Jane Hirshfield recommends The Opposite of Clairvoyance, poems by Gillian Wegener: “This is a first collection of uncommonly sure-handed grace. These poems, many set in California’s Central Valley, mix the recognizable with the revelatory in a way quietly but entirely Wegener’s own. They see exactly what was there to be seen, but wasn’t, and then…
James Alan McPherson recommends The Interloper, a novel by Antoine Wilson: "The Interloper is an admirable exploration of the complex emotional bond that develops between an imprisoned man and another male, bent on vengeance, who employs the affectations of a female. The exploration of this developing bond will enlighten the novel’s readers. Antoine Wilson, a…
Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, a novel: In his first book for young adults, Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist who leaves his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation for an all-white high school. This heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written tale received the 2007 National Book Award…
David St. John recommends Litanies Near Water, poems by Paula Clausson Buck: “Paula Clausson Buck’s latest collection is a stunning and quietly elegant series of meditations upon the power of human endurance and the grace of the imagination. Sometimes these lyrics feel prayer-like in their simplicity, and timeless in their daily revelations.” (LSU)
Gerald Stern recommends My Body, new and selected poems by Joan Larkin: "Over the decades of writing, Joan Larkin has proved her mastery, whether the poem is mythic, elegiac, or biographical. Her honesty is overwhelming, but it is coupled with poetic cunning, gorgeous language, and a rhythm and tone so precise and appropriate that it…
Andrea Barrett, The Air We Breathe, a novel: Barrett’s exquisite, much-anticipated new novel unfolds in the fall of 1916, when America was debating whether to enter the European war, and focuses on a group of tuberculosis patients in an isolated Adirondacks sanatorium. (Norton)
Charles Baxter, The Soul Thief, a novel: A graduate student is drawn into a tangle of relationships that cause him to question his own identity, in Baxter’s compelling new novel. (Pantheon)
Sherman Alexie, Flight, a novel: A troubled teenager is shot back in time, resurfacing as an FBI agent during the civil rights era and an Indian child during the battle of Little Big Horn. Alexie’s first novel in ten years is an irrepressible, groundbreaking romp. (Grove)
Amy Bloom, Away, a novel: Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic story of young Lillian Leyb, who comes to American alone after her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom. (Random House)
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