This story of race, family, and other “ties that bind” is a product of its environment – South Africa around the end of apartheid – as much as it is a story of universal human nature. Told from multiple perspectives, it represents the hard work of reconciliation in a culture divided by so many ephemeral things like ethnicity or skin color. It is also a story about real horrors also dividing us like sexual abuse,…
What happens when a character investigates her/his own murder? How exactly could that happen? In this book, FitzSimmons explores exactly that situation. He presents a dystopic vision of human cloning in which this “new” advance is used as an excuse to denigrate human life. By so doing, he advances the notion that progress in extending our science should correlate with progress in deepening our humanity. While doing so, this work of science fiction develops into…
The story of freedom is both an American story and a universally human one. In this novel, Coates reminds us that personal loyalties to family sometimes transcend the desire for freedom. Using the motif of finding one’s own free way, he describes the story of Hiram Walker, an enslaved person who was educated due to his superb memory, only to become intermixed with the Underground Railroad. Along the way, he discovers the backcountry of Virginia…
This story contains themes from many strands of life: race, grief, family, sexuality, LGBTQI+ issues, authenticity, estrangement, speaking lies or truth, and self-determination. None of these predominate in the narrative; rather, they seem to dwell together in just the right amount. Perhaps that’s why it’s won so much acclamation since being published a year ago. Bennett’s tale begins in a small town in Louisiana with an African-American family under Jim Crow. The father was lynched…
This tale, set in the fall of Germany in World War II, unpacks themes of love, loss, the Third Reich, the Holocaust, and the meaning of life. One of the main characters Max returns home after being injured fighting for the Nazis only to find his mother housing two Jewish girls in the attic. All the girls’ relatives have been murdered. Max’s values – formed by the Hitler Youth in rebellion against his Christian parents…
The life of Napoleon Bonaparte provides historical writers with one of the deepest wells of inspiration to dwell upon. His life, beginning as a poor child on the island of Corsica, once extended the French Empire to the far reaches of Europe. Yet it eventually collapsed, and he was sent into exile… twice. Paradoxically, he is associated with liberte, egalite, et fraternite, yet maintained slavery in Haiti for reasons of financial expedience. His love-life is…
In twentieth-century Europe, the two great wars not only wrote the unfolding of history but also dramatically altered the landscape of life. This story tells the tale of how two peaceful families survived the Second World War and became intertwined by fate. Neither German family was particularly nationalistic. Sure, they did not stand up against oppression and slavery, but neither did they revel in it. Both families were ineluctably pulled into the ethnic and nationalist…
To “adult” is a colloquial verb meaning taking responsibility for one’s own life. In this book, romance-book author Talley tells the story of fictional celebrity character Chase London and her therapist Olivia Han. Chase was a famous child actress who has, as she reached adulthood, gotten in highly publicized trouble with drinking, drugs, and men. To prepare her for an acting assignment, Olivia attempts to teach her how to take responsibility in a life-coaching program…
When he died in a tragic and unforeseen car crash in 1960, novelist and existentialist Albert Camus had a draft of this work in his briefcase. It was not published until the 1990s, but is the most autobiographical of Camus’ works. The main character, like the author, grew up impoverished in Algeria and escaped a life of the same through education. This tale, properly characterized as a coming-of-age novel, shares how the great writer and…
This novel, translated from the Czech language, describes the life of Germans in the Czech region of Europe before, during, and after World War II. It does not paint a pretty picture. Some Germans supported the rise of Adolf Hitler and paid a moral price for the rest of their lives. Others – especially women and children – were not directly involved in the political and war efforts, but were still forced on a death…