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 …
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 …
Arriving as the pink clouds replace the stars, the deer enter through openings in the hedges and stone wall: “Nibble and nudge / and startle and dash / away off into the pines.” The text follows similar patterns as other creatures emerge from cracks and crevices to play or eat within the farm’s enclosure. Rabbits …
Scheele, a professor of social anthropology in Paris, points out that ancient Greeks and Romans and medieval Arab conquerors settled the temperate strip along the Mediterranean but considered the vast region to the south a wasteland dotted with savage tribes. European imperialists arrived in the 19th century and, under the mistaken impression that the desert …
In her new work, Crispin’s tools of critique are the erotic thrillers in which Michael Douglas starred in the 1980s and ’90s. The characters he played during this time, the author suggests, all reflect a “new masculinity” trying to find purchase in the wake of not only feminism’s second and third waves, but also shifts …
Many readers will never have heard of Michael Hardwick, but his is a story that all should know. In 1982, an Atlanta police officer intending to serve a warrant on an out gay bartender for drinking in public found the man in flagrante with another man, which “violated Georgia’s centuries-old sodomy law and carried a …
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 …
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 …
Subtlety isn’t the name of the game in Parks-Ramage’s eco-thriller, in which the world is terrorized by climate disaster, totalitarian government, and the surveillance state. The novel begins with gay partners Mason and Yunho preparing for the baby shower of the child they’re having via surrogate, a party overshadowed by a rather prescient fire that …
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 …