The Chicago transit system is the nexus of two seemingly unconnected murders in Tiffany Cates’s unsettling, satisfying novel M-Theory. Donovan rides the train every day, taking note of the different people whom he sees on a regular... Read More

In the striking essays of Execute the Office, Colin Rafferty reconciles the office of the presidency with the men who’ve held it. Framed by a trip to the National Museum of American History, the entries meander through an exhibit... Read More

In Elvira Navarro’s story collection "Rabbit Island", dreams and reality blur. The stories are surreal and disorienting, exploring dark and strange corners of the mind. Of the collection’s eleven stories, the first fits in a... Read More

In Sally Bellerose’s novel "Fishwives", an elderly lesbian couple looks back on their lives together. Regina and Jackie have been together for sixty years. They are in mediocre health, can’t afford groceries without coupons, and are... Read More

The free verse micropoems of Joyce Sidman’s new collection praise the blue planet for its geography, geology, and diversity, congratulating Earth for the cleverness of her ecosystems and wondering “What is it like / to feel / the... Read More

A boy becomes an unwitting caregiver as he navigates puberty in Jaap Robben’s coming-of-age novel "Summer Brother". When Brian is thirteen, his disabled older brother, Lucien, comes to live with him and their uncaring, impoverished... Read More

Amy Nathan’s inspiring book covers two families on opposite sides of the legacy of Jim Crow. On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy, an Black shoemaker from New Orleans, bought a first class train ticket to Covington, Louisiana. When the train... Read More

Heidi Chiavaroli’s novel "The Orchard House" is a tribute to Louisa May Alcott, whose historic home and writing speak to women’s need for refuge. When she was a teenager, Taylor was adopted by the Bennett family, whose kindness she... Read More