David Szalay’s Flesh, Elaine Pagels’ Miracles and Wonder, and Joe Dunthorne’s Children of Radium all feature among the best reviewed books of the week.
1. Flesh by David Szalay
(Scribner)
10 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed
“A gentle yet deeply affecting novel about a taciturn man who overcomes abuse and loss early in life to stumble into transitory contentment—if not quite true happiness—as an adult … Fascinating and unexpected … If you’ve ever woken up to the realization that your life has become something you never planned for, anticipated, or desired, you’ll likely find Flesh all too human.”
–Cory Oldweiler (The Boston Globe)
2. The Gatsby Gambit by Claire Anderson-Wheeler
(Viking)
2 Rave • 5 Positive
“A thoroughly enjoyable mystery story with all the tropes and pleasures of a golden age detective story … Well-written and pacy, inflected by the original characters and setting but otherwise unconstrained by them.”
–Alex Clark (The Observer)
3. The Usual Desire to Kill by Camilla Barnes
(Scribner)
4 Rave • 1 Positive
“A quietly dazzling, sharp-witted generational drama … Relishing this quintessentially English domestic comedy, readers peeking below the surface will be astonished by the complex generational and emotional undercurrents guiding Barnes’s memorable characters.”
–Shahina Piyarali (Shelf Awareness)
**
1. Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus by Elaine Pagels
(Doubleday)
4 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed
“Some of the passages in this illuminating and essential work are tough going … But it’s worthwhile hanging in: As the chapters unfold, the plot thickens … I realized that while I knew a great deal more about the origins of Christianity than when I began, the mystery of Jesus himself had deepened. Perhaps that’s how it’s meant to be. But the moral of the story is clear: Christ’s story is an iconic tale of hope emerging from darkness.”
–Leigh Haber (The Los Angeles Times)
2. Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance by Joe Dunthorne
(Scribner)
2 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed
“Memoirs written by poets and novelists often have a special charm to them, even when they deal with difficult and painful subjects, and Joe Dunthorne’s book, based on his family’s history, takes this a step further, infusing energy and intensity into the narrative and bringing the reader directly into his remarkable adventure … Dunthorne’s sensitive handling of this legacy of guilt brings us a searingly honest look inside the minds and hearts of a family with the dark, painful secret of collaboration.”
–Linda F. Burghardt (Jewish Book Council)
3. Valley of Forgetting: Alzheimer’s Families and the Search for a Cure by Jennie Erin Smith
(Riverhead)
2 Rave • 2 Positive
“Smith renders an exquisite first-hand account of a brain dissection, offering just enough vivid detail without churning stomachs … Avoiding dry jargon, Smith masterfully infuses details from medical records to offer intimate glimpses into the heartbreaking paths taken by the disease as it robs people of all the little things that make them who they are.”
–Helen Ouyang (The Washington Post)
