Steven Millhauser's brilliant first novel is called Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954, by Jeffrey Cartwright. In the book, Edwin, an artistic genius, dead at the age of 11, is immortalized in this book by his lifelong friend Jeffrey. This satire of biographies also serves as an unerring chronicle of childhood — not just Edwin's, but our own. It's easy to forget, as a grown-up, that there was a time when almost everything about the world felt new,

—Myla Goldberg