The Best Reviewed Books of the Week

Francis Spufford’s Nonesuch, T Kira Madden’s Whidbey, and Tom Junod’s In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What it Means to Be a Man all number among the best reviewed books of the week.

Fiction

1. Nonesuch by Francis Spufford
(Scribner)

7 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed

“A formidable achievement, a popcorny delight of a novel – and those who agree will be pleased by an ending that hints we’ve plenty more to come from Spufford’s fantasy multiverse.”
–AK Blakemore (The Guardian)

2. The Quantity Theory of Morality by Will Self
(Grove Press) 

7 Rave

“It is deliriously poignant. It is heartbreakingly antic. It is sincere and wry at the same time … My copy has so many turned down pages it is practically uncloseable.”
–Stuart Kelly (The Scotsman)

3. Whidbey by T Kira Madden
(Mariner) 

5 Rave

“It’s a courageous and beautifully written novel that insists on the humanity of every last one of its characters—and entreats us to not look away from the full range and complexity of their experiences.”
–Jules Fitz Gerald (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

**

Nonfiction

1. A Scandal in Königsberg by Christopher Clark 
(Penguin Press)

10 Rave

“Brilliant.”
–Dan Piepenbring (Harpers)

2. In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What it Means to Be a Man by Tom Junod
(Doubleday)

4 Rave • 3 Positive

“One of the great literary tributes to a complex paterfamilias in recent memory.”
–Michael O’Donnell (The Wall Street Journal)

3. Partially Devoured by Daniel Kraus
(Counterpoint)

3 Rave • 2 Positive

“More than the intimate memoir or film study the title proclaims, this is storytelling at its finest.”
–Becky Spratford (Booklist)