'The Paradox Hotel' is a mashup of sci-fi and crime fiction
Rob Hart delivers a story in which time is broken — and some crucial events that have a huge impact on the present haven't happened yet.
(Image credit: Ballantine Books )
With a nod to 'Lolita,' 'Vladímír' makes a sly statement about sex and power
Julia May Jonas' debut novel centers around a women's lit professor whose feminist credentials are jeopardized because of her husband's bad behavior — and by her own relationship with a colleague.
(Image credit: Simon & Schuster)
'Scoundrel' examines how and why a convicted killer went free
Sarah Weinman's book excels as an in-depth exploration of how outside influence and support can affect the criminal justice system — and as the narrative of a con artist who hurt a lot of people.
(Image credit: Ecco)
A creation myth in Sheila Heti's 'Pure Colour' has art critics as evolutionary stars
The novel is simultaneously wise and silly, moving and inscrutable. It is also indisputably working hard to be new.
(Image credit: Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
A damaging love affair with the U.S. ends in heartbreak in 'Black American Refugee'
Tiffanie Drayton tells the story of coming to the U.S. as an immigrant child and discovering that no level of accomplishment would enable her to shake the burden of Blackness in this nation.
(Image credit: Viking)
'Moon Witch, Spider King' is a rare sequel that is better than its predecessor
Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the first book in Marlon James' Dark Star Trilogy, systematically dismantled the known foundations of epic fantasy. This sequel once again shattered expectations.
(Image credit: Riverhead)
For Valentine's Day, a few of our favorite love stories to read, watch and hear
Valentine's Day reminds us we can relearn and redefine what it means to love and be loved. So, we offer some books, songs, and movies about passion, devotion, and relationships to take on the journey.
(Image credit: A. Martin UW Photography/Getty Images)
Sarah Manguso considers deprivations and predations in her novel 'Very Cold People'
Manguso made a name for herself in minutely observed memoirs. Now she uses fiction to write about what it is to feel poor, poorly nurtured, and inadequately loved in a class-conscious town.
(Image credit: Hogarth)
A reissue helps revive Joseph Hansen's series about a tough, gay detective
In 1970, Hansen began a 12-novel series about Dave Brandstetter, an insurance investigator who happens to be gay. Reading now, it's clear that Hansen was one of the great crime writers of his time.
(Image credit: Penguin Random House)
'Cost of Living' considers the real price of the U.S. health care system
Emily Maloney's essay collection is an indictment of the exorbitant costs of staying alive in America, and the weight of being hounded by a debt that reduces your life to dollars and cents.
(Image credit: Henry Holt & Co. )
Thriller 'The Violin Conspiracy' addresses racism in classical music
In his debut thriller, Brendan Slocumb employs polemic about racism to great effect as he reminds us that the high-toned world of classical music suffers from, and because of, racism.
(Image credit: Anchor)
A woman embraces change in the 1960s in Tessa Hadley's novel 'Free Love'
Phyllis Fischer, a 40-year-old wife and mother, is drawn into a liberating relationship with a much younger man. She soon realizes that perhaps she wasn't so content as she thought.
(Image credit: Harper Collins)
Coming of age with three contemporary YA novels
In each of these stories — Full Flight, Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman, Ophelia After All — a girl stands at a junction in her life, on the brink of deciding who she wants to be.
(Image credit: Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR)
'The Family Chao' is a riveting story of identity and belonging
There are notable parallels to The Brothers Karamazov in Lan Samantha Chang's new novel about three brothers and the contentious relationship between them and their domineering father.
(Image credit: W. W. Norton & Company)
Sci-fi, fantasy, crime fiction blend in 'Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century'
Kim Fu's book contains 12 stories that peel away layers of normalcy to reveal weird, creepy things; though very different from each other, they share elements, giving the collection a sense of unity.
(Image credit: Tin House Books)
'Free Love' puts a '60s spin on a Jane Austen-style novel of manners
Tessa Hadley's sharp new novel centers on a middle-aged wife and mother who falls for a much younger musician. Free Love is a domestic novel that's as eclectic and alive as the times it captures.
(Image credit: Harper Collins )
'Thank You, Mr. Nixon' is a collection written with intelligence, wit and grace
The tensions that arise between two peoples, especially the ones felt by Chinese Americans, form a throughline in Gish Jen's brilliant new collection.
(Image credit: Knopf)
'Open' explores polyamorous relationships through personal experience
Bustle editor Rachel Krantz's memoir is a sincere and curious reckoning with the cultural messaging we all receive about gendered expectations and power dynamics in romantic and sexual relationships.
(Image credit: Harmony)
Strap in for highs and lows with the pandemic novel 'How High We Go in the Dark'
One character is an aimless young man works at a euthanasia theme park for terminally ill kids, placing them on the roller coaster that will kill them before the plague does. It is a book about death.
(Image credit: William Morrow)
A young nurse investigates murders in 18th century China in 'The Red Palace'
June Hur's history-based novel binds fiction to fact in a gripping young adult mystery. A nurse in 18th century Korea's royal court tries to track down the killer of four women.
(Image credit: Feiwel & Friends)
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