The Keep
In The Keep, author Jennifer Egan spins her narrative yarn in in the form of two nested stories. Ray is prison inmate enrolled in a writing workshop. In his writing, we find our second story, one about two estranged cousins who are undergoing a project to renovate a centuries-old castle into a hotel. The two …
In the Woods
It’s 1984 and three twelve-year-olds, best friends who live in Knocknaree, Ireland, are playing in the woods. By nightfall, two of them are missing and the last boy, Adam Ryan, is found, traumatized, in a tree with a sneaker filled with blood, gashes in his clothes and gaping holes where memories of that day’s events …
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikrey
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikrey by Gabrielle Zevin is a cute but somewhat sappy little book, with a little melodrama thrown in. A.J. Fikrey is a touchy and argumentative bookstore owner on a small, touristy island town and recent widower. He walks in his store one day to find that a baby has been …
The Dinner
The Dinner by Herman Koch takes place over the course of one dinner between two couples. The males at the table are brothers, one of whom is a prominent and recognizable politician, and, along with their wives, they have agreed to meet at an upscale restaurant to discuss an incident involving their teenage sons. A …
The Orphan Master’s Son
“But people do things to survive, and then after they survive, they can’t live with what they’ve done.” So, this is going to be a little lengthy, especially because I ended up reading up a fair amount on North Korea after I finished the book. I’ll split it into parts though to make it a …