Much awaited, the latest novel by Ian McEwan

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan opens in the year 2119, which technically qualifies it as science fiction. But the characters and the issues that preoccupy them have a very contemporary feel. It is the most recent in a string of books I’ve read with pleasure by Ian McEwan, including Atonement, Amsterdam, On Chesil …

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Winter reading – pt. 1, fiction

You don't ski? You can't bear the cold outside? You can stay warm, cozy and energized by making friends with a book. The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis is an unraveling mystery focused on a prominent Israeli cabinet minister who, to escape a high-profile disagreement with his Prime Minister, betrays his wife by decamping with his …

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Book ideas for summer nights

My family's return from a glorious week in London shows how salutary it is for a political junkie to purge herself- albeit temporarily - of politics. So before I get sucked back into  the  nearly unspeakable frustration of focusing on the ongoing national political dysfunction, I want to reflect on the pleasures that lie between the covers of a …

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