In Natalia Theodoridou’s haunting novel "Sour Cherry", women are entrapped by the gluttonous monstrosities of their sons and husbands. To elucidate her husband’s abuse, a mother tells her child a story about a cursed lord. She begins... Read More

The skillful poems of Songs from Fern’s Pond explore loss, family, and the power of human will. Sheryl Pothier Harmer’s Songs from Fern’s Pond is a stirring poetic tribute to her mother, who staked out a solitary, hardscrabble... Read More

A fascinating, multifaceted collection of armchair treks, Linda Cracknell’s travel memoir "Doubling Back" is about revisiting significant places on foot. Cracknell’s walks, undertaken sometimes solo and at other times with... Read More

A kindred relationship is severed by a winter storm in Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s novel "Heaven and Hell", about grave losses and lucent beginnings. In a place “built of cod bones,” Bárður and an orphaned boy are outliers among... Read More

In her outstanding book-length essay "Immemorial", Lauren Markham compares language, memorials, and rituals as strategies for coping with climate anxiety and grief. Monuments to famous men are passé, the work insists; instead, it is... Read More

In Sergei Lebedev’s harrowing novel "The Lady of the Mine", murdered souls buried in an abandoned Ukrainian coal mine haunt the country’s emerging conflict with Russia. In 2014, Zhanna leaves college to care for her ailing mother,... Read More

Shifting between Nigeria and the US, Olufunke Grace Bankole’s novel "The Edge of Water" is about the separation and reunion of mothers and daughters. Esther details her experience of motherhood through letters to her daughter Amina,... Read More

A decision made in haste reverberates across multiple kingdoms in Patricia A. McKillip’s lush fantasy classic "The Book of Atrix Wolfe". Blackmailed to betray the ethics of his practice, an enraged mage calls up violent forces to end a... Read More