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Skin Folk
The stories in this collection, originally published in 2001, are united by their interest in spirits and shapeshifters, fairy tales and...
aolundsmith
Jan 14, 20202 min read
Older Brother
Older Brother by Mahir Guven A small family clinging to connection in a fractured modern reality grows smaller and more fragmented in...
aolundsmith
Dec 12, 20191 min read
Girl, Woman, Other
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo A river of stories flowing thick with a web of characters starts running fresh and wild the...
aolundsmith
Dec 5, 20192 min read
The Magicians
The Magicians by Lev Grossman Published a decade ago, The Magicians is an adult fantasy novel simultaneously so clever and so derivative...
aolundsmith
Oct 12, 20192 min read
Since I Laid My Burden Down
Since I Laid My Burden Down by Brontez Purnell “DeShawn had his theories about it all. He would look at any moving body of water, a...
aolundsmith
Aug 30, 20192 min read
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong As lyrical as his previous book, Night Sky With Exit Wounds, Ocean Vuong’s sophomore...
aolundsmith
Aug 29, 20192 min read
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love by Kathleen Collins Uncertainty and ambivalence, intensity and desire flicker and flash through...
aolundsmith
Aug 17, 20191 min read
Absent
Absent by Betool Khedairi First, there are the dramas of everyday life: new neighbors in the apartment building, a relative’s ongoing...
aolundsmith
Aug 17, 20192 min read
Disoriental
Disoriental by Négar Djavadi Told in the restless back and forth of a narrator who is haunted by the past as much as she is tempted by...
aolundsmith
Jul 27, 20191 min read
Purple Hibiscus
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Set in a restive Nigeria, where a coup is first impending and then happening, where gas and...
aolundsmith
Jul 18, 20192 min read
A People's History of Heaven
A People’s History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian Five young women living in a Bangalore slum known as “Swarga” or “Heaven” (due to...
aolundsmith
Jul 18, 20192 min read
Alif the Unseen
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson Behind the anonymity of his handle, Alif is a talented, undogmatic computer programmer who will...
aolundsmith
May 30, 20192 min read
We Cast a Shadow
We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Ruffin The present reality in Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s exquisite We Cast a Shadow is some 60 years from 2019....
aolundsmith
Apr 10, 20192 min read
Circe
Circe by Madeline Miller Arguably most known for her appearance in epic poem The Odyssey, Circe is a powerful figure not just when she...
aolundsmith
Mar 24, 20192 min read
A Kind of Freedom
A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton A work of historical fiction bound by space but not by time, A Kind of Freedom stories...
aolundsmith
Jan 8, 20193 min read
The Street
“She noticed that once the crowd walked the length of the platform and started up the stairs toward the street [in Harlem], it expanded...
aolundsmith
Dec 20, 20184 min read
Halsey Street
Halsey Street by Naima Coster Compulsively readable, full of emotional tension and lush, detailed description, Halsey Street is also...
aolundsmith
Dec 5, 20182 min read
If Beale Street Could Talk
“Well. We are certainly in it now, and it may get worse. It will certainly—and now something almost as hard to catch as a whisper in a...
aolundsmith
Dec 2, 20184 min read
Gorilla, My Love
“One day,” say Sugar, lickin the tomato sauce off her arm, “what I want’s goin to be on the menu. Served up to my taste and all on one...
aolundsmith
Nov 22, 20182 min read
My Brilliant Friend
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante The first installment in an extended, four-part bildungsroman, My Brilliant Friend tells the origin...
aolundsmith
Nov 16, 20181 min read
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