fiction

Nothing much happens in this novel—and yet, everything happens.

Leonard Pitts's story is so compelling that you barely notice how much you're learning.

If you’re new to Rick Bass’s edgy, glorious, and often brutal settings, this collection is a perfect place to start.

Eight days of presents? Here are some of my literary picks.

Jonathan Safran Foer asks what it really means to say, Here I am.

Fiction and photographs offer nuanced depictions of conflict.

Here at CC, we have some recommendations for your shopping list.

Two debut novels portray everyday life in Nigerian cities. They also teach Americans about our own culture.

Yaa Gyasi's novel reveals the freedoms and captivities we all inherit.

Joy Williams’s stories disarm, bewilder, and awaken us.

Is it possible for two 12-year-olds to retain their innocence in a place like Auschwitz?

Colson Whitehead has created a world as compelling—and as intolerable—as our own.

By some estimates, three quarters of Americans don't really know their next-door neighbor.

Four teenage girls dance their way into friendship and maturity.

Does democracy create good neighbors? Or is it the other way around?

The lines between sacred history and contemporary life are wonderfully, miraculously blurred.

One pastor in New Orleans would end every examination by asking, “What is your favorite work of fiction?” The other ministers collectively groaned. But I applauded the question. To be in South Louisiana meant being in a land of stories. As this NYT article observed, South Louisiana is “a place that produces writers the way that France produces cheese—prodigiously, and with world-class excellence.”

Anthony C. Yu died this spring. I am still discovering the profound influence this teacher had on me.

“I am fascinated by the war between what is best in our natures and what is worst.”