Alice Wilson receives an email from her ex-husband, Dan, announcing that their long-estranged daughter, Esme, has been arrested (“she doesn’t want to hear from you”). The news cracks open silent years of guilt and longing. A successful environmental financial analyst, Alice has lived with the ache of separation since Esme chose to live with her […]
Lazowski was 11 when the Nazis came for him. Separated from his family, he found himself lost in Polish forests, wandering in brutal winters before war’s end, before making it to New York. Now in his mid-90s, the rabbi emeritus of two synagogues in Connecticut looks back on a career as counselor to generations of […]
In this third visit to Fern’s School for Wayward Fae, all the new students are gearing up for the annual Yule Hunt, a magical winter solstice scavenger hunt that will help them develop their gifts. The competition also gives the winner (or winners) an unspecified, though highly sought-after, prize. Thirteen-year-old Rosemary is eager to learn […]
Pinkham, a Cornell University scholar, writes that trees in Russia, which make up roughly one-fifth of the world’s forests, lie at the heart of Russian culture—“a symbol of what is good and what must be preserved, the last bulwark against annihilation.” Most Russian histories begin with medieval Kiev, the first Slavic state, and move north […]
Sixteen-year-old Ida Campbell picks the wrong time to start school at St. Anne’s. Not that there ever seems to be a right time; the building, set on a cliff overlooking the English Channel, “looked as if it had been caught in the act of falling down, and was now doing its best to hold itself […]
Seventeen-year-old Waldo, the narrator of McCurdy’s fiction debut, lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her mother, though she’s long been the parent in their relationship. She heats her own frozen meals and pays the bills on time while her mom chases man after man and makes well-meaning promises she never keeps. Waldo blows her Victoria’s Secret […]
Editor Knight-Justice, who contributes two illustrations, explains in a note that at age 14, Hughes’ poem “Mother to Son” not only introduced him to poetry’s rich possibilities, but deepened his understanding of his relationship with his own mother. He writes, “This is what poetry did for me, and I want it to do the same […]
At Juniper’s school in the city, bullies—seen in the shadows but apparently white—taunt the young girl. On a day devoted to celebrating students’ heritage, they tell her she doesn’t know where she comes from. Juniper’s mojo bag, tucked in her pocket, doesn’t keep the bullies at bay. But soon enough, she packs up empty mason […]
As longtime Corriere della Sera editor Mian writes, the 2,000-mile-long Volga river has long played a central role in Russians’ sense of national identity past. It does so today in Vladimir Putin’s world, where Russkiy mir is “not a philosophy, but a creed encompassing everything pertaining to Great Russia, where Orthodox Christianity, Fascist impulses, traditionalism, […]
After the tragic deaths of her parents, Emmeline, who’s gifted with the ability to see the future, is separated from her sister and forced into the service of the cruel and abusive Mr. Chitwood. He disguises the 11-year-old girl as a boy and forces her to perform a fortune-telling act for wealthy clients. Its success […]