“The conversation hobbles on,” Harriet Shawcross observes at a camp for children with selective mutism. “Without daily practice, they grasp at topics like leaves in a stream, exchanging information, but never quite conversing.”... Read More

Family tragedies and new opportunities play against each other in "Beyond the Moon and the Heartache Too", a novella about growing up and growing past artificial limits. Anne Hutcheson’s novella "Beyond the Moon and the Heartache Too"... Read More

Centering on an excruciatingly passionate love story, Louise Beech’s "The Lion Tamer Who Lost" is a rich literary text that includes family tragedies, unexpected discoveries, and second chances, all considered against the vibrant... Read More

Holly Ringland’s piquant debut, "The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart", is alternately airy and precise. It occupies a space somewhere between a fairy tale and a modern tragedy. Alice is born by the seaside. She drinks salt air and spends... Read More

Even a surveillance state can’t see everything. M. T. Hill’s "Zero Bomb" is set in a near-future England. Industries have been automated for ease, non-Christian religions have been abolished, people are digitally tracked, and many... Read More

Someday, Todd Milstead is going to be a great writer. Never mind that he’s in his forties with nothing to indicate this, save the flattery of a local bookseller and the regular gatherings he hosts with other self-proclaimed writers. In... Read More

Melody Carlson’s latest Christian romance, "Courting Mr. Emerson", is the sweet, trend-resistant tale of a young grandmother and a confirmed bachelor who find that life may be better if they’re together. George Emerson lives a neat... Read More

In the aftermath of Nowhere, but still carrying the legacy of the Unnamed with them, Eddy, Ina, Alice, and the rest of the residents who survived the rapacious and dictatorial Lion are left with one overarching, reinforced truth: a... Read More