In her new novel, The Woman Upstairs, Messud takes the heart of a woman whose heart has been long-dormant, opens it up, layer by pumping layer, and by novel’s end, sets that heart on fire. Read More
In one of Willa Cather's letters to her beloved brother Roscoe she writes, “As for me, I have cared too much, about people and places--cared too hard. It made me as a writer, but it will break me in the end.” Losing those near to her very nearly did break Cather, but it is our great fortune that she let herself care as much as she did. Read More
Blake Bailey has dissected complex, self-destructive literary lives in his biographies of Richard Yates and John Cheever, and Farther and Wilder will no doubt add to his reputation as the premiere chronicler of tormented American writers. Read More
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie does not feel like a debut novel. The quality of the writing, its quiet intensity, the certainty of the narrative voices speaks of a polish and talent that has been practicing for years. Read More
Last month, Oprah Winfrey selected Ayana Mathis’ debut novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, as her second pick for the newly launched Oprah Book Club 2.0. Since then, the book has taken off. Mathis has since been profiled twice in the New York Times, and has spent the last two weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
Mathis sat down with Lambda Literary to talk about her writing process, how the legacy of Toni Morrison informed her writing, and the many unexpected forms that love can take. Read More
Author Ayana Mathis' striking debut novel The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (Knopf) has been picked as Oprah's latest book club selection. Read More
Will Schwalbe has accomplished something incredible with The End of Your Life Book Club. He’s created a touching memoir that...
Will Schwalbe’s debut memoir The End of Your Life Book Club (Knopf) is described by Publisher’s Weekly as an “astonishing, pertinent,...
The lingo heard in gay circles today (“the children,” for instance, as code for not-so-covertly gay members of the church) derived decades ago from the gospel underground, where drug and sexual abuse, promiscuity, and perhaps mental illness were prevalent. Lots of backstabbing and cut-throat showmanship went down, too, and Heilbut tells it all. 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
