fiction
The coming-of-age novel comes of age
If old age is another country, three novelists are exploring not just the peaks and valleys but also the rough places in between.
Is Jamie Quatro’s novel really about marital infidelity?
Maybe Fire Sermon is more fundamentally a parable about religion.
by Amy Peterson
A life worth living, but for how long?
In their new novels, Dara Horn and Chloe Benjamin play with themes of mortality and free will.
Marilynne Robinson's beautiful, cranky nonfiction
Robinson's essays are sometimes tedious. Yet they provide glimpses of the capacious faith undergirding her novels.
Essential reading: Fiction
We asked some of our favorite novelists and poets to tell us about three recent works of fiction that speak to them in a deep way.
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A fictional world where abortion and IVF are illegal—and the women who live there
Leni Zumas's novel makes a political point. More importantly, it cultivates empathy.
by Amy Frykholm
Catholic sisters and their difficult vocation
Alice McDermott ponders a mystery: How is it that women hear the calling and find the strength to love and support their neighbors?
by David Crowe
What happens after you survive an apocalypse?
The lively dystopian worlds of Louise Erdrich and Kaethe Schwehn
by Debra Bendis
The sparkle of James McBride's stories
Five-Carat Soul is filled with hilarious storytelling, unusual characters, and stark realities.
by Debra Bendis
A novel that charts a spiritual transformation
H. K. Bush's tale revolves around the challenges of a Western academic's encounter with the East.
by David Crowe
Gifts of comfort and joy
In these troubling times, we asked some of our favorite writers to tell us about books (and other things) that bring hope and healing.
Tales of different lands
Literature and film from England, Hungary, Japan, and Korea
Kamila Shamsie’s novel is filled with perfect coincidences
Of all the coffee joints frequented by all the British citizens-of-Pakistani-descent in all of Amherst, Massachusetts, she walks into his?
Charged with the grandeur of God—and the influence of Flannery O'Connor
The faith-infused southern fiction of Tim Gautreaux, Robert Olen Butler, and Jamie Quatro
A novel that shows the power of #MeToo
Winnie M Li’s story of sexual assault is hard to read. That’s precisely why it’s so important.
Ralph Ellison’s theology made visible
Cooper Harriss aims to rescue Ellison from neglect and misinterpretation—by reading him alongside theologians.
How do novelists write about faith in a culture that's moving past it?
Oddly, the less people know about something the harder it is to tell them about it.
Ukraine, 1941
Nicole Krauss’s love letter to (an imagined) Kafka
A breathtaking novel that bleeds existential urgency from every page
by Beth Benedix
The autumn of our discontent
As leaves fall from the trees, Ali Smith helps us fall into the dreams and fears of her characters.