Book Reviews

The pseudonymous Reed King's new novel is a loopy, violent, funny Technicolor road trip across a post-apocalyptic America. There are robots, talking goats, and even the occasional lone songbird.

Mark Haddon's new novel uses Shakespeare's Pericles and its founding myth of the villainous king Antiochus to explore aberrant family relationships, loss, depression, judgment and cowardice.

Daniel Brook has written a book that goes a long way toward injecting thoughtfulness into popular notions of the history of race and racism in America but doesn't delve far enough into class conflict.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner's debut novel seems like a Portnoy-esque tale of a lovable lout, but halfway through, the story shakes itself up and reorients itself in a completely different direction.

This month, we've got love stories about teenage girls who pull patriarchy-smashing pranks, a realistic discussion of female biology and a story about learning how to be your own Tom Hanks.

NPR's Frank Langfitt wanted to get to know the real China, so he started a free taxi service in an effort to have conversations with a variety of people. His new book is the result of this reporting.

Marcelo D'Salete's powerful graphic novel chronicles the mocambos, communities of runaway slaves that flourished in the jungles of 17th century Brazil, and all the lives they touched, slave and free.

Aminah Mae Safi's new young adult novel is rooted in a famous plot arc from the television show Gilmore Girls — but you don't have to be a fan to enjoy this dense, fulfilling love story.

These works make apparent how singular an achievement America's moon landing was — and show that half a century later we're still grappling to understand its long-term meaning.