This week, we review the "stunning work of enduring literary beauty" that is poet Kaveh Akbar's first novel, Martyr!, as well as the "world of magic" within the "vivid and poetic" City of Stardust. We also take a sobering look at one epidemic of work-related cancer in "the harrowing debut from journalist Jim Morris," The Cancer Factory. And for younger readers, we highlight Kengo Kurimoto's "visual storytelling perfection" in the graphic novel Wildful.
In The Writer's Life, novelist Francis Spufford elaborates on how he went about reimagining American history for his genre-defying detective novel Cahokia Jazz.
--Dave Wheeler, senior editor, Shelf Awareness