The Hijacking of Jesus by Dan Wakefield
Dan Wakefield, The Hijacking of Jesus, nonfiction: With courage, passion, and outrage, Wakefield asks how and why the Christian faith has been appropriated and manipulated by current politics. (Nation)
Review
Warhorses by Yusef Komunyakaa
Yusef Komunyakaa, Warhorses, poems: This powerful new collection delves into an age of war and conflict, both global and internal, racial and sexual. (FSG)
Sea Change by Jorie Graham
Jorie Graham, Sea Change, poems: Bringing readers to the threshold at which civilization becomes unsustainable, Graham questions how the human spirit might persist in a world where the future is no longer assured. (Ecco)
rev. of leadbelly by Tyehimba Jess
leadbelly, poems by Tyehimba Jess (Verse): Tyehimba Jess, like the subject of his National Poetry Series–winning debut, coaxes an astonishingly rich world from the wood and steel scraps of the life he finds before him. He chronicles the story of Leadbelly—the killer, the lover, the victim, the son, the greatest bluesman of his time—and…
rev. of Water: Nine Stories by Alyce Miller
Water: Nine Stories, stories by Alyce Miller (Sarabande): By its title, Miller’s collection offers a fitting symbol for the multiple forms of desire that take shape within her characters. Filled with beautiful phrasings and descriptions of longing, the book sometimes shows desire’s fluidity as a result of age; other times, as in the story "Ice,"…
Nothing Right by Antonya Nelson
Antonya Nelson, Nothing Right, stories: Set in the American southwest, the stories of Nothing Right explore domesticity with characters who try to keep themselves intact while their personal lives explode around them. (Bloomsbury)
Special Orders by Edward Hirsch
Edward Hirsch, Special Orders, poems: With a mixture of grief and joy, Hirsch assesses “the major triumphs, the major failures” of his life so far, revealing a new fearlessness in confronting his own internal divisions. (Knopf)
rev. of Abide with Me by Elizabeth Strout
Abide with Me, a novel by Elizabeth Strout (Random House): This second novel by the author of the extraordinary Amy and Isabelle further mines the conflicts, contradictions, and complications of small town life. Tyler Caskey, an observant and vulnerable minister in West Annett, Maine, must concomitantly confront the death of his relatively young wife, the…
rev. of Above the Houses by Susan Engberg
Above the Houses, short stories by Susan Engberg (Delphinium): In her fourth collection of stories, Susan Engberg explores the tentative, testing movements of people recently unmoored by change. Spouses die; marriages end or begin; there are new towns, new houses, new bodies to navigate. The landscape can feel hostile. A baby wanders alone down a…