Sara Gothelf Bloom’s sophisticated novel-in-vignettes "Just Enough to Start Over" is about an artistic German Jewish family in exile from the Nazis. There are three Dubrovsky sisters: Bertha, a talented musician; Annelene, a gifted... Read More
In the linked stories of Jennifer Sears’s uncompromising book "What Mennonite Girls Are Good For", sexual abuse and mental health issues beleaguer a devout family. The stories orbit Ruthie, who spends her 1970s-1980s upbringing in... Read More
Ana Paula Pacheco’s "Pandora" is a startling, bold allegorical novella about pandemic-era hazards to women. COVID-19 upends literature professor Ana’s life. Her classes and her friendship with Alice, with whom she plans a pornography... Read More
Insurgency and sociopolitical revolution link those fighting for freedom in Sharmini Aphrodite’s luminous short story collection, "The Unrepentant". Set in twentieth-century Malaya, the book’s fourteen stories share a tone of... Read More
In Diana Xin’s playful story collection "Book of Exemplary Women", characters navigate relationships and religious mores while enduring hauntings. These short stories focus on family bonds, marriages, and Chinese American families.... Read More
In Viktorie Hanišová’s lyrical novel "The Mushroom Gatherer", a woman uncovers painful childhood memories that lie in wait beneath the surface of her quiet life. In the seven years since she ran away from home and never looked back,... Read More
Andrew Furman’s wondrous novel "The World That We Are" connects young Henry David Thoreau with a contemporary college professor. In 1837, twenty-year-old Thoreau resigns from his position as a schoolteacher after his superiors insist... Read More
A percipient girl narrates her tumultuous life experiences in "Carnaval Fever", Yuliana Ortiz Ruano’s lyrical, pulsing novel. In the 1990s, in Ecuador’s Afro-Ecuadorian neighborhood of Esmeraldas, Ainhoa lives at her grandmother’s... Read More