We are left with a somewhat scattered narrative written in the third person with an omniscient narrator that moves from one inner life to another, sometimes to good effect, and sometimes lea…
Nina Schuyler's uneven novel raises some interesting questions in the course of the protagonist's quest, and there are many fascinating details about Japan and Noh plays and the power of sil…
This small but important book is a collection of stories about being human. It explores, even probes, the inner recesses about its characters without pretense or flamboyance.
This novella is a gift to all of us who love Patrick White's strangely alive prose and a welcome addition to his oeuvre. And for those who don't know his work, it is a terrific way to be int…
The agile hand of adaptor and director Aaron Posner has given us a production of Chaim Potok’s novel “The Chosen” that our children and grandchildren must see. The Chosen, …
Austin Ratner's follow up to "The Jump Artist" is an an exuberant, terrific novel -- for its weaknesses, as well as its strengths.
What is perhaps most astonishing is that families of every economic stripe, despite the sad fact that schools all over the country are cutting back on arts programs.
This fascinating book ends, leaving the reader with all sorts of questions -- but that is exactly what really good fiction always does. Opening our minds, etching characters in our imaginat…
While reading Andre Maurois' "Climates" you feel your world narrowing in uncomfortable ways.
There are so many characters to root for in "The Wanting" that you tend to read with your head swimming, and with an increasing sense of urgency as the senseless is revealed to have a logic …
This is not just a story of a plucky girl succeeding; in weaving her complicated story and giving credit to those who helped her to understand how to think critically, to develop her own mor…
Though written in 1984, The House of Jasmine's description of widespread political corruption and social decay in the Sadat era is powerfully relevant to the uprisings of 2011 when Mubarak w…
Uzma Aslam Khan is a wonderful writer whose descriptions of the northern part of Pakistan and the fast fading way of life that had been lived there for hundreds of years are sometimes stunni…
Touted in author Jonas Jonasson's native Sweden as the perfect antidote to the grim noir Swedish trilogy that begins with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo this delicious book has sold over 3 …
Isaiah Sheffer's lasting contribution will be his almost single-handed revival of interest in that most beguiling of fictional forms, the short story.
I can see why celebrated Korean writer Young-ha Kim was attracted to this real life story of about a thousand Koreans emigrating from Asia in 1904.
Here is a writer whose vision and generous spirit cannot be ignored. And that Steve Stern writes a prose as fine as anyone could wish must be emphasized, as well.
I can say, without equivocation, that Helen Dunmore's novel "The Greatcoat" is no "The Turn of the Screw."
In his novel, Sayed Kashua paints such a vivid picture of modern Jerusalem that I found myself longing to see that city again; he also portrays a whole spectrum of Arab life in Israel -- fro…
In spare, exact prose Cristian Comencini lets this story unfold against an Alpine setting that is so vivid it, too, becomes a character in this strangely compelling novel.
"The O'Briens" is a good sink-your-teeth-into read that explores the capricious nature of destiny with grace and humor and shows great compassion for its characters.
A strange mix of characters who all have complicated pasts gives rise to a novel that blossoms -- exactly as a flower does -- into a complex drama that includes several points of view and a …
Some fiction can, literally, have the smell of too much research. And so, although I admire the ambition and scope of Audrey Schulman's new novel, "Three Weeks in December," I also feel that…
The novel is a brilliant psychological thriller, and several other things as well -- a very quiet love story, a narrative of a remarkable friendship between two men, and an exploration of th…
Although he has set himself an ambitious task with all that is happening in "The List," Martin Fletcher has complete command of this material and has created a complex novel that is also a g…