We Want So Much to Be Ourselves: A Novel by Stephen O’Connor (Bellevue Literary Press). Reviewed by Alyson Foster. “This dark era of history has been thoroughly explored; yellow stars and brown shirts have become an almost lazy shorthand for the dangers of unchecked state-sponsored persecution and violence. But O’Connor avoids retreading familiar ground by absorbing us in the drama of Günter’s early life, which is as compelling as it unremarkable. We observe his romance with, and marriage to, a brilliant and impetuous Jewish woman named Josine, his introduction to fatherhood, his tutelage by Sigmund Freud, and his successful career at the real-life Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute.”

Triage by Claudia Rankine (Graywolf Press). Reviewed by Sullivan Summer. “References to Antigone, Saidiya Hartman, Omar El Akkad, Audre Lorde, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and others demand a level of dot-connecting from the reader that makes idle consumption of the text nearly impossible. But why should it be? If the theorist and the narrator can invoke in a single exchange the contemporary historian Robin D.G. Kelley, mid-20th-century senator Joseph McCarthy, and an unattributed 1971 quote from poet/musician Gil Scott-Heron, then surely it’s not too much to ask the reader to carry our share of the analytical load.”

Hope House: A Novel by Joe Bond (Hub City Press). Reviewed by John P. Loonam. “Mr. Watts brings more passion than professionalism to Hope House, signing the boys up for outside jobs that earn them and the facility money, basketball tournaments they inevitably lose, and a school dance that teaches them how little they know about girls. But no matter what, he never gives up, and his unconditional loyalty is the best thing that has happened to these boys. In fact, it’s the outside world that causes them problems. Almost no parents come to visit, and those who do bring as much tension as comfort.”

Changing Gender by Susan Stryker (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Reviewed by Douglas C. MacLeod Jr. “Stryker wanders through the park like a modern-day Thoreau, connecting with the land, the animals, her ancestors, and Native peoples while ruminating on gender. She recognizes that the issue is not as simple as sports, unisex bathrooms, and drag storytime. Gender is rooted in psychology, linguistics, biology, and sociology — it is rooted in the I, the we, the us, and the they/them. It is objective and subjective, personal and communal. It is enjoyed and it is mourned. And, most importantly, gender, like everything else, is “radiantly beautiful,” though tainted by our trespasses.”

Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast by Pamela Colloff (Knopf). Reviewed by Diane Kiesel. “A fourth marriage brought him to Pinellas County in 1980, where he was soon arrested for proposing to another woman with a fake diamond ring and bilking her out of thousands of dollars. While awaiting trial, jailhouse confessions dropped into his lap. ‘Prosecutors did not challenge the idea that Skalnik had obtained three confessions in three different murder cases in less than a summer,’ writes Colloff. By 1984, Skalnik would testify against or give information to authorities about 27 defendants in the county jail. In return, he got great deals in his own cases, including the shocking dismissal of his indictment for molesting a 12-year-old girl, a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison in Florida.”

Crocodilopolis: A Novel by John Manuel Arias (Bloomsbury Publishing). Reviewed by Mariko Hewer. “When Horacio returns to Costa Rica to visit a paramour named Carlos — ‘They kissed with their eyes open, to observe the beauty of the other and to keep their peripheral vision alert’ — and to participate in a celebratory Pride parade, he comes face to face with the uncle everyone thought dead. Seth is seeking something much darker at the event, and his clash with Horacio sets off another round of family turmoil and recriminations. Will the next generation of Oreamundo children be doomed to repeat the mistakes of their parents, or do Andrés and Horacio have a chance to break the curse? In bejeweled language, Arias asks these and other incisive questions in this gem of a story.”

Contested Continent: The Struggle for North America, c. 1000-1680 by Peter C. Mancall (Oxford University Press). Reviewed by John A. Farrell. “Peter C. Mancall’s detailed history of the European exploration and early colonization of North America is the 10th and latest (though chronologically the first) entry in the worthwhile Oxford History of the United States series. From Leif Erikson to William Penn — with featured roles by Christopher Columbus, Hernán Cortés and the conquistadors, an Indian princess named Pocahontas, and others — the book tells an epic story and a grim one.”

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