Fiction

"Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't." — Mark Twain

More Than Son of “Jesus’ Son”: On Nico Walker’s “Cherry”
A prison novel written by a convicted bank robber delivers on more than the author’s backstory.
Joe DonnellyOct 8, 2018
- Fiction
Does Capitalism Make Good Compost?: “Familiar Things,” Hwang Sok-yong’s Novel of Waste and Reclamation
A searing meditation on the cult of materialism, "Familiar Things" is a beautiful and almost uplifting parable about recovering things wantonly discarded.
Fionn MallonOct 7, 2018
- Around the World
- Fiction
The Whole Human Tapestry: Sjón’s Sprawling “CoDex 1962” Trilogy
Katharine Coldiron decodes Icelandic author Sjón’s “CoDex 1962,” a “risky, funny, sexy, entirely unique book.”
Katharine ColdironOct 4, 2018
- Around the World
- Fiction
A Jenga Tower: Anna Moschovakis’s “Eleanor, or, The Rejection of the Progress of Love”
"If you read this book, read it three times, each time buying a new copy for the sake of the author." Sakada reviews Anna Moschovakis's new novel.
SakadaSep 28, 2018
- Fiction
Risky Rasskazy: Mikhail Zoshchenko’s Thoroughly Unsentimental “Sentimental Tales”
Bob Blaisdell considers the six longer stories collected in Mikhail Zoshchenko’s “Sentimental Tales,” newly translated by Boris Dralyuk.
Bob BlaisdellSep 27, 2018
- Around the World
- Fiction
Reckoning with Colombia’s Bloody, Conspiratorial History in Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s “The Shape of the Ruins”
Mike Broida finds danger in Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s exploration of the conspiracies that shaped Colombia in his new novel, “The Shape of the Ruins.”
Mike BroidaSep 25, 2018
- Around the World
- Fiction
The Many Lives and Deaths of the Body in Guadalupe Nettel’s “After the Winter”
For Callum Angus, Guadalupe Nettel’s mission in her newly translated novel After the Winter is “deeply personal and recognizably urgent.”
Callum AngusSep 24, 2018
- Around the World
- Fiction
“Good” Refugees, “Bad” Refugees: A Conversation in Paris with Viet Thanh Nguyen
A discussion of a new collection of essays by immigrant writers.
Christine BuckleySep 24, 2018
- Around the World
- Fiction
Our Dead Man in Havana
Matt E. Lewis reviews “The Third Hotel” by Laura van den Berg.
Matt E. LewisSep 23, 2018
- Fiction
- Noir
The Terrifying Truth in Jeffrey Lewis’s Novel on Nuclear War
Melissa Chan considers "The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States."
Melissa ChanSep 23, 2018
- Fiction
Fiction About Fiction
A new novel portrays writerly agony in a haze of indecision and pot smoke.
Antonia HitchensSep 21, 2018
- Fiction
The Storytelling Sorcery of Super Short Fiction in “New Micro”
Lauren Kinney swims through the collection “New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction.”
Lauren KinneySep 21, 2018
- Fiction