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'Solito' is a personal story of immigration that sheds light on the universal

Hogarth

'Solito' is a personal story of immigration that sheds light on the universal

September 29, 2022 • Javier Zamora's book, as touching as it is sad, and as full of hope and kindness as it is harrowing, is the kind of narrative that manages to bring a huge debate down to a very personal space.

In 'Intimacies, Received,' moments of intimacy come tangled with moments of violence

Copper Canyon

In 'Intimacies, Received,' moments of intimacy come tangled with moments of violence

September 27, 2022 • Taneum Bambrick's second collection of poems portrays how moments of intimacy can represent moments of violence – and how difficult it can be to untangle the two from each other.

'Less' offers more in Andrew Sean Greer's follow-up to his Pulitzer-winning novel

Less is Lost, by Andrew Sean Greer Little, Brown hide caption

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Little, Brown

'Less' offers more in Andrew Sean Greer's follow-up to his Pulitzer-winning novel

Fresh Air

September 26, 2022 • Greer's new comic novel, Less is Lost, is as funny and poignant as its predecessor. But comedy also arises out of pain and Greer smoothly transitions into the profound.

'Less' offers more in Andrew Sean Greer's follow-up to his Pulitzer-winning novel

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With 'Ducks,' the creator of Hark! A Vagrant reveals her shadow side

Drawn and Quarterly

With 'Ducks,' the creator of Hark! A Vagrant reveals her shadow side

September 22, 2022 • Kate Beaton, the mind that gave us perky revolutionaries and a roly-poly Napoleon, now tells the darker side of her life story: how she suffered during the two years she worked in Alberta's oil field.

'Lucy By The Sea' succeeds at capturing disruptions, anxieties of pandemic

Random House

'Lucy By The Sea' succeeds at capturing disruptions, anxieties of pandemic

September 21, 2022 • Elizabeth Strout's latest is a chronicle of a plague year — and also of the main character's growing insights into herself, her family, and their changing relationships during this period.

New Trump tome 'The Divider' offers most comprehensive chronicle of his term to date

Doubleday

New Trump tome 'The Divider' offers most comprehensive chronicle of his term to date

September 20, 2022 • The book by veteran journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser is a rushing torrent of anecdotes and recollections. A reader may plunge in at any point and pull up a pail of Trump at full tilt.

Ling Ma's first novel predicted the pandemic. Her new collection goes one step beyond

MacMillan

Ling Ma's first novel predicted the pandemic. Her new collection goes one step beyond

Fresh Air

September 14, 2022 • Nothing is just one thing in Bliss Montage: Satire swirls into savagery; a gimmicky premise into poignancy. Ma writes with such authority that readers are simply swept along.

Ling Ma's first novel predicted the pandemic. Her new collection goes one step beyond

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David Milch's 'Life's Work' holds lessons about humanity and the power of art

Random House

David Milch's 'Life's Work' holds lessons about humanity and the power of art

September 14, 2022 • The TV creator's memoir was written in collaboration with his wife and daughters, who helped him piece together thoughts and memories that evade him due to Alzheimer's disease.

'Lessons' finds some familiarity with author Ian McEwan's own life

Knopf

'Lessons' finds some familiarity with author Ian McEwan's own life

September 13, 2022 • In this expansive novel, which ranks among McEwan's best work, a man assesses his life's trajectory from childhood to old age, focusing especially on what he considers wrong turns and disappointments.

A Uyghur seeks just a place to sleep in 'The Backstreets'

Columbia University Press

A Uyghur seeks just a place to sleep in 'The Backstreets'

September 13, 2022 • Perhat Tursun's novel explores human rights abuses against China's Uyghur minority through one man's search for a home. The author himself has been imprisoned and a co-translator has disappeared.

NPR's Nina Totenberg offers a window into her world in 'Dinners with Ruth'

Simon & Schuster

Books

NPR's Nina Totenberg offers a window into her world in 'Dinners with Ruth'

September 12, 2022 • The reporter's memoir takes readers on a jaunt through her captivating life and career, nose for the jugular, forthrightness about her joys and sorrows — and the history of women in the workplace.

