Fiction | Chapter 16

Prophets of Doom

In Christopher Hebert’s Angels of Detroit, young idealists believe they must destroy the city to save it

By Sean Kinch | July 7, 2016

AngelsOfDetroitjkt (1) Christopher Hebert’s new novel, Angels of Detroit, features a cast of characters who believe that the apocalypse is coming, and humanity is too narcotized or distracted to pay attention. Hebert will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on July 17, 2016, at 2 p.m. and at the John C. Hodges Library at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville on August 29, 2016, at 7 p.m.

Hurricanes, Despair, and Hope

In John Gregory Brown’s latest novel, Katrina isn’t what ruins a New Orleans man’s life

By Faye Jones | July 6, 2016

July 6, 2016 Even before Hurricane Katrina, Henry Garrett was a mess. Now, stranded in Virginia, he must choose whether to give in to his demons or face his own challenges. John Gregory Brown will discuss A Thousand Miles from Nowhere at Parnassus Books in Nashville on July 14, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.

Each the Other’s World Entire

Novelist Beverly Lowry looks back at Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Road, on its tenth anniversary

By Beverly Lowry | June 24, 2016

June 24, 2016 In the seventh of a nine-essay series commemorating the centennial year of the Pulitzer Prizes, Memphis native Beverly Lowry celebrates the narrative voice and original prose in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007.

Black Op

Graphic violence pervades every page of Joshua Hood’s new Search and Destroy thriller

By Ralph Bowden | June 23, 2016

June 23, 2016 Independent, often misunderstood, and fiercely loyal Mason Kane returns in Warning Order, Joshua Hood’s second military-spy thriller. Hood will launch the novel at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on June 30, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.

Another Realm of Being

Novelist Ed Tarkington reflects on the deep ambivalence that lies at the heart of Peter Taylor’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Summons to Memphis

By Ed Tarkington | June 17, 2016

June 17, 2016 In the sixth of a nine-essay series commemorating the centennial year of the Pulitzer Prizes, novelist Ed Tarkington considers the problematic culture depicted in Peter Taylor’s A Summons to Memphis, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987.

A Demon-Haunted Land

In Julia Franks’s debut novel Over the Plain Houses, a Depression-era farm wife seeks solace in the wilderness

By Sean Kinch | June 16, 2016

June 16, 2016 In Julia Franks’s Over the Plain Houses, set in western North Carolina farm country in 1939, a married woman begins to fill the witching hours of night by roaming the wild hills surrounding her farm. Her husband, an evangelical preacher, becomes convinced that his once-pious wife has repudiated God. Franks will discuss Over the Plain Houses at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on June 23, 2016, at 6 p.m.

Isabel and the Invisible World

By Alan Lightman, illustrated by Ramona Kaulitzki
MIT Kids Press
40 pages
$18.99

“In simple, engaging language, complemented by luminous artwork from best-selling illustrator Ramona Kaulitzki, author and physicist Alan Lightman unveils the hidden world of light waves—the ones you can see and the ones you can’t.”

~ the publisher