The World Without You, by Joshua Henkin
The World Without You, Joshua Henkin’s new book, is that rare breed: the twenty-first century domestic novel. Henkin’s characters, the Frankels – think Salinger’s Glass family, but more pretentious –…
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The Mere Weight of Words by Carissa Halston
Most of the outrage surrounding the erosion of the English language centers on the misuse of punctuation. Lynne Truss professed the desire to carry a red marker with her everywhere…
The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector
“A note exists between two notes of music, between two facts exists a fact, between two grains of sand no matter how close together there exists an interval of space,…
An Individual History by Michael Collier
Collier’s poems refuse to submit to a culture that has come to hold the individual suspect or in contempt. Many offer poignant but unsentimental family portraits made with vivid detail, with images that are remembered, hence recovered and immortalized.
Children in Reindeer Woods by Kristín Ómarsdóttir
Kristín Ómarsdóttir’s novel, Children in Reindeer Woods, opens on a summer day during wartime in an unnamed country: the sun is high in the sky. Three soldiers cross a green…
A Sense of Direction by Gideon Lewis-Kraus
For those of you with literary ambitions, be warned: this book might be painful. You will read A Sense of Direction and recall your confused chasing of said ambition, all…
Percussion Grenade by Joyelle McSweeney
McSweeney asks us to inhabit the conflicting edges of that reality, mouthing the power and joy that come with degeneracy.
The Loss Library and Other Unfinished Stories, by Ivan Vladislavic
In his recent blend of fiction, essays, and literary genealogy, The Loss Library and Other Unfinished Stories, South African writer Ivan Vladislavic delves into the dazzling enigmas of unwritten work.…
Double Shadow by Carl Phillips
Double Shadow seems to find the poet at mid-breath, or in a time of transition where the voice may be in flux from previous work; but the watchful eye, and the careful hand that crafts these verses, is still ever-present.
Occupy Nation by Todd Gitlin
What hath the OWS movement wrought? Depends on who you ask. Naysayers, including most Republicans and Rupert Murdoch’s various media organs, will tell you that OWS created nothing but trouble, violence,…
The Truth about Marie by Jean-Philippe Toussaint
The title of Jean-Philippe Toussaint’s most recent novel, The Truth About Marie, is an impish wink and a nudge to the reader. The plot, such as it is, involves a…
Madame X by Darcie Dennigan
Madame X pilots the idea that the line between reality and dream is not so much collapsible as it is meant to be collapsed.