Author: steven_himmer

Fellow Mortals

Fellow Mortals

Fellow Mortals Dennis Mahoney Farrar, Straus and Giroux, February 2013 288 pages $15.00 In the wild, there are plants whose seeds lay dormant for long stretches of time, passive and unchanging, until scarified by a fire hot enough to breach their outer layers—and to ravage the landscape around them—so growth can begin. It’s a fascinating…

cover of "care of wooden floors" by Will Wiles

Care of Wooden Floors

Care of Wooden Floors Will Wiles New Harvest, October 2012 304 pages $24.00 In Will Wiles’ debut novel Care Of Wooden Floors, an unnamed narrator is invited to mind an empty apartment in an unspecified Eastern European city. Upon his arrival the narrator discovers that his friend, Oskar, infamous at university for tidiness and insistence…

Cover art for Glaciers by Alexis Smith

Glaciers

Glaciers Alexis M. Smith Tin House Books, January 2012 112 pages $10.25 Isabel, the protagonist in Alexis M. Smith’s new novel Glaciers, was only a month old when her family departed Seattle by ferry, returning to their roots in Alaska. She can’t recall the trip, but as an adult envisions that, “Like other great creatures…