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Jane Ciabattari Jane Ciabattari is the author of the short-story collections Stealing The Fire and California Tales.

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Jane Ciabattari

Jane Ciabattari is a writer, critic and president of the National Book Critics Circle.

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Saturday March 19, 2016

Amid Shadows On Screen, 'Innocents' Wonders What's Real

Brandon Chew/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

Amid Shadows On Screen, 'Innocents' Wonders What's Real

March 19, 2016 • Dana Spiotta's ambitious new novel follows two women, friends and filmmakers, through decades of conversations about art, film and life — and a dangerous final documentary project.

Thursday March 3, 2016

'The Yid' Blends Soviet Fact And Fiction

Review

Book Reviews

'The Yid' Blends Soviet Fact And Fiction

March 3, 2016 • Paul Goldberg's audacious new novel trades in rumor and anecdote, conjuring a time of anti-Semitism and violence in 1950s Moscow.

Friday October 16, 2015

'Thirteen Ways' Takes A Powerful, Layered Look At Life

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Review

Book Reviews

'Thirteen Ways' Takes A Powerful, Layered Look At Life

October 16, 2015 • Colum McCann's new story collection plays with images of surveillance — traffic cams, nanny cams — to capture a complex picture of love, loss, pain and the way our lives so swiftly pass away.

Sunday October 11, 2015

'Mothers' Tells Stories Too Often Silenced

Review

Book Reviews

'Mothers' Tells Stories Too Often Silenced

October 11, 2015 • Bonnie Jo Campbell's confessional, unforgettable new story collection gives a voice to mothers and daughters, struggling to get by, desperate to be heard, but despairing of an audience.

Wednesday September 9, 2015

'Liliane' Builds A Life From Fragments Of Memory

Ariel Zambelich/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

'Liliane' Builds A Life From Fragments Of Memory

September 9, 2015 • Young Liliane reads Bonjour Tristesse with her father in Italy, Peyton Place with her mother in Maine — and author Lily Tuck builds the disparate pieces of her life into a compelling portrait.

Thursday January 29, 2015

A Haunting, Victorian-Inflected Dystopia In 'The Mime Order'

Review

Time Machine

A Haunting, Victorian-Inflected Dystopia In 'The Mime Order'

January 29, 2015 • Samantha Shannon's richly detailed follow-up to The Bone Season picks up with clairvoyant heroine Paige on the run after leading a revolt against the alien oppressors of her far-future England.

Thursday November 13, 2014

A New Collection, Well-Furnished With Munro's Best

Review

Book Reviews

A New Collection, Well-Furnished With Munro's Best

November 13, 2014 • Family Furnishings collects 24 of short story master Alice Munro's best works. Reviewer Jane Ciabattari calls it a superb introduction to Munro, and a reminder that she's a writer to be cherished.

Sunday September 21, 2014

The Stories In 'Bright Shards' Glimmer With Empathetic Power

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Review

Book Reviews

The Stories In 'Bright Shards' Glimmer With Empathetic Power

September 21, 2014 • The characters in Monica McFawn's short stories range from a gambling nanny to a butterfly-selling mathematician. Each story is full of carefully observed human detail and flashes of brilliance.

Thursday August 7, 2014

'The Kills' Sustains Suspense Across A Massive Structure

Review

Book Reviews

'The Kills' Sustains Suspense Across A Massive Structure

August 7, 2014 • Richard House's 1,048-page thriller is a series of interlocking novels within novels about a British contractor who flees Iraq after being framed for the loss of $53 million in development money.

Thursday June 5, 2014

Suspense Along The Sepik With The Young Scientists Of 'Euphoria'

Review

Book Reviews

Suspense Along The Sepik With The Young Scientists Of 'Euphoria'

June 5, 2014 • Lily King's new novel was inspired by a real-life moment in 1933, when the lives of anthropologist Margaret Mead and two of her husbands intersected on an expedition to the Sepik River in New Guinea.

Thursday May 15, 2014

Huck And Jim Ride The River Of Time In 'Boy In His Winter'

Review

Book Reviews

Huck And Jim Ride The River Of Time In 'Boy In His Winter'

May 15, 2014 • In Norman Lock's new novel, Huck and Jim set out on their raft in 1835, but are swept up and along through three wrenching centuries: slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and onward.

Wednesday February 12, 2014

Harrowing Memories, Intersecting Lives In 'Thirty Girls'

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Knopf/Random House

Review

Book Reviews

Harrowing Memories, Intersecting Lives In 'Thirty Girls'

February 12, 2014 • Susan Minot's new novel is a departure from her usual minimalist explorations of upper-crust love. Based on her own journalism, it's a gripping fictionalized account of the 1996 abduction of 139 Ugandan schoolgirls by militant guerrillas. Reviewer Jane Ciabattari says Thirty Girls is "panoramic" and "poetic" in its descriptions.

Tuesday January 14, 2014

Debut Novel Offers Surprisingly Dark 'Vision' Of Shaker Life

Review

Book Reviews

Debut Novel Offers Surprisingly Dark 'Vision' Of Shaker Life

January 14, 2014 • Rachel Urquhart's debut novel, The Visionist, is based in real life: the Visionists were young Shaker girls who began to suffer mysterious fits one day in August 1837. Reviewer Jane Ciabattari says The Visionist is a "surprisingly dark tale," but lyrically written, and offering a fresh look at Shaker life.

