fiction
The women who would be war heroes
Kristin Hannah’s novel is based on military nurses’ firsthand accounts of their experiences in Vietnam.
A fictional reservation that feels real
Amy Frykholm’s novel creates a fascinating interplay of Native people and settlers whose lives are complicated by intergenerational trauma.
The Obama campaign, fictionalized
Vinson Cunningham’s debut novel focuses on a campaign staffer’s indeterminate views, using them to shed light on the rise of a political star.
Clarissa and her flowers
Reading The Hours in my husband’s hospital room, I was stunned by the novel’s incarnational imagery.
Piercing the veil
Zach Williams’s stories of everyday life are propelled by strange turns of events, like a dad discovering his son’s sixth toe in the bath.
Does Nathan Hill wink at us in Wellness?
Why are non-White characters so absent from this urban/suburban narrative?
Finding ourselves in a Nigerian war novel
Chigozie Obioma offers a narrative that transcends bullets and politics.
A novel about (not) writing an essay
Rosalind Brown’s debut novel could be understood as a midrash on Montaigne’s metaphor of the mind as runaway horse.
A harrowing novel about Christian boarding schools
In Margaret Verble’s Stealing, a Cherokee girl finds what she needs to survive an evil system.
A world with no boundaries
Russian writer Ludmila Ulitskaya’s stories of love and defiance escape the plane of realism.
A novel driven by kindness
There are many reasons to adore James McBride’s latest book.
A glimpse of the world beyond
In his new novella, Jon Fosse allows a luminous narrative to unfold at a dreamlike pace.
An island in the storm
Paul Harding’s evocative novel begins with the 1815 hurricane off the New England coast.
Alice McDermott’s tale of American Catholics in Vietnam
What is the kindest, least condescending help that privileged Christians can offer to the wider world?
The artistic vision of Jesus
Aaron Rosen finds that Jesus looks at the world the way artists see their subjects.
A story of water and faith
Abraham Verghese’s new novel tells an epic tale of a family of Thomas Christians in modern India.
Rose Macaulay was ahead of her time
In Crewe Train, the neglected Anglo-Catholic novelist tells the story of a woman who resolutely does not fit in.
Meet Gil, the protector
The protagonist of Lydia Millet’s new novel is like a mother hen, both to his neighbors and to the birds.
Prayer as mourning, mourning as prayer
In Jon Fosse’s Septology, a tragic vision of faith shines with a luminous darkness.
by Mac Loftin
A complex story of relationships and religion
The protagonist of Alice Elliott Dark’s novel gives readers the flawed heroine they crave.