Friends, we hope you’re having a good November! Our critics have been busy with reviews of books by authors including Olga Tokarczuk, Ajibola Tolase, Charles Baxter, Edmund White, Bruna Dantas Lobato, Max Boot, and more, and interviews with writers Edwidge Danticat, Joshua Mohr, Brody Mullins, and Adam Haslett. As always, thanks for reading!
Member Reviews/Essays
Susan Bernofsky reviewed Olga Tokarczuk’s new novel, The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, for BookForum.
Adedayo Agarau reviewed Ajibola Tolase’s 2000 Blacks for the Los Angeles Review of Books, Madeleine Craven’s Pleasure Principle for The Adroit Journal, and Andy Young’s Museum for the Soon to Depart for the New Orleans Review.
NBCC Vice President/Membership and Technology Rebecca Hussey reviewed Suzumi Suzuki’s novella Gifted, translated by Allison Markin Powell, for Words Without Borders.
Robert Rubsam reviewed Jean-Baptiste Del Amo’s The Son of Man, translated by Frank Wynne, for Commonweal.
Julia Flynn Siler reviewed Into Unknown Skies by David K. Randall for The Wall Street Journal. National Geographic also published her personal essay about the health benefits of darkness.
NBCC lifetime member Fran Hawthorne reviewed Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger for the New York Journal of Books.
NBCC Vice President/Barrios Book in Translation Prize Mandana Chaffa wrote an essay on the 20th-anniversary reissue of Claudia Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely for The Brooklyn Rail.
Olga Zilberbourg reviewed 18 Stories: Jewish Stories Translated from 18 Languages, edited by Nora Gold, for The Montréal Review.
Linda Hitchcock reviewed Paul Sexton’s Charlie’s Good Tonight for BookTrib.
Sebastian Stockman reviewed Charles Baxter’s Blood Test for The Boston Globe.
In need of perspective? At The Baltimore Sun, Patricia Schultheis suggests you go see a sloth.
Frank Freeman reviewed Paul Maher Jr.’s Becoming Kerouac: A Writer in His Time for the Maine Sunday Telegram.
Former NBCC board member and Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing recipient Steven G. Kellman reviewed Ezra Glinter’s Menachem Mendel Schneerson: Becoming the Messiahfor the Forward.
Charles Green reviewed Edmund White’s The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir for the Washington Blade, as well as Khaled Alesmael’s Selamlik, Omar Youssef Souleimane’s The Last Syrian, and Danny Ramadan’s Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir for The Gay & Lesbian Review.
George De Stefano reviewed Mariana Enriquez’s A Sunny Place for Shady People for the New York Journal of Books.
Diane Scharper reviewed Charles King’s Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel’s Messiah for the Washington Examiner.
Tony Miksanek reviewed Masterclass in Medicine, edited by Marcy Bolster, Jason Leibowitz, and Philip Seo, for the Journal of Medical Humanities.
Michael Quinn reviewed Gil Cuadros’ posthumous collection of stories and poems, My Body Is Paper, for The Gay & Lesbian Review.
George Yatchisin reviewed Scott Guild’s Plastic for the California Review of Books.
Melissa Holbrook Pierson reviewed Yoke & Feather by Jessie Van Eerden for The Brooklyn Rail.
For The Tangential, Jay Gabler reviewed Max Boot’s new biography, Reagan.
Clea Simon reviewed Sy Montgomery’s What the Chicken Knows for The Boston Globe.
Kai Maristed reviewed Bruna Dantas Lobato’s Blue Light Hoursfor The Arts Fuse.
Samantha Neugebauer reviewed Chris Eagle’s Dwell Here and Prosper for Philadelphia Stories.
Member Interviews
Grant Faulkner interviewed Edwidge Danticat about her new book, We’re Alone, on the Write-minded podcast.
For her Literary Hub conversation series, NBCC Co-Vice President/Events Jane Ciabattari spoke with Joshua Mohr, author of Saint the Terrifying, about writing a genre-blending postmodern punk-rock saga.
Adam M. Lowenstein spoke with Brody Mullins, author of The Wolves of K Street: The Secret History of How Big Money Took Over Big Government, for his newsletter, Reframe Your Inbox.
Elaine Szewczyk profiled Adam Haslett for Publishers Weekly.
Member News
Parul Kapur’s short story “Collaboration,” about an American tech entrepreneur and his hopeful partner in New Delhi, both struggling to put their pasts behind them, was recently published in swamp pink.
“An aisle in the card catalog, Library of Congress” by Matthew and Heather is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.