The characters of Katy Simpson Smith’s The Everlasting span the long, winding history of Rome
…as more than a colorful swirl of imagery. They provide a structural conceit that allows Smith to organize two millennia’s worth of material about Rome’s history and people. In “The…
Patti Smith chronicles her idiosyncratic path through the creative life in Year of the Monkey
…bearing witness to music’s alchemical power in a volatile world. Smith’s latest dispatch from her nomadic travels, Year of the Monkey, also reflects the surreal confusion of our fractured, threatening…
Novelist Louise Erdrich draws from her own family history for The Night Watchman
…battle against Resolution 108 would have meant losing legal safeguards that kept these already ravaged nations from dissolving altogether. Alongside Thomas, the novel’s other driving force is Patrice Paranteau, a…
Lorraine López sends up the foibles of arts faculty in Postcards from the Gerund State
…academia. However, what López does best in this collection is to move beyond the veneer of intellectual and professional gamesmanship and expose the internal conflicts of her memorable central characters….
A brother and sister wrestle with the past in Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House
From school shootings to toddlers in cages, our historical moment can feel like a Grimm’s fairy tale. It’s no surprise, then, that our leading novelists have often couched their work…
In Silas House’s Southernmost, a pastor grapples with the evolution of his beliefs
…meanwhile forming his own spiritual vision. Justin perceives God in all aspects of the world, a private belief he calls “the Everything.” He feels the Everything in every creature and…
