Giant Fish Owls (wingspans can reach more than 6 feet) who look like feather-studded bears and hoot in duets. Hunh? I'll never see one, as they live in far Eastern Russia, but I thoroughly relished my time reading about them and their indefatigable and stoic researcher. Slaght spent five years traipsing over the snowy and slushy habitat of the elusive owls and this is his tale -- a combination of adventure, rigorous science and dedicated conservation. On the National Book Award long-list and deservedly so. -Carin
For those of you who take solace in words, art and nature, (or just one of the three) this book is for you. By the author/illustrator of the beautiful The Lost Words, this is a "book of spells to be spoken aloud," about nature, accompanied by exquisite watercolors. As I leafed through it the first time, I could feel my blood pressure lessening. This is a remarkable book, a salve and an inspiration. -Carin
Yes, I know, it's more than 900 pages. Yes, it probably weighs more than my head. But what fun to spend some (ok, a lot) of time in the company of PI Cormoran Strike and his sidekick Robin, who's tangled relationship is part of the charm. This time, (this is the 5th book in the series...If you haven't read any, you might want to start with the first, Cuckoo's Calling) there's a cold case of a doctor who disappeared years ago to solve. Add in a school's worth of red herrings, and Galbraith's almost uncanny knack for compelling storytelling and you have a keeper. Long as it is... -Carin
Family dysfunction is not laughable, but humor can be of the defense mechanisms used to cope with monstrous behavior. Laveau-Harvie's gripping memoir about dealing with her mother, who is self-absorbed, manipulative, horrible and even murderous, is quite funny. Horrifying, but funny. When Laveau-Harvie's mother was in the hospital, one of her daughters wrote MMA on her hospital chart in big letters. They stood for "Mad as a meat-ax." I'll say... -Carin
This is a humdinger of a rural noir thriller by the author of Lie Still. Set in West Texas, on stark and rocky land my father used to call "miles and miles of bloody God help us," it features a one-legged cop who's come home to try to solve an old case, her former boyfriend who still converses with his disappeared sister (the old case), a one-eyed runaway who says just one word (no, I'm not going to tell you) and a couple of really bad daddies. What more could you want for the dog days of summer, or really for any time? Well-written and funny (in that deadpan Texas kind of way), full of anguish and secrets and malice. Here's hoping for a sequel. -Carin
In this riveting and wrenching memoir -- so slim but so powerful -- former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer prize winner Trethewey tells of her life growing up biracial in the South and of the murder of her mother by Trethewey's manipulative and damaged stepfather. Written in precise, almost crystalline prose, Trethewey's tale packs a wallop. One of the most moving memoirs I've read in a long time. -Carin
It's the near future and entire species are dropping like flies. Frannie Shore has tagged several arctic terns -- the bird with the longest migration of all -- and is following them South. She's never been able to stay in any one place for long. But why? What is she escaping, or running towards? In alternating chapters about her past and her present journey on a fishing vessel, you learn why. This book is about motivation and love and secrets and this whole incredible natural world we take way too much for granted. And it is the debut of an enormously talented writer. Loved it. -Carin
I didn't think I was going to be taken in by a book featuring two late middle age Irishmen gassing non-stop about their lives, loves and regrets over countless pints, but it's Roddy Doyle (The Commitments, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors. etc.). I should have known better. Funny, irreverent, endlessly profane, and ultimately moving, Love is full of the brittle poignancy that is, well, Love, and life and friendship. -Carin
"What does a women want?"...It's a famous, and frankly unanswerable, (yup, you got it, Sigmund) question. Elizabeth, who lives in Brooklyn, is married with two children, newly bankrupt, has two jobs, can't make ends meet in NYC, and is burnt out. This is her story, seen also through the prism of a on/off longtime intense female friendship. It's witty, heartfelt, angry, conflicted, and thought-provoking. I read it in two sittings. (Only because I had to make dinner.) And I may read it again. So there. -Carin
It's a testament to Lawrence Wright's prognostication and writing abilities that I was not only able to read a thriller about a pandemic but also kind of enjoy it...in the middle of a pandemic. Wright is most known for his nonfiction books about Isis and Scientology and Texas, to name a few, but this one is fiction. Sort of. Given that it was written before the pandemic appeared, it is gripping and almost, but not quite, unfortunately, unbelievable... -Carin
Scott Turow is a longtime master of the courtroom legal thriller. The Last Trial is his 14th book and in it, beloved trial lawyer Sandy Stern is back, at 85, to defend a longtime friend, a doctor, who may be a murderer and a fraud. Full of suspense -- there are a few plots-inside-plots -- courtroom derring-do, and legal explication, after I finished it I figured maybe I could pass the bar myself, or at least part of it. -Carin
