Books

The Vanishing Half tells the multi-generational story of the Vignes sisters, Desiree and Stella, two very pretty identical twins who grow up in the small town of Mallard, La. It's a town where all the residents are light-skinned African Americans.

"Imagine what Philip Roth would've made of this."

I was initially drawn to Phuc Tran's new memoir about growing up as the son of Vietnamese refugees because of the playfulness of its title: Sigh, Gone.

Our book critic Maureen Corrigan has been thinking about the role books play in challenging times, and she has some recommendations for books that are ready to report for duty.

The Russian poet Joseph Brodsky once said that prison is a lack of space counterbalanced by a surplus of time. Our current lockdown can't be compared to being locked up, but with so much surplus time on our hands, many of us are eager for stories that will help us escape endless thoughts of COVID-19. Here are three that did that for me: Unorthodox, Baghdad Central, and Abigail.

It's hard to focus right now. So recommending a book can seem, well, out-of-touch. Unless, that is, the recommendation is for a novel that's so absorbing, so fully realized that it draws you out of your own constricted situation and expands your sense of possibilities. For me, over the past 10 days or so, the novel that's performed that act of deliverance has been The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel.

Lily King's new novel centers on a woman who's spent six years working on her own novel. It's a story of ambition — and what happens when the markers of adult achievement are slow to materialize.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan says this is the only dystopian novel she's ever read where images of doom and baseball diamonds co-exist.

Deepa Anappara's debut novel defies characterization. Set in a sprawling Indian slum, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line centers on a trio of kids who venture out to look for a missing classmate.

Maureen Corrigan reviews a debut non-fiction book about the murder of two female hitchhikers in 1980.