Posts by: Karen Laws
Something for Nothing
Set during the ’70s inflation crisis, David Anthony’s first novel, Something for Nothing, is a suspenseful thriller with literary realism. You just may miss your next train stop.
...moreDown from Cascom Mountain
Ann Joslin Williams’ first novel, Down from Cascom Mountain, follows troubled young people in an idyllic lodge in New Hampshire for one summer.
...moreIvan and Misha
Michael Alenyikov’s award-winning new book, Ivan and Misha, explores many-faceted love—from the intense and fleeting to bonds of familial obligation.
...more
The Storm of Life
In a series of violent encounters, Peter Nathaniel Malae’s debut novel asks, What are we to do with men?
...moreI Know Why the Caged Bear Sings
A collection of stories from a Romanian-American writer, nominated for a Northern California Book Award, juxtaposes stories from the old country and the new.
...moreMutations of Meaning
A first novel by playwright Jillian Weise tackles the moral and ethical questions surrounding both medical research and human relationships.
...moreContinental Divide
Kurt Caswell’s memoir describes his year teaching in a place of violence, despair, doubt… and hope.
...moreA Gate at the Huh?
Despite this novel’s serious flaws, it is a gratifying experience. You don’t so much read Lorrie Moore’s books as inhabit them—after which they inhabit you.
...moreWhere Celebrities Go to Die
Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler takes a crack at the underworld in a hit-and-miss new novel.
...moreReasons for and Advantages of Breathing
Lydia Peelle’s stories focus on scurrilous ne’er-do-wells who flail about in circumstances beyond their control.
...moreDiary of a Young Survivor
A playwright’s first novel takes on adolescence and grief in a post-9/11 world
...more90 Miles from Home
Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés’s stories about refugees from the Mariel Boatlift present the conflicts and loneliness of exile.
...more
Remembrance of Things Fast
A review of So Many Ways to Sleep Badly, by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore