The Barnes & Noble Review

Wolf on a String

By BENJAMIN BLACK

Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers ×

Irish novelist John Banville created an alter ego, Benjamin Black, to write a series of Dublin-based mysteries. Now, Black is off to seventeenth-century Prague and tale steeped in the occult.

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Soldiers to Students: The G.I. Bill’s Legacy

DAYBOOK

Soldiers to Students: The G.I. Bill’s Legacy

By Steve King ×

FDR's New Deal for veterans acknowledged that homecoming was just the beginning for soldiers....

Dance of Life: Amelia Gray and “Isadora”

FICTION

Dance of Life: Amelia Gray and “Isadora”

Profile by Tobias Carroll ×

Amelia Gray's new novel takes the already-legendary life of Isadora Duncan as its inspiration. Profile by Tobias Carroll.

Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America

FOOD

Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America

By MICHAEL RUHLMAN

Reviewed by Sarah L. Courteau ×

Consider, says Michael Ruhlman, the most compelling evidence of a civilization's evolutionary leap: the supermarket....

THE SPECULATOR

Void Star

By ZACHARY MASON

Reviewed by Paul Di Filippo ×

The author of "The Lost Books of the Odyssey" returns with a novel of conspiracy in the age of artificial intelligence. Review by Paul Di Filippo.

Yawn: Adventures in Boredom

PSYCHOLOGY

Yawn: Adventures in Boredom

By MARY MANN

Reviewed by Mark Athitakis ×

One of the most common experiences is also one of the most poorly understood: Mary Mann explores the paradox of tedium....

With a God on His Side

CULTURAL STUDIES

With a God on His Side

Essay by Robert Christgau ×

Across his studies of culture and materialism, critic and philosopher Terry Eagleton looks for the "heart of a heartless world." Essay by Robert Christgau.

A Novel Like a Tree: Arundhati Roy on “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness”

FICTION

A Novel Like a Tree: Arundhati Roy on “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness”

A Conversation with Rafia Zakaria ×

The celebrated author returns with her first novel since "The God of Small Things" with a story that turns on the lives of the marginalized. "To me everything is political," she tells Rafia...

FICTION

The Leavers

By LISA KO

Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers ×

An ambitious young woman leaves her rural hometown in China for what she hopes will be a better life in America. Lisa Ko's debut novel charts the unexpected consequences of that decision....

The Mighty Franks

MEMOIR

The Mighty Franks

By MICHAEL FRANK

Essay by Heller McAlpin ×

Michael Frank's memoir explores the strange dynamic of a family whose sense of boundaries was always less than perfect. Essay by Heller McAlpin.

It Was Fifty Years Ago Today

DAYBOOK

It Was Fifty Years Ago Today

By Steve King ×

Was it the first "concept album"? The Beatles' exuberant classic, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, still beguiles at fifty.

On Becoming the Becky Sharp of Science: Hope Jahren

INTERVIEW

On Becoming the Becky Sharp of Science: Hope Jahren

A Conversation with Bill Tipper ×

The author of "Lab Girl" on why scientific writing is like poetry, and how William Thackeray's unstoppable heroine gave her a model for her career in research. A conversation with Bill Tipper.

Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics

HISTORY

Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics

By KIM PHILLIPS-FEIN

Reviewed by Barbara Spindel ×

The notion of "austerity" has returned to political conversations about the fate of America's cities. Kim Phillips-Fein looks back at the the lessons offered by New York's economic crisis of the...