Somerset Maugham’s short story “The Letter” serves as the linchpin of Tran Twan Eng’s third novel, “The House of Doors,” which was selected for the 2023 Booker Prize long list.
Books
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Karl Rahner’s theology of The Beatles
A newly available compilation of Rahner’s writings on the arts, edited and translated from the original German by Gesa Thiessen, traces Rahner’s thinking about the phenomenon of inspired enthusiasm.
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A St. Patrick’s Day question: What is the greatest novel ever written about Irish New York?
Chicago has James T. Farrell’s Studs Lonigan. New Orleans has John Kennedy Toole’s Ignatius J. Reilly. Boston has Edwin O’Connor’s ‘Last Hurrah.’ And William Kennedy’s Albany Cycle series has “ironweeds” like Billy and Francis Phelan. What, then, is the greatest book ever written about the New York City Irish?
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Review: Paul Lynch’s new novel offers complexity, not certitude
Paul Lynch’s ‘Prophet Song’ was inspired by the Syrian Civil War and the plight of those seeking refuge from the destruction and death occurring in Syria.
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Review: An anthology of Jimmy Breslin, chronicler of New York’s best (and worst)
Some of Jimmy Breslin’s best work has now been collected and edited by one of Breslin’s true heirs, The New York Times correspondent Dan Barry.
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Review: The editor who transformed religious publishing
Stephen Prothero’s enriching book, ‘God the Bestseller,’ takes the reader on a journey through the publisher Eugene Exman’s life and works.
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Novelist Mary Beth Keane finds grace in the ‘achingly ordinary’
Mary Beth Keane has staked her claim as a creator of subtle but poignant storytelling.
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The ghosts of James Joyce in Edward P. Jones’s writing
Both Joyce’s and Jones’s stories move us through tragic epiphanies that leave the soul, pained by paralysis, on the threshold of conversion.
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Review: In ‘Reading Genesis,’ Marilynne Robinson treats the Bible like a great work of literature
In her latest book, ‘Reading Genesis,’ Marilynne Robinson writes of a God that is in love with humanity. In all our flaws and folly, power and glory, she insists, “Human beings are at the center of it all.”
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Review: The heartwarming story of World War II’s ‘Doughnut Dollies’
In ‘Good Night, Irene,’ Luis Alberto Urrea weaves a vivid and heartfelt tapestry in telling the story of the ‘Doughnut Dollies’ in World War II.