Arts

Excerpt: 'Out'

Natsuo Kirino's Out focuses four plucky women who support each other during times of crisis. A formulaic premise? Sure, if these were Manhattanites pining over shoes rather than assembly-line workers dealing with death and dismemberment.

Excerpt: 'The Last Embrace'

The Last Embrace works as literary film noir: There are bombshell babes, unsavory gangsters, and — of course — a grisly murder.