In Susanna Clarke’s wondrous and moving novel "Piranesi", a gentle man finds the tranquility of his vast but bounded world challenged by visitors from the outside. Piranesi lives in a house whose halls seem endless. He’s been close... Read More

The pain of adolescence is complicated by family secrets and persistent grudges in Elena Ferrante’s devastating novel, "The Lying Life of Adults". For thirteen-year-old Giovanna, her father’s side of the family has always been a... Read More

As it controverts stereotypes regarding the formidability of villains and the fragility of senior citizens, Caroline B. Cooney’s mystery novel "Before She Was Helen" is a delight. Clemmie is a resident of Sun City, a retirees’... Read More

In Antoine Laurain’s acerbic cozy mystery The Readers’ Room, a debut novel makes waves among the Paris literati––and with two homicide detectives. Publishing darling Violaine Lepage is much admired for her impeccable taste and... Read More

In the hot Southern summer of "Even As We Breathe", the groundbreaking first novel from Cherokee writer Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, a young man’s loyalties and foundational stories are tested. WWII cleared the Carolina mountains of... Read More

Historically, to speak of gardening necessitates a subtle, but quite important, uncoupling from agriculture, summed up in the idea of beauty. From ancient myths to cave paintings and recorded literature, we know that the earliest... Read More

Why witches? What accounts for our Western fascination with women who hex and heal, summon demons and project power, eschew religion yet embrace religious iconography, live contentedly in darkness, anonymity, and seclusion? Most... Read More

The threat of war has long been the most persuasive tool of statesmanship, made the better if you occasionally back it up on the battlefield. Diplomacy has a place, yes, but the laws of the jungle are often the only rules that really... Read More