The Limits of Language in a Surrealist Age: Sabrina Orah Mark’s “Wild Milk”
Michael Valinsky drinks in Sabrina Orah Mark’s debut story collection “Wild Milk.”...
Remember to Forget: Patrick Modiano’s “Sleep of Memory”
Patrick Modiano's "Sleep of Memory" manages to attach a feeling not just of unease but of genuine terror to the past....
Fraught with Peril: On Lucia Berlin’s “Evening in Paradise” and “Welcome Home”
Ryan Smernoff greets the publication of “Evening in Paradise: More Stories” and “Welcome Home” by Lucia Berlin....
Exerting Control Over Chaos: An Interview With Karen E. Bender
Lily Meyer interviews Karen E. Bender about the uncontained chaos of the modern world, the refractions of Jewish identity, and our era’s lack of empathy....
The Fallibility of Memory: An Interview with Frances de Pontes Peebles
A Brazilian-American novelist on the pleasures of historical research, the beauty of the samba, and honoring Carmen Miranda....
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....
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....
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....
Chosen Family: Stephanie Burt and Chelsey Johnson Discuss “Stray City”
Stephanie Burt interviews Chelsey Johnson about her new novel, “Stray City.”...
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.”...