Lynne Olson (Citizens of London; Last Hope Island) is a master of historical narration. Madame Fourcade's Secret War is a tension-filled account of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, a French woman of privilege who ran one of the largest spy networks for the Resistance. Almost always in danger, she and her agents a half-step ahead of Gestapo goons, it's more than remarkable that she was able to successfully deliver to the British the impressive intelligence her network gathered. While she survived the war, many of her agents died, in custody or in the camps. What astounding bravery... -Carin
Texas 1866. All Simon the Fiddler wants to do is get to the Red River, buy some land, track down the Irish governess he fell in love with, and live his life. No cakewalk in a state and country turned upside down by the Civil War. Simon the Fiddler is about devotion and drive, steadfastness and spunk, and the power of music as a salve in a nation gone awry. Paulette Jiles (News of the World) writes her tale lyrically, unsentimentally, with humor and tension both. Just read it. -Carin
Not the next in Connelly's acclaimed and addictive Harry Bosch detective series, but rather the third in his series featuring journalist Jack McEvoy. (Who acts a whole lot like a detective, but never mind.) Working for Fair Warning (a consumer advocacy publication), McEvoy investigates the loosely regulated DNA search industry and tracks a serial killer who uses DNA data to choose his victims. And McEvoy is trying to salvage his relationship with an former FBI profiler. Science, journalism, murder, love. Something for everyone! Involving, exciting, and far too plausible. -Carin
Sometimes you just need a good story. If its well-written and moves swiftly of its own accord, well then you are lucky indeed. Now We Shall Be Entirely Free is all that and so so good. It's the kind of book you just can't wait to get back to after you've put it down, the kind you slow down at the end to delay the finish. A British Napoleonic war soldier had some, shall we say, issues, in a village in Spain at the end of the campaign. He's hightailed it back to his estate and is soon on the run in the wild islands of Scotland, trailed by two men eager to track him down. Now We Shall Be Entirely Free is an adventure story, a love story, a war story, a helluva story. With a little philosophy tucked in. It's kind of perfect. Especially now. -Carin
Granted, right about now may not be the time you want to delve into a thriller in which one of, or actually THE main characters, are plague-carrying rats. But if you can stand living with the premise, you are in for a pretty good rat-centric ride, with an ER doctor heroine, a unselfish older P.I. and a number of well-drawn scheming and nefarious characters. The doctor's boyfriend (a hospital executive) dies in an "accident" while the pair are on a bike tour in Vietnam. After his death, she discovers he's lied to her about a bunch of things and she is relentless in her quest to find out why and what he was really up to in Vietnam. Which involves clever investigation, danger, and rats -- lots of 'em. -Carin
This is one of the most amazing debut novels I have read in a long time. It's told from the points of view of five women who live in Odessa, Texas during a 70's oil boom. A 14 year old Hispanic girl is raped by an oil hand on Valentine's Day. In alternating chapters Valentine delineates the impact of the rape on the five women, among them the child who is raped, another the woman who rescues her. Beautifully written with a clear and vernacular sense of place, this book is haunting, clear, and fierce. -Carin
Deacon King Kong is many things -- a mystery, a crime novel, a detailed portrait of a (mostly) African American urban community in New York, a love story (or two), and a farce. It is filled with "the humor of survival." (And God knows, we need that now.) McBride clearly had a ball creating the Deacon, who is a sot, a handyman, a widow who still talks to his wife, a baseball umpire and, despite his failings, a moral force in the community. It's almost impossible to paraphrase the plot(s), so I won't. Just know that McBride's formidable strengths as a storyteller and character builder (not to mention master of dialogue) shine in this blast of a book. -Carin
The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird (Paperback)
Sometimes it's a relief for a reader to plunge into a subject one knows absolutely nothing at all about. In this case falcon thievery and smuggling. Hammer's tale of the inveterate and totally remorseless Jeffrey Lendrum is full of reckless adventure, deceit, and obsession. Lendrum spent decades all over the world stealing falcon eggs to sell to rich Arabs. At his heels, a British wildlife detective determined to bring him in and end his larceny. You learn a lot about falcons, which, who knows, might come in handy some day. -Carin
There's something about reading a good baseball book in February that puts a spring in your step. Emily Nemens (editor of the Paris Review!) knows her baseball. The Cactus League follows a cast of characters: players, coaches, wives, agents, hangers-on, etc. all in Arizona for Spring Training. First and center -- yes he's an outfielder -- is star Jason Goodyear, whose year has started off anything but good. They're an odd bunch but Nemens puts it all together to create a baseball novel that is charming without being cloying, full of baseballania (I made that up) and makes you wish opening day would just hurry up and get here. (Made me almost forget about losing Mookie Betts...Never.) -Carin
