Theres an elegant simplicity in the authors idea of “map as metaphor for writing,” one that belies the extensive arguments Turchi mounts in its defense. Bolstering his case by quoting authors as dissimilar as Hemingway and Wolfe,... Read More

In the future, all things are possible. In this novel, set in the waning days of the twenty-first century, cars really do resemble those piloted by George Jetson, water is strictly rationed (no surprise there), and computer technology... Read More

Its the tritest of academic cliches, of course: the professor/student affair. While Rackstraw only suggests that she and Vonnegut may have been intimate, she leaves absolutely no doubt that their relationship was, more than anything... Read More

Absolute power and absolute corruption make for a deadly combination, and nowhere was this confluence more bloodthirsty than in early sixteenth-century Rome where, under the reign of Pope Alexander VI, such overt political villainy... Read More

First, it helps to know what one actually is. Tapirs are not native to the sheltered suburban enclave of Verona, New Jersey, where Fry grew up; the most exotic animal she was likely to encounter was Fluffy, the neighborhood cat. But when... Read More

When she was a child, Anna stood at the water’s edge beside her mother, both of them helplessly frozen as they watched an ocean wave capsize the boat carrying Anna’s younger sister, Megan. In that singular, life-changing instant,... Read More

Mysticism, myth, and magic swirl, swagger, and stampede through Sunga’s haunting and frequently harrowing tale set in war-torn South Africa during the waning years of apartheid. Mating cobras are the talismans, and shrunken heads the... Read More

Nearly every family can boast of (or deny) an eccentric relative or two: the quaint aunt who collects purple tea cozies, the screwball cousin who apes the “Three Stooges” at Thanksgiving dinner. In Jacobs’ family, the honor went to... Read More