"I live in between our two stores, so I can't tell you how often I will be walking down the street and a parent with a child will be like, 'This is the lady who owns the bookstore!'

"I absolutely love being the bookstore lady. Like, I love giving dogs treats and flirting with other people's babies and giving recommendations. It does feel like you're imprinting on these people. My husband and I have built something that children are going to remember, and that feels so meaningful."

Odd Bird Bookshop, offering new and used books, will host its grand opening celebration tomorrow, April 11, at 37 N. Main St., Suite 103, in Bel Air, Md. WMAR reported that "exchanging a popular pop-up business for one grounded in the Bel Air Armory Marketplace, the Odd Bird Bookshop grew out of Jessica Rosado's creative vision designed to be different."

"We just got a resounding response from the community being like, 'Oh my God! I love this!' or 'I love this detail!' or 'I love that you (or we) do a grownup book fair a couple of times a year,' " Rosado said. "And we bring back all of the classics from the '80s and the '90s--the Scholastic book fairs they had in schools, Baby-Sitters Club and Goosebumps books."

The inspiration behind opening a physical storefront was Rosado's 19-year-old daughter, Lyric Stoker. "Sensory overload often denied her the relaxed, family atmosphere her mother tried to bring to her business as it moved about," WMAR noted.

"Depending on the brightness of the lights, I tend to get headaches and I can't focus properly," Stoker said. "If a room is too hot, I can't focus. If there's too many loud noises, I can't focus. It's just the overstimulation becomes too much to function."

Rosado added: "My entire family has some sensory issues, a variety of them, whether it be the lights or fabrics or noises and things like that, so I knew this was something the community needed. I really truly built it for her, but I also know that there are so many people out there that struggle with the same sort of thing."

People have rallied behind the idea of a sensory-friendly, independent bookstore, donating both money and their time to help fulfill this vision. "I wanted that. I wanted community," said Rosado, "I wanted somewhere that people felt like, 'I'm going to my bookstore.' You know they had a hand in building this, and that was really important to me."

Storytime Bookshop in Kennewick, Wash., is searching for a new, permanent home after a fire in mid-March caused severe damage to its building and the loss of nearly all of its inventory, the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business reported. 

Storytime's former location.

Though the bookstore will not be returning to 107 W. Kennewick Ave., it will be reopening in a temporary pop-up location on Independent Bookstore Day, April 25. The pop-up location will reside in a front corner of Discount Vac & Sew at 22 W. Kennewick Ave., and owner Lorelei Kennedy will be able to sell books and host storytime sessions while searching for a new location. 

"The good news is that we have had a huge hand-up in starting to rebuild as quickly as possible," Kennedy wrote in an update posted to Instagram April 7. The bad news, she continued, was that "none of the inventory can be saved and some of the furniture will need to be replaced."

Kennedy noted that the bookstore could use volunteers to help with clearing out trash and furniture, and they are accepting donations of both books and money. "We're making the sweetest lemonade from this bad batch of lemons and are so grateful to this community for showing us such a wonderful outpouring of love."

The fire broke out on March 17 in a neighboring restaurant called El Tequilas, causing severe smoke damage to the bookstore and another neighboring business. The fire also weakened the building's roof, which later caused water damage.

Abrams has founded a new wellness imprint called ABRAMS Well that will publish five or six titles annually, beginning in Spring 2027. The focus will be on both narrative and fully illustrated titles across food and drink, women's health, longevity, fitness, career, and relationships.

Abrams observed that the imprint "builds on the company's many existing successes--including bestsellers such as The First Forty Days, Sakara Life's Eat Clean, Play Dirty, and Jennifer Fisher's Trust Your Gut--with a forward-looking list that reflects how wellness is lived today: as holistic, culturally relevant, deeply personal experiences."

