We're pleased to say that the books reviewed in this week's issue are likely to leave a mark, especially Bill Schutt's fresh survey of the animal kingdom, Bite: An Incisive History of Teeth, from Hagfish to Humans, which is positively a "treasure trove of... facts" about the eating habits of vampire bats, which frogs have teeth, and more. Meanwhile, Navid Sinaki writes about desire "with a blade's edge" in his debut novel, Medusa of the Roses, a "spellbinding story [that] unfolds not as a myth retold but as a fresh legend." Plus, with Everything We Never Had, acclaimed author Randy Ribay delivers a "profound multigenerational" saga of Filipino American men, enriched by real historical events, as he "intimately explores how to balance familial expectations with an evolving sense of self."
In The Writer's Life, novelist Caro De Robertis shares the story of discovering a kindred spirit in Jo March and the impact of reading Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Plus, they ruminate on the value that can be found in the practice of rereading.