RaveStar Tribune... enthralling ... makes a number of ingenious adaptations to Wells\' tale ... Moreno-Garcia imagines that this island is actually the Yucatan peninsula, allowing the book to use a real historical conflict, The Yucatan Caste War, as a backdrop. This puts the political ramifications of the hybrids\' otherness into even sharper relief ... f you\'re a they-don\'t-make-\'em-like-they-used-to type of reader who longs for the romance and high drama of big 19th-century novels, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is a flawless replica. But like the best historical fiction, this novel also speaks to the heart of what contemporary readers turn to literature for, as it draws out the colonial and racial implications of Moreau\'s \'research,\' enlarging Wells\' own moral message. Ultimately, it\'s a good thing Moreno-Garcia is so prolific: It\'s likely we won\'t have to wait too long to see where she\'ll take us next.
Samanta Schweblin, Trans. by Megan McDowell
PositiveThe Star Tribune\"Weirdness—or perhaps more accurately, fabulism—is everywhere in contemporary short fiction. But what separates Schweblin from the pack is the firm foot she has planted in frank horror, and her laconic style, expertly translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell ... It [is] this restraint...that mark these 20 stories, causing them to linger in the mind long after their final lines ... Mouthful of Birds is precisely that rare mix: beauty and horror.\
Edwidge Danticat
RaveThe Minneapolis Star Tribune...with Danticat, this never feels like merely an academic exercise. Rather, turning to literature is one of the only ways we may have of coping with the unknown ... The book’s most poignant and life-affirming moments are those that show Danticat and her mother using literature and language to make their way through this singular experience ... It’s unusual for a craft book to make such an emotional impact, but The Art of Death shows readers — through the words of others and through Danticat’s own — how it’s done.
