The Winter Warriors: A Novel by Olivier Norek (Atlantic Monthly Press). Reviewed by Lawrence De Maria. “All of these people were real, and the internet makes it easy to find out what happened to them. But don’t go looking online — at least, not until you’ve read this terrific novel. In skillfully retelling their story, Olivier Norek reveals that Finland’s sons didn’t die in vain during the Winter War. In fact, when Hitler foolishly invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, he was met by brutal cold and scores of appropriately clad Reds on skis. A Russian soldier said his unit had learned it from the Finns.”

John of John: A Novel by Douglas Stuart (Grove Press). Reviewed by Ryan Davison. “The Macleods are complicated. Cal’s mother, Grace, walked out when he was only 9, settling across the island with John’s older brother. This created a deep source of betrayal, but we learn that Grace’s departure didn’t occur without reason. Stuart sets up a family dynamic that’s fascinating in its instability. He has every pin wobbling before a ball is rolled, and it’s in this environment that father and son engage in a soul-wrenching search for identity. They each in their own way experience the consequences of honesty and the significance of rejection.”

The Rolling Stones: The Biography by Bob Spitz (Penguin Press). Reviewed by Daniel de Visé. “Bob Spitz’s The Rolling Stones: The Biography is the first book I’ve read that covers the whole play. Spitz clearly loves the Stones, as I do. I’ve read a few of the classic Stones texts, including Richards’ literary Life and Stanley Booth’s peerless The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones. Spitz’s book told me nothing dramatically new about the band. But it was a satisfying read, filling in dozens of little holes in my knowledge base and leaving me with that rewarding feeling of knowing the whole story at last.”

Small Town Girls: a writer’s memoir by Jayne Anne Phillips (Knopf). Reviewed by Kristin H. Macomber. “Flash-forward to 2023, when I was assigned to review Jayne Anne Phillips’ novel Night Watch. Since I wasn’t familiar with the author’s prior work, I did some internet sleuthing and learned that her latest historical novel was set in a time (the end of the Civil War) and place (the hills and hollows of West Virginia) that were both deeply embedded in her family’s lore. Indeed, many of Phillips’ ancestral highlights and low patches played out in those very hills and hollows. I was grateful to be able to review Night Watch with an appreciation for how deep the author’s ties are to her corner of West Virginia, both as a native daughter and a gifted chronicler.”

This Dark Night: Emily Brontë, A Life by Deborah Lutz (W.W. Norton & Company). Reviewed by Stuart Kay. “Conclusions have been drawn from her androgyny and boldness — a local described her as being ‘more like a man than a woman, and very dominant in will’ — and from the male nickname (‘The Major’) that she was given. Such questions are left open here. Lutz resists making judgments on whether Emily was autistic, dyslexic, asexual, queer, transgender, anti-racist, a feminist, or an environmentalist on the basis that ‘these twentieth- and twenty-first-century ideas and identities don’t import easily into the past.’”

The Family Man: Blood and Betrayal in the House of Murdaugh by James Lasdun (W.W. Norton & Company). Reviewed by Diane Kiesel. “If there were such a thing as a domestic-violence Hall of Fame, Big Red would’ve entered it at 8:49 p.m. on June 7, 2021, when he blew Paul’s brains out with a shotgun and mowed down his wife with a semiautomatic rifle on the family hunting estate, Moselle. Afterward, he established an alibi by driving 12 miles to the home of his dying father and Alzheimer’s-ridden mother, yakking away on his phone with friends and family the entire ride. He returned home at 10 p.m., ‘discovered’ the bodies, and made a weepy 911 call. Authorities were suspicious from the get-go; Alex too quickly suggested to the dispatcher that cops should focus on people who’d allegedly threatened Paul about the boat crash.”

Ten Clear Days by Eric Beck Rubin (Turtle Point Press). Reviewed by Clifford Garstang. “These asides give Mary’s life, and the book, extraordinary depth. We learn, for example, about her childhood in Hungary, her family’s harrowing experiences before and during World War II, and the suffering of her friends. One section recounts the horrific massacre of Jews in Budapest, now memorialized by 60 pairs of iron shoes set into concrete at the edge of the Danube River.” 

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