Dread Builds As Good Guys Turn To Bad In 'Ill Will'
Dan Chaon's latest novel suggests that even people who seem kind can lead you down dangerous paths, whether they realize it or not.
(Image credit: Marian Carrasquero/NPR)
Dan Chaon's latest novel suggests that even people who seem kind can lead you down dangerous paths, whether they realize it or not.
(Image credit: Marian Carrasquero/NPR)
Jean Hanff Korelitz's new novel surveys student life at a New England college in turmoil. Critic Maureen Corrigan says The Devil and Webster is "wittily on target."
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Cartoonist Peter Bagge's new biography of Zora Neale Hurston swoops through her life at breakneck speed, losing some real-life pathos along the way, but sustaining an electric, colorful energy.
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Nell Stevens retreated to a remote corner of the Falkland Islands in an attempt to write a novel. She came away with something better: This oddly winning memoir of deprivation, rain and penguins.
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Erika Carter's intelligent, unpretentious debut follows an aimless group of friends in their 20s, whose lives spin out of control during a supposedly detoxifying trip to a remote house in the country.
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Leonardo Padura returns to one of his favorite characters — broken-down Cuban gumshoe Mario Conde — and puts him on the trail of a missing Rembrandt in his gorgeously written new novel Heretics.
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Kim Stanley Robinson envisions a future that's closer than we like to think in New York 2140. Sea levels 50 feet higher have swamped Manhattan, but there's a tiny thread of hope that we might float.
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Elif Batuman has sung the praises of "long novels, pointless novels," and she puts her money where her mouth is with The Idiot, a tale of youthful confusion that can be both boring and beautiful.
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Kanishk Tharoor's collection of short stories explores the complicated relationship between language and technology. Tharoor's rich voice and immaculate craftsmanship both comfort and unnerve.
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The Inexplicable Logic of My Life is as much a doorstopper as any young adult fantasy novel, but the world it builds is inside the head of teenaged Sal, who's struggling with difficult new emotions.
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Rockabilly singer J.D. Wilkes hints at supernatural happenings in his novel about an unbelievable adventure through a kudzu-infested forest in western Kentucky.
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Leonardo Padura's new novel opens in 1939, when a ship carrying Jewish refugees is turned away from Cuba. Critic Maureen Corrigan says Heretics "spans and defies literary categories."
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Lydia Edwards gives a knowledgeable introduction to Western European dresses. It feels bare at times but Edwards is more interested in providing insights rather than an extensive history.
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Peter Heller's detective novel is a romp — complete with a taking-names heroine, action-packed adventures, and a sense that you've known these characters for years.
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Suspense is the driving force in Hari Kunzru's thriller about two young white men who invent a fictional blues singer.
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The second installment of B. Catling's trilogy is full of oddities and quirks and familiar characters.
Jamie Attenberg's newest novel follows a woman living her life unapologetically, and on her own terms. But that kind of life can is not necessarily a good one.
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Keggie Carew's father was a genuine war hero, but he was on shakier ground close to home. And after he began to suffer from dementia, Carew set out to reconstruct — and demythologize — his life.
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Charlie "Coop" Cooper is back for another action packed, kooky adventure — complete with dirty jokes, an octopus robot, and an overuse of dialogue — in Richard Kadrey's newest novel.
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Sarah Dunant's latest novel follows one of history's most notorious families — the Borgias. But it's the small, domestic details, not the bigger picture, that captivate.
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