“What makes Let’s Get Back to the Party so successful ultimately is the way in which it ignores or transcends so many of the issues that normally feel like an obligation when you’re writing stories that involve LGBTQIA+ characters”: Deborah Solo Collins on Zak Salih’s debut novel.
“And a bobcat may somehow be involved. How can we not read on?”: Christina Ward-Niven takes a close look at the control of tension in Rebecca Lee’s “Bobcat.”
In Part III of Sebastian Matthews’s five-part interview with Julianna Baggott (who also writes as Bridget Asher and N.E. Bode), the two discuss the anxiety of influence, voice, and collaboration.
“I knew I wanted the book to have one foot in the past and one in the present. It was the only way to really explore the themes that interested me, namely how much impact does the past have upon our present? “
Lara Zielin calls Sara Farizan’s new novel Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel “more than just a successful young-adult novel. It’s an intersection where a work of art meets a cultural shift at exactly the right moment.”
Lots of novels that call themselves funny turn out to be playful or witty or perhaps casually clever in a quiet way. But Drew Perry’s Kids These Days (Algonquin) is a genuinely funny book. One that will make you guffaw into your gingerbread latte until a stranger at the next table asks, “What’s so funny?” At which point you might—as I did—end up reading pages aloud and making a scene at Starbucks. If you want a novel that serves up its humor in a venti-sized cup, this one’s for you. Part of what’s funny is the premise: Walter and Alice […]
Julie Wu’s debut novel, The Third Son (Algonquin), depicts the struggles of a Taiwanese boy, Saburo Tong, to escape his impoverished, cruel background and to establish a meaningful adult life for himself, a journey that takes him from poverty and oppression in Taiwan to the opportunity and relative freedom of 1950s America.
Our most recent feature was Joanna Luloff’s debut collection The Beach at Galle Road, and we’re pleased to announce the winners: Abraham Hidalgo (@Abraham_Hidalgo) emmjae (@emmjaepenniman) KellyMHart (@KellyMHart) Congrats! To claim your free copy, please email us at the following address: winners [at] fictionwritersreview.com If you’d like to be eligible for future giveaways, please visit our Twitter Page and “follow” us! Thanks to all of you who are fans. We appreciate your support. Let us know your favorite new books out there!
Our new feature is Joanna Luloff’s debut collection, The Beach at Galle Road, which was published this fall by Algonquin Books. Luloff received her MFA from Emerson College and her PhD from the University of Missouri. Prior to graduate school, she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Baddegama, Sri Lanka. Her short stories have appeared in The Missouri Review, Confrontation, Memorious, and New South. She is an Assistant Professor of English at SUNY Potsdam. In Tyler McMahon’s recent review of Luloff’s collection, the stories of which take place in Sri Lanka, he writes: The author lived and worked in […]
Few places are more evocative of mystery and the exotic than Casablanca. And anyone who has ever imagined its fragrances or color will recognize the setting of Laila Lalami’s second novel. But those who imagine Casablanca merely as a city of romance and North African charm may find themselves at a loss to reconcile the spices of their imagination with the brutal realities of poverty and the political and religious corruption Lalami portrays in Secret Son (Algonquin Books, April 2009).
