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Featuring 319 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children'sand YA books VOL.KIRKUS LXXXVIII, NO. 18 | 15 SEPTEMBER 2020 REVIEWS Laila Lalami The author confronts American inequities in Conditional Citizens p. 58 Also in this issue: Sigrid Nunez, Daniel Nayeri, and Amra Sabic-El-Rayess from the editor’s desk: The Way I Read Now Chairman BY TOM BEER HERBERT SIMON President & Publisher MARC WINKELMAN John Paraskevas # Among the many changes in my daily life this year—working from home, Chief Executive Officer wearing a mask in public, watching too much TV—my changing read- MEG LABORDE KUEHN ing habits register deeply. For one thing, I read on a Kindle now, with the [email protected] Editor-in-Chief exception of the rare galley sent to me at home and the books I’ve made TOM BEER a point of purchasing from local independent bookstores or ordering on [email protected] Vice President of Marketing Bookshop.org. The Kindle was borrowed—OK, confiscated—from my SARAH KALINA boyfriend at the beginning of the pandemic, when I left dozens of advance [email protected] reader copies behind at the office and accepted the reality that digital gal- Managing/Nonfiction Editor ERIC LIEBETRAU leys would be a practical necessity for the foreseeable future. I can’t say that I [email protected] love reading on my “new” Kindle—I’m still a sucker for physical books after Fiction Editor LAURIE MUCHNICK all these years—but I’ll admit that it fulfills its purpose efficiently. And I do [email protected] Tom Beer rather enjoy the instant gratification of going on NetGalley or Edelweiss Young Readers’ Editor VICKY SMITH and dispatching multiple books to my device in one fell swoop—a harmless [email protected] form of bingeing that affords a little dopamine rush. Young Readers’ Editor Another change in my reading habits has been a dramatic uptick in my nonfiction consump- LAURA SIMEON tion. Sure, I’ve always read nonfiction—memoirs and narrative nonfiction in particular—but -fic [email protected] Editor at Large tion was always my go-to for pleasure reading, especially in the summertime. This summer has MEGAN LABRISE been different. Partly because of the requirements of my job and partly because of this exceptional [email protected] Vice President of Kirkus Indie moment in history, I’ve been reading a lot of nonfiction, especially essays, trying to grapple with KAREN SCHECHNER what we’re living through. [email protected] Senior Indie Editor One of the books that has helped to illuminate the current situation for DAVID RAPP me was written by the author on the cover of this issue, Laila Lalami. You [email protected] Indie Editor probably know Lalami as the author of novels such as The Moor’s Account MYRA FORSBERG (2014) and The Other Americans (2019), both nominated for major literary [email protected] prizes. Her new book, (Pantheon, Associate Manager of Indie Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America KATERINA PAPPAS Sept. 22), is a collection of eight essays about those citizens that America [email protected] includes or excludes from the full privileges of citizenship because of race, Editorial Assistant JOHANNA ZWIRNER gender, religion, or national origin. Like some of the other nonfiction I’ve [email protected] admired in recent months—including Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins Mysteries Editor of Our Discontents (Random House, Aug. 11) and Claudia Rankine’s Just Us: THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor An American Conversation (Graywolf, Sept. 8)—Lalami’s book helped me to GREGORY McNAMEE reframe my understanding of dynamics at work in American society. And Copy Editor because it is so lucidly written, I feel that I could hand BETSY JUDKINS Conditional Citizens to almost anyone I know; it would make a great book Designer club pick. My interview with Lalami appears on page 58. ALEX HEAD Kirkus Editorial Production Editor Other essay collections that have kept me company this summer: Zadie ROBIN O’DELL Smith’s Intimations (Penguin, July 28) is a slender volume containing six [email protected] Kirkus Editorial Associate brief essays, all written since the pandemic struck, and they’re enthralling. Production Editor I love Smith’s novels, but she has an extraordinary facility for essay-writing, STEPHANIE SUMMERHAYS [email protected] as evidenced in her previous collections, Changing My Website and Software Developer Mind (2009) and Feel Free (2018). The new book offers PERCY PEREZ a glimpse of Smith’s limber mind at work, observing [email protected] Advertising Director with a novelist’s eye and attempting to make sense MONIQUE STENSRUD (good luck!) of life in lockdown. (Proceeds from the [email protected] Advertising Associate book benefit the Equal Justice Initiative and the Covid-19 Emergency TATIANA ARNOLD Relief Fund for New York.) Helen Macdonald’s Vesper Flights (Grove Press, [email protected] Graphic Designer Aug. 25) serves up more captivating nature writing from the author of the LIANA WALKER memoir H Is for Hawk (2015)—except to call it “nature writing” is to dimin- [email protected] ish the glorious sense of human wonder that Macdonald brings to her sub- Controller MICHELLE GONZALES jects—birds’ nests, a favorite meadow from childhood—and prose that [email protected] absolutely sings. These books make our narrowed world feel a little larger. for customer service or subscription questions, please call 1-800-316-9361 Print indexes: www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/print-indexes Submission Guidelines: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/submission-guidlines Kirkus Blog: www.kirkusreviews.com/blog Subscriptions: www.kirkusreviews.com/subscription Advertising Opportunities: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/advertising- Newsletters: www.kirkusreviews.com/subscription/newsletter/add Cover photo by opportunities April Rocha 2 | 15 september 2020 | from the editor’s desk | kirkus.com | you can now purchase books online at kirkus.com contents fiction The Kirkus Star is awarded INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ...........................................................4 REVIEWS ...............................................................................................4 to books of remarkable EDITOR’S NOTE.....................................................................................6 merit, as determined by the INTERVIEW: SIGRID NUNEZ ............................................................ 14 impartial editors of Kirkus. MYSTERY .............................................................................................40 SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY ......................................................... 47 ROMANCE ...........................................................................................48 nonfiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ......................................................... 50 REVIEWS ............................................................................................. 50 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................... 52 COVER STORY: LAILA LALAMI .........................................................58 children’s INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ......................................................... 91 REVIEWS ............................................................................................. 91 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................... 92 INTERVIEW: DANIEL NAYERI ......................................................... 98 BOARD & NOVELTY BOOKS ............................................................126 CONTINUING SERIES ...................................................................... 132 young adult INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ........................................................133 REVIEWS ............................................................................................133 EDITOR’S NOTE..................................................................................134 To impress the girl he has a crush on, Sunny goes along INTERVIEW: AMRA SABIC-EL-RAYESS ........................................138 with her mistaken assumption that he’s a guitar-playing indie rock ’n’ roller rather than a guy who is bullied for his INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS .......................................................146 love of Dungeons & Dragons. David Yoon explores love and identity in his sophomore novel. Read the REVIEWS ...........................................................................................146 review on p. 145. EDITOR’S NOTE.................................................................................148 INDIE BOOKS OF THTE MONTH ......................................................165 Don’t wait on the mail for reviews! You can read pre-publication reviews as they are released on kirkus.com—even before they are published in the magazine. SEEN & HEARD .................................................................................166 You can also access the current issue and back issues of Kirkus Reviews on our website by logging in as a subscriber. If you do not have a username or password, APPRECIATIONS: THE LABYRINTH OF SOLITUDE please contact customer care to set up your account by calling 1.800.316.9361 or BY OCTAVIO PAZ .............................................................................. 167 emailing [email protected]. | kirkus.com | contents | 15 september 2020 | 3 fiction These titles earned the Kirkus Star: THE SUN COLLECTIVE Baxter, Charles Pantheon (336 pp.) THE SUN COLLECTIVE by Charles Baxter ........................................