In this issue, we review Colm Tóibín’s Long Island, the long-awaited sequel to Brooklyn that catches up with Eilis Lacey two decades later, following her on a trip from New York back to Enniscorthy, Ireland. The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes also features a return to an Irish locale, telling the story of three sisters reuniting to find the fourth, a Galway geologist who has gone missing in the countryside.
Real Americans by Rachel Khong is a layered multigenerational story about a Chinese scientist escaping the Cultural Revolution to do research in America, as well as the lives of her daughter and grandson. Daughters of Shandong by Eve J. Chung delves further back in Chinese history with its tale of a mother and three daughters who flee to Taiwan due to the Communist victory of the late 1940s.
While some voyages are made for specific purposes, others can be meandering and ongoing. In Douglas Westerbeke’s A Short Walk Through a Wide World, a young girl must stay on the move to keep a magical illness at bay. Miranda July’s All Fours focuses on a middle-aged woman who attempts to brave a cross-country road trip solo, only to be derailed by an affair that changes her forever. Nell Irvin Painter’s essay collection I Just Keep Talking reflects a historian and artist’s lifelong journey of scholarship and thought about Black American experience, travel abroad and many other subjects.
Accompanying these reviews are several Beyond the Book articles that expand on the people and motivations behind the work, addressing Chung’s inspirations for her novel, librarians who have turned to writing, like Westerbeke, July’s previous books and films, and the strange fictions surrounding Sojourner Truth, a figure of interest for Painter.
We also bring you coverage of other recently released books, along with a brief history of the Pulitzer Prize, a Wordplay, a giveaway of Danielle Steel’s latest historical novel Only the Brave and much more.
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