Of the many pitfalls lurking for the historical novel, the most dangerous is history itself. The best writers either warp it for selfish purposes (Gore Vidal), dig for the untold, interior history (Toni Morrison), or both (Jeannette Winterson)....
Hear the Wind Sing (風の歌を聴け Kaze no uta o kike?) is the first novel by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. It first appeared in the June 1979 issue of Gunzo (one of the most influential literary magazines in Japan), and in book form the next...
An elderly man reads to an elderly woman every day from a yellowed notebook that he carries around with him. He hopes that this notebook, which contains the memories of his love and life, will jog her memory, but it is not to be. Yet, he tries...
“It began as a mistake.” By middle age, Henry Chinaski has lost more than twelve years of his life to the U.S. Postal Service. In a world where his three true, bitter pleasures are women, booze, and racetrack betting, he somehow drags his...
What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?
On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night,...
Gentlemen & Players is a novel by Joanne Harris first published in 2005. A dark psychological thriller, some of the themes may be partly based on Harris’ experiences as a teacher at Leeds Grammar School. Set in the present day during...
Mathea Martinsen has never been good at dealing with other people. After a lifetime, her only real accomplishment is her longevity: everyone she reads about in the obituaries has died younger than she is now. Afraid that her life will be over before...
Message in a Bottle has the earmarks of sentimental tongue-wagging at its finest and should please romantics and cynics alike.
It's sure to bring romantics to their...
Lucy Crown is a novel by Irwin Shaw first published in 1956. It is about a wife and mother — the eponymous character — who, in the summer of 1937, begins an affair with a young man whom the Crowns have hired as a companion for their fragile son...