The Antidote by Karen Russell

 

Harp Oketsky’s farm in dust-drowned Uz, Nebraska, is flourishing even as his neighbors’ are failing. And a serial killer is on the loose, even if the town sheriff tries to bury the plot. Central to the story though is a “prairie witch,” the antidote in the title, whose strength as a keeper of secrets might be on the wane. Russell is famous for elements of magical realism and this novel too weaves strands in expertly. At times the stories of the various characters strain to merge into a cohesive whole but the vivid and energetic narrative is a winner nevertheless. 

The Apartment by Ana Menendez

The high-rise building in Miami already rests on the ghosts of indigenous people. As apartment 2B gets going, from the early 50s on, stories of the residents layer on like wax on the parquet flooring. A soldier and young bride for whom the apartment marks just the beginning; a Cuban concert pianist whose best days are behind him; and most of all, Lenin, a young Cuban man whose exile haunts him. In the present is Lana, troubled by these collective ghosts and by the mice in the apartment. The collective symphony is aching and melodious, full of beauty and anguish.

American Bloomsbury: : Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work by Susan Cheever

Before I read this absolutely mesmerizing account of literary heavyweights in nineteenth century Concord, my knowledge of the giants was piecemeal. Thoreau setting up home by Walden Pond. Louisa May Alcott’s blockbuster, Little Women. Emerson’s role in launching the Transcendentalists movement. Cheever adds putty to this framework, portraying the characters in their full humanity, foibles and all. The short chapters keep the narrative brisk and there’s enough gossip in here to rival People magazine. I especially appreciated the personalities being set against the history-laden town of Concord, and, eventually, against the larger context of the Civil War. A riveting read.

Eastbound by Maylis De Kerangal

The Trans-Siberian Express is the focal point for this absolutely transfixing novella, brilliantly translated from French. Aliocha is a 20-year-old conscript who desperately wants to escape a certain harrowing fate in Siberia as part of the Russian army. He pleads with a woman on the train, secreted in first class, to hide him. And so launches this firecracker of a story that delivers a nerve-wracking ride. Maylis de Kerangal packs much energy into a dyamite narrative that moves linearly—quite literally, except for a short aside into the woman’s backstory. A marvel that has had me seeking out the author’s backlist.

The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth

What does the fall of an empire look like when distilled down to its most basic elements? This absolutely beautiful and elegiac novel shows us as it traces the lives of the father and son Trotta, descendants of the senior Trotta who saved the Kaiser’s life in the Battle of Solferino. That singular act casts a long protective shadow over the family, taking every generation under its wing. Roth traces Junior’s gradual disillusionment with his military duty, honorbound as he is by tradition and his father’s word. As the empire crumbles, the Trottas stand out in even starker contrast. Brilliant!

James by Percival Everett

 

It’s been a long time since I read Huckleberry Finn but I picked up this retelling of the classic because Percival Everett is one of my favorite authors and this one is from the runaway slave, Jim’s, point of view. I wish I had reread Huck Finn to place this work in better context but that did not in any way diminish how much I loved this novel. It’s heartbreaking to see James couch his erudition and bend his will to meet the demands of the whites around him. His evolution over the narrative is a joy to watch unfold. 

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

 

The cherry blossoms might be blooming right outside his window but the Professor in this delightful novel wants none of it. Ever since a car crash took away most of his memory, he’s most secure in his single shed-like home and doesn’t want to venture out into the world. But the titular housekeeper draws him out and makes space for him in the universe. From him she learns the meditative beauty of math and works around his handicap of being able to have a memory span that lasts only 80 minutes. Without a hint of melodrama, this novel is magical.