Interview: Patrick Somerville
Patrick Somerville’s fourth book, This Bright River, is one of those novels that’s epic and intimate. Written from multiple first-person perspectives – all of them dead-on, authentic and hilarious –...
View ArticleGillian Flynn, Gone Girl
A quick-witted mystery full of twists and turnsThis reviewer will confess to reading the print version of Gillian Flynn’s third mystery novel, Gone Girl, before listening to the audio version, tearing...
View ArticleJohn Irving, In One Person
A magical kind of origin story; ultimately one of acceptance “We are formed by what we desire,” writes John Irving on the first page of In One Person, his latest contribution to a lifetime of novels —...
View ArticleInterview: Lauren Groff
It’s still early in 2012, but it’s reasonable to say that Lauren Groff’s ambitious new novel Arcadia is one of the most important books of the year. Groff, a New Yorker fiction contributor and the New...
View ArticleInterview: Nathan Englander
The characters in Brooklynwriter Nathan Englander’s gripping new story collection, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, like to talk. They like to argue, they like to proclaim, they...
View ArticleInterview: Ellis Avery
Ellis Avery’s second novel, The Last Nude, is as juicy and sexy a book you’ll find this year. A fictionalization of real-life Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka and the muse who loved her in 1927...
View ArticleJonathan Franzen, Freedom
Follows a couple as they meet, marry, breed, and then fall apart Let’s say you have to drive cross-country. Or, let’s say you have to drive North to South. Three days worth of driving. America, the...
View ArticleColson Whitehead, Zone One
Here’s an audiobook best consumed during daylight hours: Zone One, Colson Whitehead’s stylish but spooky take on the zombie genre. In Whitehead’s vision of the future, a horrifying plague has turned...
View ArticleHelen Oyeyemi, Mr. Fox
One of the more delightfully unconventional narratives in recent memory Helen Oyeyemi’s playful, audacious and often breathtaking new novel, Mr. Fox, begins with an accusation: “You kill women.” The...
View ArticleJane Lynch, Happy Accidents
It is impossible not to root for her “Like any good, closeted young lesbian of the ’70s, I developed a raging crush on Ron Howard,” says comedic actress Jane Lynch early in her witty new memoir, Happy...
View ArticleeMusic Q&A: Elissa Schappell
Elissa Schappell’s second collection of linked stories, Blueprints for Building Better Girls, is some dark business. Her protagonists — all of them women, ranging from high school age to adulthood —...
View ArticleAmy Waldman, The Submission
What happens when a jury anonymously picks a Muslim architect to design a 9/11 memorial “The concept was simple,” writes Amy Waldman, early in her ambitious debut novel, The Submission, the story of...
View ArticleGlen Duncan, The Last Werewolf
A sophisticated novel in more ways than one Glen Duncan’s The Last Werewolf— the tale of Jake Marlowe, a 200-year-old werewolf readying himself for death even as he finds a reason for living — is a...
View ArticlePatti Smith, Just Kids
There is so much to admire about Patti Smith’s enchanting memoir, Just Kids. It is, first and foremost, a depiction of Smith’s unique relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe in their youth, starting with...
View ArticlePatti Smith, Just Kids
There is so much to admire about Patti Smith’s enchanting memoir, Just Kids. It is, first and foremost, a depiction of Smith’s unique relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe in their youth, starting with...
View ArticleJ. Courtney Sullivan, Maine
A beach read that’s both engaging and deftly written Maine is the perfect audiobook to take along for that long ride to your beach vacation. Let’s hope you don’t get stuck in traffic – but if you do,...
View ArticleKate Christensen on Gossip, Bach, and the Emotional Darkness of Brooklyn
Kate Christensen is a truth-teller. Whether it’s in her criticism and essays (see her soon-to-be-seminal take on unleashing your inner dick as a female writer), or in her six acclaimed novels, the PEN...
View ArticleAnn Patchett, State of Wonder
The product of an artist in her prime Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder begins, elegantly, with a death. “At that moment she un-derstood why people say, ‘You might want to sit down,’” writes Patchett of...
View ArticleMeg Wolitzer, The Uncoupling
A suburban high school becomes the setting for Greek comedy In Meg Wolitzer’s latest novel, The Uncoupling, a cold wind blows through fictional Stellar Plains, New Jersey, chilling the women of the...
View ArticleAndre Dubus III, Townie
A compelling and brave memoir of childhood in a Massachusetts mill town It may be a little bit early to start counting the votes for audiobook of the year, but Andre Dubus III’s Townie should be on the...
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