In the aftermath of World War II, as the Russian army rolled through East Prussia, many German citizens were displaced. Women were raped and children starved, their army husbands nowhere to be found, presumably dead or prisoners of war.... Read More

Rawi Hage’s novel "Beirut Hellfire Society" is an intimate glimpse at the effects of civil war that challenges social and religious norms. Pavlov is the son of an undertaker in war-stricken 1970s Beirut. An avid reader of the Greeks,... Read More

Martin Parr’s "Space Dogs" features a collection of Soviet memorabilia alongside a brief overview of the program that led to the eventual entry of humans into space. What began as a mere scientific experiment soon erupted into a... Read More

Nationalism and patriotism are not unfamiliar substances in America’s bloodstream. As Peter Martin’s "The Dictionary Wars" illustrates, such fervor extended into heated debates over English language usage. In its infancy, the United... Read More

Unicorns in literature are fascinating, evocative, mysterious, and elusive, and with "The Unicorn Anthology", editors Peter S. Beagle—himself of unicorn fame—and Jacob Weisman invite continued appreciation of the legendary beast,... Read More

Among the strands that shape a person’s identity, family may be one of the most influential. Sergei Lebedev delves into one such family in "The Goose Fritz", an impressive tangle of branches in a single ancestral tree. Kirill has... Read More

In "Hermanas", Natalia Kohn, Noemi Vega Quiñones, and Kristy Garza Robinson construct a lighthouse with love, built on the examples of biblical women as well as each author’s personal experiences, to draw their Christian Latina... Read More

Humming with emotion, Auguste Corteau’s "Sixteen" plumbs mysteries both sonic and spiritual. It’s a globe-spanning and deeply personal alternate history. The Soviet Union seems on the verge of collapse in 1953. Mass defections to the... Read More