Everything I know about the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, which precipitated WWI, I learned from fiction. First, Aleksandar Hemon's short story, "The Accordian", which explores the very moment of the shots' impact, inspired by the presence of a bystander. This man seems to be the author's grandfather, standing in the
In the early 1980s, in a sixth-grade classroom in rural Ontario, a teacher used Edgar Allan Poe's stories to supplement the assigned reader for that year's English studies: a bitter experience for me as a young reader. I loved books - they were my best friends at that time - but
A blindfolded woman in labour, in the back of a van that has left Evin Prison in Tehran. It's an un-put-down-able scene. Atria Books - Simon & Schuster, 2013 It's 1983, in the third year of the war with Iraq, but the fierce immediacy of the story pulls
"I'm not gong to let on I was born here," Jane begins. It's 1977 and she is eighty-four years old, touring the lighthouse at Point Lucia which she last saw when she was 19. Atria Books - Simon and Schuster, 2013 Christina Schwarz's novel immediately immerses readers in another
Imagine the Griffin and Sabine stories. Gallery Books - Simon & Schuster, 2013 But take away the artwork. And substitute notebooks for postcards. Now, combine that with the bizarre otherworldliness of Banana Yoshimoto's novels. Take their spirited heroines, and the matter-of-fact acceptance of a thin veil between the worlds.
