Editor's Corner

Kevin Young, For the Confederate Dead, poems: A passionate pilgrimage embracing the contradictions of our “Confederate” legacy and the troubled nation where it still lingers. (Knopf)

Russell Banks, The Reserve, a novel: Part love story, part murder mystery, and set on the cusp of the Second World War, this deeply engaging new novel raises dangerous questions about class, politics, art, love, and madness. (Harper)

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)

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)

Ron Carlson, Five Skies, a novel: In Carlson’s first novel in thirty years, three men gather high in the Rocky Mountains for a construction project and end up revealing themselves in cautiously resonant, profound ways. A voice of striking intimacy and grace. (Viking)

Frank Bidart, Watching the Spring Festival, poems: In these darkly radiant poems, mortality forces the self to question the relation between the life actually lived and what was once the promise of transformation. (FSG)

Richard Ford, The Lay of the Land, a novel: In this triumphant follow-up to Independence Day, Frank Bascombe returns, acutely in thrall, as always, to life’s endless complexities. (Knopf)

Mary Gordon, The Stories of Mary Gordon, stories: These forty-one pieces, half of which are new or have never been collected, masterfully capture the nuances of modern life. (Pantheon)

Marilyn Hacker, Essays on Departure, poems: This book gathers twenty-five years of elegant, delectable work from eight books, as well as translations and new poems. (Carcanet)