North Sun
The lilting prose and carefully constructed narrative of North Sun, Ethan Rutherford’s debut novel and a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award, feel like the most expansive of embraces. Reviewed by Nicole Emanuel
Barley Patch
Australian author Gerald Murnane isn’t known for sticking to convention, yet his recently republished 2009 novel addresses a quite conventional question: Why do writers write? Reviewed by Sam Tiratto
Not Even the Sound of a River
In Hélène Dorion’s novel, a daughter embarks on a journey along Québec’s St. Lawrence River to reconstruct her mother’s emotional survival.
Reviewed by Alice-Catherine Carls
Major Arcana
In its mixture of literary ambition and old-fashioned showmanship, John Pistelli’s latest novel is a throwback to the efflorescence of popular literary fiction in the mid-late 20th century. Reviewed by Andy Hartzell
Red Dog Farm
Rather than shying away from comparisons to Halldór Laxness’s 1934 novel Independent People, Nathaniel Ian Miller leans into them in his new tale set on a far-flung Icelandic farm. Reviewed by Sara Maurer
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