'Mariam Sharma' Nails The Fun Road-Trip Vibe
Summer is the season for road-trips, and Mariam Sharma Hits the Road makes for a saucy, yet emotional ride, following three Pakistani-American teens on a journey through the Deep South.
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Mannered, Pretty 'Upstate' Is Quiet To A Fault
Critic and novelist James Wood has often dinged other writers for what he calls "hysterical realism," but his new novel Upstate — while beautifully written — goes too far in the other direction.
(Image credit: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
In Haunted 'Florida,' The Storms And Panthers Are Always There. How Will You Survive?
In Lauren Groff's gorgeous, precise new story collection, Florida is a haunted place, full of eyes in the darkness — and angry, restless women, always on the move, always searching for something.
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An Epic Conversation Draws To A Close In 'Kudos'
Rachel Cusk's trilogy about a peripatetic writer and her many conversational partners winds up with Kudos. The books are essentially plotless — but there's plenty of joy to be found just in talk.
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Exploding Myths About 'Black Power, Jewish Politics'
In a new book, historian Marc Dollinger argues that the conventional wisdom of Jewish and African-American harmony during the civil rights era is flawed. And that the real story has lessons for today.
(Image credit: Charles Del Vecchio/Washington Post/Getty Images)
'Heavenly Bodies' Is Gorgeous — But Full Of Strange Silences
The companion piece to this year's Met Gala, Heavenly Bodies functions beautifully as an art object — but it has some odd blank spots, particularly around the contributions of women to Catholicism.
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Southern Gothic 'Florida' Spins Tales Of Hurricanes, Humidity And Humanity
Lauren Groff sets her new story collection in what she calls the "sunniest and strangest of states." Critic Maureen Corrigan says the tales are "brooding, inventive — and often moving."
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What Does Shakespeare Have To Do With 'Energy?' (Trust Us, There's A Link)
In his new book, Richard Rhodes lays out an accessible and surprisingly optimistic history of energy by exploring the lives of scientists and inventors — and a few unlikely people, like Bard of Avon.
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Sexuality, Mortality, Failure — 'My Ex-Life' Has Fun Asking Big Questions
A divorced couple reconnects after nearly 30 years apart in Stephen McCauley's new novel. Critic Maureen Corrigan says My Ex-Life is a social satire that's "suffused with generosity."
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'Some Trick' Takes On The Life Of The (Delightfully Irritable) Mind
Helen DeWitt's new story collection seems less like a book, and more like a series of notes from some vast, alien intelligence, capable of picking apart human habits with startling precision.
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What Happens When Two Enemies Fall In Love?
A love story between a black Army nurse and a German POW during World War II? You couldn't make that story up — and Alexis Clark, author of the upcoming book, Enemies in Love, didn't.
(Image credit: Courtesy of the New Press)
In '84K,' Every Life — And Every Death — Has A Price
Claire North's new gut-punch of a novel takes place in a dystopian world where one monster corporation controls England, every service is privatized, and every life has been assigned a monetary value.
(Image credit: Eslah Attar/NPR)
Long-Simmering Rage Leads To Rebellion In 'Chosen Country'
James Pogue — a journalist with his own rebellious streak — gets at the deep-seated anger that led Ammon Bundy to mastermind the ill-fated armed occupation of the Malheur wildlife refuge in Oregon.
(Image credit: Eslah Attar/NPR)
Murder Is Minimal In Spooky 'Sabrina'
Graphic novelist Nick Drnaso's new book chronicles the aftermath of a murder in tightly-controlled, almost miserly panels that still manage to convey the horror of a senseless killing.
(Image credit: Eslah Attar/NPR)
In 'Facts And Fears,' Ex-Spy Boss Clapper Comes In From The Cold, Badly Chilled
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper recalls a lifetime of service in the spy business as he perceives Washington, D.C., crumbling around him.
(Image credit: Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
Film-Loving 'Twinkle' Is A Star On The Page
Sandhya Menon's new young adult novel follows aspiring filmmaker Twinkle Mehta, who addresses her diary entries to female directors like Mira Nair and Ava DuVernay and longs to change lives with film.
(Image credit: Eslah Attar/NPR)
In 'Rock Steady,' Ellen Forney Combines Mental Health Advice, Artistry and Wit
Following up on her instant-classic Marbles — about her experiences with bipolar disorder — cartoonist Forney lays out her coping strategies in warm, deftly-rendered and densely informative style.
(Image credit: Eslah Attar/NPR)
'A Shout In The Ruins' Probes The Lasting Infections Of War And Slavery
Kevin Powers' bleak, stunning new book is set in both the 1950s and the Civil War era. It's an intricately plotted look at the ways violence can shape a nation in ways that may not be recoverable.
(Image credit: Little, Brown and Company )
'Cult X' Asks How Easily You — Yes, You — Might Be Taken In
Some of the sex scenes in Fuminori Nakamura's new novel Cult X will disturb you — but that's beside the point, because the book has much more disturbing things to say about groupthink and free will.
(Image credit: Eslah Attar/NPR)
'Empire At Sunset' Provides A Mesmerizing View Of Jean Rhys
Caryl Phillips' new novel, set in the waning years of the British Empire, follows the perpetually alienated Rhys from her birthplace in the West Indies to England and then the Continent.
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