• The Best Reviewed Books of the Week

    Merman Sex, Mammoth bones, Motherhood, and more

    Australian short story writer Carys Davies’ “haunting and beautifully crafted” debut novel, West—the tale of a widowed Pennsylvania mule breeder who, upon hearing that ancient mammoth bones have been discovered across the Mississippi River, sets out into the uncharted wilderness to see for himself, leaving his young daughter behind—is our best reviewed fiction title of the week. On the nonfiction side, Patricia Hampl’s “swirl of memoir, travelogue and biography of some of history’s champion day-dreamers,” The Art of the Wasted Day, occupies the top spot.

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    We’ve also got United States Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith’s latest collection, Melissa Broder’s erotic-aquatic fantasia, Sheila Heti’s maternal musings, a fugitive family memoir, and more.







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    Rome is the City of Poets

     Even the most hurried visitor to Rome cannot help but be struck by the nonchalant energy with which its modern population...

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