Book Review
Wolves at the Door
Gunnar Staalesen’s "Wolves at the Door" is a chilling thriller made engrossing thanks to the sarcastic sallying and social conscience of its lead detective. Falsely accused of having child pornography on his computer, private...
Book Review
Continental Divide
Alex Myers’s compelling and poignant coming-of-gender novel "Continental Divide" is set in Wyoming and delves into the difficult decisions that a trans person has to face—and how challenging the process of transitioning can be, both...
Book Review
Under Nushagak Bluff
In Mia Heavener’s emotional novel "Under Nushagak Bluff", three generations of Indigenous Alaskan women are the focus. Set during the 1930s and 1940s, the book is gripping and understated. It takes place in Nushagak, a remote fishing...
Book Review
Clio Rising
Paula Martinac’s latest novel, "Clio Rising", is both a story of lesbian friendship and a literary mystery. Livvie Bliss—a young, out lesbian fresh from the North Carolina countryside—and Clio Hartt—a closeted lesbian known for...
Book Review
All the Fierce Tethers
“Metaphors get compromised. Get eroded and need updating. Rerouting. Reconstituting,” writes Lia Purpura. This is just one of the luminous themes mined in her glittering new essay collection "All the Fierce Tethers". In prose that is...
Book Review
77
“How can you narrate terror?” This question is a central focus of Guillermo Saccomanno’s "77", set during the 1977 reign of terror in Argentina, the Dirty War. The military coup d’état of 1976 led to the killing of over thirty...
Book Review
Tucumcari
The narrator of Patrick Parks’s surrealistic novel "Tucumcari" is a man who floats through memories and time, addressing ash-covered cities, the atom bomb, and his wife. Lean, direct prose anchors his feverish meanderings. Fantastical...
Book Review
Theory of Bastards
Audrey Schulman’s engrossing novel is a combination of dystopian fiction, science fiction, and a love story, uniting bonobos and survival in the not-so-distant future. Dr. Francine Burk, a recent MacArthur winner, has decided to share...