Editor's Corner

George Garrett, Double Vision, a novel: As expected from Garrett, this novel is a witty tour de force, marrying fact and fiction about a gifted generation of American writers. (Alabama)  

Gish Jen, The Love Wife, a novel: Jen, in her most exuberant and accomplished book, provides a brilliant portrait of a new "half-half" American family. (Knopf)

Bill Knott, The Unsubscriber, poems: The poems in Knott’s collection, his first in a decade, are surreal yet vernacular, outrageous yet tender—absolutely unique, iconoclastic, and astonishing. (FSG)

Philip Levine, Breath, poems: Levine, in these heady, extraordinary new poems, looks back at his life to unearth rites of passage in an America of victories and betrayals. (Knopf)

Campbell McGrath, Pax Atomica, poems: With singular verve, McGrath continues ever deeper into the jungle of American culture with poems that are musical, comedic, and impassioned. (Ecco)

Robert Pinsky, An Invitation to Poetry, anthology: Pinsky and co-editor Maggie Dietz’s compelling compilation of poems is accompanied by quotations from Favorite Poem Project participants, along with a DVD. (Norton)

Stratis Haviaras, translation of The Canon, poems by C. P. Cavafy: Haviaras’s marvelous new translations of the one hundred fifty-four poems Cavafy published during his lifetime resonate, as Seamus Heaney says in his introduction, with “the abundance and excitement of . . . restoration.” (Hermes)

Christopher Tilghman, Roads of the Heart, a novel: In Tilghman’s generous and powerful novel, a man and his father—a former Maryland senator—journey on the road and discover the resilient truths of their family. (Random)

Alice Hoffman, Blackbird House, stories: Beautiful and haunting, these twelve interconnected narratives span a dozen lives over the course of two hundred years—all inhabitants of a house on a small farm in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, who are transformed by love and passion. (Doubleday)