Fiction

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

Books to Hold and Hold On to: Kaouther Adimi’s “Our Riches”
Abby Walthausen appreciates “Our Riches” by Kaouther Adimi, translated from the French by Chris Andrews.
Abby WalthausenApr 29, 2020
- Around the World
- Fiction
The Nose Nose: On Gogol’s “And the Earth Will Sit on the Moon: Essential Stories”
Bob Blaisdell reviews “And the Earth Will Sit on the Moon,” the recently published collection of stories by Nikolai Gogol.
Bob BlaisdellApr 27, 2020
- Around the World
- Fiction
“A Dreadful Plague in London Was”
What Daniel Defoe’s “A Journal of the Plague Year” can teach us about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leo BraudyApr 27, 2020
The Reverberations of Time: A Conversation with Nicole Simek
Nicole Simek discusses the challenges of translating Maryse Condé’s novel “The Belle Créole.”
Jocelyn FrelierApr 25, 2020
- Around the World
- Fiction
The Story Is Her Ancestors: On Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s “That Hair”
Anita Felicelli reviews “That Hair,” the recently released novel from Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida.
Anita FelicelliApr 23, 2020
- Around the World
- Fiction
“Merton of the Movies”; or, Hollywood’s Lucky Number
Charles Musser figures that “Merton of the Movies” by Harry Leon Wilson is “one of the most profound novels ever written about Hollywood.”
Charles MusserApr 22, 2020
- Fiction
Lowering into a Dark Pool: On An Yu’s “Braised Pork”
Piper French enjoys “Braised Pork,” the new novel by An Yu.
Piper FrenchApr 21, 2020
- Around the World
- Fiction
A Genealogy of Style: A Conversation with Douglas Glover
A major Canadian author discusses the aesthetic processes that guided his experimental short fiction.
Victoria BestApr 20, 2020
- Fiction
A Set of Vicious Russian Nesting Dolls: On Varlam Shalamov’s “Sketches of the Criminal World: Further Kolyma Stories”
Patrick Kurp reads and rereads “Sketches of the Criminal World,” the second volume of Varlam Shalamov’s Kolyma stories translated by Donald Rayfield.
Patrick KurpApr 20, 2020
- Around the World
- Fiction
An Ersatz Wonderland: On Stephen Wright’s “Processed Cheese”
Stephen Wright’s new novel is a scathingly funny satire of an ad-saturated, media-distracted, money-dominated society.
Rob LathamApr 14, 2020
- Fiction
The Intimacies of Violence: Sema Kaygusuz’s “Every Fire You Tend”
Helen Mackreath reviews the novel "Every Fire You Tend," written by Sema Kaygusuz and translated by Nicholas Glastonbury.
Helen MackreathApr 10, 2020
- Around the World
- Fiction
The Feminine Ending: On Women’s Writing in Yiddish, Now Available in English
Madeleine Cohen greets new English translations of women authors who wrote in Yiddish.
Madeleine CohenApr 10, 2020