An astute observer once remarked to Scottish bookseller Shaun Bythell that “every industry has its porn.” For those who crave the specific “filth” of literary voyeurism: Bythell’s "Confessions of a Bookseller" is here to sate... Read More

In Muriel Barbery’s bewitching "A Strange Country", elves and humans cross the boundaries that separate their lands, hoping to correct a travesty that’s playing out in the “theater of worlds.” In a land of mists, an unusual elf... Read More

From the turn of the twentieth century into the present, the defiant and vivacious characters of Sarah Leipciger’s "Coming Up for Air" refuse to be suffocated by others’ expectations. In Paris, the haunting death mask of an unknown... Read More

Chronicling one generation of a hardscrabble island family’s life, Roy Jacobsen’s novel "The Unseen" is a pearlescent tribute to the alchemy of the sea. Ingrid, a bright-eyed child whose laughter is her family’s solace, is born on... Read More

A meteorite plunges from the sky, its impact stirring up a small Finnish community’s vices. This celestial act begins "Little Siberia", the latest engrossing title from snark noir master Antti Tuomainen. Who owns the heavens? If you... Read More

In the febrile heat of an Australian summer, a girl learns that whole worlds lie beneath her hometown and family’s careful facades. Martine Murray’s novel "The Last Summer of Ada Bloom" travels landscapes that are metaphors to... Read More

Patriarchy meets its match in S. A. Jones’s speculative novel The Fortress. Jonathon was once a rising company man with an insatiable appetite for the young women who worked beneath him. When his wife, Adalia, discovered his predatory... Read More

Credited with igniting Korea’s next feminist wave, "Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982" censures patriarchal cultures with its rage-inducing stories of everyday abuses. One ordinary night in his ordinary home, Daehyun notices that a change has... Read More