My Friends by Hisham Matar

Random House Review by Walter Cummins My Friends is a haunted novel. Haunted by loss of places and people, by distressing memories, by the scars of a physical wound, by…

Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan

Random House Review by Brian Tanguay “I recently sent a letter to a terrorist I used to know.”  When considered in the context of everything that befalls its author and…

An Ordinary Youth by Walter Kempowski, Translated by Michael Lipton

New York Review of Books Review by Brian Tanguay In November 1944 Walter Kempowski was called up for mandatory service by the German government, and detailed to go from house…

The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner

Pantheon Review by David Starkey Helen Garner is having a well-deserved moment. The eighty-one-year-old author, renowned in her native Australia, but until recently barely known in the U.S., has benefited…

Tremor: A Novel by Teju Cole

Random House Review by Walter Cummins I read Tremor as the story of all that is taking place in the activities and in the mind of Tunde, Teju Cole’s protagonist,…

The Boy with the Star Tattoo by Talia Carner

William Morrow Review by Walter Cummins Talia Carner personifies the turmoil of mid twentieth-century history in The Boy with the Star Tattoo by interweaving three narratives featuring individuals who struggle…

The Suicide Museum by Ariel Dorfman

Other Press Review by Brian Tanguay In what he refers to as a “sort of epilogue” to his colossal novel, The Suicide Museum, Ariel Dorfman thanks the Spanish author Javier…

Signatures in Stone: A Bomarzo Mystery

Pleasure Boat Review by Walter Cummins Linda Lappin’s novel, which was the overall winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense in 2014, is now out in…

The Vulnerables: A Novel by Sigrid Nunez

Riverhead Review by Walter Cummins While reading The Vulnerables, my eye kept being drawn to the subtitle, A Novel, in the header at the top of every page, as if…

By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Riverhead Books Review by Brian Tanguay The first time I became aware of Abdulrazak Gurnah was on this website when I read fellow contributor Walter Cummins’ review of The Last…