TransAtlantic is a novel with a generous reach, but a hidden purpose. This is what makes it a powerful reading experience. I am calling it an experience because it's a novel you will read slowly,…

Take What You Need, Idra Novey's most recent novel, is a stunning piece of work. Consisting of three complex, beautifully drawn characters, the novel is about caretaking relationships. Jean…

Jane has an unusual passion. She is a paleobiologist who believes that bringing the woolly mammoth back to life will stop the ice from disappearing in the Artic. The theory is that when this prehistoric…

I wanted to write about The Pachinko Parlor, Elsa Shua Dusapin's story about an immigrant Korean community in Japan that runs Korean gaming parlors, because the novel so successfully reveals…

Birnam Wood is the new novel by the New Zealand writer, Eleanor Catton, a literary author who crosses into mystery and suspense. Her previous novel, The Luminaries, was a brick of…

Few people write long short stories these days and one of the reasons may be that they are so hard to get published. Many quarterlies prefer to publish briefer stories to showcase more writers. And…

Most of the stories in Hilma Wolitzer's newly published collection were written in the nineteen seventies, but the humor and wit that electrifies each one feels timeless, and relative to our present,…

I just discovered Goldie Goldbloom's 2019 novel, On Division, about a Chassidic woman who discovers she is pregnant at age 57, when she already isa grandmother. It takes the reader into the…

In this powerful, many-layered novel, Bennett explores the role of identity in six connected lives, considering race and gender as her characters wrestle with truth. Some are looking for the truth about…

This novella by the Irish writer, Claire Keegan, is a small masterpiece. The story centers around Bill Furlong, a coal merchant, as he makes deliveries during the Christmas season in Northern Ireland…