Tuesday December 31, 2013

Opening The Literary Liquor Cabinet In 'Echo Spring'

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Review

Book Reviews

Opening The Literary Liquor Cabinet In 'Echo Spring'

December 31, 2013 • Olivia Laing illuminates the complex relationships between writers and alcohol in The Trip to Echo Spring — Echo Spring being, of course, the euphemism Tennessee Williams used for the liquor cabinet in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Reviewer Jane Ciabattari says the book is "beautifully written, haunting, tragic and instructive in the best sense."

Saturday November 9, 2013

Amy Tan's Latest: Mothers, Daughters And The Oldest Profession

Review

Book Reviews

Amy Tan's Latest: Mothers, Daughters And The Oldest Profession

November 9, 2013 • Amy Tan's fans will find familiar themes in her new novel, The Valley of Amazement: mothers and daughters, multi-generational secrets, Chinese-American identity. But Jane Ciabattari says the new work, which centers on an American madam in Shanghai and her courtesan daughter, is more sophisticated than Tan's previous novels.

Wednesday August 21, 2013

Raymond Carver And His Editor Re-Imagined In 'Scissors'

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Elisa Pone/Random House

Review

Book Reviews

Raymond Carver And His Editor Re-Imagined In 'Scissors'

August 21, 2013 • Stephane Michaka's novel Scissors fictionalizes the last 10 years in the life of short story master Raymond Carver and Carver's difficult relationship with his legendary editor Gordon Lish. Reviewer Jane Ciabattari says Scissors is an "empathetic exploration of an author's soul."

Sunday August 18, 2013

'The Bone Season': Could This Be The Next Harry Potter? Maybe!

Review

Book Reviews

'The Bone Season': Could This Be The Next Harry Potter? Maybe!

August 18, 2013 • The Bone Season kicks off a new fantasy series about a clairvoyant girl in a future dystopia. Author Samantha Shannon was a student when she started writing — now, she's being touted as the next J. K. Rowling. And reviewer Jane Ciabattari says her work lives up to the hype.

Thursday April 25, 2013

'Woman Upstairs': Friendly On The Outside, Furious On The Inside

Review

Book Reviews

'Woman Upstairs': Friendly On The Outside, Furious On The Inside

April 25, 2013 • Claire Messud's new novel, The Woman Upstairs, delves into the inner life of the quiet, friendly — and secretly furious — woman upstairs, a frustrated artist named Nora who becomes obsessed with a glamorous immigrant family.

Wednesday April 10, 2013

From Cincinnati To North Korea, We All Wake Up 'Lonely'

Review

Book Reviews

From Cincinnati To North Korea, We All Wake Up 'Lonely'

April 10, 2013 • Fiona Maazel's new novel, Woke Up Lonely, is a deliriously inventive tale of love and spycraft. Utopian cult leader Thurlow pines for his ex-wife Esme. She uses her CIA connections to keep him safe under her surveillance in a story layered with espionage, sex and jokes about Kim Jong Il.

Thursday March 14, 2013

Tender Portraits Of Worn-Down Women In 'This Close'

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Book Reviews

Tender Portraits Of Worn-Down Women In 'This Close'

March 14, 2013 • In her new story collection, This Close, Jessica Francis Kane depicts a group of women who are worn down, overwhelmed by love and loss, yet familiar as old friends. Reviewer Jane Ciabattari says they are "our family, our friends and neighbors. They are us, at our most vulnerable."

Monday November 26, 2012

Short Stories To Savor On A Winter Weekend

Nishant Choksi

Review

Best Books Of 2012

Short Stories To Savor On A Winter Weekend

November 26, 2012 • Author Hortense Calisher once called the short story "an apocalypse in a teacup." Critic Jane Ciabattari presents her favorite mini-apocalypses of 2012, from veteran authors like Sherman Alexie to newcomer Claire Vaye Watkins, who combines a unique voice and a shadowed family history in her debut collection.

Short Stories To Savor On A Winter Weekend

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Thursday August 23, 2012

A Lyrical Portrait Of Life And Death In The Orchard

Review

Book Reviews

A Lyrical Portrait Of Life And Death In The Orchard

August 23, 2012 • Amanda Coplin's first novel follows Talmadge, the titular orchardist, who doesn't stray far from his fruit trees — but trouble comes to him in the form of two pregnant teenage runaways. The book, by turns lyrical and gritty, is a glimpse into the massive changes in the American West at the end of the 19th century.

Wednesday June 27, 2012

A Broken Family Navigates 'The World Without You'

Review

Book Reviews

A Broken Family Navigates 'The World Without You'

June 27, 2012 • Dozens of journalists have been killed on the job in the past decade. Joshua Henkin's new novel follows the family of a man killed while reporting from Iraq as it copes with his loss, and the various secrets each family member is keeping from the others.

Tuesday February 22, 2011

T.C. Boyle On Our Fate Versus The Great Outdoors

Review

Book Reviews

T.C. Boyle On Our Fate Versus The Great Outdoors

February 22, 2011 • T.C. Boyle's new novel, When The Killing's Done, follows prescient environmental quarrels in Santa Barbara between an environmentalist and a biologist — but the bureaucratic bickering pales in comparison to the ferocious powers of nature.

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