Short, focused summaries of four new books reviewed together: Ayad Akhtar’s formal novel The Radiance, Nathaniel Rich’s heist story Cloudthief, Nadia Bowers’s memoir Dear Dealer, and Martin Devecka’s study Citizen Beast.
The Radiance uses a narrator who shares the author’s name to explore altered perception after a hit-and-run and the limits of language.
Cloudthief follows a fast-paced, morally messy heist across Manhattan and Oklahoma that mixes personal adventure with commentary on technology.
Dear Dealer is a grief memoir written as letters to an unknown drug dealer, tracing a sister’s opioid overdose and the author’s search for answers.
This collection of brief reviews presents four books that differ in form and aim but share an interest in how personal experience connects to wider systems—language, technology, addiction, and empire. Each entry below summarizes what the book sets out to do and notes the reviewer's central impression.
“The Maltese Version,” “That Summer’s End,” “Berlin Before and After,” and “Jean Toomer.”
“Dèy,” “Etna,” “Are They Dead Yet?,” and “Unbelonging.”
“The Breakup,” “All Them Dogs,” “Sex and Dissent,” and “We Want to Believe.”
9 graphic novels, 2 mixed format/illustrated books, a historical fiction story, a time travel story, and a collection of poems addressing policing.
Readers respond to Becca Rothfeld’s review of Rachel Cusk’s latest novel, Alexandra Schwartz’s piece about death doulas, and Zach Helfand’s Talk story about the Old News Newsstand.
The summer issue of Frieze magazine had an article on Printed Matter, the bookstore in New York City that sells artists’ books. Artists’ books started out as a way to democratize art; make an artwork that could be printed as cheaply as a trace paperback, and you could put art into the hands of anyone … Continue reading
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