Elaine Chiew, Book Reviewer

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Book Review

The Stark Beauty of Last Things

by Elaine Chiew

Céline Keating’s lush, elegiac novel "The Stark Beauty of Last Things" limns Montauk in stunning prose and highlights loss, the transience of home, and the impermanence of human affections. Revolving around a prized land parcel... Read More

Book Review

House Parties

by Elaine Chiew

In the short stories of Lynn Levin’s wry, tragicomic collection "House Parties", some people struggle; others behave badly. In “Tell Us About Your Experience,” an office worker who’s sick of filling out satisfaction surveys... Read More

Book Review

Patterns of Orbit

by Elaine Chiew

"Patterns of Orbit" is Chloe N. Clark’s inimitable collection of short stories and flash fiction, in which mysterious events abound. Herein, lakeside waves churn and tear up docks; a food scientist creates fruit that tastes of another... Read More

Book Review

You Are Here

by Elaine Chiew

Cynthia Flood’s short story collection "You Are Here" seethes with political menace that’s seen through focused personal dramas. These stories defy categorization; they are wonderful, layered, powerful, and imbued with clear senses... Read More

Book Review

The Family Izquierdo

by Elaine Chiew

Rubén Degollado’s resonant novel "The Family Izquierdo" maps three generations within a Mexican family on the Texas side of the Rio Grande. A family tree orients the reader among the book’s large, mixed ensemble, whose members are... Read More

Book Review

Castles from Cobwebs

by Elaine Chiew

J. A. Mensah’s "Castles from Cobwebs" is a haunting coming-of-age tale. Imani is a Ghanaian orphan who was left on a castle incline in Northumbria. Picked up by the reverend mother of a convent, Imani is raised there, experiencing... Read More

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