#2 Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich
/Fearless Fourteen, by Janet Evanovich
Read MoreMy Eyes Are Up Here, Milord
/There’s something going on in the latest trend of Tudor book-covers, and we’re not sure what it is, although a pair (shall we say?) of aspects is quite obvious. What are these publishers thinking? Take a look for yourself! and a second look! and a third!
Read MoreGathering Driftwood
/For sixty years, the great and shapeshifting American author Evan S. Connell has woven strands of short stories through the fabric of his ongoing larger works. These beguiling stories have changed (and often deepened) with time while many of their ardors and tensions have remained the same, creating an irresistible dialectic. The three founding editors of Open Letters, united in their appreciation for this living legend of the American literary scene, pay tribute by writing a piece apiece on Connell’s life, career, and latest short story collection, Lost in Uttar Pradesh.
Read MoreBehind the Scenes of Tudor Fiction: an Excerpt and Dissection
/An excerpt and dissection of Steve Donoghue’s Tudor novel Boy King
Read MoreBook Review: A Case of Exploding Mangoes
/Mohammed Hanif's debut raises the specter of Joseph Heller. Steve Donoghue reviews A Case of Exploding Mangoes
Read MoreBook Review: Netherland
/Joseph O'Neill's Netherland combine September 11 and cricket. Steve Donoghue reviews.
Read MoreMany Voyages Home
/As Tennyson told us a century ago, Odysseus has become a name for wandering and a template for every storyteller since. In Zachery Mason’s evocative first novel, The Lost Books of the Odyssey, old myths find new words for the modern era; Steve Donoghue describes that newer world.
Read MoreBook Review: Quiver
/Does Peter Leonard's thriller "Quiver" stand up to the work of his famous father Elmore?
Read MoreBook Review: The Rain Before it Falls
/Jonathan Coe's The Rain Before it Falls tells the multigenerational tale of women from World War II to the present era
Read MoreAbsent Friends: Between the River and the Mountains
/In our regular feature, Steve Donoghue revisits Giovanni Guareschi’s Little World of Don Camillo, an eternally comforting fictional oasis set in the heart of the Cold War.
Read MoreThe Latest from Yasnaya Polyana
/With so many versions of War and Peace to choose from, is there anything that translators can do to set themselves apart? Yes, says Steve Donoghue, they can make old mistakes.
Read MoreProper Read Stuff
/Fed up with the abuses of book reviewers, Gail Pool in her book Faint Praise advises editors to supply freelancers with a list of writing guidelines they would have to sign and abide by. Steve Donoghue isn’t quite ready to put his name on the dotted line.
Read MoreAbsent Friends: I Could Wake Up in Nirvana and Laugh
/In this regular feature, Steve Donoghue celebrates the life and letters of John Jay Chapman, an eloquent American wit now forgotten, whose writings once provoked and delighted an enthusiastic public.
Read MoreFenimore Cooper’s Literary Defenses
/James Fenimore Cooper’s greatness as a novelist has been almost completely lost behind a single, hilarious skewering from Mark Twain. Steve Donoghue reviews a new biography that tries desperately to win back the poor man’s reputation.
Read MoreH.H. Kirst and the Problem of Evil
/What do we do with great novels by a writer who was also a Nazi? Steve Donoghue investigates the terrible conundrum of H.H. Kirst.
Read MoreEdith Wharton
/Steve Donoghue converses with the critics in his review of Hermione Lee’s page-turning but harrowingly huge biography of Edith Wharton
Read MoreShall We in That Great Night Rejoice?
/Steve Donoghue assesses all of twentieth century literature. That’s correct: all of twentieth century literature. Don’t believe it…?
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