Editors’ Choice: 6 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
In 'Paradise Rot,' Jenny Hval Traces A Surrealistic Sexual Awakening
In this tactile novel, the celebrated Norwegian musician Jenny Hval places two entropic lovers within a converted Australian brewery to explore sexuality, decay and freedom.
(Image credit: Barry Lewis/In Pictures via Getty Images)
Getting Too Old For Narnia In 'Light Between Worlds'
Laura Weymouth's new novel follows two sisters struggling with the aftermath of their adventures in a magic land. That struggle is the vivid heart of the book, but its Narnia-lite doesn't quite work.
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By the Book: Barbara Kingsolver: By the Book
The author, most recently, of the novel “Unsheltered” loves “fiction that educates me on the sly, especially about something I didn’t realize I wanted to know. I’m open to any kind of arcana.”
Nonfiction: The Odyssey of a Gay Black Football-Star Banker, From ‘Peasant Boy’ to the Mountaintop
Casey Gerald’s memoir, “There Will Be No Miracles Here,” recounts a life breaking through enormous barriers while never forgetting his roots.
Profiles: The Coming of Age of Trans-Lit
Transgender writers are embracing a more elastic literary form — the novel — and a number of recent works, often genre-bending as well as gender-bending, have won critical acclaim.
'Travelling Cat' Chronicles Friendship, Loss And Life On The Road
You don't have to be a cat lover to enjoy Hiro Arikawa's novel about a man and his cat, traveling across Japan to visit old friends. And you may find yourself tearing up by the end.
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Paper Chase: The ‘Doctor Zhivago’ Nobel Dust-up
Sixty years ago today, the Swedish Academy awarded the Russian author Boris Pasternak the Nobel Prize for Literature, but less than a week later, under pressure from the Soviet government, Pasternak rejected the award. The story, which had more twists and turns than a Cold War-era spy novel, played out in The New York Times with one front-page story after another.
Nonfiction: A (Kafkaesque) Legal Battle Over the Author’s Papers Is at the Heart of ‘Kafka’s Last Trial’
A new book by Benjamin Balint considers what a lengthy courtroom fight over the rights to Franz Kafka’s literary archive reveals about him — and us.
Fierce, Spiky 'Friday Black' Packs A Big Punch
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's intellectually hefty debut works through ideas about racism, about classism and capitalism, about the apocalypse, and, most of all, about the corrosive power of belief.
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Babe Ruth, the First Modern Celebrity
In “The Big Fella,” Jane Leavy demonstrates how the Bambino paved the way for every superstar to come.
'Glimmer Of Hope' Provides A Blueprint For Launching Social Change
With a new collection of essays, the 25 founders of March For Our Lives return the subject of the Parkland shooting and gun violence to national consciousness just in time for midterms elections.
(Image credit: NPR)
Five Novelists Imagine Trump’s Next Chapter
How does the story of the American president, the Russian president, a retired British spy, a contested election and a rumored videotape end?
Fiction: ‘Friday Black’ Paints a Dark Portrait of Race in America
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s debut stories are violent for a reason.
New & Noteworthy
A selection of books published this week; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading.
Nonfiction: Philip Pullman’s ‘Daemon Voices’ Casts an Entrancing Spell
A new collection of essays by the British author best known for the children’s trilogy “His Dark Materials” showcases his boundless curiosity and fascination with storytelling.
Essay: The Ghost Story Persists in American Literature. Why?
A slew of ghosts in recent books are a vessel for the country’s collective terror and guilt.
Futuristic Dreams Turn To Nightmare In 'Electric State'
In his latest book, Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag uses his ghostly photorealism to create an alternate America overcome by an addiction to technology, by drought, by war and loss and loneliness.
(Image credit: )
Barbara Kingsolver Captures The Feeling Of Being 'Unsheltered'
Kingsolver's new novel opens with a family suffering a slew of disappointments — job losses, aging parents and kids returning home — then jumps back in time to draw subtle parallels with the past.
(Image credit: Cameron Pollack/NPR)
Prejudice Complicates The Course Of Love In 'A Very Large Expanse Of Sea'
Tahereh Mafi's new novel follows a young Muslim teenager in the years just after 9/11, and what happens when a popular boy in her class falls for her — will she choose love, or self-preservation?
(Image credit: Cameron Pollack/NPR)
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