Lily Meyer
-
Nicole Krauss and Zeruya Shalev are friends — and authors whose work is deeply bound up in their Jewish and Israeli identities. But both struggle with the pressure to represent those identities.
-
The characters in Nona Fernández' new book are coming of age during Chile's brutal military dictatorship — and for them, video games are a useful framework for understanding the dangers all around.
-
The stand-up comic's essays have soft and lovely moments, steering readers toward finding their own vulnerabilities. But Slate is not as open to self-exposure on the page as she is on the stage.
-
Nell Zink is a very funny writer, but the comedy never quite works in her new novel, which follows two aging punks and their daughter, from the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the '80s to D.C. today.
-
Fashion journalist Dana Thomas' book is a snappy, clear-minded attack on the fashion industry's rampant labor and environmental abuses — and also offers a path forward for consumers and the world.
-
Tash Aw's beautifully written new novel focuses on class issues in contemporary Malaysia, where his compelling protagonist is struggling to lead a quiet life after a long-ago murder conviction.
-
CJ Hauser's new novel centers on two estranged siblings trying to unravel their late father's work with a group of fringe biologists who believe evolution is running backward, away from millenials.
-
Former CNN journalist Isha Sesay argues that the Nigerian government, the media and the public have failed the 276 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by the terrorist group five years ago.
-
Bruce Holsinger's new novel — about overprivileged parents cheating to get their kids into a magnet school — is very topical, but the characters are too flat to hook readers' attention for long.
-
Taffy Brodesser-Akner's debut novel seems like a Portnoy-esque tale of a lovable lout, but halfway through, the story shakes itself up and reorients itself in a completely different direction.