Knopf Review by David Starkey When I finished reading Maggie O’Farrell’s new novel Land, I thought of an Aboriginal Australian proverb that roughly translates as “Land is the story of…
Category: Fiction
Talking to the Wolf by Rebecca Chace
Red Hen Review by Walter Cummins The inseparability of past and present permeates this novel through the lives of the four women friends whose stories alternate in the telling. It…
Body Double by Hanna Johansson, translated by Kira Josefsson
Catapult Review by Walter Cummins Although I read a translation of this novel, I assume the English sentence structure replicates that of the original Swedish, a series of flat statements…
Agnes Lives! by Hallie Elizabeth Newton
Bloomsbury Review by Brian Tanguay I have never read a novel in which the protagonist searches for someone to take their life. Meet Agnes Maurer, follow her over the course…
Crocodilopolis by John Manuel Arias
Bloomsbury Review by Brian Tanguay Is it inevitable that the sins of fathers be visited upon their sons? Perhaps not, but sons haunted by their fathers is one of the…
Five Weeks in the Country by Francine Prose
Harper Walter Cummins Readers can fantasize the meeting of two literary titans as an opportunity for an exchange of legendary brilliance. But it doesn’t always work out that way. When…
White River Crossing by Ian McGuire
Crown Review by David Starkey If you were thinking it would be a good idea to send a group of mismatched and underprepared people to Canada’s far north in search…
A Private Man by Stephanie Sy-Quia
Grove Review by Walter Cummins In her author’s note Stephanie Sy-Quia states that the idea for this novel came from an actual family situation—the fact that her grandfather was a…
Keeper of Lost Art by Laura Morelli
William Morrow Review by Linda Lappin Crossing from the Oltrarno into the heart of Florence, I always paused to admire the view from the Santa Trinità bridge: a checkerboard of…
Transcription by Ben Lerner
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Review by Walter Cummins The title defines the issue. This novel is a transcription of several experiences, especially conversations and interviews meant to serve as a…