Abrams president and CEO Mary McAveney said, "Wellness works best when it meets people where they are, and readers are hungry for guidance they can trust. With ABRAMS Well, we're delivering wellness with style, applying the care, creativity, and craft that have defined Abrams as an authority in the Art of Books. We're proud to publish these books that are designed to inspire connection, books that are beautifully made, thoughtfully shaped, and meant to live with readers for a long time." 

Holly Dolce

The new imprint will be led by v-p and editorial director Holly Dolce. Dolce said, "The wellness landscape can feel vast and confusing, especially now. ABRAMS Well authors are tastemakers who are shaping the conversation about wellness with advice that is grounded in both expertise and lived experience. Our books encourage readers to prioritize vitality, strength, and resilience at every stage of their lives." Editor Juliet Dore will also acquire for the imprint.

Forthcoming ABRAMS Well titles include:

Jess Damuck's Green Goddess (Spring 2027). The author of Salad Freak and Health Nut offers more than 100 vegetarian recipes that deliver the plant protein, fiber, and devotion-worthy flavors that people want from dinner.

Heng Ou's The Second Spring: Nurturing Yourself Through Perimenopause (Spring 2027). The author of The First Forty Days, Awakening Fertility, and Nine Golden Months draws on traditional Chinese medicine practices for feeling well and embracing this new stage of life. Also forthcoming: The First Forty Days Cookbook (Spring 2029).

Karamo Brown's The Unpredictable Choice: 4 Keys to Unlock an Extraordinary Life (Spring 2027). The talk show host and culture expert on Netflix's Queer Eye draws on his background as a psychotherapist and social worker to examine how bold third options can lead to surprising and often successful results, whether in love and relationships, work, friendships, or the creative process.

Willie Greene's WE THE URBAN Presents: Return (Fall 2027). The author of Not Sure Who Needs to Hear This, But offers more collective wisdom, inspirational quotes, and thought-provoking essays to encourage his seven million followers on social media to grow, heal, and return to their true selves.

Millie Peartree's Show Up for Yourself: A Cookbook (Fall 2027). Popular New York Times cooking contributor, chef, and community activist Mille Peartree, known for her soulful classic recipes and for her charitable foundation, teaches readers how to show up for themselves by cooking more healthfully.

Sarah Thomas's Hello, Homemade! (January 2028). With more than 1.5 million followers on social media, Healthyish brand founder Sarah Thomas preaches real food over bars and supplements for readers seeking to eat more protein, fiber, and vitamins. Her cookbook encourages balance as the first step to a healthier life.

Jen Jones's Plant Based Queen! (January 2028). With more than four million followers on social media, health, beauty, and wellness influencer Jen Jones empowers others to nurture their bodies from the inside out with a plant-based diet.

Whitney Tingle and Danielle Duboise's new untitled cookbook (March 2028). This book by the co-founders of Sakara Life offers everyday recipes for high vibration living inspired by their cult-favorite meal service.

Sara Jane Ho's Eastern Wellness (Spring 2028). Sara Jane Ho, host of the popular podcast Mind Your Manners, entrepreneur, and Drew Barrymore correspondent, brings ancient Chinese wisdom into the home kitchen through comforting recipes designed to nourish the body and restore balance.

Kate DiCamillo, like the hero of her 12th novel, The True Story of Child Outlaw Edith Leapyear as Told by Herself, is making a "leap"--to W.W. Norton. DiCamillo's upcoming novel will be one of the inaugural titles in Norton's newly expanded children's book program launching in spring 2027.

Kate DiCamillo (photo: Dina Kantor)

This is a full-circle moment for DiCamillo and Karen Lotz, director of children's books and strategic development at Norton since September 2025. Lotz read the manuscript for Because of Winn-Dixie, DiCamillo's debut novel and a Newbery Honor book, on her first day at Candlewick. And now, in Lotz's new role at Norton, DiCamillo's book was one of the first books she bought. Lotz acquired world English-language rights from Holly M. McGhee, president and creative director of Pippin Properties, for "north of seven figures," according to McGhee. Ahead of the Bologna Book Fair next week, McGhee said they've already sold 11 translations of The True Story of Child Outlaw Edith Leapyear, as Told by Herself.

