Homestead, Melinda Moustakis
Weakness of spirit or body, or imperfection of character, will get a person killed out here.
Three indie books of note
A very good book often feels like a personal matter: something that was meant for us all along.
Pacific Northwest Book Awards, 2022
Something dire is afoot in writing, or publishing, or judging, or all of the above.
Nobody Gets Out Alive, Leigh Newman
Newman's Alaska is a mixed-up, contingent, irreducible place, rich with contradiction and overlapping realities.
Year-end roundup, 2022
A sasquatch, plus my favorite Denis Johnson encounter.
What Strange Paradise, Omar El Akkad
Not untrue, exactly, just not the sort of truth one goes to fiction to find.
Fire Season, Leyna Krow
A pile of beige pillows variously arranged.
The Great Offshore Grounds, Vanessa Veselka
Rampant, rather glorious, certainly important.
Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel
Mandel has mastered the art of inhabiting a genre landscape while writing literary fiction. It is the best possible combination.
Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
Witty, and very good-natured, but windy and ill-proportioned.
Contents May Have Shifted, Pam Houston
As might be said of any failed book, this one had the chance to be interesting, frightening, challenging, beautiful.