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While the protagonist’s self-obsessions and erotic escapades won’t be to everyone’s liking, July’s novel is a quirky, funny, even tender feminist tale that defies expectations about the lives women can lead.
Great short story writers encapsulate and distill the experience and emotions of a character in what amounts to a mini-novel. McCorkle demonstrates why she is considered a virtuoso of the form. This new collection will not disappoint her bevy of fans and may introduce some new readers to her flock of followers.
The final twist and thus the novel fail in large part because the epilogue introduces an abrupt structural shift and an unsatisfying change in narrative voice for which readers are not well-prepared and which takes the book in a different direction.
Obreht draws upon plausible dystopian and postapocalyptic futures and strong elements from Serbian folktales, as well as magical realism. The result is a strange, almost dreamlike novel, distinctive for its memorable characters and beautiful writing.
Vardiashvili’s amazing and poignant tale of loss and resilience draws readers in with compelling descriptions of land and place. Saba encounters horrid acts of violence or their aftermath, but he also finds beauty, even magic and mystery. A remarkable debut certain to be longlisted for multiple awards, if not shortlisted for several.
Through Bunny, a likable enough person with inherent flaws, Kiesling creates a powerful “everyperson” archetype for whom political inertia is the modus operandi, proffering an honest and damning reflection on why the personal is political.
Conklin offers a positive message about a community working through its quirkiness and differences to solve problems together, but its upbeat message may not be enough to counterbalance Darcy’s adolescent self-absorption.
With expert character development, Nkrumah gives memorable voice to a young woman struggling to overcome familial abuse and find her way in the world. A strength of this novel is how sharply different Katherine’s portrayal is compared with white characters in novels like Kathryn Stockett’s The Help. For readers who enjoyed Alice Walker’s Meridian and Jas Hammonds’s YA novel We Deserve Monuments.