We highlight some terrific fiction this week, including The Archive of Feelings, in which Swiss author Peter Stamm writes with "the seemingly effortless precision of an artist" about an archivist whose job is deemed obsolete; Ariel Lawhon's "gripping" sixth novel, The Frozen River, examines the ripple effects of a crime in 1780s Maine, inspired by the life of midwife Martha Ballard; and When the Stars Came Home, a "splendid picture book" by Brittany Luby, illus. by Natasha Donovan, features an Indigenous boy uprooted with his family who learns the true meaning of home. Plus so many more!
In The Writer's Life, reading with literary critic and scholar Nicholas Dames transforms into a kind of meta-exercise, in light of his book The Chapter.
--Jennifer M. Brown, senior editor, Shelf Awareness