The Cat’s Table
by Michael Ondaatje
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Nightwoods
by Charles Frazier
(Random House, $26)
“Sorry, haters,” but the author of Cold Mountain is not the overhyped pretender you hoped he might be, said Ron Charles in The Washington Post. Charles Frazier may have been wildly overpaid for the disappointing 2006 follow-up to his award-winning, best-selling debut. But this third novel, set in 1960s Appalachia, “is a fantastic book.” A “cleverly knitted thriller” about a reclusive young woman forced to shield a pair of strange twins from a violent pursuer, it’s wry at times and “superbly paced.”
Lost Memory of Skin
by Russell Banks
(Ecco, $26)
The “unlikely protagonist” of Russell Banks’s new novel is a young ex-soldier who lives under a Florida causeway because he and his shantytown neighbors are convicted sex offenders, said Linda Elisabeth Beattie in the Louisville Courier-Journal. We get to know “the Kid” through his relationship with a sociologist whose intervention greatly complicates the young man’s life. Throughout, Banks writes “with empathy, clarity, and humor about how we diminish ourselves by isolating the disenfranchised.”
We Others
by Steven Millhauser
(Knopf, $27)
This collection of new and selected older stories from Steven Millhauser showcases the Pulitzer Prize winner’s diverse gifts, said Dale Singer in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “In stories ranging from historical to modern, magical to realistic, serious to satiric, his masterful prose style slowly but inevitably weaves narratives that work their way into your consciousness and remain long after you’ve turned the last page.” The only thing a reader could wish for is more stories that weren’t available elsewhere before.
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Delhi's dogs earn Supreme Court reprieveIN THE SPOTLIGHT After an outcry from the public and animal rights activists, India's Supreme Court walks back a controversial plan to round the city's stray dog population into shelters
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8 hotels with ace tennis courtsThe Week Recommends Bring your A game
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Abrego released from jail, faces Uganda deportationSpeed Read The wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego García is expected to be detained at an ICE check-in and deported to Uganda
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Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
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Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
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The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
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Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
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Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
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Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
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You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
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Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”