"When I came through the doors [of W.W. Norton]," Lotz said, "it was a feeling of being with people who clearly loved books and loved each other. It felt familiar and it felt like home." DiCamillo, too, was struck by "the love of books and the cohesiveness of the team."

When asked why DiCamillo, whose body of work (including her two Newbery-winning novels, The Tale of Despereaux and Flora and Ulysses) almost entirely resides at Candlewick, made the decision to move to Norton, she answered, "A character can sometimes influence how you look at the world and encourage you to try something new, and so this is me following Edith and listening to her." She pointed to the Norton logo as being so much a part of her as a reader, "and it is the thing that is in my head as I think about all this, it's very much about me spreading my wings." At Norton, Lotz will also have the opportunity to edit books for adults, something she did while at Penguin Young Readers when her children's book authors wanted to write for adults; DiCamillo will also have that option at Norton.

"It's exciting to think about," Lotz said of the range of possibilities, "because the longer I've been in our world, I've realized that one of the things I don't love are all the barriers that are put up in front of readers. Some of them are not deliberate; they're consequences of how books are sold and how the world works. Some of them are deliberate, and those get me worked up. But being at a place that brings those barriers down, I think that's something Norton is growing into on the young readers side. It's relatively new for them, but they're so interested in learning more about bringing 'books that live' [Norton's motto] to readers of all ages."

With The True Story of Child Outlaw Edith Leapyear, as Told by Herself, DiCamillo returns to a first-person narrative, used sparingly in her novels--only in Because of Winn-Dixie and Louisiana's Way Home before this one. "First-person is a delight to write and is also a high-wire act," she explained when asked why she returned to it for her 12th novel. "You have so much more control when you're not in first person. This is a little bit like Louisiana's Way; I kept backing up, redirecting, and it would not be told any way but first person. The character is always smarter than I am. Why it needed to happen became abundantly clear to me as I was doing the penultimate draft before people read it. This is someone claiming themselves absolutely. It was empowering to watch Edith do that, and it's why we're talking today, because it empowered me, too."

"This is also Norton taking a leap," Lotz pointed out. "We're all leaping together." Lotz said that Norton has been committed to children's books for a while now. "But they made a very conscious decision that they were going to expand and support and broaden and deepen those efforts." In 2023, Norton celebrated its centennial. "They've done amazing trade books forever," Lotz said. "But children's books are still something quite new for them. "And they're saying, 'We're all in,' and that is a leap. When Kate said she could see the cohesiveness of the team, it's because everyone read [Edith Leapyear]. I feel like it brought Norton together in a way that was really fun and amazing."

DiCamillo appeared in conversation with Ann Patchett at the Public Library Association conference in Minneapolis earlier this week. "We were talking with somebody who is a librarian and who decided that they wanted to be a librarian when she read The Tale of Despereaux as a kid. She had her childhood copy with her," DiCamillo said. "And so it's owning all of that and thinking, okay, let's occupy this space fully and leap."

"This is what I'm supposed to do in the world," DiCamillo said. "Let me occupy it fully, to make those connections that make a kid feel seen. And through feeling seen, empower them to be themselves in the world." --Jennifer M. Brown

British bookseller Debbie James, owner of Kibworth Books in Leicestershire, has been named the new president of the Booksellers Association of the U.K. & Ireland, succeeding Fleur Sinclair of Sevenoaks Bookshop, the Bookseller reported. James is joined by new v-p Will Smith, owner of Sam Read in Grasmere, alongside Mairi Oliver of Lighthouse Bookshop in Edinburgh, Scotland, who continues in her role as v-p as well.

