PositiveLibrary Journal... unsettling autofiction investigating issues of war, vengeance, and morality in a profoundly personal way ... what stands out here is van Heemstra’s sharp and nuanced exploration of just how moral one’s own law can be ... Striking portraiture of a fallen hero and the woman who finds him out; piecing together clues, van Heemstra keeps readers absorbed.
David Diop, tr. Anna Moschovakis
RaveLibrary Journal... unexpected musical cadence to the harrowing tale ... Diop gracefully backtracks to the early friendship of the two men, with Alfa acknowledging his haughty behavior toward Mademba the morning of his death as the novel veers toward a transcendent ending for them both ... Paris-born, Senegalese-raised Diop’s second novel is scalding, mesmerizing, and troubling in the best way. Highly recommended.
David Hajdu
PositiveLibrary JournalThe story unfolds as oral history, delivered mostly by those who celebrate their stake in [Adrianne] —her clueless parents, a controlling self-styled boyfriend—resulting in a portrait that’s as much about the exploitation of the gifted as it is about the gift of music, of the artist’s exterior situation as it is of the artist’s interior world. Hajdu is excellent at articulating the vitality of Geffel’s music while leaving what it actually sounds like to our imagination ... A reverberant and eye-opening portrait of an artist going her own way and finally saving herself
Fredrik Backman
RaveLibrary JournalCutting back and forth in time, the tight-knit, surprise-filled narrative slowly unravels this mystery while revealing the poignant backstories of both hostages and hostage taker, even as rattled nerves lead to some very funny exchanges. Meanwhile, the story of a suicide wrought by economic extremis quietly frames the action, unexpectedly tying together characters, and the brisk, absorbing action prompts meditation on marriage, parenting, responsibility, and global economic pressures ... Comedy, drama, mystery, and social study, this novel is undefinable except for the sheer reading pleasure it delivers. Highly recommended.
Ashley Blooms
RaveLibrary JournalThis glimmering, painfully honest first novel tells the story of ten-year-old Misty, who lives in an Appalachian holler with her feuding parents and an older sister to whom she is closely bonded ... A beautifully rendered coming-of-age tale for a wide range of readers.
Heidi Pitlor
PositiveLibrary JournalIn a novel that’s smart, surprising, thought provoking, and bound to set a few readers on edge, making for good book-club debate, Pitlor offers an astute study of what it means to be a woman today.
Charlotte McConaghy
RaveLibrary JournalThe slow revelation of a tragedy for which Franny feels responsible adds a thrillerlike dimension to an already involving narrative made stronger by the absence of time markers; it could be taking place in two years or 20 years, but it could just as well be happening today ... A consummate blend of issue and portrait, warning and affirmation, this heartbreaking, lushly written work is highly recommended.
Kate Russo
PositiveLibrary JournalBennett\'s essentially a genial if slightly flummoxed guy, though his wittily sardonic side is revealed in the many asides to which readers are privy ... A painter herself, Russo makes the act of creating art come alive, while effectively limning her characters in this incisive study of contemporary life.
Sam Lansky
PositiveLibrary JournalSet within the vividly realized framework of addiction recovery and gay life in America, this remains the story of one man’s deep personal struggles while at the same time speaking to and for all the broken people in this world. Some readers may twitch at the long drug trip, but it’s a deeply felt journey that many will want to take.
Samanta Schweblin, trans. by Megan McDowell
PositiveLibrary JournalAs situations escalate, readers will be fascinated by the kentuki-human interactions, which smartly reveal how hungry we are for connection in a technology-bent world ... this jittery eye-opener will appeal to a wide range of readers.
Kristen Millares Young
PositiveLibrary JournalGorgeously, toughly written, this book dares to be open-ended yet leaves readers with a satisfying sense of how life really unfolds. Cultural clash matters here, but personal differences and desires even more. For any fiction reader looking beyond the obvious.
