Before Shin Dong-hyuk, no one born in a North Korean political prison camp had ever escaped. As far as can be determined, Shin is still the only one to do so. He was 23 years old, knew no one, and had never before seen the outside world. Author Blaine Harden’s homepage features a quote from Canada’s National [...]
from graphic novel guest blogger Francisca Goldsmith: The character allotted the leading role in Rachel Hope Allison’s nearly wordless comic is the world’s largest garbage pile, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. She descends neither into kitsch nor sermon while turning this gelatinous mass into an expressive, and rather cheerful, being, alienated from all but visiting [...]
Sherri Wood Emmons‘s new trade paperback original is a beautiful package, with a bright, eye-catching cover and heavy, deckle-edged pages. Emmons’s first novel, Prayers and Lies (Kensington, 2011), was also a coming-of-age, family story, set in rural West Virginia. The Sometimes Daughter could be considered historical fiction; the time period is such an important part of [...]
Catherine Chung’s widely acclaimed debut novel is about Janie’s search for her sister after she disappears. Janie’s family has lost a daughter in every generation, the aspect of the story emphasized in its haunting book trailer. The author weaves Korean history, including the war, into her family narrative. Chung was named a Granta New Voice [...]
Kathryn Harrison‘s latest novel centers on Rasputin’s daughter, Matryona Grigorievna Rasputina. After Rasputin’s death, his 18-year-old daughter, Masha, is sent to live at the imperial palace with Tsar Nikolay and his family. When the royal family is placed under house arrest, Masha begins telling stories (both true and imagined) to distract young Aloysha, a hemophiliac, from his [...]
from graphic novel guest blogger Francisca Goldsmith: Hermann, a Belgian born nearly 30 years after his countryman Hergé, presents a grim but realistic view of today’s African wilderness. Where Tintin could escape scary situations through the kindness of being placed within stories for children, Hermann is writing for a hardier audience. His protagonist in this [...]
The publication of a new novel by Anne Rice is always an event, and especially when she begins a new series. The Wolf Gift is a werewolf novel that displays her unique combination of philosophy, sensuality and gothic horror. I was thrilled to interview Anne Rice for the AB4T blog, and Random House is also [...]
In Stephen Dau’s first novel, a 15-year-old boy is rescued by an American soldier in an unidentified Muslim country and brought to the Pittsburgh area as a war refugee. Dau was one of the four featured writers in a debut authors panel at PLA last week. Moderator Barbara Hoffert called his novel “brave, heartrending, and [...]
The fifth installment in Lisa Lutz’s Spellman series has arrived. We reviewed the fourth back in 2010. Makes me laugh to reread my post that day — the movie version never happened, obviously. Ironic since The Spellman Files began life as a screenplay. I was on the Alex Awards the year The Spellman Files made the list, [...]
It’s Wednesday again already, and you know what that means! Here is graphic novel guest blogger Francisca Goldsmith with another gem: The Biblical story of David and Goliath rings familiar to many, at least as metaphor giving birth to aspects of contemporary life. Even as the Occupy Movement has inculcated in many media—and Main Street—messages [...]
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