For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] “Checking out Historical Chicago” is a new feature series devoted to the work of historical worldbuilding. The world each featured writer builds is Chicago. And yet, each writer brings Chicago to life differently, with different hammers and bricks, brushes and hands. This series approaches Chicago as a city constantly under construction: a story that … Read more
[ad_1] In 1907, an unrelenting rainstorm hit the fictional town of Hosh Hanna, triggering a massive flood that swept through its streets. The flood took everything with it: houses collapsed, livestock died, and all but two people, who desperately clung to a walnut tree, drowned. The story of the flood that swallows this small Syrian … Read more
[ad_1] Even the terminal dryness of bone hides inside our skin plainly, like dust on a mirror. This can guide us forward or not guide us at all. — Kaveh Akbar, “Portrait of the Alcoholic Three Weeks Sober” In 2017, I started taking notes for a novel I longed to write about a father and … Read more
[ad_1] In July, horror fans are spoiled for choice with the publication of a relative newcomer’s homage to classic horror as well as a new offering from a veteran of the genre. Josh Winning’s Burn the Negative is clearly the work of a horror film enthusiast, with references and tropes a-plenty for slasher buffs to … Read more
[ad_1] It’s fitting that the narrator of Ruth Madievsky’s debut novel, All-Night Pharmacy, is never given a name. Despite the first-person participant point of view, she seems to have sprung fully formed from the functions of those around her, namely her sister, Debbie. Her own traits, her own personhood, are obliterated when Debbie is around. … Read more
[ad_1] On the cover of Ripe, glistening red seeds cling to thin lines of white flesh—pomegranate innards. It is the perfect image for this book: close-up, torn open, almost bloody, almost biblical, impossible to ignore. Inside this cover, a deadly pandemic is creeping across the globe, rents are rising to untenable levels, and men are … Read more
[ad_1] In his debut story collection, The Best Possible Experience, Nishanth Injam creates characters in tight, liminal spaces, between homes and countries, and in transitional phases of life. From a young girl waiting for a gaggle of boys, to a man on a city bus, to a granddaughter and grandfather reflecting on their changing relationship, … Read more
[ad_1] Pride Month has come to an end, but the fight for trans liberation extends beyond June. Whether you are trans, questioning, or an ally, these ten poetry collections from the last decade are must-reads. In addition to celebrating and exploring trans identity, these poems are crafted with care. Each poet inspires me to keep … Read more
[ad_1] Every month there seems to be another book steeped in the pandemic’s effect. All that time in lockdown must have gone to good use writing pandemic novels and now they’re all getting published, or at least ending up on my desk to review. Caitlin Shetterly’s debut novel, Pete and Alice in Maine, confronts the … Read more
[ad_1] Halfway through Owner of a Lonely Heart, Beth Nguyen writes: “What would it take to make someone, to make you, to make me—leave everything known? The history of my family is also the history of multiple wars, of colonization, of imperialism, of loss and diaspora.” This line characterizes Nguyen’s full body of work, which … Read more