Debbie James

At the BA's annual general meeting, managing director Meryl Halls welcomed James's appointment and thanked Sinclair for her service as president, while highlighting the strength and experience of the incoming officer team, the Bookseller noted. Smith was recognized for his longstanding contribution to the trade, and Oliver for her continued leadership and insight in her ongoing role as v-p.

In addition, the BA's Advisory Council for the 2026-29 term includes seven newly elected members: Helen Stanton (Forum Books), Dan Johns (Padstow Bookseller), Nicole Vanderbilt (Bookshop.org), Deborah Texeira (Kenilworth Books), Helen Tamblyn-Saville (Wonderland Bookshop), Darran McLaughlin (Bookhaus), and Sally Pattle (Far from the Madding Crowd).

James said: "What an honor it is to continue the outstanding work done by Fleur Sinclair in further solidifying the relationships we high street booksellers--working in independent and chain bookshops alike--have with all industry partners. Equal partnerships with authors, agents, publishers, their publicists, reps and decision-makers are essential for the health of the book industry as a whole. For all communities to see themselves represented in this industry is vital and this, plus my passion for sustainability and respect for nature and the planet will be the driving forces throughout my term as BA president, for the sake of our collective resilience and prosperity."

Halls added:  "We are delighted to welcome Debbie as BA president.  Having worked with Debbie in her v-p role, I know how dedicated she is to bookseller benefit, how thoughtful she is about all bookselling issues, and how rigorous and fearless she is in approaching challenges.  We are very fortunate to have such a calibre of bookseller available to us at the BA, and we are so thrilled that Debbie has been able to pick up the reins from Fleur Sinclair.  All of us at the BA are looking forward to working with Debbie even more closely over the coming two years, and to ensuring that her priorities and passions positively influence our activities."

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Fabian Paagman, president of European & International Booksellers Federation and managing director of Paagman bookstores in the Hague, Netherlands; and Sanne Muijser, director of the Royal Booksellers Association, attended the American Booksellers Association's Winter Institute in February, and have co-authored a report highlighting one of the event's key themes: bookselling in times when democracy is under threat. 

In a brief summary of their report, EIBF's Newsflash reported: "Sessions explored topics such as security protocols for bookstore staff, responding to organized harassment, and the legal implications of government agency interventions. They also note that one of the most attended sessions was even titled 'Bookstores in the Time of Fascism: Your Store in 2026.' Paagman and Muijser also drew comparisons between the situation in the United States and Europe, with a focus on the Netherlands, urging the industry to remain vigilant. Their article calls for increased awareness and proactive measures to ensure that bookstores and their communities are prepared and protected, and that the threats faced elsewhere do not take hold locally."

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Rising youth readership and interest in book-driven connections have fueled the rise of bookstores as places for romantic encounters, the Korea Herald reported, noting that a "growing number of social media posts show people visiting flagship stores of Kyobo Book Center, the country's largest bookstore chain, to approach someone they find attractive and ask for their number in hopes of going on a date, while "similar videos featuring other bookstores such as Youngpoong Bookstore and even public libraries are rapidly spreading."

The overall reading rate among adults--the proportion of those who read at least one book in a given year--was 38.5% last year, while the rate among people in their 20s reached 75.3%, the Korea Herald noted, citing a report released last month by the Culture Ministry that said this was the only age group to record an increase, as all others declined.

Literature met fine art at St. Martin's Press's pre-publication cocktail party for Julie Carrick Dalton's novel The Forest Becomes Her. The event was hosted by author Hank Phillippi Ryan at the Galerie d’Orsay in Boston. Pictured: (from left) Maddie Holland (community relations manager, An Unlikely Story, Plainville, Mass.), Isabel Shuler (fine art consultant, Galerie d'Orsay), Hank Phillippi Ryan, Julie Carrick Dalton, Martha S. Folsom (co-director, Galerie d'Orsay), Kathy Crowley (co-owner, Belmont Books, Belmont, Mass.). (photo courtesy of Megan Beatie Communications)

Anne Zafian, v-p and deputy publisher for the Simon & Schuster Children's Trade Publishing Division, will retire on June 30 after 22 years at S&S. She joined the company's sales team in 2004, where she was v-p of distributor sales and retail marketing. In 2008, she joined the children's division as deputy. Since then, Zafian has worked with the Atheneum, Beach Lane, Margaret K. McElderry, S&S Books for Young Readers and Scarlett Press imprints. Before joining S&S, she was at the Time Warner Book Group (now part of Hachette) for 22 years.