It's some sign of the political times that I find a book about Churchill and the horrendous London Blitz, oddly comforting. Larson (Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts) has written a behind-the-scenes narrative about Churchill and his family and what it was like to live under Hitler's rain of steel. Engrossing and a bit gossipy, it's like reading a movie. And you come away with immense respect for the grace and courage of both Churchill and the English people he inspired. (Too bad cloning is so problematic...) -Carin
Moore's immersive Long Bright River does two things, both of them well. The book is a thriller -- who's killing young down-and-out women in the scummy parts of Philadelphia? -- and also a sociological study of how drug addiction rips the fabric of families into often un-mendable strips. Two sisters, one a cop, and one an addict, are the well-drawn and often main characters, both heartbreakingly lonely in their own ways. They are estranged, but linked, as only sisters with a common upbringing can be. Highly recommend. -Carin
You think it gets cold here sometimes...Hah. Try living in February close to the North Pole when the temperature is an average of 50 below! Not to mention the wind, the ice floes and bergs, the bears, the wolves... Labyrinth, a totally gripping and detailed tale of polar adventure, tells the story of the Greely Expedition (1881-84) a scientific data collection mission that went, well, awry. The undaunted courage and sheer doggedness of these explorers in extremis pretty much from the get go is extraordinary. -Carin
Kevin Wilson's natural, funny writing can make the weirdest, implausible things seem possible. He did it in The Family Fang about a family of performance artists. In Nothing to See Here, aimless, and depressed Lillian is asked by her old college roommate to take care of her two stepchildren. The hitch: when the children get angry or discombobulated in any way they, well, combust. (nb. They are not hurt by the flames they emit.) Lillian becomes fiercely attached to these odd fiery little children and learns, by dealing with their eccentricities and becoming their advocate, the value of caring for others. -Carin
I loved The Dirty Life, Kimball's first book about starting a farm on 500 acres in Essex, NY. In Good Husbandry --great title -- she continues the story. Problems erupt: runaway horses, an injured husband, the intense vagaries of modern weather. Children, as they are wont to do, complicate the work balance and her relationship with her husband. But Kimball's love of the farm and what she and her husband are trying to do triumph. And boy do they work hard. A well-written and often moving tale of what it's like to be a young farmer these days. -Carin
Country is a brutal and ingenious retelling of the Iliad set in Northern Ireland in the '90s. Hughes' language is mesmerizing and almost volcanic, bursting the seams of the novel. Not for the weak of stomach -- there's a good deal of violence, but then the Iliad isn't exactly pacific. And it's fun to match characters in Country with those in the original, although Achill, the Irish sniper from the North, was kind of a gimme.
Patti Smith is a rocker and a intellectual, terms which, in her case, are not mutually exclusive. Year of the Monkey is her journal of a year in which she turned 70 and also lost several dear friends. It is fascinating look at the interior life of a true artist. (btw, Smith's performance of A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall at Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize ceremony is not to be missed.) -Carin
Ann Patchett has the remarkable ability to be sympathetic to her characters, despite some morally and ethically questionable motivations and/or actions. She makes the reader care about what happens to these people. Couple that with her equally remarkable steady and believable story-telling talent -- the kind of skill that makes the reader continually wonder what's going to happen next -- and you have one of her best novels to date. A book about the long-term impact of a building, the Dutch House of the title -- how it's seen and experienced, loved or hated, by different members of a family. Oh, and the abiding consequences of parental abandonment. -Carin
I've always wanted to know how to build a lava moat, and what do you know, along comes a book with intricate instructions how to. Randall Munroe, known for What If? and Thing Explainer, has written "the world's most entertaining and useless self-help guide," with illustrated instructions for tasks as various as predicting the weather, making an emergency landing, playing the piano, catching a drone AND (just in time) winning an election. And that lava moat, of course. -Carin
Set it 1960's Baltimore, this ingenious noir follows the career of Maddie Schwartz an attractive divorcee who becomes a newspaper reporter trying to get to the bottom of the murder of a young black woman found in a well. Told from Maddie's point of view with an attending chorus of spot-on Baltimore voices -- a bartender, the victim herself, a police reporter, etc,-- this is Lippman at her best. Not only a captivating murder mystery, but a detailed portrait of a Southern city of the North in the '60s on the edge of change.
