Rebecca Dinerstein Knight's oddball new novel follows a newly unemployed scientist, lovesick for her former mentor — but convinced of her own worth and her need for a life full of beauty.
Fernanda Melchor's poetic, foul-mouthed new novel sits on the border between crime fiction and horror: A woman known as the Witch has been murdered, and her neighbors want to know who did it and why/
The ABC White House correspondent avoids bravado and knows better than to let insiders use his book to sound off about their enemies. But the obviousness of his account reveals an alarming truth.
Our kids' books columnist Juanita Giles reports that, stuck at home with her family, she's turned to the I am series, by Brad Meltzer and Christopher Eliopoulos, for stories about relatable heroes.
The author of Station Eleven weaves together stories of a hotel worker and an ultra-wealthy con man in a novel that captures how precarious life is — in a way that feels particularly resonant now.
Nghi Vo's new novel is poised at the end of one empire and the beginning of another, as a cleric and their talking-bird assistant set about uncovering the dangerous secrets of a forgotten palace.
In Samantha Mabry's new novel, three prickly sisters are haunted, maybe literally, by their fourth, who's died in an accident. She has a message for them, but they may be too sunk in grief to hear it.
Three-time Hugo Award winner N.K. Jemisin turns her attention to our world in her new book — or at least, a version of our world in which cities can be born in human form to fight evil.
Emily St. John Mandel's powerful new novel follows a troubled brother and sister who get involved with a crooked hotel magnate whose Ponzi scheme destroys the lives of his investors.
Journalist Eduardo Porter has written a book that cuts to the root of racism, tracing it from slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation — and bringing it to today — with unblinking honesty and facts.
Eddie Robson's slim but punchy new novel is set in an unnamed city, made mostly of wood. The city has a King. The King talks to a cat. It's a gem of offbeat weirdness — with a deeply thoughtful core.
Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai's new novel is a luminous, complex family saga that stretches across decades of Vietnamese history, from the French colonial period, through war and upheaval to the present day.
Princeton Profs. Anne Case and Angus Deaton make the case that something has gone grievously wrong, starting with the shift to declining life expectancy numbers around the year 2000.
As we find ourselves in the midst of a pandemic, Paul Lisicky's memoir is deeply affecting; we can recall the terror and frustration when no treatment or prevention was available for AIDS and HIV.
Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi team up to investigate the history of racist ideas through a narrative that's aimed at young adult readers. It's called: Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You.
Lily King's new novel centers on a woman who's spent six years working on her own novel. It's a story of ambition — and what happens when the markers of adult achievement are slow to materialize.
Kate Elizabeth Russell's new novel centers on a woman coming to terms with a relationship she had with a predatory teacher when she was 15. It's overworked and overlong, but still packs a punch.
Sara Fujimura's new novel is a rich, emotionally layered story about two talented teenage ice-skaters learning to balance life on and off the ice — and also, a lot of deliciously detailed food.
James McBride's latest novel starts with a shooting: A broken down preacher shoots the local drug dealer, who dodges at the last minute, losing an ear — and kicking off a chain of consequences.
Poet Natalie Diaz returns, interrogating the lasting effects of colonization asking: If a colonizer's influence can't be eradicated from a culture, how can you push back against violence and erasure?
Lily King's latest novel — about a young woman choosing between two loves while trying to live a creative life — proves literature doesn't have to be groundbreaking to be absolutely compelling.
Laura Zigman's compassionate, occasionally cringey and ultimately comforting new novel follows a middle-aged woman as she comes to terms with the ways her life hasn't turned out the way she'd hoped.
In Quan Barry's charming novel, a team's luck changes when its members pledge themselves to the forces of eternal darkness by signing a spiral notebook with Emilio Estevez's face on it.
Elizabeth Tallent's profound memoir explores writer's block and the allure of perfectionism. After her third short story collection came out in 1993, she didn't publish another book for 22 years.
Katie Roiphe's journal-like entries are a series of brief-but-potent meditations on women, autonomy, independence, and power — on "women strong in public, weak in private" — including herself.
