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Featuring 367 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children'sand YA books KIRKUSVOL. LXXXVIII, NO. 2 | 15 JANUARY 2020 REVIEWS Jeanine Cummins The author of American Dirt on her urgent new novel about a Mexican migrant and her 8-year-old son p. 14 Also in the issue: Garth Greenwell, Peggy Orenstein, Anna-Marie McLemore, and more from the editor’s desk: Dispatches From Trumpland Chairman BY TOM BEER HERBERT SIMON President & Publisher MARC WINKELMAN John Paraskevas # It’s still early in 2020, but the impeachment proceedings and the Chief Executive Officer November presidential election have kept politics front and center in the MEG LABORDE KUEHN book world while President Donald Trump continues to make news—and [email protected] Editor-in-Chief inspire anguished analysis—with every utterance and tweet. You can be sure TOM BEER much more ink will be spilled in the months to come. [email protected] Vice President of Marketing This week sees the release of two works of investigative journalism that SARAH KALINA look at the 45th president and his circle. Announced in mid-December (and [email protected] embargoed until publication), The Fixers: Bottom-Feeders, Crooked Law- Managing/Nonfiction Editor ERIC LIEBETRAU yers, Gossipmongers, and Porn Stars Who Created the 45th President (Ran- [email protected] dom House, Jan. 14) shines a light on the lawyers and media figures who Fiction Editor LAURIE MUCHNICK have enabled and protected Trump throughout his career; it’s by Wall Street [email protected] Tom Beer Journal reporters Joe Palazzolo and Michael Rothfeld, who won the Pulitzer Children’s Editor VICKY SMITH Prize last year. [email protected] Meanwhile, Andrea Bernstein, Peabody Award–winning co-host of the podcast, Trump, Inc. Young Adult Editor delivers American Oligarchs: The Kushners, The Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power LAURA SIMEON (Norton, Jan. 14), a close examination of these intertwined real estate clans, joined by the union [email protected] Editor at Large of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. Our review, which, due to an embargo, will only be published MEGAN LABRISE online on Jan. 13, calls it a “painstaking documentation of a relentless culture of corruption.” [email protected] Vice President of Kirkus Indie Not enough for you hardcore news junkies? Here are some other recent releases that dig deep KAREN SCHECHNER into the world of Donald Trump: [email protected] Senior Indie Editor Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Inves- DAVID RAPP tigation of Donald Trump by Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch (Random [email protected] Indie Editor House, Nov. 26): Fusion GPS is the Washington, D.C., research and analysis MYRA FORSBERG firm helmed by the authors, two formerWall Street Journal reporters. Their [email protected] reporting led to the notorious Steele Dossier, and here they lay out their Associate Manager of Indie KATERINA PAPPAS findings for the general reader. Kirkus’ reviewer calls it “red meat for Trump [email protected] foes and a convincing denunciation of the Republicans’ ‘win-at-all-costs Editorial Assistant JOHANNA ZWIRNER electoral strategies.’ ” [email protected] The Mueller Report Illustrated by the Washington Post, illustrated by Jan Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH Feindt (Scribner, Dec. 3): If you didn’t tackle all 700-plus pages of The Muel Contributing Editor ler Report when it was published back in April, you can now sprint through GREGORY McNAMEE what our reviewer calls “a lively, graphic version of the foundational docu- Copy Editor ment in the current presidential impeachment process.” BETSY JUDKINS Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos by Peter L. Bergen (Penguin Designer Press, Dec. 10): Though Trump was endorsed by nearly 90 retired generals ALEX HEAD Director of Kirkus Editorial and military officials during his 2016 campaign, a CNN national security LAUREN BAILEY analyst shows that as president he has consistently alienated the Pentagon [email protected] Production Editor and staff of the National Security Agency while burning through generals CATHERINE BRESNER tapped for top posts (Mike Flynn, H.R. McMaster, Jim Mattis, John Kelly). [email protected] Website and Software Developer Kirkus’ review of Trump and His Generals doesn’t mince words: “More hard- PERCY PEREZ hitting, abundant documentation of a woefully incapable president’s litany [email protected] of failures.” Advertising Director MONIQUE STENSRUD Finally, take your pick of the published results of the impeachment [email protected] report: The Impeachment Report: The House Intelligence Committee’s Advertising Associate TATIANA ARNOLD Report on Its Investigation Into Donald Trump and Ukraine (Broadway [email protected] Books, Dec. 17) features an introduction by presidential biographer and Graphic Designer former editor-in-chief Jon Meacham, and The Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry LIANA WALKER Newsweek [email protected] Report (Melville House, Dec. 17) is published flip-book style, with the official report on one side Controller (blue cover) and the response of House Republicans (red cover) on the other. MICHELLE GONZALES Enjoy your reading—there are just 294 days until Election Day. [email protected] 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 courtesy opportunities Jeanine Cummins 2 | 15 january 2020 | from the editor’s desk | kirkus.com | you can now purchase books online at kirkus.com contents fiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ...........................................................4 The Kirkus Star is awarded REVIEWS ...............................................................................................4 EDITOR’S NOTE.....................................................................................6 to books of remarkable ON THE COVER: JEANINE CUMMINS ............................................. 14 merit, as determined by the INTERVIEW: GARTH GREENWELL .................................................. 18 QUEERIES: CAROLINA DE ROBERTIS .............................................24 impartial editors of Kirkus. MYSTERY ............................................................................................. 38 SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY ......................................................... 43 ROMANCE ...........................................................................................46 nonfiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ..........................................................51 REVIEWS ..............................................................................................51 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................... 52 INTERVIEW: PEGGY ORENSTEIN ....................................................58 INTERVIEW: ILAN STAVANS & JOSH LAMBERT ...........................64 children’s INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS .........................................................84 REVIEWS .............................................................................................84 EDITOR’S NOTE...................................................................................86 INTERVIEW: SCOTT SIMON ............................................................. 92 INTERVIEW: LILY WILLIAMS & KAREN SCHNEEMANN ............. 98 BOARD & NOVELTY BOOKS ............................................................127 CONTINUING SERIES ...................................................................... 135 young adult INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ........................................................137 REVIEWS ............................................................................................137 EDITOR’S NOTE..................................................................................138 INTERVIEW: ANNA-MARIE MCLEMORE ......................................142 The death of the oldest Torres daughter INTERVIEW: GIBBY HAYNES ......................................................... 146 leaves her three sisters and widower father CONTINUING SERIES ......................................................................154 grief-stricken; being haunted by her spirit indie shakes everything up. Read the review of INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ........................................................155 Samantha Mabry’s latest on p. 148. REVIEWS ............................................................................................155 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................. 156 Don’t wait on the mail for reviews! You can read prepublication reviews as INTERVIEW: JERRY CRAFT .............................................................162 they are released on kirkus.com—even before they are published in the magazine. INDIE BOOKS OF THE MONTH ........................................................177 You can also access the current issue and back issues of Kirkus Reviews on our website by logging in as a subscriber. 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