Memorial, the debut novel from Bryan Washington, begins with a fracturing that becomes the center of the book’s emotional landscape. The novel begins with Mike, a young chef living in the Third Ward in Houston with his boyfriend Benson, jetting off to Japan to be with his estranged father, who has received a fatal cancer… Continue reading Memorial by Bryan Washington
Category: Fiction
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
“Hi! My name is Nao, and I am a time being. Do you know what a time being is? Well, if you give me a moment, I will tell you”, are the first lines of the diary that has washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox on the coast of an island in British Columbia,… Continue reading A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
In one of 2020’s buzziest new releases, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, novelist V.E. Schwab offers a modern take on the Faustian bargain, when the titular heroine disobeys advice to “Never pray to the gods that answer after dark.” Born in 1691 in a tiny village in France, Adeline LaRue quickly becomes disenchanted with the… Continue reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
In 2020, four years after Donald Trump promised Americans he would “build a wall” and make Mexico pay for it, the first formerly undocumented immigrant writer was nominated for the National Book Award. Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, whose anonymous essay for the Daily Beast that chronicled her experience as an DACA recipient and student at Harvard… Continue reading The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Sisters by Daisy Johnson
Daisy Johnson’s chilling new novel feels like a literary version of the twins from The Shining come to life. The novel, Sisters, is mostly narrated by July, a shy teen whose domineering older sister, September, gets her into all sorts of trouble. September maintains a mysterious hold over July, constantly forcing her into uncomfortable situations.… Continue reading Sisters by Daisy Johnson
Daughter of Black Lake by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Cathy Marie Buchanan brings first century Britannia to life in her latest novel, Daughter of Black Lake, which follows the twin narrative arcs of a mother and daughter coming-of-age during troubled times as villagers of the remote tribe living on Black Lake. Thirteen year old Hobble (she gets her name from her affliction with a… Continue reading Daughter of Black Lake by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion
“What makes Iago evil? some people ask. I never ask”, begins Joan Didion’s classic novel, Play It as It Lays, which both rejects and engages in the exploration of evil. The novel’s anti-heroine is Maria Wyeth, a model and actress separated from her rising star filmmaker husband, Carter, with whom she had her daughter, who… Continue reading Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion
Inheritors by Asako Serizawa
The Inheritors, award-winning fiction writer Asako Serizawa’s debut story collection, trains its eye both toward the past and the future to shed light on the present. The stories follow the history of one Japanese family, beginning in 1868 and spanning into the 2030’s. The family tree begins with Masayuki and Taeko, whose descendants cross continents—living… Continue reading Inheritors by Asako Serizawa
The New Wilderness by Diane Cook
The epigraph to Diane Cook’s story collection Man v Nature is borrowed from Emily Dickinson’s correspondence, “The Wilderness is new — to you. Master, let me lead you.” This epigraph feels even more relevant to Cook’s debut novel, The New Wilderness, included on the 2020 Booker Prize shortlist. The novel is set in some apocalyptic… Continue reading The New Wilderness by Diane Cook
Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh
Ottessa Moshfegh has built a career as one of the preeminent chroniclers of the unsettling, and thus it is no surprise that her most recent novel, Death in Her Hands, begins with a spooky note. “Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body”, reads… Continue reading Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh