Books

Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! is very much its own creation, but you might think of it as an Iranian American spin on John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces — wedded to Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch.

Maureen Corrigan, is a longtime admirer of Stephen McCauley's comic novels. She says his latest one, "You Only Call When You're In Trouble," couldn't have been published at a better time of year.

Most of the characters in Paul Lynch's Booker Prize-winning novel don't want to believe that tyranny is taking shape before their eyes, even as power is cut off and democratic freedoms evaporate.

Maureen Corrigan shares her list of the 10 best books of 2023.

Maureen Corrigan reviewed two new mystery novels: "Here In The Dark" by Alexis Soloski and "The Mystery Guest" by Nita Prose

Critics and fellow writers have used terms like one of the greatest and perfect to refer to Claire Keegan and her writing. Our book critic, Maureen Corrigan, says the only flaw she sees with Keegan's work is that there isn't enough of it. Here's her review of "So Late In The Day," a newly published collection of three of Keegan's short stories.

Alice McDermott, who won the National Book Award for her 1997 novel "Charming Billy," has come out with her ninth novel. It's called "Absolution," and our book critic Maureen Corrigan says it leaves the old neighborhood far behind.

When Helen Garner published her first novel, "Monkey Grip," in 1977, it made her a literary sensation in her native Australia. She's been a famous writer there ever since. The American publisher Pantheon has begun releasing her most popular books, starting with her 1984 novel "The Children's Bach" and her 2014 true crime book "This House Of Grief." Our critic-at-large, John Powers, says that Garner is one of his favorite writers and that these books offer the ideal introduction to a woman who's forever grappling with the hard stuff of life.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan says given that it's a novel about the struggle to fend off deprivation and extinction, 'Land of Milk and Honey' is gloriously lush. Zhang's sensuous style makes us see, smell and, above all, taste the lure of that sun-dappled mountain enclave.

In her new novel called "The Vaster Wilds," Lauren Groff, who's been a finalist for the National Book Award three times, tells a harrowing story of an escape from Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World.