ps I listed to this on Libro and it is a terrific read (or listen)
Thank Kate Atkinson and the writing gods....detective (retired, now investigator) Jackson Brodie is back! (Big Sky is the 5th Jackson Brodie novel.) This time he's trying to catch philandering husbands and boyfriends and stumbles on an intricate and repulsive child trafficking ring. But the plot's almost incidental, imo. Atkinson's writing, her character sketches, typical incisive humor, and incredible way with words are the stars here. I wished it were 600 pages long. Do. Not. Miss. -Carin
Keane's novel about the intertwining -- by trauma and love -- of two families, the patriarchs of which start as two rookie NYPD officers, is engrossing, moving, and well-written. The book covers four decades, and the characters are real and engaging, even the troubled ones. (Perhaps especially the troubled ones.) Reviewer Ann Patchett said this book was about "decency." I didn't know what she meant at first, but having read it I agree. -Carin
In this fascinating sort of true crime/biography, Cep intertwines the stories of a malevolent and murderous minister, the lawyer who defended him (and his killer...it's complicated...) and Harper Lee, renowned author of To Kill a Mockingbird. Beautifully written, Furious Hours also illustrates what it was like to live in Alabama both before civil rights and after. This book is a feat...I was entranced. -Carin
This is the last Bernie Gunther novel, as Kerr died last year. This one is set in Weimar Berlin, where German Police detective Bernie Gunther, now on the murder squad, is tasked with finding out who's killing prostitutes and disabled WWI vets. The book is highly atmospheric, as prewar Berlin was, seamy, seductive and menacing, with the Nazis on the rise. If you like this one, there are 13 other Bernie Gunther novels and they are well worth checking out. -Carin
Van Hemert was a burned out ornithologist who, having "strayed from wonder" embarked on a 4000 mile trek with her husband, from Bellingham, Washington to Kotzebue on Chukchi Sea. The Sun is a Compass is the riveting, exciting and often moving account of that journey, replete with fascinating observations of the natural world. Think Cheryl Strayed but -- better written, no addiction substory, better science and, well, a whole lot less whining. -Carin
Thirteen-year-old Eli Bell has a lot on his plate: his beloved brother is mute, his babysitter is a convicted murderer and celebrated jail breaker, and his mother and her boyfriend are heroin dealers who have run afoul of the local crime boss. This wonderful book (apparently based on the author's real life in Australia) is about a teen who's trying to develop a moral code, it's about love and loyalty and defining what makes a man good, or bad. Funny and lyrical the 400+ pages fly by. I truly miss Eli Bell, now that I'm done. -Carin
"Shakespearean," "Game The Border, Arturo Keller is now head of the DEA, tasked with stopping the flow of heroin into the U.S. while riof Thrones of the Mexican Drug Cartels," -- both apt descriptions of Winslow's masterful third and last book in the Border trilogy. (Dog of the South and Cartel being 1 and 2). This is narco noir at its best, if that word can be applied to something as violent and evil as the Mexican drug trade. In The Border, Arturo Keller is now head of the DEA, tasked with stopping the flow of heroin into the U.S. while rival drug cartels feud. Reviewer Janet Maslin (NYT) wrote that you don't read these books "you live in them." She is right. (And while timely and, unfortunately, all too realistic, the book contains a lot of violence.) -Carin
If you like reading books about grammar -- and who doesn't? -- this is the book for you. Written by a longtime editor at Random House, it’s full of clear and amusing hints and admonitions about, among other things, the Oxford comma, split infinitives, verbal clarity, and word choice. Useful AND entertaining. And it just might help you write better. -Carin
I needed this book and you do too! Ross Gay's short essays about what delights him about this sweet old life of ours are funny, poetic and philosophical, sometimes all at the same time. This book will make you look at your own life and notice what delights you. A timely gift, if you ask me... -Carin
This is Australian writer Harper's third thriller, and her best. Set in the inhospitable Queensland, it's about three brothers. One is found dead, presumably of exposure, not far from his well-supplied car. What happened? The answer lies, of course, in events of the past. Well-written, atmospheric and driving, this book is full of thorny family dynamics and imbued with ethos and danger of the Australian outback. -Carin
Milkman, winner of the 2018 Booker Prize, is a novel steeped in menace. Set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, Burns depicts a society riven by factions, where everyone is suspected of one thing or another -- of having an affair, of consorting with the wrong side, of being an informer, of burying guns in the back yard, of having misplace "sympathies" etc, etc. The narrator is being stalked by the Milkman and she doesn't know why. And while the book's stream of consciousness (and often quite funny) writing takes some patience, it is well worth persevering. (Burns is the writer from Northern Ireland to win the prestigious Booker.) -Carin
This newest saga featuring private detective Cormoran Strike and his romantically confused sidekick, Robin is just as addictive as the earlier three in the series, just longer. The underlying case is filled with common tropes of classic British mysteries: art, jewel thievery, horses, adultery and family dysfunction, and woven in and around the detection is the complicated relationship between Cormoran and Robin. It's a cliche, I know, but I really didn't want it to end and even at 400 plus pages, it sped by. Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) can write.
