Our belief in Literature has collapsed" Lars Iyer once wrote, but his new novel Wittgenstein Jr, the story of a passionate philosophy professor and his apathetic students, bristles with literary faith.
Read MoreIt’s a Mystery: “There is within every man and woman a core of evil only lightly held in check”
/An auspicious debut, The Abomination is a riveting conspiracy thriller by JonathanHolt. Plus, Philip Kerr’s cheeky, charismatic Berlin cop Bernie Gunther is back in A Man Without Breath.
Read MoreIt’s a Mystery: “If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one”
/John le Carré, the pre-eminent spy writer of the 20th century and beyond, dazzles us again with A Delicate Truth. Plus a debut addition to the ranks of the genre, Red Sparrow, might just earn the author Jason Matthews a pat on the back from the master.
Read MorePerformance Anxiety
/What does it mean to say “only the music matters?” In her bleakly intelligent new novel, Lynne Sharon Schwartz challenges us to consider what we really value in music and how our own demand for superhuman perfection strips it of its soul.
Read MoreIt’s a Mystery: “The only way a man learns the true spirit of a rock is to stub his toe on it”
/William Kent Krueger and Steve Hamilton, authors of two critically acclaimed series, have winning new detective novels. Irma Heldman reviews.
Read MoreThe Least Inauthentic Self
/How can writers depict the fragmented modern soul? For Zadie Smith, the solution is an untidy, fragmented novel. M.K. Hall reviews NW
Read MoreClaiming the Future
/Julio Cortázar and Gabriel Garcia Marquez brought Latin American fiction to the attention of the world. Now a young crop of writers are trying to move beyond magical realism--a new anthology charts the diverse approaches.
Read MoreIt’s a Mystery: “The world is a great honeycombed thing”
/In Nick Harkaway’s altogether remarkable novel Angelmaker, blistering gangster noir meets Rabelaisian comedy
Read MoreHumanitarian Disaster Romance
/In The Orphan Master's Son, Adam Johnson evokes the brutality of North Korea's authoritarian regime by way of an over-the-top love story. Joyce W. Lee investigates whether torture and romance can coexist in one novel.
Read MoreA Fine Romance
/Is there more to romance fiction than perfect people meeting cute and living happily ever after? Sarah Wendell thinks so, but her arguments in defense of this most reviled of genres may themselves sell it short.
Read MoreDevil Twins
/Is Don DeLillo's short game as good as his long? Is it better? His first collection of short fiction -- or is it his first? -- offers occasion to take the much-lauded writer's measure.
Read MoreDesultory Vivacity
/Does marriage mean much anymore? Does the novel? Jeffrey Eugenides sets out to reinvent the classic literary story—but can he combine the style and the substance of the greats he hopes to update to our times?
Read MoreA Crucible of the Human Spirit Guy
/Ben Lerner's arresting first novel sets a funhouse mirror before the author's own formative years as a poet, poseur, and pill-popper in Madrid.
Read MoreThe Birth of a Salesman
/Eleven years after her breakout novel The Last Samurai, Helen DeWitt returns to satirize the chattering nonsense of the corporate world.
Read MoreThree for the Boys
/Newly released in paperback are three Young Adult novels aimed at that sometimes-elusive reading demographic: teen boys.
Read MoreA Jester During the Third Reich
/Irmgard Keun depicted exceptionally naive women and seemed even to play the the role herself, even suing The Gestapo for banning her books. But was there a strategy behind playing dumb?
Read MoreSorokin’s Tyrannical Chosen
/Vladimir Sorokin's gruesome (and frequently censored) satires puncture Russia's surprising nostalgia for the glory days of Stalin and Khrushchev; Amelia Glaser reviews two newly released works.
Read More
