The Canadian author Miriam Toews (pronounced “Taves”) is a doyenne of the tragicomic. As Alexandra Schwartz noted in a New Yorker profile (March 18, 2019), Toews is a schputter: a Plautdietsch (Low German)…
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With reproductive rights devastatingly at stake in the US, as the historic Roe vs Wade ruling on abortion looks likely to be overturned, women’s bodies remain a political battleground. Long considered…
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Louise Kennedy’s debut novel plunges us into Northern Ireland in 1975 — one of the bloodiest years of the Troubles, despite a ceasefire. Cushla Lavery is a 24-year-old Catholic primary school…
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There’s an Oulipian game I like to play when reviewing the work of young female Irish writers: can I avoid any reference to Sally Rooney? To my mind, it’s reductive to…
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Adrian Duncan’s new novel is his fourth book in four years (I’ll have whatever he’s having). His 2019 debut, Love Notes from a German Building Site, which won the inaugural John McGahern Book…
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Elena Ferrante’s latest book of nonfiction offers a rare peek behind the curtain of the creative process of one of our most elusive authors. The book is comprised of four lectures:…