Estranged siblings deal with their dying father, and each other, in Charles Lambert’s novel "Prodigal". Jeremy and Rachel have never been close. Rachel, always their father’s favorite, resents her mother and brother for abandoning... Read More

Over a dozen historians contributed to James Raven’s "The Oxford Illustrated History of the Book", an essay collection about the long history of reading, publishing, and information dissemination. From the earliest writings on clay... Read More

In Yishai Sarid’s dark, thoughtful novel "The Memory Monster", a Holocaust historian struggles with the weight of his profession. The story takes the form of a letter written by the anonymous narrator to explain an unspecified event.... Read More

Supernatural creatures and earthly temptations haunt the characters of Nikolai Gogol’s "The Nose and Other Stories". A man is forced to win back a stolen letter by playing cards with the devils who took it. A clerk becomes convinced... Read More

In the short stories of Scholastique Mukasonga’s "Igifu", exiled Tutsis struggle to survive and thrive in the aftermath of the Rwandan revolution. Tutsis, Rwanda’s long-oppressed ethnic group, have often suffered harassment,... Read More

In François Dominique’s esoteric novel "Aseroë", a man ponders life, death, and the in between. Mushrooms are an ancient, inexplicable life form. Their boundary-defying nature inspires François to undertake a study of the limit and... Read More

A family holiday takes a turn for the strange and tragic in Marie NDiaye’s novel "That Time of Year". On the last day of their summer vacation, Herman’s wife and son go missing. His only chance of finding them, according to his sole... Read More

A struggling woman realizes that even small lives have meaning in Vigdis Hjorth’s novel "Long Live the Post Horn!" The discovery of her old diary and a coworker’s suicide make Ellinor realize how stagnant her life is. She feels like... Read More