The publishing industry typically represents glitz as a function of metropolitan sophistication and Hollywood fame, yet in "Where the Heart Lives", Mara Purl strategically presents a glamorous alternative to big-city vibrancy. In the... Read More

“We would willingly have pardoned the translator if he had not brought Ariosto into Spain and translated him into Castilian, for he has stripped away much of Ariosto’s genius. This is a fault incident to all those who presume to... Read More

At nine, Orbie seems to live his life along a precipice. He is burdened with an overabundance of difficult choices which would be beyond the capacities of most boys his age—but Orbie is about to discover that he’s no ordinary boy. In... Read More

This is certainly one way to go out: “My casket shall be filled to the rim with 2005 Saint-Émilion.” But in Michel Bruneau’s "The Emancipating Death of a Boring Engineer" that is only the beginning of the requests from recently... Read More

Gilbert Gatore’s first novel, "The Past Ahead", is not a story about genocide. Though it’s centered around the horrific events that took place in Rwanda during the 1990s, it’s also not a novel about war. Gatore relies on his... Read More

“It’s sort of like a dream—only, it’s still happening. And it’s almost at the point where it doesn’t even bother me anymore. You accept these severe limitations, including the possibility that you may not even be experiencing... Read More

Mary Tabor’s Who By Fire, about a man reckoning with his wife’s death, serves up language so precise and assured that it leaves a reader breathless with its quiet force. There are no loose ends in this intricate story by an... Read More

Hal Zina Bennett lives with his wife and pets in a lakeside cabin in rural Northern California. He describes his neighbors as “mostly responsible” citizens living in a hardscrabble community that is “a far cry from Midtown, USA.”... Read More