Reviews & Essays
A Year in Reading: A Reviewer’s Favorites from 2019

A READING LIFE

A Year in Reading: A Reviewer’s Favorites from 2019

By Katherine A. Powers ×

Book critic Katherine A. Powers looks back on 2019 and selects five novels that opened welcome doors to alternate worlds....
Didion, Revisited

ESSAYS

Didion, Revisited

Essay by David L. Ulin ×

"I didn’t know what I was getting into." David L. Ulin on the experience of revisiting the writer whose novels and essays explore our paradoxical relationships with stories.
Nothing to See Here

FICTION

Nothing to See Here

By KEVIN WILSON

Reviewed by Kate Tuttle ×

In the new novel from the author of "The Family Fang," a pair of siblings shares a mysterious -- and destructive -- ailment.
The Topeka School

FICTION

The Topeka School

By BEN LERNER

Reviewed by David L. Ulin ×

In the new novel from the author of "Leaving the Atocha Station," the boundary between invention and memory isn't a wall; it's a playground....
Country

FICTION

Country

By MICHAEL HUGHES

Reviewed by Anna Mundow ×

The ancient tale of the siege of Troy is transplanted to Northern Ireland at the close of the twentieth century in Michael Hughes's novel.
My Parents: An Introduction/This Does Not Belong to You

MEMOIR

My Parents: An Introduction/This Does Not Belong to You

By ALEKSANDAR HEMON

Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers ×

In a unique work of double memoir, Aleksandar Hemon explores the intersection of exile, memory and longing....
Akin

FICTION

Akin

By EMMA DONOGHUE

Reviewed by Heller McAlpin ×

In Emma Donoghue's latest novel, a man's quest to understand his family history gets tangled up with his family's future....
The Economists’ Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society

ECONOMICS

The Economists’ Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society

By BINYAMIN APPLEBAUM

Posted by Hamilton Cain ×

The new book by the financial journalist traces the journey of a powerful ideology from academic papers to the corridors of power.
Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark

REVIEWS

Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark

By CECELIA WATSON

Reviewed by David L. Ulin ×

The hybrid punctuation mark has met with resistance from many readers and writers since its invention by an early printer. But the semicolon endures.
The Nickel Boys

FICTION

The Nickel Boys

By COLSON WHITEHEAD

Reviewed by Walton Muyumba ×

Colson Whitehead's new novel tells the story of two boys incarcerated a Florida "academy" -- and raises haunting questions about the nature and price of resistance.
David McCullough and the Meaning of History

AMERICAN HISTORY

David McCullough and the Meaning of History

By Steve King ×

Why the writer's work capturing "the Spirit of America" has never been more timely.
Big Sky

MYSTERY

Big Sky

By KATE ATKINSON

Reviewed by Anna Mundow ×

Kate Atkinson's detective Jackson Brodie returns, picking up the threads of a not-so-cold case in a novel whose mysteries come in layers.
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