Deep in the Carpathian Mountains during WW 1, a barely trained doctor from a moneyed family finds himself the only medical personnel in a field hospital. Dealing with both physical (i.e amputations, head wounds) and mental (PTSD) afflictions suffered by soldiers returning from the front, his only aide is an indomitable nun. Complications, just what he needs, ensue. This stirring historical novel is enhanced by the medical knowledge of the author, who is also a doctor. You might remember Mason's earlier novel, also good, The Piano Tuner. -Carin
If you read the Washington Post and/or the New York Times you may not find many surprises in this meticulously reported account of Trump in the White House. But in the aggregate, this portrayal of a dysfunctional, chaotic White House and a president whose attention span is non-existent, whose knowledge of policy, economics and foreign policy (i.e Why DO we have NATO?) is sparse, to say the least, and whose judgment and morals, well, let's not go there -- is devastating and scary. Fear indeed. -Carin
Once you get past a bit of a distracting conceit in Heartland (Smarsh addresses parts of the book to her unborn, non-existent child) you will be immersed in a clear-eyed and moving account of what it's like to grow up poor, white, and hardworking in the middle of America. Riveting and written without an ounce of self-pity. A well-deserved longlist finalist for the non-fiction National Book Award. -Carin
Pat Barker writes about the cost of war better than just about anybody. (Her WW1 Regeneration Trilogy is a classic.) In Silence of the Girls, she retells the story of the Trojan War, mostly from the point of view of Briseis, a queen who becomes Achille's slave and concubine after he kills most of her family and obliterates her town. All the Iliad characters are here and wonderfully wrought -- Achilles, driven mad by bloodlust and desire for revenge, sorrowful Priam who just wants his beloved son's body, Achilles' loyal childhood friend Patroclus. But this story really belongs to the women -- the "spoils" of war, and how they deal with their changes in fortune. This is a powerful, visceral, anti-war novel. -Carin
Midsummer is the best time to get away and dive into the murky, intricate and absorbing spy vs. spy world of Daniel Allon, crack Israeli agent/art restorer, now head of his intelligence agency. This latest one -- 17 have come before -- concerns the search for a Russian mole with a, shall we say, nefarious, pedigree. It's one of his best. Warning: the books in this series are highly addictive. -Carin
If you need any more reasons to hate big Pharma, in this case Perdue Pharma, well, here's a book full of them. Beth Macy's (Truevine, Factory Man) Dopesick is a meticulously reported and devastating indictment of the company which relentlessly pushed Oxycontin as a wonder pain drug and simultaneously downplayed (an understatement) its intensely addictive qualities. Macy concentrates mostly on West Virginia, a state hit particularly hard. A grim book, for sure, but if you want to understand the opiate crisis (63,000+ died of drug overdoses in the U.S. in 2016; 66% involved a prescription or illicit opioid) you need to read this book. -Carin
If these interconnected stories about four young black or mixed race boys growing up in Pawtucket are any indication, JM Holmes is a writer to watch. The stories are honest (sometimes uncomfortably so), urgent, and often funny. In his own way, each of the boys deals with the lure of sex, the power of drugs, and the push and pull of complicated family ties, along the way to becoming adults. Some are successful, some not. Holmes has a definite, dare I say, original voice -- one I look forward to hearing again. -Carin
To children, parents can be enigmatic. A parent who happens to be a spy? -- even more so. Lea Carpenter (Eleven Days) has written a gripping, relentlessly smart, and addictive novel about a woman, Anna, whose "banker" father was in fact a spy. After he mysteriously dies, (in an avalanche, no less), the day before her wedding, Anna receives a mysterious interrogation tape of him. She sets out to find out what he did with his life and assets (not in the money sense). You will learn a lot about tradecraft -- who knows, might come in handy some day -- and about the nexus of spydom and human relationships. Love, lies, betrayal, loyalty, and the CIA. What more could you want? -Carin
It's hard to pick up the newspaper these days and not find an account of a child being preyed upon by an adult, whether it be a priest, teacher, or parent. His Favorites, Walbert's wonderfully written wrenching book, tells the story of a vulnerable 15-year-old, Jo. Reeling from her culpability in her best friend's death, Jo is enrolled in a prestigious boarding school, where she, among others, is preyed upon by a manipulative sociopath masquerading as a caring teacher. If you've ever wondered, how do these things happen, here's an answer. This slim, powerful book is a case of good fiction illuminating reality better than the facts themselves can. -Carin
