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A Trokosi Mirror of the US-Mexican Border: On Bernice L. McFadden’s “Praise Song for the Butterflies”
Bernice L. McFadden's "Praise Song for the Butterflies" is short and spare, but its portrait of a child abandoned will haunt readers.
Around the World
"For a long time now I haven't been I."
— Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
The Turk and the Diplomat: An Introduction to Ivo Andrić’s “Omer Pasha Latas”
LARB presents William T. Vollmann’s introduction to Ivo Andrić’s “Omer Pasha Latas: Marshal to the Sultan,” published by NYRB Classics this month.
Hungry Hearts: The Digestive Tract Trilogy of Hamsun’s “Hunger,” Kafka’s “A Hunger Artist,” and Sartre’s “Nausea”
Hamsun’s "Hunger," Kafka’s “A Hunger Artist,” and Sartre’s "Nausea" are timeless works from a past that must be reckoned with. But what do they say today?
His Own “Final Thing”: On Varlam Shalamov’s “Kolyma Stories”
Patrick Kurp on the artfully rendered accounts of suffering in “Kolyma Stories” by Varlam Shalamov, translated by Donald Rayfield.
The Torturer
Today’s election in Brazil will almost certainly elevate a crude Trumpian nationalist.
Tade Thompson’s “Rosewater” — An Alien Invasion That “Grows On You”
Tade Thompson’s “Rosewater” is a hard-boiled alien invasion novel that investigates the perils and opportunities of inescapable networked connection.
Content in Plato’s Cave: Ersi Sotiropoulos’s “What’s Left of the Night”
In "What’s Left of the Night," Ersi Sotiropoulos excavates the origin of this irony in the early years of C. P. Cavafy’s poetic awakening.
Alexander Kluge in Context
The value of "Toward Fewer Images" is its ability to unravel and disclose the conceptual richness of Alexander Kluge’s oeuvre.
Politics of Hate
Samuel Huneke reviews Dan Healey’s “Russian Homophobia from Stalin to Sochi,” a look at the development of homophobia as a political strategy in Russia.
Art and Enchantment in Haruki Murakami’s “Killing Commendatore”
For Randy Rosenthal, reading Haruki Murakami’s “Killing Commendatore” is like exploring underground caverns “enormous and deep and lovely.”
Into Freedom
Manhood cannot be found on mountain summits, just a good view and a good story.
Meaning to Chaos
On “The Cold Summer” by Gianrico Carofiglio.
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