Book Reviews

Chaya Bhuvaneswar's new collection can be a hard read at times — she doesn't shy away from the difficulties of the immigrant experience in America. But these stories also offer a core of hope.

Part two of Gengoroh Tagame's heartfelt manga about a Japanese man coming to terms with his late brother's sexuality depicts an achingly real process of fits and starts, advancements and reversals.

In new books, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Joseph J. Ellis — also Jon Meacham, whose tome hit shelves in May — aim to contextualize or contrast the Trump era with the leadership of previous presidents.

Claire Fuller's finely crafted psychological thriller follows a seemingly mousy, buttoned-up woman who becomes embroiled in a strange, voyeuristic triangle over the course of a country house summer.

"This year, instead of just celebrating the best American literature, we're celebrating the best literature in America," said Lisa Lucas, executive director of the National Book Foundation.

Writing about topics as diverse as race, sexual assault, Hurricane Harvey, and art history, Lacy M. Johnson's essays are together a philosophy in disguise — equal parts memoir, criticism, and ethics.

Anna-Marie McLemore braids old bits of myth about swans and cursed sisters into a new, more inward-looking story that lets readers see just how hard it is to be a character in a fairy tale.

In his new book, Michael Beschloss focuses on the lead up to war. But a more pressing danger and indictment of presidential power may be the interventions not authorized by Congress.

Kenji Miyazawa is a beloved author in Japan; this book — a reissue of a 1993 story collection — balances chaos and kindness, natural and supernatural to build a world in which anything might happen.

Argentine writer María Sonia Cristoff wants to be honest: She won't shape her subjects' narratives or take control another person's story. This is both the book's great strength and great weakness.