This spring has been a marvelous one for wildly creative authors and their unusual creations. The trend continues with Abigail Tarttelin’s debut novel, Golden Boy, and its tender protagonist, Max. Max is sixteen and in addition to the burdens of being a teenager he is saddled with a secret that is kept even from his own brother. Max is intersex or what used to be known as a ... Read More...
The Woman Upstairs
We’re the quiet woman at the end of the third-floor hallway, whose trash is always tidy, who smiles brightly in the stairwell with a cheerful greeting, and who, from behind closed doors, never makes a sound. In our lives of quiet desperation, the woman upstairs is who we are, with or without a goddamn tabby or pesky lolloping Labrador, and not a soul registers that we are ... Read More...
Life After Life
Ursula Todd is born at home in the winter of 1910, but without medical supervision she dies before she can take her first breath. In succeeding chapters, she returns and each time a twist of fate changes her destiny. Once, the doctor has arrived and there are no problems and another time her mother is able to take action. This is our introduction to the fact that Ursula is a ... Read More...
The Abundance
In Amit Majmudar’s The Abundance, an Indian-American mother is dying of cancer and trying to decide when to tell her children. The holidays are approaching and she fears her news will obliterate the season’s happiness but she is far enough along that there is no way to mask her weight loss and pallor. As her children arrive with their families and she struggles to maintain ... Read More...
Reeducation of Cherry Truong
In Communist countries “reeducation” is a euphemism for prison camp, forced labor, deprivation, and sometimes, torture. In Aimee Phan’s new book The Reeducation of Cherry Truong there is none of these but the end result is similar: a stripping away of old beliefs and breakdown of long held truths. Cherry is the American-born daughter of Sanh Truong and Tuyet Vo. In the late ... Read More...
Ru: A Novel
The Communist takeover of Saigon forces Nguyễn An Tinh and her family to leave behind their luxurious life and escape to a refugee camp in Malaysia. From there the family immigrates to Canada and settles in Quebec. Kim Thúy’s novel is called Ru, meaning ‘lullaby’ in Vietnamese, which aptly describes the book’s style of storytelling and reminiscence. It is a slim volume with ... Read More...
