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10 New Books We Recommend This Week 10 New Books We Recommend This Week
(about 17 hours later)
This week, books offer highly detailed accounts of love, politics and war around the world. In “The Heart Is a Shifting Sea,” Elizabeth Flock provides an unusually intimate look at three married couples in Mumbai. Marci Shore’s latest is about the bravery and ideals of Ukrainians who faced beatings and death during political demonstrations in 2013. And Steve Coll’s “Directorate S,” a sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Ghost Wars,” examines the United States’ entanglement in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Also this week: a selection of the best stories by postmodernist pioneer Robert Coover; a remarkably readable and respectful book about the abortion debate; a novel about a 440-year-old man suffering a midlife crisis; a history of how Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire; a new private eye introduced by Walter Mosley; and two standout works of historical fiction.This week, books offer highly detailed accounts of love, politics and war around the world. In “The Heart Is a Shifting Sea,” Elizabeth Flock provides an unusually intimate look at three married couples in Mumbai. Marci Shore’s latest is about the bravery and ideals of Ukrainians who faced beatings and death during political demonstrations in 2013. And Steve Coll’s “Directorate S,” a sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Ghost Wars,” examines the United States’ entanglement in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Also this week: a selection of the best stories by postmodernist pioneer Robert Coover; a remarkably readable and respectful book about the abortion debate; a novel about a 440-year-old man suffering a midlife crisis; a history of how Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire; a new private eye introduced by Walter Mosley; and two standout works of historical fiction.
John WilliamsDaily Books Editor and Staff Writer
GOING FOR A BEER: Selected Short Fictions, by Robert Coover. (Norton, $26.95.) Coover, 87, is among the last men standing of a postwar generation of postmodern experimental writers that included John Hawkes, William Gaddis and William Gass. This volume collects the best of his richly imagined and influential short stories. “One has never come to Coover’s fiction expecting minor-chord epiphanies or realistic observations about how we live,” our critic Dwight Garner writes. “He delivers instead naughtily reimagined fairy tales and movie scenarios and other testimonies from his own devil-ready twilight zone.”GOING FOR A BEER: Selected Short Fictions, by Robert Coover. (Norton, $26.95.) Coover, 87, is among the last men standing of a postwar generation of postmodern experimental writers that included John Hawkes, William Gaddis and William Gass. This volume collects the best of his richly imagined and influential short stories. “One has never come to Coover’s fiction expecting minor-chord epiphanies or realistic observations about how we live,” our critic Dwight Garner writes. “He delivers instead naughtily reimagined fairy tales and movie scenarios and other testimonies from his own devil-ready twilight zone.”
THE HEART IS A SHIFTING SEA: Love and Marriage in Mumbai, by Elizabeth Flock. (Harper, $27.99.) To write this book, Flock, a reporter for PBS NewsHour, followed three married couples in Mumbai for almost a decade. The couples gave her access to diary fragments, text messages with lovers, bitter Gchats with their spouses. “In the mode of Katherine Boo and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Flock absents herself from the narrative, allowing us to enter the lives of her subjects and witness moments of almost unbearable intimacy,” our critic Parul Sehgal writes. “Every agony of adulthood is presented with startling frankness — every miscarriage, every stupid investment, every sexual insecurity.”THE HEART IS A SHIFTING SEA: Love and Marriage in Mumbai, by Elizabeth Flock. (Harper, $27.99.) To write this book, Flock, a reporter for PBS NewsHour, followed three married couples in Mumbai for almost a decade. The couples gave her access to diary fragments, text messages with lovers, bitter Gchats with their spouses. “In the mode of Katherine Boo and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Flock absents herself from the narrative, allowing us to enter the lives of her subjects and witness moments of almost unbearable intimacy,” our critic Parul Sehgal writes. “Every agony of adulthood is presented with startling frankness — every miscarriage, every stupid investment, every sexual insecurity.”
SCARLET A: The Ethics, Law, & Politics of Ordinary Abortion, by Katie Watson. (Oxford, $29.95.) Watson’s book is an unusual hybrid: part memoir, part legal exegesis, part philosophical tract, part conversational guide. Her goal is to get the majority of Americans to talk openly about their deeply ambivalent feelings about abortion. “As a guide to the various ways of thinking about abortion,” our critic Jennifer Szalai writes, “ ‘Scarlet A’ is readable and respectful — and therefore, in its own quiet way, revolutionary.”SCARLET A: The Ethics, Law, & Politics of Ordinary Abortion, by Katie Watson. (Oxford, $29.95.) Watson’s book is an unusual hybrid: part memoir, part legal exegesis, part philosophical tract, part conversational guide. Her goal is to get the majority of Americans to talk openly about their deeply ambivalent feelings about abortion. “As a guide to the various ways of thinking about abortion,” our critic Jennifer Szalai writes, “ ‘Scarlet A’ is readable and respectful — and therefore, in its own quiet way, revolutionary.”
HOW TO STOP TIME, by Matt Haig. (Viking, $26.) Tom Hazard, the protagonist of Haig’s new novel, is old — old “in the way that a tree, or a quahog clam, or a Renaissance painting is old,” he tells us. He has a condition that causes him to age more slowly than others, but on the cusp of his 440th birthday he appears to be suffering a midlife crisis. Since his beloved wife died 400 years ago, Tom has roamed the world, unwilling to settle, unable to find happiness. The only thing that keeps him going is the knowledge that his daughter has inherited his condition and is out there somewhere, waiting for him to find her.HOW TO STOP TIME, by Matt Haig. (Viking, $26.) Tom Hazard, the protagonist of Haig’s new novel, is old — old “in the way that a tree, or a quahog clam, or a Renaissance painting is old,” he tells us. He has a condition that causes him to age more slowly than others, but on the cusp of his 440th birthday he appears to be suffering a midlife crisis. Since his beloved wife died 400 years ago, Tom has roamed the world, unwilling to settle, unable to find happiness. The only thing that keeps him going is the knowledge that his daughter has inherited his condition and is out there somewhere, waiting for him to find her.
