Book Reviews

Basma Abdel Aziz's new novel is set in an unspecified Middle Eastern city, where an endless line snakes back from the mysterious Gate where citizens await pronouncements from a sinister government.

High art is highly entertaining in this grown-up goof on the Where's Waldo? books. Readers hunt down a tiny Andy Warhol against a series of elaborately detailed art and culture-themed backgrounds.

Adam Haslett's new novel focuses on a family tormented by father-and-son battles with chronic depression and anxiety. He captures the lasting reverberations of suicide with precision and tenderness.

Violinist and author Anna Smaill's musical training shows through in her debut novel. The Chimes is set in a post-apocalyptic London where a mysterious order controls the population via music.

Skottie Young's comic may horrify (or delight) the parents of princess-obsessed kids. It's the story of a not-so-little girl who's gone a little violent after 27 years trapped in a sparkly fairyland.

Teenaged math whiz Gottie knows a little too much about subtraction; her fractured family is spinning apart sfter the death of her beloved grandfather — and that's before the time wormholes appear.

Sunjeev Sahota's new novel follows three men who journey from India to England, looking for a better life. But NPR's Nishant Dahiya says that life turns out to be a complex, and often dangerous one.

Roshani Chokshi's smooth and assured debut draws on folk and fairy tales — Bluebeard, Persephone, Beauty and the Beast — for the story of a young girl whose ominous horoscope sends her on a journey.

Marie NDiaye's unflinching new novel handles heavyweight emotions — guilt, shame, grief, cruelty — with sharp-edged writing and clear-eyed courage. It's an intense read, but an engrossing one.