'If I Survive You' is a sweeping portrait of a family's fight to make it in America

Farrar, Straus & Giroux

'If I Survive You' is a sweeping portrait of a family's fight to make it in America

Fresh Air

September 9, 2022 • Jonathan Escoffery's If I Survive You is an intensively granular, yet panoramic depiction of what it's like to try to make it — or not — in this kaleidoscopic madhouse of a country.

'If I Survive You' is a sweeping portrait of a family's fight to make it in America

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5 new YA reads to check out this fall

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

5 new YA reads to check out this fall

September 7, 2022 • As autumn's chill creeps in, we look to five new YA releases that will both haunt you and bewitch your heart, including books by the authors of Last Night at the Telegraph Club and The City Beautiful.

'Surveillance State' explores China's tech and social media control systems

St. Martin's Press

'Surveillance State' explores China's tech and social media control systems

September 7, 2022 • Veteran Wall Street Journal reporters Josh Chin and Liza Lin spent years covering China. In a new book, they untangle how China built its formidable digital surveillance apparatus.

At 10th anniversary of Benghazi attack, former diplomat offers context in new book

Hachette Books

At 10th anniversary of Benghazi attack, former diplomat offers context in new book

September 6, 2022 • Ethan Chorin, who served in Libya, presents details that most Americans don't know about the embassy attack — and explores the role domestic politics played in the aftermath.

'I'm Not Broken' is about being broken — and building a new life

Vintage

'I'm Not Broken' is about being broken — and building a new life

August 31, 2022 • A sad, brutally honest memoir about "a poor, sexually abused, drug-addicted Chicano kid," Jesse Leon's narrative is one that vividly brings to the page the realities of someone ignored by the system.

'Diary of a Misfit' blends reportage, research and memoir

Knopf

'Diary of a Misfit' blends reportage, research and memoir

August 30, 2022 • Washington Post reporter Casey Parks' first book, Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery, follows her attempts to uncover Roy Hudgins' story while rediscovering her own along the way.

5 translated books from Japan to soothe battered souls this fall

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

5 translated books from Japan to soothe battered souls this fall

August 30, 2022 • A growing number of translated Japanese books have been released in the U.S. in recent years. There there are more than a dozen coming out this fall alone — including titles by emerging writers.

Afghan women raise their voices in two new anthologies

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Afghan women raise their voices in two new anthologies

August 17, 2022 • This week marks a year since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan. But the Taliban hasn't succeeded in silencing Afghan women, whose voices ring out in two new and powerful collections.

In 'Elizabeth Finch,' Julian Barnes addresses collective vs. personal memory

Knopf

In 'Elizabeth Finch,' Julian Barnes addresses collective vs. personal memory

August 16, 2022 • Barnes' 25th novel is about the power of influence and obsessions, wrong turns, and the difficulty of pinning down another's life, whether someone you knew or someone who predated you by centuries.

Two books dig into the 1990s for the roots of the Trump-era Republican Party

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Two books dig into the 1990s for the roots of the Trump-era Republican Party

August 9, 2022 • Two veteran observers of American politics, a journalist and a historian, argue that former president Trump is not responsible for the GOP of our day but, instead, exploited it as he found it.

'The Last White Man' spins a deft, if narrow, fantasy about identity

Penguin Random House

'The Last White Man' spins a deft, if narrow, fantasy about identity

Fresh Air

August 9, 2022 • Mohsin Hamid's surreal new novel centers on a white man who awakens one morning to find that his skin has turned brown. The Last White Man only seriously strains credulity at its very end.

'The Last White Man' spins a deft, if narrow, fantasy about identity

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Two sisters fight for Vietnam's independence

Grand Central Publishing

Two sisters fight for Vietnam's independence

August 8, 2022 • The novel Bronze Drum explores the legend of the sisters' rebellion against Chinese rule and the idea of collective memory as resistance.

'The Devil Takes You Home' invites readers to consider the depths of darkness

Mulholland Books

'The Devil Takes You Home' invites readers to consider the depths of darkness

August 6, 2022 • Gabino Iglesias' barrio noir may not be a cheerful book, but it still allows glimpses of love, moments of connection, and glimmers of beauty to exist.

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