Fiction

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

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  A Wacky Road to Redemption: On Francine Prose’s “The Vixen”

  This fictional evocation of the 1950s Red Scare is warm, angry, and laugh-aloud funny.

  Joy HorowitzAug 10, 2021

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  Interminable Hurt: On Saïd Sayrafiezadeh’s “American Estrangement”

  Saïd Sayrafiezadeh’s new story collection mines the troubled psyches of alienated loners.

  Elaine MargolinAug 10, 2021

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  Work in the Age of Amazon: Heike Geissler’s “Seasonal Associate” and Other Low-Paid Toilers

  Recent events in the American labor movement make Geissler’s 2014 book newly relevant.

  Hans J. RindisbacherAug 7, 2021

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  Transforming the Narrative: A Conversation with Andrea Clark Libin

  The author discusses her 2020 collage novel, “Orphan of the Moon: Notebook of a Girl in a Moscow Station.”

  Trish CrapoAug 7, 2021

  • Fiction

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  Conditions of Creativity: Rebecca Handler and Vendela Vida in Conversation

  The two novelists discuss their working methods, the power of setting in fiction, and the need to find space to write.

  Rebecca Handler, Vendela VidaAug 6, 2021

  • Fiction

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  Love and Revolution: On Sonallah Ibrahim’s “Warda”

  Informed by extensive historical research, this complicated political tale is told as a personal quest.

  Gretchen McCulloughAug 5, 2021

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  Be Woke, But Keep Some of That Sleep in Your Eyes: A Conversation with Zakiya Dalila Harris

  Zakiya Dalila Harris talks about her debut novel, “The Other Black Girl,” set in the very white publishing world.

  Rachel BarenbaumAug 4, 2021

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  Not Your Grandfather’s Hollywood Novel

  “Chinatown” meets “Barton Fink” in this brilliant dark fantasy about Hollywood — and the deserts that surround it.

  Matthew SpecktorAug 3, 2021

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  Have You Left Society Yet?

  A conversation with writer Tao Lin.

  Scott BurtonAug 3, 2021

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  A Slantwise Approach: A Conversation with Martha Cooley

  Dinah Lenney talks with Martha Cooley about her new novel, “Buy Me Love,” released by Red Hen Press.

  Dinah LenneyAug 1, 2021

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  The Need to Talk: On Marguerite Duras’s “The Darkroom”

  “The Darkroom” is a critique of aesthetics and politics, and a meditation on the end of the world.

  David StrombergJul 30, 2021

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  I’d Be the Loser and Murdered: On Joshua Cohen’s “The Netanyahus”

  David N. Myers weighs the sins of the real-life family emplotted in “The Netanyahus,” a new comic novel from Joshua Cohen.

  David N. MyersJul 30, 2021

  • Fiction