Editor's Corner

Sonata Mulattica by Rita Dove

  Rita Dove, Sonata Mulattica, poems: In this book-length lyric narrative inspired by history, Dove recreates the life of a nineteenth-century virtuoso violinist, the son of a white woman and an "African prince," whose conflict with Ludwig van Beethoven over a woman evolves a grandiose yet melancholy poetic tale. (Norton)

1940 by Jay Neugeboren

Jay Neugeboren, 1940, a novel: Neugeboren’s first novel in twenty years presents a fictional account of an obscure historical figure, Dr. Eduard Bloch, an Austrian doctor who achieved notoriety for being Adolf Hitler’s childhood physician. (Two Dollar Radio)