The archive
Review
In Helm’s expansive experience of time, the human cast feels secondary. This is a shame, given the novel quickly pivots from Helm’s subversive voice to spend the most time with them. They...
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Review
We’ve all been told robots will take our jobs. What if they taught us how to resist instead?
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Review
Like the stinging wasps in Dante’s Inferno, something needled me as I read Katabasis, the latest from R.F. Kuang, academic and best-selling author of Yellowface, Babel, and The Poppy War series. Katabasis,...
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Review
In 1961, Catholic doctrine heavily influenced Irish law. Books were banned for contradicting social mores. The Pilgrimage, with its extramarital affairs, homosexual liaisons, belching priests, and critique of miracle cures, stood no...
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Review
Over the course of Ron Chernow’s lengthy (and I mean lengthy) new biography of Mark Twain, the titular subject comes to feel like a beloved house guest who overstays his welcome. Yet,...
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Review
Nasty rumours, intricate plots, boldfaced lies, declarations of love, and accusations of murder—letters containing all theseflit across Renaissance Italy in Laurent Binet’s epistolary “Perspectives” (translated by Sam Taylor, 2023).
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Review
You haven't read a book like The Buffalo Hunter Hunter before. This captivating, disturbing blend of vampire mythology and Indigenous history offers something new to the horror genre. Released on March 18,...
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Review
Anne Tyler’s Three Days in June is a svelte, finely crafted exploration of faithfulness, forgiveness, and family. Her sentences string together like the lace of a wedding veil, a gossamer that reveals complexity...
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Review
"Anyway, I think, she's dead, and though I loved her, I now have both the time and freedom to write my essay on Montaigne . . ." With these startling words, Mark...
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Review
If you’re looking to cozy up and get lost in a ripping yarn, Held by Anne Michaels isn’t the book for you. But if you’re up for confronting life’s biggest questions, it might...
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Review
Playground, the latest from Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Powers, uses the island of Makatea as a microcosm for contemporary debates about AI, environmental justice, and neocolonialism. Through its exploration of the interconnectedness...
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