Book Reviews

Sarah Kuhn's new novel, about a Japanese American girl wrestling with her identity and her place in the world during a visit to Japan, is at once universally relatable and specifically Asian American.

Jo Walton's new novel imagines the Florentine friar Girolamo Savonarola, living life over and over again in an attempt to change his course, save his city, his friends — and himself from damnation.

Mason Deaver's new young adult novel follows a teenager who's kicked out of their house after coming out as nonbinary. Deaver, who's also nonbinary, says it's the book they needed to read as a kid.

Jill Lepore, author of These Truths, argues that supporters of free and fair liberal government can't just hold their noses and wait for voters to realize that democracy is better than autocracy.

Gregory Spatz is both a creative writing professor and a fiddler, which gives depth to these stories about high-end stringed instruments and the people who play, love and sometimes steal them.

Nina Bunjevac's harrowing new graphic novel takes off from Greek mythology to tell a story about sexual violence, obsession, and all the things people can't admit that they want, even to themselves.

Jasmine Warga's middle grade novel in verse follows a Syrian immigrant girl struggling to fit in with her relatives in unfamiliar Cincinnati. It's remarkably sensitive, and deceptively easy to read.

In her new autofictional novel, Spanish writer Gabriela Ybarra turns past tragedy — the murder of her grandfather by Basque separatists — into a seamless blend of art, politics and private life.

The Fire and Fury author offers surprising stories about the president. But there may never have been a more polarizing president, nor an author less likely to be read as a neutral recorder of facts.

The final volume in Graeme Simsion's Rosie trilogy — about an adorably dorky, autistic scientist and his wife and family — will enlighten readers about life on the spectrum, but may not charm them.