In Wilgus’s vibrant debut, a young widow retreats from early-19th-century London to the Cornish coastal village where she was discovered wandering the shore as a little girl and raised by her adoptive parents. After Isabel’s husband, George, dies at the Battle of Trafalgar, she befriends James, his ... Continue reading »

Mukherjee’s talent for elevating genre tropes suffuses the stellar fifth installment of his 1920s-set Wyndham and Banerjee mystery series (after The Shadows of Men). It’s been three years since British detective Sam Wyndham helped his onetime partner, Indian investigator Surendranath Banerj... Continue reading »

The 12 equal parts chilling and exhilarating stories in Tantlinger’s debut collection deliver dread-filled cosmic horror with a richly gothic flavor. The range is wide: there’s eco-horror explicating the consequences of environmental destruction (“As Humans Burn Beneath Us”), a tale of delightfully ... Continue reading »

Martinez (You and Other Natural Disasters) expertly tugs at the heartstrings with this story of love, loss, and second chances. Maya Rivet was raised by her cruel and ambitious grandmother, Olga, whose obsession with ballet drove Maya’s mother away when Maya was a child and, eventually, pus... Continue reading »

This rousing celebration of Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti (1938–1997)—Afrobeat star, truth-teller, commune leader, and frequent “rascal”—blends brisk biographical storytelling with urgent cultural and political history, gorgeous evocations of the power of music and dance, and bursts of bloody violence both fa... Continue reading »

The wry and sprawling final offering from the late, great Hejinian (Fall Creek) comprises a book-length prose poem in which the speaker moves through the motions and emotions of the “every day,” engaging with a cast of local characters. By doing so, Hejinian and her narrator explore a centr... Continue reading »

In this tour de force from Brotherton (A Bright and Blinding Sun) and Lee (A Single Light), four friends’ lives change irrevocably when America becomes embroiled in WWII. In 1930s Mobile, Ala., preacher’s son Jimmy Propfield shares an idyllic upbringing with childhood sweetheart Cl... Continue reading »

Novelist, essayist, and critic Wideman (Slaveroad) delivers a profound, career-spanning collection of essays on literature, sports, and culture. Early entries consist largely of critical analyses of writings by Charles W. Chesnutt, Richard Wright, and W.E.B. Du Bois, with Wideman declaring ... Continue reading »

Endocrinologist Salas-Whalen offers a compassionate and comprehensive guide to losing weight with GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. She walks readers through the process of evaluating GLP-1 medications (short for glucagon-like peptide-1, a hormone that regulates blood sugar le... Continue reading »

These stimulating essays and interviews from the first 50 years of Sojourners magazine, collected by poetry editor Berger (Who Killed Donte Manning?), seek “sabbath rest, contemplation, solitude, simplicity, and communal resilience” in today’s world. Franciscan priest Richard Rohr ... Continue reading »

In this finely wrought picture book portrait of the artistic process, a canvas of “yu-lu-ma—rain-dew linen” seems destined for young Yulu’s brushes, so her father, a frustrated artist who’s nurtured her talent, buys it for her first self-portrait. But when Yulu wakes up the morning after cr... Continue reading »