Derek Walcott, The Bounty, poems: The 1992 Nobel Prize winner lovingly evokes his native land, the island of St. Lucia, in this luminous new book. Haunting, magnificent, The Bounty gives us Walcott at the top of his form. (Noonday)
Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter, a novel: About one of the most controversial figures in American history, the abolitionist John Brown, Banks’s epic novel is narrated by Brown’s son and comrade, Owen. The novel not only traces Brown’s crusade against slavery, leading to his famous raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859, but also becomes a deeply moving…
Mary Gordon, Spending, a novel: Gordon explores new territory with an indelibly vibrant, witty character, Monica Szabo, a fifty-year-old artist who decides to accept a handsome commodities trader as her patron. He gives her money, sex, and poses as a model. However, when her new series of paintings makes her rich, famous, and controversial, her…
Donald Hall, Without, poems: In his fourteenth collection, Hall writes with grief, grace, and courage about the poet Jane Kenyon, his late wife. The first half sketches her illness and death. The second half is comprised of verse letters he addresses to Kenyon in the ensuing year. This book stands as a poignant and powerful…
Fanny Howe, Nod, a novel, illustrated by Inger Johanne Grytting: Howe’s bravura new book defies category, presenting a fable in prose, verse, and woodcuts. About two Irish-German-American sisters in Dublin just as World War II is about to begin, the story’s subtext is far-reaching and mythic, as eighteen-year-old Irene falls for her mother’s ex-lover, separating…
James Alan McPherson, Crabcakes, a memoir: McPherson’s first new book since his 1978 story collection Elbow Room, which won the Pulitzer Prize, Crabcakes artfully describes his departure from his beloved Baltimore in the late seventies to Iowa City, where he continues to teach. The second half of the book recounts his recent trips to Japan,…
Gary Soto, Junior College, poems: Soto’s new collection is a touching and often hilarious account of his coming of age in Fresno, California, where he was a terrible student, graduating from high school with a D average, then attending Fresno City College with the “easiest of majors,” geography. As always, Soto’s memories of his Chicano…
Maura Stanton, Life Among the Trolls, poems: The cool, elegant surfaces of the narratives and lyrics in Stanton’s third collection conceal fiery depths. She penetrates the disguises which cloak the Iago-like figures-friends, bosses, lovers, colleagues-who manipulate our world, and who would like to remake us in their image. (Carnegie-Mellon)
Gerald Stern, This Time: New and Selected Poems: In his tenth book, Stern collects many poems, from 1972-1995, that are no longer available in other editions. Those favorite works, along with new poems, including affecting elegies to Larry Levis and Allen Ginsberg, prove why Stern is regarded as one of our masters, a modern Walt…
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