Verbatim Books recently held a Read Out, a day of silent reading on the streets of North Park in San Diego, Calif. The bookstore posted on Instagram: "The first ever Read Out was so fun! Incredible to see the community come together and reclaim the streets of North Park for reading. We had a huge dollar book sale, a book swap, and joined with our friends @shabby.books @heybooksorelse and @streetsmartbookstore to find thousands of books a good home." (Photos by @davidsnide @snider.photo)

The Read Out was the second North Park Community Fair, a monthly event every first Saturday hosted by Verbatim Books. In its announcement of the event, the bookstore described Read Out as "a full-day street closure dedicated to slowing down, opening books, and reading together in community. We're inviting neighbors of all ages to bring a chair or blanket, grab a spot in the street, and spend the day reading, relaxing, and connecting.... This event is designed to be casual, welcoming, and open to everyone. Bring the family, meet up with friends, or come solo with a stack of books and make a day of it. Read Out is about reclaiming public space for quiet joy, shared stories, and the simple pleasure of reading together. Come spend the day with us."

The most popular book club titles at Reading Group Choices in March were Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser (St. Martin's Press) and The Bookbinder's Secret by A.D. Bell (St. Martin's Press).

Ana Cooke has been hired as sales assistant, mass market for Candlewick Press, Holiday House, and Peachtree. Cooke most recently worked for Barnes & Noble as a YA bookseller.

Noting that last month Corbin Bleu (High School Musical; Kiss Me, Kate) stepped into the role of Nick Carraway in Broadway's The Great Gatsby after playing the role in the musical's 2025 London production, Playbill featured a video of him leading the New York company in "Roaring On" at the Broadway Theatre.

Reeve Carney (Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark, Hadestown) currently leads the cast as Jay Gatsby opposite his real-life wife, Eva Noblezada (Miss Saigon, Hadestown), playing Daisy Buchanan. The Broadway company also includes Linedy Genao as Myrtle Wilson, Samantha Pauly as Jordan Baker, Charlie Pollock as George Wilson, John Behlmann as Tom Buchanan, and Eric Anderson as Meyer Wolfsheim.

Based on the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, the production features music and lyrics by Nathan Tysen (Paradise Square) and Jason Howland (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), along with a book by Kait Kerrigan (The Mad Ones). Marc Bruni (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical) directs with choreography by Dominique Kelley (Mariah's Magical Christmas Special).

Kerry Condon (Train Dreams, F1, The Banshees of Inisherin) will co-star in Netflix's The God of the Woods opposite Maya Hawke. Deadline reported that the project is from co-showrunners Liz Hannah (The Girl from Plainville, Mindhunter) and Liz Moore (Long Bright River), who are adapting the latter's bestselling novel.

The project is "a multi-generational drama series set in the Adirondacks, exploring the Van Laar family's dark secrets, class tensions, and the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar from her family's summer camp--in the wake of an earlier family tragedy that may be related," Deadline noted. Executive producers include Hannah and Moore, along with Neal H. Moritz and Pavun Shetty for Original Film. Sony Pictures Television is the studio.

Swimming Against the Tide by Said Khatibi (Hachette Antoine) has won the 2026 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, at the Department of Culture and Tourism--Abu Dhabi.

