James McBride’s The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, Sin Blaché & Helen Macdonald’s Prophet, and John Glatt’s Tangled Vines all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week.
1. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
(Riverhead)
10 Rave
“Confirms the abiding strength of McBride’s vernacular narrative. With his eccentric, larger-than-life characters and outrageous scenes of spliced tragedy and comedy, “Dickensian” is not too grand a description for his novels, but the term is ultimately too condescending and too Anglican. The melodrama that McBride spins is wholly his own … If there’s a ramshackle quality to McBride’s plotting, it’s the artful precariousness of a genius. His expansive collection of ominous, preposterous and saintly characters twirls like loose sticks in a river, guided by a physics of chaos beyond all calculation except awe … We all need—we all deserve—this vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us.”
–Ron Charles (The Washington Post)
2. Pet by Catherine Chidgey
(Europa Editions)
4 Rave • 1 Positive
Read Catherine Chidgey on loss-of-innocence narratives here
“Chidgey is an agile writer, and here fuses pacy storytelling with some resonant metaphors … The drama to come is hinted at early and often but even so, the darkness of the novel’s denouement is hard to fully anticipate … As satisfying a narrative as Pet is, lingering uncertainty is the source of its real power, enabling it to maintain its hold over the imagination long after the final page has been turned.”
–Hephzibah Anderson (The Observer)
3. Prophet by Sin Blaché and Helen Macdonald
(Grove)
1 Rave • 6 Positive
“Striking in its originality and its capacity to instill unease, even terror. It evolves over time, with the consequences of its use growing ever more disturbing and incomprehensible … A chilling speculative thriller in which some suffer, and others profit, from idealizing the past.”
–Eileen Gonzalez (Foreword Reviews)
**
1. The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America by Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer, Timothy J. Nelson
(Mariner)
2 Rave • 1 Positive
“Every few years, an academic work arrives that transcends genre, combining unparalleled research skills with engaging storytelling. The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America is undoubtedly one such book … A well-researched argument about how the history of a place influences the health and well-being of its people.”
–Sarah Beth West (Shelf Awareness)
2. Devil’s Coin: My Battle to Take Down the Notorious Onecoin Cryptoqueen by Jennifer McAdam
(William Morrow & Company)
1 Rave • 2 Positive
“[An] exhilarating mix of memoir and true crime … This riveting account of a victim fighting back is an inspired, and inspiring, page-turner.”
3. Tangled Vines: Power, Privilege, and the Murdaugh Family Murders by John Glatt
(St. Martin’s Press)
3 Rave • 1 Pan
“…an exemplary work of true crime … Glatt has produced the equivalent of a juicy John Grisham novel, featuring a lead more ‘dark and totally devoid of conscience’ than anyone he’s ever researched. This real-life Southern noir lingers.”
