He Hears America Singing Guns N’ Roses
In “Nouns & Verbs: New and Selected Poems,” Campbell McGrath celebrates chain restaurants, rock music and the joyful raucous stupidity of pop culture.
'The Great Successor' Aims To Fill In Blanks On The Life Of North Korea's Kim Jong Un
Contrary to prevailing stereotypes, in Anna Fifield's reported story Kim is anything but a madman: Cold-blooded, for sure, but playing a calculated defensive strategy aimed at standing up his rule.
(Image credit: Alexander Khitrov/AP)
How The Author Of 'Midnight Chicken' Unexpectedly Built A Life Worth Living
Ella Risbridger was suicidally depressed when she roasted a chicken and ended up writing an uplifting, genre-bending cookbook that reads like a magical mix of memoir, novel and self-help book.
(Image credit: Courtesy of Gavin Day)
What Happened When Juror C-2 Met Juror F-17 at the Murder Trial
“The Body in Question,” a mordantly intelligent novel by Jill Ciment, features a sensational crime, a sequestered jury and a torrid love affair.
What Happened When Juror C-2 Met Juror F-17 at the Murder Trial
“The Body in Question,” a mordantly intelligent novel by Jill Ciment, features a sensational crime, a sequestered jury and a torrid love affair.
New & Noteworthy
A selection of recent books of interest; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading.
A Dutch Novelist Pokes Holes in His Country’s Pretensions
Herman Koch’s “The Ditch” uses an insecure mayor’s doubts about his marriage to probe larger cultural uncertainties in the “civilized” Netherlands.
A Border Novel That Captures Immigrants in All Their Humanity
Oscar Cásares’s “Where We Come From” avoids easy stereotypes to offer a story about an immigrant teenager trying to reunite with his father.
Sympathy For Several Devils In 'Among The Lost'
Emiliano Monge's prose is brilliant, but that often obscures the moral questions around his protagonists, both human traffickers who transport their cargo while worrying about their relationship.
(Image credit: Beth Novey/NPR)
Neville Chamberlain: A Failed Leader in a Time of Crisis
Tim Bouverie’s “Appeasement” describes the many ways the British government avoided standing up to Hitler.
A Blitz Of Mother Love In 'Spies Of Shilling Lane'
How far would you go to get away from your overbearing mother? In Jennifer Ryan's novel, a young woman braves the London Blitz to avoid her mom — who promptly hops a train and comes looking for her.
(Image credit: Beth Novey/NPR)
In 'Ayesha At Last,' A Take On Austen That's Sparky And Sensitive
There have been an awful lot of South Asian adaptations of Pride and Prejudice recently, but Uzma Jalaluddin's tale of two Toronto Muslims — one conservative, one liberal — stands out beautifully.
(Image credit: Beth Novey/NPR)
The ‘It Books’ of Summers Past
We’ve revisited the books that defined the season over the past 50 years — and what they reveal about the country at a particular moment.
'Magic For Liars' Asks, What If You're Actually Not Magic?
Sarah Gailey's new novel centers on estranged sisters, one magically talented and one just a talented private investigator — who gets called in to solve a crime at her sister's school for magic.
(Image credit: Beth Novey/NPR)
Macabre And Irreverent, 'Mostly Dead Things' Is A Satisfying Journey
Kristin Arnett's new novel follows a woman dealing with the suicide of her father, while running the taxidermy business she inherited from him, getting over an ex, and learning to live for herself.
(Image credit: Beth Novey/NPR)
'The Sentence Is Death' Is A Bracing Addition To Any Beach Bag
Anthony Horowitz's new Inspector Hawthorne mystery is a sometimes too complex but ultimately fun tale set in and around London's literary scene, with plenty of axes to grind and nibs to sharpen.
(Image credit: Harper)
Rethinking the Epidemic of Domestic Violence
Rachel Louise Snyder talks about “No Visible Bruises,” and Josh Levin discusses “The Queen.”
'Eileen Gray' Examines The Relationship Between Genius And Gender
Even in our current climate, it's sobering to consider how the profession of architecture treated modernist pioneer Eileen Gray. This graphic history is a thought-provoking, if incomplete, reflection.
(Image credit: Nobrow )
The End Of The World Ought To Be The Start Of The Story In 'Oval'
Elvia Wilk's new novel follows a group of aimless young people in Berlin, working, going out, coming home — until something happens that brings about a cataclysm. But is the aimlessness intentional?
(Image credit: Beth Novey/NPR)
Finding the Funny in Kafka
The graphic novelist Peter Kuper offers a comic about his love of Kafka’s more humorous side.
Pages
Search this Site
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
