Book Reviews

In this tender story, creating a rug becomes not just a moment when traditions can be passed down from one generation to the next but also an example of the beauty of the process and of the importance of family relationships.

This novel centering a proudly Muslim protagonist explores loss and belonging while celebrating imagination, storytelling, and art.

This lighthearted look at the experience of foreignness deftly represents the sometimes-scary, sometimes-humorous process of becoming bilingual and the transformative effect of immersing yourself in a new language.

With the pandemic as my reading context, I can't help but view Dalia Sofer's "Man of My Time" as an exploration of how political and social upheavals leave their marks on entire generations, and irrevocably alter those involved.

Jhumpa Lahiri's fifth book, "In Other Words," is about the author's obsessive desire to learn Italian and the quest to find an authentic authorial voice. Written in Italian and published in a bilingual edition that presents the two languages side by side on the page, the book takes us through the process of how, after unfruitful self-study, Ms. Lahiri moved to Italy for a year to absorb the language fully. Several chapters narrate her struggle to acquire the language in order to read and write it. Nestled between these chapters is the author's first short story in Italian.

This picture-book biography traces the trajectory of Pablo (“Pau” in Catalan) Casals from his childhood in the Catalonia region of Spain through the post–World War II period. Entranced by the cello from a young age (“it called to Pau”), Casals (1876–1973) left home to study the instrument in Barcelona, where, despite playing beautifully, he had a need to “feel” the music that perplexed his teachers. 

Riad Sattouf's graphic memoir, "The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984," examines both the author's childhood in the first six years of life, when he lived in France, Libya and Syria, and the shortcomings of Arab nationalism.

When a sandstorm makes “the city orange—the sun like a tangerine, the waves like clementine peels,” Sakina and her mother spend the day at a museum.

This visually vibrant yet gentle bedtime book promises, like the sleeper train, to calm and soothe readers.

During the long car trip from Isfahan across the desert to visit his grandfather’s farm, a young boy and his parents stop at the home of family friend Abbas. Abbas regales the boy with a tale about a family who owned a lemon grove. 

In this sequel to World Made of Glass (rev. 3/23), set a generation later, seventh grader Stevie (daughter of Iris Cohen, the first book’s protagonist) is attending her New Jersey town’s annual Kickoff to Summer celebration when a mass shooter goes on a killing spree.

Elif Shafak latest novel explores Muslim modernity

‘Dominicana explores the immigrant experience with radical empathy’

'An Unnecessary Woman: A Beirut novel for lovers of books and misfits' review