book of the week
NOVEL
When they met in the 1990s, Jack and Elizabeth were lonely college kids fleeing awful families; they fell in love as if swept into a private tornado. Twenty years later Elizabeth’s wish list for their forever home—a condo into which they’ve sunk every penny—includes separate bedrooms. Hill’s second Great American Novel, after The Nix, brilliantly blends ideas about wellness culture, modern parenting, Internet algorithms, gentrification and, most importantly, love.
The Best New Books
Edited By KATE TUTTLE
Estranged from her mother, Ava and her son are homeless in 1980s Philadelphia. When they reconnect with the boy’s father, leader of a Black commune, the incendiary racial politics of the era blow up their lives. Ten years after The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, Mathis again strikes storytelling gold.
Seeking respite from the ordeal of her father’s near-fatal accident and her husband’s chronic illness, a writer takes a hike into the dessert. When disaster threatens, her new friends—a pile of rocks, a rabbit, a cactus, the motel desk clerks—save the day. Extremely funny and deeply felt.
Contributors BOOKS SUE CORBETT, MARION WINIK