Fiction

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

• Grossly Underprepared: Elisa Albert’s Novel of New Motherhood

  Elisa Albert's After Birth takes on female friendship with the same boldness and irreverence with which she dismantles the clichés of motherhood.

  Alexis NelsonFeb 18, 2015

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  Just Not Heterosexual at His Core

  Michael Leone Interviews Robert Plunket, Author of "My Search for Warren Harding"

  Michael LeoneFeb 17, 2015

  • Fiction

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  An Interview with Laura van den Berg on her novel “Find Me”

  "My favorite endings are the ones where the car skids right up to the edge of the cliff and we’re left peering over and wondering what’s down there."

  Kathleen C. StoneFeb 17, 2015

  • Fiction

• A Hundred Thousand Years of Making Love

  "The First Bad Man" not only showcases Miranda July’s essential humanism, it displays a blossoming maturity, accessibility, and philosophical depth.

  Shane Joaquin JimenezFeb 13, 2015

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  Nationality Meets Sexuality Meets Reality

  Israeli-American author Shelly Oria on how her characters transcend the boundaries of culture, sexuality, and reality.

  Alanna SchubachFeb 7, 2015

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  Sweeter for Its Shadows: A Bookish Love Affair from Seth Greenland

  Seth Greenland lets us see his writer/characters in their own rough drafts, endlessly shaping the words of their own consciousness.

  Moira MacdonaldFeb 7, 2015

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  Messing with Maps: Walking David Foster Wallace’s Boston

  Bill Lattanzi explores "Infinite Jest" through the geography of David Foster Wallace's Boston.

  Bill LattanziFeb 6, 2015

  • Fiction

• The New Western, Realism and Redemption

  The novel "transcends its setting and the circumstances of a few people in a small Montana town to say something true … about violence and families …"

  Vicki GundrumFeb 3, 2015

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  “You understand it to the point that it almost tears you to pieces”: Growing Up with Mary Gaitskill

  As a teenager, Victoria Beale was drawn to Mary Gaitskill’s offbeat characters and virtuostic style; now rereading Gaitskill at twenty-five, Beale finds emotional complexity, exquisite precision, and compassion.

  Victoria BealeFeb 3, 2015

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  This Sends Me Googling

  When Megan Mayhew Bergman writes the book she wants to read, it’s a sentence-driven book of stories about unusual women from history.

  Jane GaydukFeb 2, 2015

  • Fiction

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  An Anna Is an Anna Is an Anna

  Translators of Anna Karenina are wonderful — except for their annoying habit of denigrating the work of earlier ones.

  Bob BlaisdellFeb 2, 2015

  • Fiction

• Epic Noir

  Ira Wells on James Ellroy’s "Perfidia"

  Ira WellsJan 26, 2015

  • Fiction

  • Noir