Kaouther Adimi
RaveLibrary Journal... elegant and affecting ... Both gorgeous paean to literature and historically astute observation; highly recommended for book lovers everywhere.
Megha Majumdar
RaveLibrary JournalWeaving together these story lines, the author offers fresh, brisk, striking language while remaining relentless in her depiction of Jivan’s fate and of the kind of rampant suspicion and finally hatred that burns us all.
Lisa Wingate
PositiveLibrary Journal... enthralling and ultimately heartening ... Though it can take a moment to catch on, the two intertwined narratives eventually speak back and forth ... Emphasizing throughout that stories matter and should never go untold, Wingate has written an absorbing historical for many readers.
Amy Engel
PositiveLibrary Journal... uncompromising and absorbingly written ... 12-year-olds Junie and Izzie are murdered, and Engel does right by them, not using their tragedy as mere plot point to hook readers but genuinely letting us feel the rubbed-raw grief of Junie’s mother, Eve Taggert, and showing how it turns swiftly into action ... Not just a fine thriller but a fine character study, plumbing family and particularly mother-daughter relationships and showing Eve, her mother, and Izzie’s mother, too, as women unbendable as oak.
Stephanie Wrobel
PositiveLibrary JournalIt’s chilling enough to read about Rose Gold’s suffering, but it’s just as chilling—and at times uncomfortably satisfying
Jennifer Rosner
RaveLibrary JournalMemoirist and award-winning children’s author Rosner challenges the Holocaust with a touch of magic (the yellow bird appears throughout), clarifying a dangerous time and place even as she offers a vibrant, affecting portrait of the mother-daughter relationship.
Andrew Krivak
RaveLibrary JournalMost postapocalyptic novels bury us in blood or debris, but Krivak offers a completely different understanding of humans at the end of the line ... engagingly different ... As the narrative unfolds in graceful, luminous prose, the father teaches his young charge how to survive and tells her fantastical—or maybe not so fantastical—tales about bears. Throughout, the sense of wonder at nature\'s beauty is palpable ... Poignant but not tragic, this end-of-civilization story shows that there\'s no loneliness in this world when we are one with nature.
Afia Atakora
RaveLibrary JournalDeftly interwoven and emotionally involving, Atakora\'s accomplished debut...effectively handles the before-during-and-after structure, enriching her story. If its center is the vibrant Rue, the entire community finally feels like the main character. Highly recommended.
Ann Napolitano
PositiveLibrary Journal... penetrating ... Edward does go forward, in illuminating if unexpected ways. But what makes this narrative so effective is its alternating between the ordinary events unfolding on the flight and the aftermath of the crash, which keeps the sense of loss and the significance of what has happened fresh in readers’ minds ... The painfully vivid story of one boy’s coming of age redirected by tragedy.
Paul Yoon
RaveLibrary JournalYoon, ever the elegant and penetrating writer, coolly delivers a devastating sense of what it’s like to be in the midst of war ... Their individual stories must be read (and not revealed here), but suffice to say that they don’t reconnect in that Hollywood way readers will want, which makes for a better and more arresting book ... Essential reading as Americans continue to grapple with our involvement in Asia and for anyone interested in top-drawer literature.
Jeffrey Colvin
RaveLibrary JournalColvin’s absorbing and fluidly written debut novel captures an acute sense of ties loosened and rebound ... Throughout, the longing to define oneself for oneself vies with the powerful rootedness defined by Africaville, and the pain caused by shuffled-off family bonds is palpable ... Excellent reading that revives our sense of community while revealing North America’s racial complexity in a new light.
Kiley Reid
RaveLibrary JournalIn her debut novel, Reid illuminates difficult truths about race, society, and power with a fresh, light hand. We’re all familiar with the phrases white privilege and race relations, but rarely has a book vivified these terms in such a lucid, absorbing, graceful, forceful, but unforced way.
