Published in the U.K. earlier this year, now shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Markovits’ 12th novel establishes the unstudied and confiding voice that carries it so compellingly forward in the first sentence: “When our son was twelve years old, my wife had an affair with a guy called Zach Zirsky, whom she knew from synagogue.” […]
This novel by Colombian writer Restrepo reimagines the biblical love affair through the lens of the queen’s childhood and upbringing, weaving it into the stories of modern exiles in refugee settlements in Yemen. The queen, born as the eldest daughter of the kingdom of Sheba and nicknamed Goat Foot because of her furred body and […]
While the beginning and end of the story remain the same, with quotes from Genesis—Noah builds the ark for two of every animal; dry land and a rainbow appear—this book focuses on the middle and the various cohabitating animals. Gott divides them into groups: nocturnal animals like koalas, bats, and owls; a variety of cats, […]
Festooned with daisies, an orange-and-yellow-striped bus with bee wings attached to its top and a license plate that reads “HOP2IT” pulls up to the corner on a rainy spring day. Who is the driver? A dapper bunny, of course. Mills’ text breaks into a familiar tune: “One hoppity bus goes SPLISH and SPLASH, / SPLISH […]
Lamb, an Earth scientist and author of Devil in the Mountain: A Search for the Origin of the Andes, writes that Earth’s surface is a mosaic of restless plates that go their separate ways, sometimes bumping together as one plate sinks beneath another, sometimes moving apart and opening up a new ocean. That’s the surface. […]
Ziva is a Maine coon cat who lives with the Freedmans. It’s unclear what happened before she arrived there, because although she’s sweet and calm with them, she finds strangers upsetting: “Ziva would leap like lightning. Claws out. Eyes blazing. Like she was guarding something only she could see.” One day, Elsie arrives to stay […]
Gilbert, a bald, mint-green goblin, is far too busy for Valentine’s Day. From bird-watching to goat yoga, his schedule is full. Besides, “Valentine’s Day is all about love and flowers and all that other mushy malarkey”—Gilbert doesn’t need it! He isn’t interested in those heart-shaped boxes of candy with their gross coconut surprises, and he’s […]
England, 1349. Sir Hugh de Grey, known as the Pale Knight, has just arrived home from his battles in France. He left behind a continent ravaged not only by war, but by plague, and he’s disheartened to find that the deadly pestilence has reached England ahead of his ship. At his estate, he finds his […]
Hyman Tuchverderber was born to a Jewish family in Manchester, England. He was just 13 when Germany’s invasion of Poland incited World War II. He and his family survived the devastating 1940 Manchester bombings, which left the Tuchverderbers, like many others, financially strapped. Sixteen-year-old Hyman studied to be a wireless operator in the British Merchant […]
Although she’s dreamed of getting her pilot’s license for years, Beth has been too busy waitressing in a diner outside Arlington so she can pay for her mom’s medical bills and the mortgage on their fixer-upper house. When her beloved, wealthy brother arranges for his friend George Bunsen to give Beth a flight in his […]