PositiveBooklistZink’s characters are marvelously relatable, instantly recognizable to readers who lived through the times she writes about as they move through richly described settings. Zink’s distinctively offbeat sensibility and wit soften the frequently devastating circumstances in which her characters find themselves. A strong effort by an excellent writer of quirky contemporary fiction.
Nicholas Mancusi
RaveBooklist... a gripping thriller ... Mancusi’s writing is sophisticated, graceful, and deeply empathetic. Oscar’s descent into grief and his dark, nihilistic impulses are vividly described, while the story rockets toward a conclusion that is both inevitable and crushing.
Claire Adam
RaveBooklist\"... a moving study of her native Trinidad ... Adam’s writing is luxuriant, evoking the atmospheric island setting and the complicated, worried lives lived under a near-constant sense of impending violence. Family squabbles over money turn menacing in part three, as Clyde faces a series of terrible decisions that spool out like a crime thriller. Heartbreaking and lovely, this is an important work by a promising new voice.\
Yiyun Li
PositiveBooklist...an arresting and unwavering exploration of nearly unimaginable pain and grief ... her desperation to understand the unfathomable and the depth of her love for her lost child are unmistakable. Li’s intricate, enveloping prose will long haunt readers.
Sarah Selecky
PositiveBooklistBiting, tragicomic ... Selecky’s deadpan tone, punchy writing, and vivid characters transport readers to a specific, highly diverting world that hits close to the bone and sparks the self-reflection it’s spoofing.
Katharine Weber
RaveBooklist...a nuanced investigation of what is left when all of the ways one identifies oneself are wiped out in an instant ... the picture that emerges is devastating in its clarity ... Beautiful, emotionally resonant storytelling.
J. Courtney Sullivan
PositiveBooklistThe story jumps through time, from the 1957 arrival of sisters Nora and Theresa Flynn from Ireland to the present, each part narrated by a different member of the family, elegantly woven together to form a more complete, if not quite intact, picture of how the consequences of choices made by Nora and Theresa 50 years earlier came to define not only the two of them but each of Nora’s now-grown children, who love and loathe their mother in equal measure. Sullivan once again expertly delivers a messy and complicated family story with sharp yet sympathetic writing.
