Wingshooters is constantly hinting at, without overtly stating—and this is nicely done—the shifting social and cultural mores of rural America in the mid-1970s. Read More
I think it was Kurt Vonnegut who said that writing a novel was like making popcorn: the characters were the...
On its surface, the story of Coral Glynn appears simple: the titular nurse Coral arrives at Hart House to care for an elderly woman dying of cancer, and her son, Major Clement Hart, takes a shine to her. In less deft hands, this material would be ripe for all sorts of weeping and rending of garments, but Cameron works with a deft hand, never succumbing to histrionics. Read More
History of a Pleasure Seeker—Mason’s fourth novel at the age of 34—is extremely well-written, extremely well-paced and so intricately plotted that it’s no surprise to learn that Mason clearly outlines his novels before he even begins to haggle with his first sentence Read More
The fundamental pleasure of this fully realized novel, and of all of Carol Anshaw’s work, may well be simply basking in the light-filled explorations of a first class intelligence. Read More
It is difficult to casually categorise Manuel Muñoz's first novel. Mystery? Noir thriller? Romance? Literary fiction? Historical fiction? Meta-fiction? The answer, as it turns out, is all of the above. Read More
The vibrant stories in Lysley Tenorio’s debut collection, Monstress (Ecco), depict an immigrant experience that reveals the implications of what it means to be a perpetual outsider. Intimate portrayals give way to larger meditations in these eight stories of Filipino fiction. Read More
In the opening scene of Marianne Banks’ first novel, Growing Up Delicious (Bella), the protagonist, Jennifer Andersen, admits something we’ve all felt one time or another: “The problem was I looked grown up but felt twelve years old." Read More
By Blood, Ellen Ullman’s latest novel, is a noir gem. The novel is creepy-exciting and skillfully ironic at almost every turn, with a narrator’s voice snaking through the measured text. It is a voice that is appalling, brilliantly perverted, cunning and smart—and desperate for redemption. Read More
Justin Chin stitches together a collection of stories in 98 Wounds that are visceral, unsettling, overwhelming, disturbing, poetic, beautiful, loving, and real. Be prepared to be emotionally and psychologically jarred; to be wounded and healed. Read More