THE UKRAINIAN NIGHT: An Intimate History of Revolution, by Marci Shore. (Yale, $26.) Shore draws evocative portraits of the Ukrainian demonstrators who braved beatings and even death in 2013 to protest the government of President Viktor Yanukovych. Still, the revolution they sparked remains unfinished. Shore “seeks to portray the ideals that animated the protesters,” our reviewer Rajan Menon writes, and she “succeeds admirably, particularly because she tells the story through their words.”THE UKRAINIAN NIGHT: An Intimate History of Revolution, by Marci Shore. (Yale, $26.) Shore draws evocative portraits of the Ukrainian demonstrators who braved beatings and even death in 2013 to protest the government of President Viktor Yanukovych. Still, the revolution they sparked remains unfinished. Shore “seeks to portray the ideals that animated the protesters,” our reviewer Rajan Menon writes, and she “succeeds admirably, particularly because she tells the story through their words.”
THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World, by Bart D. Ehrman. (Simon & Schuster, $28.) A best-selling scholar of the Bible explores how a small group of despised believers made their faith the dominant religion of the Roman Empire, thereby overthrowing an entire culture. “The great appeal of Ehrman’s approach to Christian history has always been his steadfast humanizing impulse,” our reviewer Tom Bissell writes. He “always thinks hard about history’s winners and losers without valorizing the losers or demonizing the winners. The losers here, of course, were pagan people.”THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World, by Bart D. Ehrman. (Simon & Schuster, $28.) A best-selling scholar of the Bible explores how a small group of despised believers made their faith the dominant religion of the Roman Empire, thereby overthrowing an entire culture. “The great appeal of Ehrman’s approach to Christian history has always been his steadfast humanizing impulse,” our reviewer Tom Bissell writes. He “always thinks hard about history’s winners and losers without valorizing the losers or demonizing the winners. The losers here, of course, were pagan people.”
DIRECTORATE S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, by Steve Coll. (Penguin, $35.) Coll’s is a dispiriting tale of a 16-year war that has cost a trillion dollars and more than 2,400 American lives to little end. “Steve Coll has written a book of surpassing excellence that is almost certainly destined for irrelevance,” our reviewer Andrew J. Bacevich writes. “The topic is important, the treatment compelling, the conclusions persuasive. Just don’t expect anything to change as a consequence.”DIRECTORATE S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, by Steve Coll. (Penguin, $35.) Coll’s is a dispiriting tale of a 16-year war that has cost a trillion dollars and more than 2,400 American lives to little end. “Steve Coll has written a book of surpassing excellence that is almost certainly destined for irrelevance,” our reviewer Andrew J. Bacevich writes. “The topic is important, the treatment compelling, the conclusions persuasive. Just don’t expect anything to change as a consequence.”
DOWN THE RIVER UNTO THE SEA, by Walter Mosley. (Mulholland/Little, Brown, $27.) A new private eye, an ex-cop named Joe King Oliver, makes his debut in this atmospheric crime novel set in New York. “As usual with this singular author, the plot is way over the top,” our reviewer Marilyn Stasio writes, “but the vibrant characters and pulsating dialogue are primo Mosley.”DOWN THE RIVER UNTO THE SEA, by Walter Mosley. (Mulholland/Little, Brown, $27.) A new private eye, an ex-cop named Joe King Oliver, makes his debut in this atmospheric crime novel set in New York. “As usual with this singular author, the plot is way over the top,” our reviewer Marilyn Stasio writes, “but the vibrant characters and pulsating dialogue are primo Mosley.”
PECULIAR GROUND, by Lucy Hughes-Hallett. (Harper, $28.99.) A great house in the English countryside, seen in both the 1600s and the mid-20th century, is the venue for a historical novel that uses walls, both actual and metaphorical, as its presiding metaphor. Our reviewer John Vernon writes: “This large and rich kitchen sink of a novel (as in everything but) is full of drama, vivid characters, wit, gorgeous writing and fascinating botanical, religious and social detail.”PECULIAR GROUND, by Lucy Hughes-Hallett. (Harper, $28.99.) A great house in the English countryside, seen in both the 1600s and the mid-20th century, is the venue for a historical novel that uses walls, both actual and metaphorical, as its presiding metaphor. Our reviewer John Vernon writes: “This large and rich kitchen sink of a novel (as in everything but) is full of drama, vivid characters, wit, gorgeous writing and fascinating botanical, religious and social detail.”
THE MAZE AT WINDERMERE, by Gregory Blake Smith. (Viking, $27.) Set in Newport, R.I., this novel intersects five stories from different eras, from the 17th century to the present day. Each story is about courtship, sexual attraction and the moral choices people make when they love, or fail to love, one another. Among the more notable characters is the young Henry James. “Smith’s ability to capture the character of the languages used in each of his historical periods is remarkable,” our reviewer John Vernon writes. “The different strands of the narrative are skillfully braided.”THE MAZE AT WINDERMERE, by Gregory Blake Smith. (Viking, $27.) Set in Newport, R.I., this novel intersects five stories from different eras, from the 17th century to the present day. Each story is about courtship, sexual attraction and the moral choices people make when they love, or fail to love, one another. Among the more notable characters is the young Henry James. “Smith’s ability to capture the character of the languages used in each of his historical periods is remarkable,” our reviewer John Vernon writes. “The different strands of the narrative are skillfully braided.”