Plus: a new novel from Gary Shteyngart, a true story of a shipwreck, and a memoir from a wrongly incarcerated inmate who was exonerated after 28 years behind bars.
After long days focused on the facts, our newsroom reads a lot of fiction at home. We asked our NPR colleagues what they've enjoyed reading so far this year. Here's what they told us.
For many working adults, the summer can often feel the same as the rest of the year. So, maybe our idea of a "summer read" should encompass a wider swath of books? Here are a few out this week.
Maria Reva's virtuosic novel starts out as a straightforward story about a Ukrainian biologist, but morphs into a comic take on war, the mail-order bride business and the plight of snails.
The new books publishing this week may get quite heavy, laden as they are with family tragedy, psychopathy and heartbreak — but at least they are fiction.
Sometimes all it takes to make your day a little brighter is to remind yourself just how dark life can get. Here are four dark novels and a true crime tale.
Publishing this week: new fiction from Susan Choi, essays from Evan Osnos and memoir from Molly Jong-Fast. Plus, Melissa Febos reflects on her year of abstinence.
Holly Gibney is back in King's thriller, Never Flinch. The Stalker follows a manipulative man. Happily ever after is evasive in Consider Yourself Kissed. Plus, new work from Tash Aw and Etgar Keret.
This novel stands apart from other tales of mothers stretched too thin. Jessica Stanley weaves family frustrations with British politics and global events because our life and our times are connected.
Paula Bomer's dizzying book is a fascinating look at an absurdly stupid young man in the early 1990s who manages to sustain himself despite having no evidence of a soul.
The major writing prize awards the best fiction translated into English. Judges called Banu Mushtaq's short story collection"something genuinely new for English readers."
New books out this week look at everything from pressing political concerns — Original Sin — to perspective-altering riddles about life itself, like in Is A River Alive? and The Book of Records.
