Book Reviews

In Curtis Sittenfeld's new novel, Hillary Rodham dumps Bill Clinton and goes on to forge a life of her own, in law and then politics. It's an uncomfortable, moving, technically brilliant book.

Kacen Callender's new young adult novel centers on a queer, trans teen trying to find out who's behind a traumatizing transphobic act — a quest that takes him on an emotional roller coaster.

In Amanda Sellet's charming young adult romance, a teenage bookworm transfers to the local public high school and discovers that the literary classics she lives by aren't quite a match for real life.

Before COVID-19 engulfed the Chinese city of Wuhan, Fang Fang was already an award-winning novelist. But her chronicle of the lockdown of her hometown might be her most lasting work.

At her best, Olivia Laing turns criticism into an elevated form of hospitality: Like a good party host, she introduces you to someone, tells you what she likes about them, then leaves you to it.

As the lockdown stretches on, we bring you three books that offer an escape to a time when people could gather — and fall in love — in a shop, at a book club, or even in an office.

Martha Wells' freethinking robot stars in its first full-length adventure, remaining just as misanthropic and TV-obsessed as ever, even as it attempts to figure out who kidnapped it and its friends.

In her new novel, Samanta Schweblin gives everyone in the world a little critter that's basically a Furby with a webcam — naturally, this does not end well, for the owners, the devices, or anyone.

As a longtime Paris resident, at first I feared Dirt might be yet another expat tale of moving to France en famille, with all its tedious clichés. I should have known better.