Book Reviews

The characters in Nona Fernández' new book are coming of age during Chile's brutal military dictatorship — and for them, video games are a useful framework for understanding the dangers all around.

Jeanine Basinger argues, authoritatively and passionately, that the musical has never really left us, that there's relevance and inspiration to be gleaned from the golden age of Hollywood musicals.

Artist Peter Kuper has adapted Joseph Conrad's classic Heart of Darkness in a way that undercuts Conrad's depiction of Africa as a place of existential horror, and centers the African characters.

Vijay Seshadri has been named the twelfth poetry editor ofThe Paris Review. He says he sees a resurgence in American poetry right now, and a new recognition of different lives and experiences.

Kiersten White's retelling of the King Arthur story puts his queen Guinevere at the center — only she's not really Guinevere. She's a magic-wielding changeling, sent to court to protect the king.

The '50 City College of New York Beavers were the only team to win the NIT and the NCAA tournaments. Matthew Goodman's book details how a point-shaving plot came to dominate the team's legacy.

Biographer Meryle Secrest chases a theory that two key Olivetti computer visonaries' deaths did not happen as officially recorded. While a gripping read at times, there's not a lot of solid ground.

Rivers Solomon's lyrical, wrenching new novella is based on a track from the experimental rap group clipping., about a peaceful undersea race descended from slaves thrown overboard in the Atlantic.

Danny Fingeroth spends some time unpacking Lee's long-running dispute with Jack Kirby and others over ownership, but mainly offers strong insights into the forces that drove Lee and Marvel to success.

Under Carmen Maria Machado's narrative of a psychologically abusive relationship lies an academic view of female queerness, a play, a choose your own adventure book, a look at the mechanisms of abuse.