Jeanine Cummins
PositiveLibrary JournalIn a book both timely and prodigiously readable, Cummins offers an unrelenting and terrifyingly you-are-there account of a Mexican mother and son fleeing to America after cartel violence takes their entire family ... Cummins expertly balances the brutality of the cartel, its scary omniscience, and Lydia’s ululating fear with Lydia’s passionate commitment to Luca’s survival and the numerous small, brave acts of kindness she encounters that speed this duo north ... Here, it’s the journey rather than the arrival on American dirt that counts, and readers will wonder whether they could ever have survived such a trek even as they realize that this could happen to them. An important book.
Margaret Atwood
RaveLibrary Journal... piercingly relevant, not only because the backstory continues to show how human rights can be eroded through a blend of power grab and compromise, but because it echoes international politics and the refugee crisis today ... With Cat’s Eye majesty, Atwood nails the spirit of these women as she investigates the head Aunt’s scary complexities ... If The Handmaid’s Tale chills to the marrow, its sequel surges along with a sort of dark ebullience, absorbing as a thriller and ultimately hopeful even as it highlights the dangers that always lie in wait.
Erin Morgenstern
RaveLibrary Journal... a magnificent quest, a sense of unfolding adventure and danger, gold-wrought fantasy, and endless provocation on what storytelling really means ... In the end, Morgenstern proves wrong one of her villains, who proclaims that a story is like an egg; break it, and it’s lost. Her stories flow together as they flow forward and will enthrall a wide range of readers. Highly recommended.
Carolina De Robertis
PositiveLibrary Journal... luscious and penetrating writing that founders only in the last pages, when a tragedy involving one of the women is rushed, simply not giving her her due ... de Robertis (The Gods of Tango) offers a story both personal and political, presenting the lives of five beautifully crafted individuals while making the torments of a repressive regime very real.
Matthew Zapruder
RaveLibrary JournalIn frank, unadorned language that pours stream of consciousness–like down the page, suggesting urgency and unbounded emotion, Zapruder offers a moving mediation on fatherhood ... Zapruder ably articulates his struggle...And he also confirms the special beauty his son brings ... A profoundly heartfelt and thoughtful book for all readers.
Carmen Gimenéz Smith
PositiveLibrary Journal... accomplished, vibrantly subversive ... Giménez Smith asks key questions in roiled times, and her greatest strength is nailing an outsider’s raw uncertainty, assumptions never made, immunity never achieved.
Young-Ha Kim Trans. by Krys Lee
PositiveLibrary JournalSpiky, quirky reading for all short story fans, whether of literary or pop bent.
Maylis De Kerangal Trans. by Sam Taylor
RaveLibrary Journal\"Not just a beautifully delineated character study or inside look at a hard way to make a living but a perceptive meditation on the meaning of work itself ... just over 100 pages and done brilliantly ... Highly recommended.\
Samanta Schweblin, Trans. by Megan McDowell
RaveLibrary JournalWomen\'s subjugation, our insatiable (perhaps bestial) urges, art as mediation, how little we control—Schweblin ponders weighty issues while spooking her readers ... Surreal, disturbing, and decidedly original, these pieces aren\'t easy reading but will enthrall literati and sophisticated readers of fantasy and horror.
Jeffrey Yang
RaveLibrary Journal\"[Yang]... effectively captures the desert in its grand eternity ... Remarkably blended, with references from Bach to Hollywood showing how Marfa fired Yang’s imagination, just as he will fire yours.\
Austin Smith
PositiveLibrary Journal\"Elegantly delivered though these portraits may be, they aren’t just pretty pastorals ... mith capably sees deeper meaning or darker substance where rural steadiness might lull, but he’s never self-consciously showy ... Charming work for many readers.\
Mesha Maren
RaveLibrary JournalUnfold[s] in language that is just plain grittily gorgeous. These are stories of violence and passion and squashed hope ... A highly recommended debut.
