Ilana Masad
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An excellent work of people-first journalism, Donovan X. Ramsey's book offers a vivid and frank history and highlights how communities tend to save themselves even as they're being targeted.
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Mai Nguyen's debut novel centers on the family of Tuyet and Xuan Tran, Vietnamese refugees who settle in Toronto. It simmers with questions about work, class and generational divides.
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Karin Boye's novel is an outlier in that it was authored by a woman and, though narrated by a man, still expresses interest in women's inner life and acknowledges the subtleties of sexism.
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The 22 stories in Sidle Creek charm, surprise, and convey a deep love of the people and place — the Appalachian plateau of western Pennsylvania — that author Jolene McIlwain has long called home.
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John Wray's latest novel is a powerful and juicy story about a particular time, subculture, and the ways people can find themselves in — or can deliberately disappear into — fandom.
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Sarah Cypher's debut novel ponders how stories can unite or divide as narrator Betty considers a big decision with her great-aunt Nuha's own mysterious life — and the tales she told — in mind.
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Sarah Weinman's book excels as an in-depth exploration of how outside influence and support can affect the criminal justice system — and as the narrative of a con artist who hurt a lot of people.
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Erin Khar's son, at 12, asked her if she'd ever used drugs; this book is her answer: "When we write the truth, when we write about our experiences, we reflect back what it means to be a human being."
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Amber Sparks' new story collection is full of vivid language, compelling imagery, sharp wit and tenderness; many of the pieces also share a thread of anger in their treatment of the patriarchy.
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Ben Okri's new novel begins with a prison, which preoccupies his characters — where is it? What is it? Who's in it? It's a deceptively simple read that wrestles with deep questions about humanity.