Startling novel urges Abe to apologize

With Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushing agendas of nationalism and historical revisionism, Japan and South Korea’s ties are at their lowest ebb in decades with no immediate signs of a thaw. Kim Jung-hyun, author of the 1996 bestseller “The Father” that sold over 2 million copies, wrote a new historical fantasy, “Ahn Jung-geun Shot Abe,” in hopes of getting a strong message across to Japan. “I did not write this novel to warn Abe, but to give him a chance to examine himself and feel some

Aug. 7, 2014

‘Nixon Defense’ by John Dean takes a fresh look at Watergate

“My voice on the Nixon tapes is really very clear and very good,” says John Dean, adjusting the microphone recording him on a summer day. Aug. 9 marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard M. Nixon’s resignation from office, and Dean is publishing a new book, “The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It,” a day-by-day chronicle of the Watergate scandal.Although Watergate has been explored in books and film, some of the story has not yet been told, Dean says.“I knew enough to know tha

Aug. 7, 2014

Brando biography goes below the surface

Susan L. Mizruchi was 12 and living in upstate New York when she turned on the TV one day and watched Marlon Brando playing Fletcher Christian in the 1962 version of the seafaring tale “Mutiny on the Bounty.”She was as she described it “struck by the Brando lightning.”Even to this day, his performance affects her. “It’s still very powerful,” said the Boston University English professor, who has written a new biography, “Brando’s Smile: His Life, Thought, and Work” which was published by W.W. Nor

Aug. 7, 2014

‘The Magician’s Land’ an enchanting end to fantasy series

The Magician’s LandBy Lev Grossman (Viking)All lovers of Lev Grossman’s first two books of The Magicians trilogy: This is the end, beautiful friend. So remember which pocket the magic button’s in, and make sure you have your passport, because we have a lot of ground to cover. Several lands, in fact. From Hackensack to uncharted territory.We last saw our glum hero, Quentin Coldwater, getting booted out of the magical land of Fillory, learning the very hard lesson that being the hero doesn’t mean

Aug. 7, 2014

‘The String Diaries’ is a psychologically rich horror

The String DiariesBy Stephen Lloyd Jones (Mulholland Books)If there’s one thing I hate as a critic, it’s dancing around the possibility of giving too much away in a review. Spoilers are called that for a reason, and critics despise them every bit as much as readers do.Writers, though ― crafty little devils ― seem determined to concoct spoiler-bait books, titles that are just nigh on impossible to discuss. Which is precisely why this review is so short. Like recent favorites “Gone Girl” and “The

Aug. 7, 2014

Children’s musical rethinks disabilities

Giraffes capture the imagination as majestic creatures towering over the African savannah with elongated necks suitable for reaching high branches. But what would life be like for a giraffe born with a short neck? Were such an anomaly to exist in nature, a rough guess based on the notion “the survival of the fittest” would be that it would face many kinds of adversity, all pointing to an early exit from nature’s stage. An inspiring story premised on the same thought experiment questions this gri

Aug. 3, 2014

‘Excavation’ digs up memories of child-teacher affair

When she was just 13, Wendy Ortiz began to learn important lessons about love, honesty and human depravity. She was a precocious eighth-grader, and she was about to fall under the spell of her 28-year-old English teacher.“Jeff Ivers,” as the teacher is known in Ortiz’s new memoir (it’s not his real name), was at once charming and manipulative. Almost immediately, he seized on his student’s desire to be a writer ― she’d already produced a handwritten novel ― to get closer to her.“Mr. Ivers wants

July 31, 2014

‘Land of Love, Drowning’ evokes Gabriel Garcia Marquez

“Nowadays people think historians are stuffy types, but history is a kind of magic I doing here.”So says Anette, the most compelling of the characters populating “Land of Love and Drowning” by Virgin Islands native Tiphanie Yanique. A multigenerational novel set in Yanique’s native land, “Love and Drowning” opens just before the U.S. arrives, after purchasing several of the islands from Denmark in 1917. It concludes in the 1970s.The coming of the Americans ― and the ensuing arrival of the touris

July 31, 2014

Single mom, tech millionaire in trouble hit the road in ‘One Plus One’

One Plus OneBy Jojo Moyes (Pamela Dorman Books/Viking)If you are the sort of reader who talks derisively of “chick lit” in that superior tone ― you know which one I mean ― then you may not be swayed by the charms of Jojo Moyes’ latest novel. But the delightful, comic “One Plus One” is as likable a book as you will come across this summer, light and funny, with surprisingly subtle commentary on how the income gap separates people emotionally as well as financially.Also the author of the novels “M

July 31, 2014

‘Among Friends’ tells Cold War tale

A Spy Among FriendsBy Ben Macintyre(Crown)A lot of spy novels would have you believe that espionage involves elite globe-trotting adventures laced with good booze and cool toys, and certainly there are elements of all those things in Ben Macintyre’s vivid and fascinating new “A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal.” But this nonfiction book’s most intense scene is prosaic ― two old friends, middle-aged English gentlemen who came up as spies through British intelligence, share a c