Tiana Clark
PositiveLibrary Journal\"... Clark ... viscerally imparts the trauma visited on the African American body—and therefore the African American soul ... An honest, punch-angry portrait of being American while black.\
Ken Krimstein
RaveLibrary JournalFine, wiry black lines with the occasional brush of green effectively echo Arendt\'s energized thinking and the tensions of a life lived in constant escape, one step ahead of the Nazis. Through it all, Arendt remains witty, even saucy. And Krimstein doesn\'t shy away from Arendt\'s complicated love for philosopher and Nazi sympathizer Martin Heidegger ... Both smart and entertaining; highly recommended and not just for graphic novels readers.
Analicia Sotelo
RaveLibrary Journal\"Winner of the inaugural Jake Adam York Prize, this dazzling new collection from Sotelo... seems written with opal grit. The poet highlights female subjugation to male assumptions and desires (\'I am beautiful in my harmlessness!\') but offers considerable pushback ... A moving section of this book clarifies the influences of the poet’s artist father, who teaches her the meaning of art: \'This one is art. This is what art looks like.\' She learned her lesson well.\
Jos Charles
PositiveLibrary Journal\"All poetry aims to refresh, reframe, even revolutionize language, but in an effort to find a new and better way to discuss the trans experience, Charles goes farther than most ... This book will shape the conversation on poetry and can make other collections feel ordinary, but its challenges are best left to serious poetry lovers.\
Kent Wascom
RaveThe Library Journal\"Having captured the history of the Gulf Coast in two bloody, blazingly and baroquely brilliant sagas, award-winning author Wascom returns with an update set in 1914. Mysterious painter Isaac and rebellious heiress Kemper fall in love and find refuge in the coastal wilds, but brawly summer storms and violence both worldwide and down home (rivalries within Kemper’s brutal family boil over) wreck their happiness.\
Jenny George
PositiveLibrary Journal\'Everything is restored,\' says an early poem in this debut...but a creeping sense of unease upends the collection ... violence—a word that resurfaces throughout the collection ... Eerie and approachable; solid work from a rising poet.
C. Dale Young
PositiveLibrary JournalHere he turns to fiction, demonstrating the easy grace that defines his verse ... A heartfelt and well-crafted work.
Melissa Stein
RaveLibrary JournalStein follows up Rough Honey, winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize, with more rough love ... If Stein wants to spin \'to lose my bearings,\' she wants us to spin, too. Excellent poetry.
Terrance Hayes
RaveLibrary Journal\"Written during the first 200 days of Trump’s administration, these meditations register righteous anger... But there\'s celebration, too ... \'In a second I’ll tell you how little/ Writing rescues,\' says Hayes, but his rescues a lot.\
Kai Carlson-Wee
PositiveLibrary Journal\"The poet’s picture of a fading heartland captures the despair many Americans feel today, and he parallels economic and personal desperation ... Carlson-Wee effectively uses repetition to build tension in poems that are deceptively simple and homey, and the tempered language draws readers into his heartfelt lines. Even those who don’t typically read poetry will enjoy.\
Sarah Winman
RaveLibrary Journal\"In this quiet stunner, short-listed for the Costa Book Award, Winman (When God Was a Rabbit) explores the triangular relationship connecting reserved, working-class Ellis; Michael, Ellis’s best friend since he moved to Oxford to live with his grandmother; and Annie, the woman Ellis meets while delivering a Christmas tree and eventually marries ... What’s refreshing about this work is that it’s not a standard triangle full of love and fury, smashed crockery and switching partners. Instead, as Winman threads together a poignant story comprising past and present, we see vibrant friendship and awful heartbreak bravely borne, delivered in language that’s sure, swift, and gorgeously affecting ... Winman makes the everyday remarkable; readers will want to watch this work unfold.\
Joseph Cassara
RaveLibrary JournalFinally, the narrative is infused with a longing for belonging important to many in the gay community and indeed to everyone. Through the magic of his storytelling, Cassara shows us some impossible beauties and brings us all home.
