In Margaret Atwood’s 1993 novel “The Robber Bride,” three women encounter the glamorous and destructive college friend they thought had died five years earlier. Lorrie Moore reviewed it.
The author, whose new essay collection is “Make It Scream, Make It Burn,” says that a boyfriend gave her a “Choose Your Own Adventure” novel with a secret message inside. “I don’t think I fully appreciated this gesture at the time; now I do!”
“The Second Founding,” by the historian Eric Foner, argues that the radical promise of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments — all passed after the Civil War — remains unfulfilled today.
Four poetry collections — “Be Recorder,” by Carmen Giménez Smith; “Odes to Lithium,” by Shira Erlichman; “Grief Sequence,” by Prageeta Sharma; and “Eyes Bottle Dark With a Mouthful of Flowers,” by Jake Skeets — explore narratives of belonging and identity.
In Stella Tillyard’s novel “Call Upon the Water,” a 17th-century Dutch engineer sets out to drain the English fenlands, but finds his spirit drained instead.