July 31, 2014

‘The Novel: A Biography’ captures life, history, connections of literature

Michael Schmidt’s massive new book, “The Novel: A Biography,” covers nearly 700 years of prose and hundreds of writers. At 1,200 pages, it is much longer than “Moby-Dick” and nearly as long as “War and Peace.” Although it’s not necessarily the last word on any given novel, as a resource, reference and stimulator, it’s a bargain and a worthy addition to your home library.While Schmidt, born in Mexico, has long been a professor in the United Kingdom, his approach is not academic. He writes for com

July 24, 2014

‘All I Love and Know’ tackles social issues

The considerable power of Judith Frank’s second novel, “All I Love and Know,” comes from two sources not always found in combination: first, the seriousness of the social issues it takes on, and second, its psychological, nearly Jamesian style, following its characters tick by tick through their emotions and thoughts. The merger is a success, providing a nuanced and profound approach to politically volatile subject matter, like an upmarket Jodi Picoult.“All I Love and Know” opens on a flight to

July 24, 2014

‘World of Trouble’ shows planet before impending destruction

World of TroubleBen H. Winters (Quirk Books)How would you behave if it were the end of the world?In “World of Trouble,” Detective Hank Palace has only 14 days to live and a mystery to solve ― what happened to his younger sister, Nico?Palace is not the only one with 14 days remaining. Everyone on earth has just two weeks to live since an asteroid, 2011GV, or Maia, is going to strike the planet, causing mass devastation.“Because these auburn Midwestern trees are going to burst into flames in the f

July 24, 2014

‘Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands’ follows life on run after disaster

Close Your EyesHold Hands/By Chris Bohjalian (Doubleday) Emily Shepard’s famous namesake once wrote that “The Soul selects her own Society ― Then ― shuts the Door.” Shepard, the runaway Vermont teenager who narrates Chris Bohjalian’s new novel, “Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands,” is just as choosy.Surprisingly, one of the few companions that Shepard ― a cutter, dope smoker and OxyContin popper, and sometimes a reluctant “prositot” for truckers ― selects is Emily Dickinson, the Belle of Amherst. Shepa

July 24, 2014

Spanish engineers create bookstore, hangout in Dallas

At first glance, the nondescript orange bungalow blends into the neat row of homes lining West Eighth Street in Dallas’ Oak Cliff neighborhood.It’s a bright and breezy Saturday, and the glass front door at number 314 creaks and groans as people wander in without knocking. Paco Vique and Javier Garcia del Moral are stretched out on the porch, sipping from sweating bottles of beer. A musician hauls a guitar up the front steps, pausing to give each man a kiss on each cheek. A woman, arms laden with

July 23, 2014

Bae Su-ah’s novels to be published in U.S.

Korean author Bae Su-ah’s novel “Cheolsu” will be published in English in the United States next April, LTI Korea announced.“I hope that American readers will be able to discover Bae’s creative and superb collection of works. We would like to publish her works in the years to come,” said Sarah Jane Gunter, publisher at Amazon Crossing imprint, an American publishing house that mainly focuses on translations of foreign language books.“Cheolsu” is Bae’s 1998 novel, set in 1988, about the protagoni

July 21, 2014

‘Song of the Shank’ celebrates a unique American musician

“Song of the Shank,” Jeffery Renard Allen’s epic and brilliant new novel about slavery and musical genius, is not an easy book to read. There is, for starters, the book’s odd and sometimes confounding protagonist, based on a real man who is most often referred to in historical accounts as “Blind Tom.”“He isn’t talking. He isn’t playing,” his mother observes when Tom is a boy. “He isn’t even moving.” As he grows into adulthood, Blind Tom is a cipher for dozens of pages and then suddenly sets off

July 17, 2014

‘Mockingbird Next Door’ recalls life with Harper Lee

What ever happened to Harper Lee? The Alabama native was 34 when her first novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” was published in 1960. This tale of childhood innocence and racial injustice in the Depression-era South won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, was adapted for an award-winning film with Gregory Peck and became a staple of high school English curricula. But Lee shunned publicity and never published another novel, fueling occasional rumors that her friend Truman Capote ― a childhood neighbor in the

July 17, 2014

Novel tells tale of ‘Unknown Americans’

“The Book Of Unknown Americans”Cristina Henriquez (Alfred A. Knopf)A dilapidated cinder-block apartment complex surrounded by a chain-link fence is the setting for Cristina Henriquez’s second novel, “The Book of Unknown Americans.” What at first appears to be a no man’s land is actually Delaware. Welcome to the U.S.A., where every whistle stop has an immigrant story to tell.The novel opens as the Riveras, a newly arrived Mexican family ― Arturo, Alma and teenage daughter Maribel ― are settling i

July 17, 2014

Boys will be boys (and sometimes girls)

AdamBy Ariel Schrag (Mariner)In Ariel Schrag’s audacious coming-of-age novel “Adam,” an inexperienced teenage boy falls in love with a lesbian and tricks her into believing he’s transgender so she’ll go out with him. Yes, I know: So many things could have gone wrong with this premise. The sheer number of potential missteps is enough to daunt any novelist, let alone a first-timer like Schrag.But Schrag, best known for her series of graphic memoirs about her adolescence, has found compassionate an

July 17, 2014