Book Reviews

Caitlin Starling's tense new horror novel follows a desperate young cave diver who's lied her way into a job on a dangerous planet, and the supervisor who may not have her best interests at heart.

Miriam Toews' new novel follows a group of women in an isolated religious colony as they struggle to reconcile their faith with a series of horrific sexual assaults committed by the colony's men.

Though it took poet Carolyn Forché half a lifetime to fully share in a memoir what she saw during her time in El Salvador in the 1970s and the lessons learned, now is precisely when we need to see it.

Artist Michael DeForge's enigmatic new graphic novel is all about ambivalence — belonging, displacement, escape and return. Also, strangely charming, blobby animals with all-too-human feelings.

Mieke Eerkens has written an engrossing memoir on the interesting, even inspiring, stories of her parents after WWII. Yet despite its careful questioning and analysis, it's an uncomfortable read.

Ann Beattie strikes out in her new novel about a disaffected young man who drifts through an unsatisfying series of jobs and relationships until his life is upended by a revelation from the past.

Mark Bowden's account of the unsolved 1975 case of two girls who went missing near D.C. is a riveting, serpentine story about the dogged pursuit of the truth, regardless of the outcome or the cost.

In his new book, the literary scholar presents an absorbing, necessary look at the "Redemption" era, in which the hard-fought gains of African-Americans were rolled back by embittered Southern whites.

Beyond the juicy bits, journalist Susan Page paints a larger portrait of one of the more underappreciated, least understood figures of the last century — one with both insecurities and influence.

Rajeev Balasubramanyam's fourth novel follows a cantankerous yet sympathetic economics professor whose life is upended after he fails yet again to win a Nobel Prize (among other, lesser catastrophes).