This Week’s Reviews

Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson
Mark Bourrie | Biblioasis | 9781771962377 | June 2019

“An incredible, head-spinning tale. . . . An engaging biography of this ‘eager hustler with no known scruples.”—Star Tribune

Jakarta
Rodrigo Márquez Tizano, trans. Thomas Bunstead | Coffee House Press | 9781566895637 | November 2019
“The rewards that come from reading Jakarta are manifold. . . . This is Tizano’s first novel, ably translated by Thomas Bunstead, but he has the boldness of someone who’s been at it for decades. It’s the beginning of a promising literary career. ”—Star Tribune

Reading Quirks
Andrés de la Casa Huertas and Javier García del Moral, illus. Laura Pacheco | Deep Vellum Publishing | 9781941920893 | December 2019
“A lighthearted collection of cartoons about the kinds of strange little habits common among those who love to read.”—Dallas Morning News

The Fourth String: A Memoir of Sensei and Me
Janet Pocorobba | Stone Bridge Press | 9781611720464 | March 2019
“Sometimes Janet and Sensei argue, sometimes Sensei favors other students over Janet, but each encounter offers a little more insight into music, Japanese culture, and into Janet herself.”—Education About Asia

The Aosawa Murders
Riku Onda, trans. Alison Watts | Bitter Lemon Press | 9781912242245 | February 2020 
“Author Onda’s masterpiece  is so filled with observations on the human condition that smitten readers might be tempted to tear out and frame certain pages —or at least copy them down.”—Mystery Scene Magazine

Mare Nostrum
Khaled Mattawa | Sarabande Books | 9781946448361 | August 2019
“There would be easy ways to categorize this book and the poems in it. We could try political poetry or the poetry of witness. Those are fine, of course, but it is more than enough to simply think of these poems as memorable reminders of the horrors that we allow to stay on the periphery of our experience. Mattawa does not let us forget.”—Rupture Magazine

Space Struck
Paige Lewis | Sarabande Books | 9781946448446 | October 2019
“Embracing both humor and prayer, Lewis breaks barriers between nature and humanity—bringing nature into our homes, onto our front porches—while examining how every-day life is changing and what we stand to lose in a time defined by climate change.”—The Arkansas International

The Remainder
Alia Trabucco Zerán, trans. Sophie Hughes | Coffee House Press | 9781566895507 | August 2019

“Trabucco Zerán urges readers to value subtext just as much as the official narrative. . . . A smart, vivid, and richly layered story.”—Adroit Journal

The Girl Who Lost Her Shadow
Emily Ilett | Floris Books/Kelpies | 9781782506072 | February 2020
“There’s a pleasing lyricism to this Scottish import, its quietly lovely prose and magical realist elements supporting Gail’s emotional journey as she rediscovers and honors the bond between sisters.”–The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Socialist Realism
Trisha Low | Coffee House Press | 9781566895514 | August 2019
“Like a transgressive Binx Bolling . . . she takes away equally cathartic feelings from the experimental films of Chantal Ackerman as she does from a documentary about One Direction.”—Rupture Magazine

Spiritual Rebel
Sarah Bowen | Monkfish Book Publishing | 9781948626040 | June 2019
“A spiritual guidebook for the modern-day seeker. Bowen takes the reader on a journey of finding and redefining their beliefs.”­—Reedsy

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