Living in Slovenia, Said Khatibi is an Algerian novelist and journalist, educated at the University of Algiers and the Sorbonne. He is the author of Forty Years Waiting for Isabel (2016), winner of the 2017 Katara Prize for the Arabic Novel; Firewood of Sarajevo (2018), shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2020; and The End of the Desert (2022), winner of the 2023 Sheikh Zayed Book Award.

This marks the second time the author has been recognized by the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Organizers said the novel "follows two parallel stories in Algiers: a female ophthalmologist who restores her patients' sight with corneas stolen from dead bodies is arrested for the murder of her husband, while her father, a former freedom fighter, is accused of collaboration with the former French occupier. As the narratives converge, it traces Algeria's history from the Second World War to the Black Decade of the 1990s (the Algerian Civil War), including the War of Liberation and its aftermath." 

Chair of judges Mohamed Elkadhi said: "Swimming Against the Tide is a captivating novel that lives up to its title, subtly probing the origins of the Black Decade in Algeria by swimming against the current of history. Said Khatibi presents us with fragments of a complex, hazy picture that the reader must reconstruct and rearrange in order to arrive at a meaning that encapsulates this elusive historical moment.

"In sensitive prose that strikes a balance between the everyday and the literary, the personal and the collective intertwine in a novel peopled by complex characters, both cruel and fragile. It is a novel to be devoured with relish, yet in its piercing scrutiny of unspoken and thwarted human pains and desires, it also leaves a bitter taste."

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Six novels have been shortlisted for the €100,000 (about $116,620) Dublin Literary Award, sponsored by Dublin City Council and recognizing a single work of international fiction, whether originally written in English or translated into it. If the winning title is a translation, the author receives €75,000 (about $87,465), while the translator is awarded €25,000 (about $29,155).

The finalists include four novels in translation--three from French and one from Croatian--with authors who are American, Bosnian, British, and Canadian. Two are debut novelists, Magdalena Blažević and Éric Chacour. The winner will be announced at International Literature Festival Dublin on May 21. This year's shortlisted titles are:

Gliff by Ali Smith  
In Late Summer by Magdalena Blažević, translated from the Croatian by Anđelka Raguž
Live Fast by Brigitte Giraud, translated from the French by Cory Stockwell
Perspectives by Laurent Binet, translated from the French by Sam Taylor
The Emperor of Gladness  by Ocean Vuong
What I Know About You by Éric Chacour, translated from the French by Pablo Strauss

photo: Rodrigo Restrepo Montoy

Morgan Day is a fiction and architecture writer living in Tucson, Ariz. Her writing has appeared in Ecotone, Gulf Coast, Worms, and the Southampton Review. She was an editor of Formgiving: An Architectural Future History. Her debut novel, The Oldest Bitch Alive (Astra House, March 24, 2026), tells a polyphonic story where revolving perspectives meditate on consciousness and theories of everything as it follows an aging French bulldog.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

The Oldest Bitch Alive is about an old French bulldog living in a glass house who contracts parasitic worms and awakens to the natural world.

On your nightstand now:

I started James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man before the end of the year and paused about halfway through. I'm hoping to pick it up again. My partner just finished Your Name Here, the new novel by Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff, and was very excited to pass it along to me. The Last Samurai by DeWitt is one of our favorite books. I'm a few chapters into Your Name Here and loving it. I'm also reading László Krasznahorkai's The World Goes On.

Favorite book when you were a child:

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I hadn't thought about it for years until now, but I must have been drawn to the watchdog Tock, a fantastical dog with a ticking clock body. When I was a bit older, I enjoyed Watership Down by Richard Adams and The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino.

Your top five authors:

Samuel Beckett, Clarice Lispector, Julio Cortázar, Amy Hempel, and Roberto Bolaño.

Book you've faked reading:

I've tried to read David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest and have had trouble continuing after 60 pages, even though I liked the parts that I read. Also, The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa. There are incredible passages, but for whatever reason I haven't been able to make it all the way through yet.

