Maureen Corrigan
You can't 'Trust' this novel. And that's a very good thing
Hernan Diaz’s new novel, Trust, is about the power of money in the stock market, and its potential, as a character says, "to bend and align reality" to its own purposes.
In 'Tasha,' a son tries to make sense of his smart, difficult mother
Novelist Brian Morton's superb short memoir is about his relationship with his smart, difficult and funny mother.
Emily St. John Mandel tackles the big questions in 'Sea of Tranquility'
Mandel's latest work is an ingeniously constructed, deeply absorbing novel that summons up three fully realized worlds in three distinct time periods — including the 25th century.
Brace yourself for 'Young Mungo,' a nuanced heartbreaker of a novel.
Book critic MAUREEN CORRIGAN reviews Young Mungo the new novel by Douglas Stuart, a coming-of-age story about a working class gay young man in Glasgow in the 1990s.
Virginia Hamilton's 'liberation literature' continues to open doors for young readers
Hamilton is the most award-winning YA author in American literary history, with dozens of works of fiction and non-fiction to her credit. Among other prizes, she won a National Book Award and was the first children's writer to win a MacArthur "Genius" Grant.
Still waters run deep in 'The Swimmers,' a brilliant novel about routine and identity
Julie Otsuka's The Swimmers is a slim brilliant novel about the value and beauty of mundane routines that shape our days and identities.
With a nod to 'Lolita,' 'Vladímír' makes a sly statement about sex and power
The guilty pleasures of Vladímír, a virtuoso debut novel by Julia May Jonas, begin with its cover: a close up from the neck down of man's very nice open-shirted chest and hands resting on his clothed crotch.
'Free Love' puts a '60s spin on a Jane Austen-style novel of manners
Maureen Corrigan reviews Free Love, by Tessa Hadley.
'To Paradise' is an inspired and vivid puzzle that doesn't quite come together
Hanya Yanagihara's much anticipated 700-page novel is a deliberately difficult work, made of up dazzling moments that tend lose their luster when pressed together.
'The Latinist' is an academic suspense story, with just a touch of Agatha Christie
Set in the claustrophobic world of academia, Mark Prins' debut novel is saturated with references to Classical mythology and, like the best thrillers, is ingenious in its sinister simplicity.