This is an epic novel to be savored. At nearly 700 pages, this multi-character, multi-stranded story explores exile and displacement — not only from one’s home, but also from one’s own sense of self.
fiction
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New books this week: War, murder, and Lionel Richie
This week’s notable book releases promise a veritable potpourri of death — and a celebration of life from one of America’s most ubiquitous singers.
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The Booker shortlist honors authors ‘in total command’ of their craft
The 2025 Booker shortlist is made up of works by veteran authors, many of whom have several books under their belts — and a couple that have been on this list before.
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New books this week: Tales from Ian McEwan and Patricia Lockwood, and new translations
The truth doesn’t come easy in the latest works of these two household names. Meanwhile, anglophiles now have access to newly translated works by France’s Annie Ernaux and Japanese ex-pat Yoko Tawada.
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New books this week: The case for the Constitution, and a celebration of chosen family
Jill Lepore writes about the strength and stability of America’s founding document — and its capacity for change. And Angela Flournoy tracks the friendship of five young Black women over 20 years.
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4 lives are upended by an impulsive kiss in the epic novel ‘Buckeye’
Patrick Ryan’s novel focuses on two married couples and stretches from pre-WWII to the close of the 20th century, capturing both the sweep of history and the mundane particularity of everyday life.
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Happy 75th birthday to Henry Huggins, Ramona Quimby’s big-kid neighbor
Beverly Cleary’s fictional third grader with an adopted dog named Ribsy made his debut in 1950. Cleary was praised for writing simple, humorous stories that kids wanted to read.
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New books out today: A Dan Brown thriller, John Prine bio, and World Wide Web memoir
New books this week include Secret of Secrets — the sixth installment of The Da Vinci Code saga, plus a tech memoir from Tim Berners-Lee and a career-spanning anthology from Terry McMillan.
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New books this week track John Williams’ life, future pandemics and NASA fiction
This week’s publishing highlights are a bumper crop of biography, science and fiction — including new reads the from authors of The Sweetness of Water, The God of Small Things, and Deadliest Enemy.
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If you loved ‘Yellowface,’ R.F. Kuang’s new novel ‘Katabasis’ is even better
Academia is a very special kind of hell, and Kuang clearly understands it. In her innovative new novel, a magical professor dies in a lab accident and two students descend into hell to find him.