This grim (but often grimly funny) book is almost a primer on how to mess up your life: drink too much, join the military on a whim, go to war, develop PTSD, get addicted to heroin, screw around on your maybe wife, rob banks... And Walker knows whereof he speaks; he'll get out of prison in 2020, in for.....robbing banks. But what a remarkable voice he has for a debut novelist, direct yet fluid, in a graphic and profane way. He's got a great writing career ahead of him, if he can go straight. -Carin
It's no surprise that Where the Crawdads Sing is infused with the flora and fauna of the North Carolina coastland where it's set, as Owens is a wildlife scientist renowned for her nonfiction books about Africa. The story of the "marsh girl" abandoned by her family and left to eke out a living from the marsh that surrounds her, is told in lyrical, evocative prose. Where the Crawdads Sing is a coming of age story, a love story, a murder mystery and a study of the effect of isolation on a young soul, all in one! A pretty remarkable (fiction) debut. -Carin
This brilliant debut novel follows the lives of twelve mixed-race and full Native Americans whose fortunes (and mostly, misfortunes) converge at a powwow in Oakland. The writing is direct yet often poetic, and flawlessly paced. Orange, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, is full of urgent despair. He writes as if to say, "Don't you dare look away. This is how it is." Not to be missed. -Carin
Sedaris is up to his old tricks in this new collection of essays. Funny stories about family dynamics (on which he is superb), shopping in Japan, other people's eating habits, beach life, his sister's suicide, and mortality. While the tales make you laugh out loud, or at least snicker in private recognition, there is both a poignancy and a little more bite than in previous books. That said, Sedaris' prodigious powers of observation have not flagged in the least. -Carin
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • From the internationally acclaimed, Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient: “an elegiac thriller [with] the immediate allure of a dark fairy tale” (The Washington Post) set in the decade after World War II that tells the dramatic story of two teenagers and an eccentric group of characters.
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018
Shakespeare’s dark and tragic play retold in a heart-pounding New York Times bestselling thriller from the author of The Snowman and The Thirst.
TIME’S #1 FICTION TITLE OF THE YEAR • NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018
FINALIST for the MAN BOOKER PRIZE and the NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
LONGLISTED for the ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL
An instant New York Times bestseller from two-time National Book Award finalist Rachel Kushner, The Mars Room ea
NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower—and a Texas native—takes us on a journey through the most controversial state in America. • “Beautifully written…. Essential reading [for] anyone who wants to understand how one state changed the trajectory of the country.” —NPR
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Sunday Times (UK) * The Guardian (UK) * The Washington Independent Review of Books * Sydney Morning Herald * The Los Angeles Public Library * The Irish Independent * Real Simple *
Finalist for the Rathbones Folio Prize
“Carys Davies is a deft, audacious visionary.” —T
After years of working at the ends of the earth in human rights and development, Brent Preston and his wife were die-hard city dwellers. But when their second child arrived, the shine came off urban living.
"The Iliad of the Iraq war" (Tim Weiner)--a gut-wrenching, beautiful memoir of the consequences of war on the psyche of a young man.
The instant New York Times bestseller, "A must-read for anyone who thinks 'build a wall' is the answer to anything." --Esquire
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Washington Post • NPR • Entertainment Weekly • Real Simple • Marie Claire • New York Public Library • LibraryReads • The Skimm &bull
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history, from the author of The Wager and The Lost City of Z, “one of the preeminent adventure and true-crime writers working today."—New York Magazine • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NOW A MAR
FINALIST FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE
Don't miss Fiona Mozley's new novel, Hot Stew, which is available now!
The family thought the little house they had made themselves in Elmet, a corner of Yorkshire, was theirs, that their peaceful, self-sufficient life was safe.