Claudio Lomnitz explores his family’s long, restless history in his memoir "Nuestra América". In many ways, Lomnitz grew up isolated from his cultural heritage. He was born... Read More

In Véronique Tadjo’s literary novel "In the Company of Men", a community goes to battle against Ebola. Two boys wander into the woods to hunt; they come come home proud to... Read More

War and politics rip a family apart in Marco Balzano’s historical novel I’m Staying Here. When Mussolini tries to Italianize their German-speaking town in Northern Italy,... Read More

The essays of Issac J. Bailey’s Why Didn’t We Riot? are incisive as they confront the realities of systemic racism in America and in the age of Donald Trump. Bailey begins... Read More

Inès Bayard’s novel This Little Family, translated from French, is about the devastating aftermath of a rape. Raised in a loving household outside of Paris, Marie moves into... Read More

Marc Petitjean grew up with Frida Kahlo’s disturbing painting “The Heart” hanging in his living room. As a child, he was terrified of the image of a huge bleeding heart... Read More

Silent and stationary, mired in dirt: such is life of plants. Not the most appropriate station for the entity primarily responsible for sustaining life on Earth. But humility... Read More

Stalin: if you’re Russian and of a certain age, his name causes your blood to run Siberian cold. It’s not for nothing that Uncle Joe’s twenty-four-year reign (1929–1953)... Read More

In Peter Stamm’s philosophical novel "The Sweet Indifference of the World", writers and actors who’re struggling to make art become a means of exploring both identity and... Read More

In Zeruya Shalev’s searing contemporary novel "Pain", an Israeli woman who survived a terror attack is forced to address the wounds that will not heal. Ten years ago, Iris... Read More

Nina Allan’s exquisite and strange "The Dollmaker" is a postmodern fairy tale, both whimsical and aching in its appeal. Andrew felt lost among his contemporaries until he... Read More

Undeniably, America had a banner run in the twentieth century. No country came anywhere close to achieving such power and prosperity for those one hundred years. You killed it,... Read More