Book Reviews
The Hunger Saint
Olivia Cerrone's evocative novella is a searing journey into turn-of-the-20th-century Sicilian mines.
Barrow’s Point
Robert Schirmer invents a Wisconsin town and packs it with homophobia and its fallout.
War and Turpentine
A Flemish-Belgian writer "reinvents" his grandfather to brilliant and dramatic effect.
How to Set a Fire and Why
Jesse Ball's study of teen alienation, while persuasive, heads for and reaches a dead end.
A World Apart
In 1951, Polish writer Gustaw Herling recalled his Gulag days, and entered a rare class of writers.
Missing Person
Modiano's slender 1978 psychological thriller remains a superb and disturbing Parisian novel.
Gutshot
Amelia Gray is adept enough with grotesqueness to make it feel second nature, and that's a gift.
Swallowed by the Cold
Jensen Beach's 15 stories are set in Sweden and convey equal doses of wisdom and melancholy.
A Little Lumpen Novelita
Roberto Bolaño's understated Rome-set novella is a posthumous example of the Chilean writer's genius.
A Cure for Suicide
In Jesse Ball's unsettling novel, suicide has a "cure" of sorts, but the price is profoundly surreal.
The Book Staff
The Book Staff consists of a handful of writers who contribute regularly review and a few who chip in from time to time. Names are withheld because books matter more than the names of their reviewers.