A shoebox full of the mementos of a Parisian woman Sparked Elena Mauli Shapiro’s debut novel, 13, rue Thérèse. The objects fall into the hands of a fictional researcher, and through the sifting of photographs, letters and souvenirs a life emerges. Steven Wingate and Shapiro discuss research, happy accidents, and the power of what we save.
A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism is not your grandfather’s expat novel. In this smart debut, Peter Mountford rolls up his sleeves and delivers a crash course in Latin American history, contemporary economics, and international politics—all within a page-turning story about the dreams and gaffes of a twenty-something American working for an unscrupulous hedge fund in Bolivia.
This week’s featured title is Alexi Zetner’s debut novel Touch. Alexi Zentner was born and raised in Kitchener, Ontario, and currently lives in Ithaca, New York. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in such places as The Atlantic Monthly, Narrative Magazine, Tin House, Glimmer Train, The Walrus, Slice Magazine, and Orion Magazine, and other publications. His short story “Touch” was featured in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2008 where it was chosen as a jury favorite. His short story “Trapline” was awarded the 2008 Narrative Prize and named to the Best American Short Stories 2009 list of “100 Other […]
Alexi Zentner’s debut, Touch, began as a short story and grew to a mythical realist novel that delivers monsters, secret family histories and three generations of the Boucher family – all nestled in Sawgamet, a northwoods logging town. Casey Tolfree unpacks the book’s elegant mingling of past and present, reality and myth, and loss that gives the living strength.
The skill of disclosure is often at the heart of good fiction; never more so than in The Art of Losing, by Rebecca Connell, just out from Europa Editions. Contributor Sarah Van Arsdale explicates what makes this book work so well by looking at it alongside The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins.
Last week we featured Deanna Fei’s debut novel A Thread of Sky as our Book-of-the-Week title, and we’re pleased to announce the winners: Ellen Baker, Seher Yildiz, and Marlene Rotter. Congratulations! To claim your signed copy of this novel, please email us at the following address: winners@fictionwritersreview.com To anyone who’d like to be eligible for our future drawings, visit our Facebook Page and “like” us. No catch, no gimmicks–just a great way to promote books we love. To everyone who’s already a fan, big thanks!
This week’s featured title is Deanna Fei’s debut novel A Thread of Sky. Fei was born in Flushing, New York, and has lived in Beijing and Shanghai. She received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 2003. The following academic year she spent in China on a Fulbright grant, conducting research for what would eventually become this novel. Published last year by Penguin, A Thread of Sky was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and an Indie Next Notable Book. It has just been released in paperback. In the introduction to her recent interview with the author, Kate Levin […]
Reading Deanna Fei’s debut novel, A Thread of Sky, rescued Kate Levin from a giant post-MFA funk. In this conversation with Levin, Fei discusses the role cultural identity plays in a writer’s persona and work, the value of unknowability, the secret to writing great sex scenes, the reason she watches Jersey Shore—and more.
Last week we featured Carin Clevidence’s debut novel The House on Salt Hay Road as our Book-of-the-Week title, and we’re pleased to announce the winners: Stephen Long, Linda White, and Alexandra Timm. Congratulations! To claim your signed copy of this novel, please email us at the following address: winners@fictionwritersreview.com To anyone who’d like to be eligible for our future drawings, visit our Facebook Page and “like” us. No catch, no gimmicks–just a great way to promote books we love. To everyone who’s already a fan, big thanks!
In this conversation with FWR’s Laura Valeri, Susanna Daniel discusses her debut novel, the fictional memoir Stiltsville, and shares her insights on the process of writing, the power of quiet stories—which she terms eminently readable—and the perseverance and faith that writers must nurture for their own work.
