Tag: Fiction
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“Silver Nitrate” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The magic of the movies. This phrase carries a special meaning for two childhood friends, Montserrat and Tristán. They love watching old horror movies together, and they both work in the movie industry: Montserrat is the only woman in sound editing production, and Tristán works as an actor, thanks to his good looks, which have…
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“The Rachel Incident” by Caroline O’Donoghue
Rachel Murray is a twenty-one-year-old, tall (5’11, but to make it easier, she often says she’s six foot) woman living in Cork, Ireland. She studies English and has a crush on her professor. Her roommate, James, a closeted gay who works with her at a quaint bookstore, tries to help her attract the professor’s interest,…
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“Empty Theatre” by Jac Jemc
King Ludwig II of Bavaria and his cousin, Empress Sisi of Austria, were the rock stars of the nineteenth century. If they lived today, we’d undoubtedly follow their everyday life watching reality TV. Unable to do it, I’m thrilled that Jac Jemc took on an ambitious project bringing those two to life in a fictionalized…
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“The Block Party” by Jamie Day
Alton Road is a neighborhood where you won’t see a Honda Civic in one’s driveway but Samir’s Lexus, Brooke’s Mercedes, and Riley’s Beamer. Only 17-year-old Lettie drives a rusty Hyundai Santa Fe, but everybody knows she prefers her bike to reduce her carbon footprint. However, as much as the flashy cars are for everyone to…
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“The Five-Star Weekend” by Elin Hilderbrand
Hollis’s life seems ideal: she has a great husband, a heart surgeon, a beautiful summer house on Nantucket in addition to her Wellesley’s home, and her humble food blog became so popular during the pandemic that now she has many followers who want to “cook with Hollis.”. Sure, not everything is picture-perfect. Her adult daughter…
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“The Girl by the Bridge” by Arnaldur Indriðason
A young man walks in the evening searching for poetic inspiration and stops on the bridge over the Pond in Reykjavik. He notices something unusual in the water: a doll, and he retrieves it. Then he sees a dead girl in the pond. Twenty years later, a young woman is found dead, a syringe stuck…
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“Birnam Wood” by Eleanor Catton
Did you think that gardening was a peaceful activity? After reading “Birnam Wood,” Eleanor Catton’s latest novel, you will surely change your mind. Birnam Wood is a clandestine gardening collective with a great idea: the group cultivates unused strips of land, abandoned construction sites, and such to grow vegetables. They are young, sharing their idealistic…
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“The Vegan” by Andrew Lipstein
“The Vegan” by Andrew Lipstein starts with a slightly Woody Allen vibe of a Manhattan apartment party where Hershel Caine and his beautiful wife Franny invited another influential couple and a friend, Birdie, to, hopefully, establish good social connections. Hershel is a thirty-eight-year-old hedge fund manager leading a happy, stable life, and the future looks…
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“You Know Her” by Meagan Jennett
Sophie Braam lives in a small town somewhere in Virginia. This is the place where during winter, men mostly go to the bars and get drunk; in summer, there are tailgating parties revolving around beer and having a good time. For many men, having a good time means they can harass and insult women. Sophie…
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“Stravanging Strange” by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
For a reader, there is nothing better than discovering a new, great writer. I hadn’t heard about Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (1887-1950) until I got a short book, “Stravanging Strange,” which consists of three stories, his notes, and excerpts from his wife, Anna Bovshek’s memoir. It was the perfect material to ignite my interest in this unique…
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