Robert Leleux
The Compassionate Imagination of Sarah Bird
Imperial power’s refusal to clean up its messes is really what Bird’s latest book, Above the East China Sea, is all about. Read More
Witnessing Democracy in El Salvador
Robert Leleux traveled to El Salvador with Sissy Farenthold to observe a notable presidential election. Read More
Abusing Their Religion: Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & The Prison of Belief
In Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief, Lawrence Wright returns to his signature terrain: the outer reaches of religious faith. Read More
Lady Bird in her Own Words
Michael L. Gillette’s Lady Bird Johnson: An Oral History chronicles Mrs. Johnson’s journey from deep East Texas to the White house and beyond. Read More
South American Gothic: Edward Swift’s The Daughter of the Doctor and the Saint
Edward Swift’s latest novel, The Daughter of the Doctor and the Saint, is a tumultuous, epic work of magical realism, half The Count of Monte Cristo and half One Hundred Years of Solitude. Read More
Skeletons in a Small Town’s Closet
Janis Owens’ powerful new novel American Ghost recalls Lillian Smith’s Strange Fruit, the 1944 classic remembered, in part, for its brave portrayal of lynching. Owens’ book also tackles that barbaric custom, a form of domestic terrorism so entrenched in our … Read More
Faith in a Dead-End Town
Michael Morris’ sweet, sad-eyed new novel, Man in the Blue Moon, recalls great Southern literature: beloved works such as Olive Ann Burns’ Cold Sassy Tree and Fannie Flagg’s Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man. Set in a Spanish moss-draped, dead-end … Read More
The Other Side of the American Dream
Many of us find it difficult to practice diplomacy with our relatives. But when typical family squabbles are complicated by national borders—as they are in Reyna Grande’s excellent new memoir, The Distance Between Us—the stakes are raised far higher than … Read More
Kambri Crews’ New Memoir Chronicles Childhood With Deaf Parents
Burn Down the Ground, Kambri Crews’ moving new memoir, in part tells the story of her coming of age as the hearing child of deaf parents. Early on, Crews became her mother and father’s “interpreter,” their voice in the wider … Read More