The cover of “Lilac Girls” (2017), showing three young women dressed in mid-20th century style, suggests they are chatting as they stroll about … but what is the topic of their conversation? Romance? Adventure? Where to have tea? Readers do…
Florence Gordon, the character, might be one of your least favorite protagonists ever. She’s a grouchy, self-involved, rude, know-it-all. But “Florence Gordon,” the book, might well become one of your favorites anyway, as it has for me. It has introduced…
With the publication of her newest memoir, “Leaving Before the Rains Come” (2015), Alexandra Fuller again gives readers a captivating story featuring Africa as the central character. Her readers understand when she says that Africa is the essential relationship of…
Nora Webster is not your typical heroine. The protagonist of Colm Toibin’s eighth novel is a newly widowed 44-year-old in southeastern Ireland who finds herself stripped bare of the satisfying life she’s been living when her husband dies after a…
As a newly announced finalist for the National Book Award, “All the Light We Cannot See” delivers the best you could ask for in historical fiction — the atmospherics are sharply described allowing readers to feel in the moment, and…
A friend of mine who had read Christina Baker Kline’s bestselling novel, “Orphan Train,” asked me, “That didn’t really happen, did it?” She was appalled to hear that, yes, a social service program that sent orphans from the streets of…
Curtis Sittenfeld came into the spotlight with her 2005 novel “Prep” and 2008 bestseller, “American Wife,” loosely based on first lady Laura Bush. (Although it’s a positive portrayal of the main character, Mrs. Bush insists she’s never read it.) Sittenfeld’s…
Sue Monk Kidd took readers back to South Carolina in the middle of the twentieth century in her hugely successful book, “The Secret Life of Bees.” In her newest novel, “The Invention of Wings” (2014), she once again returns to…
You might know Russell Banks from his books that were made into movies — “Affliction”(1989) and “The Sweet Hereafter” (1991) — or you might be familiar with his award-winning novel “Continental Drift”(1985). I’d like to introduce you to the new Banks…
When you pick up British writer Kate Atkinson’s popular 2013 novel “Life After Life,” you have to be willing to enter a new world of storytelling. As Atkinson casually says in interviews, it has a “high-concept” structure. One look at…
