A Word About Awards

THE CHANGELING by Victor LaValle   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2019, LA Times Finalist 2017, PEN/Jean Stein Finalist 2018   Date Read: July 21, 2024   From Kirkus Reviews: “A  tragedy thrusts a mourning father into peculiar, otherworldly corners of New York City. When Apollo and Emma have their baby, Brian, it feels like both reward and challenge for the new dad. Apollo, the son of a single mother, had been scraping by as a bookseller who hunts estate and garage sales for rare first editions, so even the unusual circumstance of Brian's birth (in a stalled subway train) seems like a blessing, as does the way Apollo stumbles across a first edition of  To Kill a Mockingbird  (inscribed by Harper Lee to Truman Capote, no less) shortly after. But after some young-parent squabbles and inexplicable images on their smartphones foreshadow trouble, the story turns nightmarish: Apollo finds himself tied up and beaten by Emma, then forced to listen to the sounds of Br...

THE PRESIDENT & THE FROG by Carolina De Robertis   Nominations: PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2022, PEN/Jean Stein Finalist 2022   Date Read: February 22, 2024   From Kirkus Reviews: “A  former Latin American president reminisces on his remarkable life.   In Kirkus Prize finalist De Robertis’ new novel, the unnamed former president of a Latin American country is interviewed by a journalist. Inspired by the life of José Mujica, the former president of Uruguay, the novel’s 82-year-old protagonist—affectionately dubbed the “Poorest President in the World”—lives in a humble home with his wife and dogs and tends his infamous garden. As he sits down with the Norwegian interviewer, the former president finds himself drawn to her and wonders if he should share the deepest secret of his life, which he dubs “the story of the frog.” The narrative oscillates between the present-day interview (set shortly after the 2016 U.S. election) and memories of his past. A former guerrilla...

THE TREES by Percival Everett   Nominations: Booker Finalist 2022, PEN/Faulkner Longlist 2022, PEN/Jean Stein Finalist 2022   Date Read: January 3, 2023   The Trees is a puzzler – part historical fiction, part sci-fi zombie apocalypse – but oh so satisfying. What you initially think are a couple of local murders of retribution become a national phenomenon, gathering white bodies in a cosmic search for justice that never came.   The initial murders we are privy to follow a pattern – the white victim is strangled with barbed wire, beaten horrifically and his balls are chopped off. Making this even more macabre is the body of a black man is always found at the scene and often goes missing after it’s been bagged.    The initial victims in Money, MS are members of the white mob that killed Emmett Till, as well as his accuser, a white girl at the time, who later recanted and confessed she contrived the entire thing. The heartbreaking part of this is that it’s all...