G.I. G-Men: The Untold Story of the FBI’s Search for American Traitors, Collaborators, and Spies in World War II Europe by Stephen Harding (Citadel). Reviewed by Bob Duffy. “The Pound episode is the most compelling and richly detailed of the cases in the book, but it also illustrates the difficulty inherent in creating a consistently fascinating narrative around the activities of the G.I. G-men. There’s too little challenge, flash, and follow-through in their real-life assignments to inject narrative momentum into their crusades. Harding strives valiantly to recount their cases with panache, and he writes exceedingly well, but the driving investigative rhythm of the FBI guys’ exploits is only sporadically present despite his best efforts.”

Beckomberga: A Novel by Sara Stridsberg; translated by Deborah Bragan-Turner (FSG Originals). Reviewed by Patricia S. Gormley. “Those searching for an easy read might best avoid Sara Stridsberg’s Beckomberga, a fictionalized quasi-history of the eponymous Swedish mental hospital once hailed as the future of psychiatric care. It is a confusing, disjointed, sad, frustrating story told from multiple points of view. However, it’s also a haunting study of how everybody involved in mental-health care — from medical providers to patients to the institutions themselves — continually fails (or is failed by) one another.”

Western Star: The Life and Legends of Larry McMurtry by David Streitfeld (Mariner Books). Reviewed by Eugene L. Meyer. “Much like those treasures McMurtry sought in random bookshops and thrift stores, Western Star is itself a treasure, though it’s not a hagiography. Rather, the biography is a heartfelt testimonial to the joys of finding tarnished gems hidden on the kind of musty shelves that only a true bibliophile could love.”

Sweet Home Feliciana: Family, Slavery, and the Hauntings of History by Rashauna Johnson (Cambridge University Press). Reviewed by Nicole Schrag. “I anticipate that the most difficult aspect of the book for many will not be its academic style so much as the heaviness of its subject matter. While Johnson makes an effort ‘to avoid gratuitous and pornographic’ representations of Black suffering, she notes that ‘the archives of settler colonialism, slavery, war, and Jim Crow are simply brutal.’”

Railsong: A Novel by Rahul Bhattacharya (Bloomsbury Publishing). Reviewed by Ananya Bhattacharyya. “There’s much to admire in this novel, like how it creates a vivid portrait of both smalltown India and mammoth Mumbai, but the characters seem to glide past each other without really connecting, so the book ends up feeling idea-driven. It weaves a rich tapestry of information about a time and a place, but it falters as a story about people whose actions and inner lives invite deeper engagement.”

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