The book has all the hallmarks of Lehane at his best: a propulsive plot, a perfectly drawn cast of working-class Boston Irish characters, razor-sharp wit and a pervasive darkness through which occasional glimmers of hope peek out like snowdrops in early spring. Read more
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Jamil Jan Kochai wins the Aspen Words Literary Prize for his short stories focused on the absurdity and violence Afghans have endured. Read more
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Link has a boundless imagination and a sharp sense of humor, but even in tales filled with vampires, monsters, and a menagerie of talking animals, she never forgets the humanity of her characters, even when she puts them through their paces. She’s no sentimentalist, to be sure, but she writes with a seemingly limitless compassion, which anchors the stories in something enduring, something more real than real. Read more
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Norman Rush’s “Mating” has achieved handshake status among younger readers thinking seriously about romantic relationships. Read more
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5 Under 35 honorees are writers from around the world, under the age of 35, who have published their first and only book of fiction—either a short story collection or a novel—within the last five years. Read more
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Ling Ma’s “Bliss Montage,” a collection which blends the real and the surreal, has won the Story Prize for best short fiction … The two other finalists, Andrea Barrett for “Natural History” and Morgan Talty for “Night of the Living Rez,” each will get $5,000. Read more
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This engrossing novel by the author of “The Great Believers” is many different books at once. It is a boarding school novel, offering an encapsulated view of a world within a world. It is a cold-case mystery in which readers learn new information along with the characters. It is an adult-revisiting-childhood story in which a narrator considers the past from a different viewpoint. It is also a perceptive commentary on contemporary society. These elements come together seamlessly in a fast-paced mystery. Read more
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Mariana Enriquez’s novel, her first published in English, uses otherworldly elements to consider Argentina’s violent history. Read more
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‘The Hopkins Manuscript,’ newly reissued, recounts a global catastrophe through the sometimes humorous perspective of an ordinary Englishman. Read more
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The tail end of 2022 has been marked by a worrying sense that the center really isn’t holding. Read more
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