At some exasperating point, every wine drinker faces a wine bottle in need of opening with no corkscrew at hand. It’s a pivotal moment because only when forced to use a screwdriver, fork, or one’s teeth to carry out an inventive... Read More

Cyrille Martinez’s clever and incisive novel "The Dark Library" creates a surreal microuniverse of books, manuscripts, readers, librarians, and historians. In the Great Library, neglected works are becoming resentful and anguished.... Read More

Secrets past and present intertwine in Sara Foster’s fascinating psychological mystery, "The Hidden Hours". Last night, Eleanor was rescued from loneliness at her company Christmas party by Arabella, one of the publishing house’s... Read More

Rachel Genn’s novel "What You Could Have Won" explores love, fame, dependence, and emotional manipulation with compassion and sparkling wit. Astrid is a rock star with a drug problem. She is also in love with Henry, a shady... Read More

British filmmaker, photographer, and magazine founder Rankin opens his vast archives to reflect on some of the best musician portraits from his three-decade career. "Play" is the operative word here: musicians play music, and play with... Read More

In Francesca Ekwuyasi’s "Butter Honey Pig Bread", a Nigerian woman’s homecoming stirs bad memories, old hurts, and a chance for new beginnings. Kehinde has not seen her mother, Kambirinachi, or twin sister, Taiye, in years. After... Read More

Richard Taylor’s biographical novel "Girty" covers the terror and tragedy of the Indian Wars. Simon Girty is legendary. Called “the first American frontier villain,” Girty, who was captured by Seneca Indians as a teenager, defected... Read More

Gentility wears a burglar’s mask in "The Gentleman and the Thief", a proper romance set in the criminal underworld of Victorian London. Hollis coasts on his good name while supporting himself as a penny dreadful author. Ana, a... Read More