Archipelago by Natalie Bakopoulos (Tin House Books). Reviewed by Wendy Besel Hahn. “Complexity defines the protagonist/narrator from the start: her Greek and Ukrainian lineage connecting her to places far beyond the Detroit neighborhood where she was raised; her ambiguous status as neither native nor tourist in the region; her familiarity with, but not fluency in, numerous languages. As a translator spending a two-week residency on a Croatian island, she works in the middle between author and reader to interpret Greek texts and convert them into English without sacrificing nuance. Her larger task involves defining herself.”

For the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran’s Women-Led Uprising by Fatemeh Jamalpour and Nilo Tabrizy (Pantheon). Reviewed by Rose Rankin. “This book isn’t just bearing witness; it’s a lamentation. Steeped in the poetic traditions that have been part of Iranian culture for millennia, the authors mourn the country they once knew, the talent wasted, the lives destroyed, the communities torn apart.”

Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West by Peter Cozzens (Knopf). Reviewed by Peggy Kurkowski. “The outlaw beginnings and colorful life of one of America’s most dangerous frontier towns is the main attraction of eminent historian Peter Cozzens’ Deadwood. Anyone familiar with the HBO series of the same name already knows a bit about the mining-camp-turned-boomtown and the thrilling menagerie of bawdy, brazen, and bellicose characters who raised hell there. But the truth of Deadwood is more beguiling than the legends, as Cozzens’ immersive and sensory-rich narrative reveals.”

What We Can Know: A Novel by Ian McEwan (Knopf). Reviewed by John P. Loonam. “Absent the actual poem, Tom relies on reading or rereading every note, text, email, journal entry, interview, or article about the Blundys and the six others who attended the birthday dinner where the great verse was read aloud. This recounting of the events of 2014 raises thorny questions regarding history’s effect on language, the role of biography in assessing and understanding literature, and the use of speculation in the telling of history. These are all matters we struggle with today, and McEwan magnifies them by focusing on a poem no living person has ever seen. But Tom is convinced a copy exists and that paying attention to the details of past events will help him find it.”

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother): A Novel by Rabih Alameddine (Grove Press). Reviewed by Anne Eliot Feldman. “Reading and rereading Dostoevsky bolsters his confidence. Then, as civil war rages, a teenage Raja follows the wrong crowd, and things go horribly awry. That he survives is due in no small part to his mother, who breaks all boundaries — interrogating her son after every crisis, later meeting his students against his will — to help him heal. She drives him crazy — ‘I knew no one else who could use sighs as a lethal weapon’ — but he idolizes her, too.”

Martha’s Daughter: A Novella and Stories by David Haynes (McSweeney’s). Reviewed by Emily Mitchell. “One brilliance of these stories, which are set mostly in places — St. Louis, Dallas, the down-at-heel exurbs of Washington, DC — beyond the usual coastal suspects, is how they show characters at emotionally perilous moments without losing sight of either the absurdities people inflict on themselves or the big, systemic inequalities that makes some lives much harder than others.”

The Literati: A Novel by Susan Coll (Harper Muse). Reviewed by Marcie Geffner. “Though Clemi’s ultimate triumph is never truly in doubt, the tension remains high throughout this easy, fast-paced read as she tries to figure out exactly what’s going on and how she can possibly cope with it all. Readers in the mood for warmhearted laughs will love it.”

Subscribe to our newsletter here, and follow us on Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Advertise with us here.