Fragments of a Paradise
As translated by Paul Eprile, French author Jean Giono puts a unique spin on Moby-Dick in this 1948 novel, turning Ahab’s anger into an expedition to the South Atlantic.
Reviewed by Alice-Catherine Carls
High Solitude
Léon-Paul Fargue’s idiosyncratic book contributes to the lineage of the flâneur, that indelible Parisian lurker of corridors and street cafes.
Reviewed by Patrick James Dunagan
May Our Joy Endure
Québécois writer Kev Lambert’s latest novel offers a trenchant social critique in a chaotic unspooling of words.
Reviewed by Marcie McCauley
Clean
In her latest novel, Chilean author Alia Trabucco Zerán brilliantly explores a claustrophobic environment of class discrimination, cultural distinctions, and the struggle to endure a dreary life.
Reviewed by Dimitris Passas
An Incomplete Catalog of Disappearance
At their deepest points, Diana Oropeza’s half-page inventions are earnest invitations to bear witness to everything that slips away.
Reviewed by Eric Bies
The Third Realm
Karl Ove Knausgaard’s latest novel may be to some a meditation, to others a dissertation, and to others still a digression.
Reviewed by Sam Tiratto
Jonah and His Daughter
In this inventive novel, Romanian author Ioana Pârvulescu invites us to read the Old Testament fable of Jonah as something that deepens through time.
Reviewed by Rick Henry
Black River
Nilanjana Roy’s new novel transcends genre to deliver a study of grief and an affectionate portrait of friendship.
Reviewed by Josh Steinbauer
Satellite Image
Beyond its traditional thriller elements, Michelle Berry’s latest novel offers insight into the often-unsettling process of settling into a new home.
Reviewed by Adam McPhee
Scaffolding - The Anthropologists
The question of how to take up space—a question particularly relevant in the wake of the pandemic—is the common theme of Lauren Elkin’s Scaffolding and Ayşegül Savaş’s The Anthropologists.
Reviewed by Sarah Moorhouse