The Parkiets—mother Rikla, father Joseph, and two sons, Sevek and Henek—emigrated from Warsaw to Paris in 1931. Binem, aka Bernard, the narrator, was born in 1933 after the move. They’re poor but hardworking and close-knit. Joseph was a furnisher finisher by trade. They found a place in an ancient apartment building that surrounded a large […]
The day has arrived to select little Jojo’s kente, a Ghanaian cloth known for its striking patterns. Kente has a rich cultural history; as Daddy says, it all began many years ago, when, according to lore, two hunters saw the spider Ananse spinning a beautiful web and asked him to teach them. Mummy, Daddy, baby […]
It’s the start of summer, and Jill’s family has decided to celebrate by going on their annual boating trip to Lake Koda. The day starts with laughter as the kids soak in the sun, water ski, and build sandcastles. All seems perfect, and after lunch at their favorite cove, the group splits up for a […]
It’s been approximately a decade since vampires crawled from the grave and destroyed most of human civilization in a brutal, blood-soaked uprising. Orphaned twins Ripley and Ruby Clemmons were rescued from the Open—the wasteland between human enclaves where monsters roam free—by a man named Barnett who took them to Vaille (North Carolina’s biggest human compound) […]
A family urn is stolen and three armed gangsters set off to retrieve it. They trace the urn back to two thieves who live in a three-story, six-unit apartment building in a small town, but complications quickly arise, and what could have been a simple task quickly spirals out of control. As they drive into […]
Ungashick takes the story of Operation Overlord and the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France and maps its lessons about strategy and logistics onto the business world to highlight leadership principles. D-Day, the author writes, “was the greatest combined amphibious-airborne invasion in history and the most complex military operation ever executed”; analyzing that operation, he stresses […]
Published to coincide with a major exhibition of works by British-born artist David Hockney (b. 1937) at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, this lushly illustrated volume offers a detailed overview of the artist’s life and work, along with chapters focused on his various styles and subject matter, a chronology, and a glossary of the many […]
Rune Sarasin seems to be getting sloppy in her old age. Not that she’s really old: a witness describes the Thai American expatriate as being between 25 and 35. But the last four months she’s spent under the thumb of Charles Lemaire, an international trafficker in stolen gems, has taken its toll, wearing her out […]
Perhaps not since Nathan Hill’s The Nix (2016) have we seen a debut as hugely ambitious as this one, pulling out all the stops to tell a unique version of the American story. Though there are more characters, more subplots, and just plain more than can be outlined here, the novel revolves around a miserable […]
Industrialization has ravaged Earth, and the Concerns (i.e., corporations) that govern the planet are desperate for resources and locations to colonize. Everyone or everything must be of use to the Concerns, or they’ll be discarded. So the scientific team in orbit around Shroud, a moon with an extraordinary amount of electromagnetic radiation and what actually […]