Anthem by Noah Hawley

Review by David Starkey Noah Hawley’s new novel Anthem is set in a near, scarcely alternative future. The United States is riven by partisan divide, with the Alt Right on…

Blank Pages and Other Stories by Bernard MacLaverty

Review by Walter Cummins Bernard MacLaverty’s latest story collection, his sixth, builds a thematic connection around its title story, “Blank Pages.” Frank, a writer, has been blocked since the death…

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

Review by David Starkey Let’s be honest: after writing two of the best novels of the twenty-first century—The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys—it was going to be hard for…

Our Little World by Karen Winn

Review by Walter Cummins Our Little World is in several ways a deceptive novel, cleverly constructed. The opening chapters told from the perspective of pre-teen Bee—the nickname she prefers over…

We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama

Review by Brian Tanguay The Dalai Lama is the most recognizable figure of the Tibetan diaspora, but the focus of Tsering Yangzom Lama’s debut novel, We Measure the Earth with…

Free Love by Tessa Hadley

Review by Walter Cummins While pages of Tessa Hadley’s latest novel, Free Love, are filled with sexual activity and, more significantly, sexual gratification, satisfactions of the libido are transitory steps…

Chronicles From the Land of the Happiest People on Earth by Wole Soyinka

Review by Brian Tanguay When I began reading Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth by Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian writer who won the Nobel Prize for…

A Little Hope by Ethan Joella

Review by Walter Cummins The pages of Ethan Joella’s A Little Hope abound in death and loss. The novel, which opens with the question of whether a central character will…

Bewilderment by Richard Powers

Review by David Starkey Richard Powers’ new novel, Bewilderment, is—despite its portrayal of a mother and son who are capable of ecstatic connection with the natural world—one of the most…

The Last Gift by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Review by Walter Cummins Although The Last Gift (2011) is not 2021 Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah’s most acclaimed novel—the Booker Prize short-listed Paradise is—it illustrates his many strengths as…