Book you're an evangelist for:

It's hard to choose one: Sula by Toni Morrison, The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, and The Wall by Marlen Haushofer. Three very different books, but each one has shown me what the novel can do.

Book you've bought for the cover:

The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada, translated by David Boyd. I'm glad I did, because then I was introduced to her other translated books--The Factory and Weasels in the Attic. I recommend them all.

Book you hid from your parents:

Story of O by Anne Desclos (under the pseudonym Pauline Réage). I didn't know what I was getting into. The novel was on the list of 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, which I'd gradually been making my way through at the time.

Book that changed your life:

There are so many books that I could choose, but The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante completely changed me as a writer. It brought all my attention to the capabilities of a simple sentence; Ferrante's are like containers ready to erupt. I've never read anything like it.

Favorite line from a book:

This is a line from The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett that has been on my mind lately: "But all is forgotten and I have done nothing, unless what I am doing now is something, and nothing could give me greater satisfaction."

Five books you'll never part with:

The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett, The Apple in the Dark by Clarice Lispector, Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar, Ulysses by James Joyce, and 2666 by Roberto Bolaño.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

I forget books almost as soon as I read them, so that's not really a problem for me. I don't often reread books from beginning to end, but one I'd like to pick up again is Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, a book by Lawrence Weschler about the artist Robert Irwin. I always like reading about the ways in which artists have committed to their work. I'm especially curious to revisit the part about Irwin's perseverance through dense philosophical texts, and how he felt changed despite not really understanding the concepts. That happens for me too.

Nayantara Roy's achingly powerful second novel, Sisters of a Halved Heart, maps the complicated emotional terrain between two half-sisters who try to mend their relationship in the wake of a cataclysmic betrayal.

Narrator Mira Guhathakurta, a poetry editor at a well-known literary magazine, has spent five years in London following a calamitous breakup. Returning to New York to rebuild her life, Mira settles tentatively into an apartment in Brooklyn, reconnecting with old friends and her father, gradually (and grudgingly) interacting with her sister, Joy. Younger by eight years, Joy is bold and sharp yet fragile, a corporate lawyer whose sense of self depends on her relationship with Mira and their father. As the sisters circle one another warily, bound together by their lifetime connection and their father's uncertain health, Roy examines the ways in which people hurt, question, support, reassure, and even abandon the ones they love most.

Roy (The Magnificent Ruins) unfolds the story of Mira and Joy's relationship: their blazing love for one another, tempered by the "language of small barbs" that peppers their constant jockeying for position. At the same time, Mira reflects on her relationship with Jack, the college acquaintance she bumped into at a party who became the love of her life, and the ways their relationship sustained her until its sudden, catastrophic ending. Although Joy is often brash and selfish, Mira never manages to hate her sister completely; their lifetime of love, as well as her awareness of Joy's good qualities--her compassion, her intelligence, her courage--is too strong. Their father is delighted to have both his girls back in his orbit but frustrated by their seeming inability to make peace. Though Mira finds herself gradually healing--even dating a new man, to her own surprise--she is still also felled by Joy's betrayal and hollowed out by Jack's absence from her life.

Roy traces the small intimacies of love through weighted moments and shared objects: a borrowed silk coat, a Cat Power song, lamb shanks in cumin gravy, mango pie at Thanksgiving. She gives voice to the shifting layers of family dynamics: adult siblings reverting to childhood roles; people keeping secrets to protect the ones they love; family members learning how to carry on after the unimaginable happens. In the end, Roy's characters achieve both a layered complexity and a certain "hard-won sweetness" to their love. With subtle grace and a fierce, deep compassion for her characters, Roy paints an unforgettable portrait of sisterhood and family. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Shelf Talker: Nayantara Roy's blazingly honest second novel maps the complicated emotional terrain of two half-sisters trying to rebuild their relationship after a betrayal.