Audrey J. Whitson’s haunting "The Death of Annie the Water Witcher by Lightning" is set in western Canada’s Majestic, Alberta—a town plagued by drought and a bleak economy, hardly able to live up to its imposing name. Elderly... Read More

Heady, challenging, and thought-provoking, the essays in "This Fish Is Fowl" traverse international and cultural boundaries. Author Xu Xi is of Chinese descent and originally hails from Indonesia but has spent her life and career... Read More

The Bocas are a developing nation’s sleepy backwater until oil is discovered. For Orbits, sudden wealth is as unreliable as happiness, though; both are a thin veneer over his fear that “Maybe we in these islands are just floaters and... Read More

Raising good questions about the state of contemporary society, "Nobody I Know" is a compelling religious psychological thriller. John J. Gaynard’s heady thriller "Nobody I Know" mines ideas about terrorism and the intellect to... Read More

With style, accessible writing, and a narrative of personal growth and discovery, Leigh Calvez’s "The Breath of a Whale" is both more positive and more personal than other books of its type. It is a softer take on the environmental... Read More

Set at the dawn of the 1980s, Norma Elia Cantú’s lovely novel "Cabañuelas" occupies a culturally liminal space. Nena is from a family in Laredo, Texas, that keeps its Mexican culture alive, even while sending its sons to fight for... Read More

Mackaman’s tales strike deep emotional chords; some are laugh-out-loud funny. Henry Mackaman passed away from bacterial meningitis at the age of twenty-one, one credit away from graduating with a double major in economics and creative... Read More

"Mallko and Dad" is the tender, honest, and life-affirming personal account of a father and his boy, who has Down syndrome. "Mallko and Dad" strikes quickly and with searing frankness, as Gusti writes: “Sometimes having kids is like... Read More