Erin Morgenstern Also in This Issue
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Featuring 275 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children'sand YA books KIRKUSVOL. LXXXVII, NO. 21 | 1 NOVEMBER 2019 REVIEWS Erin Morgenstern The author of The Night Circus is back with The Starless Sea— a sprawling, fantastical novel about the power of stories. p. 14 Also in this issue: André Aciman, Jeanine Basinger, Ken Follett, Oge Mora, and more from the editor’s desk: Chairman Listmania! HERBERT SIMON President & Publisher BY TOM BEER MARC WINKELMAN # Chief Executive Officer MEG LABORDE KUEHN [email protected] John Paraskevas Book lists—love them or loathe them, they’ll be part of our literary Editor-in-Chief TOM BEER coverage for as long as the internet exists and people want to click, [email protected] Vice President of Marketing click, click through eye-catching covers and pithy descriptions. Seven SARAH KALINA Books to Read Before They Become Movies This Fall. Ten Essential [email protected] Managing/Nonfiction Editor ERIC LIEBETRAU Literary Thrillers. Nine Sad Girl Books for Your Sad Girl Autumn. [email protected] Twenty-Three Books That Freaked People Out So Badly, They Actu- Fiction Editor LAURIE MUCHNICK ally Had to Stop Reading. At Newsday, where I was books editor for 11 [email protected] Children’s Editor years, my favorite list was Books You Can Read in a Weekend, which VICKY SMITH started small and kept growing as we discovered bingeable new nov- [email protected] Young Adult Editor Tom Beer els under 200 pages. Of course, we at Kirkus produce a hefty share of LAURA SIMEON [email protected] book lists, too—try 10 New Books by Women That Everybody Should Read Now or The 12 Editor at Large MEGAN LABRISE Most Addictive Books of 2019 (So Far). [email protected] Vice President of Kirkus Indie Sometimes such lists have higher ambitions—for example, the ubiquitous Best Books KAREN SCHECHNER of the Year lists that start cropping up in late fall and become something of a parlor game on [email protected] Senior Indie Editor Literary Twitter. For the super nerdy, there’s even the blog (the brainchild DAVID RAPP Largehearted Boy [email protected] of David Gutowski), which compiles a master list of online Best Books lists. Meanwhile, Indie Editor MYRA FORSBERG our friends at Literary Hub have begun the ambitious project of reviewing the past decade [email protected] Associate Manager of Indie and making claims for what they believe are the greatest books published between 2010 KATERINA PAPPAS and 2019, starting with The 10 Best Debut Novels of the Decade. [email protected] Editorial Assistant ’s list, compiled by Emily Temple, includes outstanding novels by Viet Thanh JOHANNA ZWIRNER Lit Hub [email protected] Nguyen (The Sympathizer), Nicole Dennis-Benn (Here Comes the Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH ), and Kirkus Prize winner Ling Ma ( ) along with a gen- Sun Severance Contributing Editor erous helping of Dissenting Opinions and Honorable Mentions. I GREGORY McNAMEE Copy Editor weighed in on Twitter with my own dissenting opinion—where BETSY JUDKINS Designer was Anthony Marra’s unforgettable first novel, A Constellation of ALEX HEAD Vital Phenomena?—as did many others. Director of Kirkus Editorial LAUREN BAILEY And here is where the haters really get up in arms: How can [email protected] Production Editor you make such a sweeping claim? What about [fill in title here], CATHERINE BRESNER which is obviously the best debut of the decade? Naysayers argue [email protected] Website and Software Developer that all these lists are nothing more than clickbait, pandering to PERCY PEREZ [email protected] short attention spans and dumbing down our literary culture. But Advertising Director MONIQUE STENSRUD I don’t see them as a substitute for reviews and criticism so much [email protected] Advertising Associate as a complement—something to generate lively discussion and argument among people TATIANA ARNOLD who care about books. [email protected] Advertising Coordinator Let a thousand lists bloom! We at will keep creating them—and keep KELSEY WILLIAMS Kirkus Reviews [email protected] publishing the reviews that are the lifeblood of the magazine. Our Best Books of 2019 cov- Graphic Designer LIANA WALKER erage begins in the next issue, offering lists and sublists for every kind of reader—please [email protected] Controller stay tuned. MICHELLE GONZALES [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 by opportunities Allan Amato 2 | 1 november 2019 | 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 to books of remarkable EDITOR’S NOTE.....................................................................................6 ON THE COVER: ERIN MORGENSTERN .......................................... 14 merit, as determined by the INTERVIEW: ANDRÉ ACIMAN .........................................................24 impartial editors of Kirkus. MYSTERY ..............................................................................................35 SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY ......................................................... 43 ROMANCE ........................................................................................... 45 nonfiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ......................................................... 47 REVIEWS ............................................................................................. 47 EDITOR’S NOTE...................................................................................48 INTERVIEW: JEANINE BASINGER ..................................................62 INTERVIEW: KEN FOLLETT ...............................................................68 children’s INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ..........................................................75 REVIEWS ..............................................................................................75 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................... 76 INTERVIEW: OGE MORA .................................................................. 84 INTERVIEW: ANTHONY ZUIKER ..................................................... 96 VALENTINE’S DAY PICTURE BOOKS .............................................105 young adult INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ....................................................... 109 REVIEWS ........................................................................................... 109 EDITOR’S NOTE..................................................................................110 INTERVIEW: NADINE JOLIE COURTNEY .....................................114 INTERVIEW: ANDREW MARANISS ...............................................118 Vivian Gornick’s ferocious but principled SHELF SPACE: THE RIPPED BODICE, CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA .....................................................................................124 intelligence emanates from each of the indie essays in a distinctive new collection. Read INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ........................................................125 the review on p. 57. REVIEWS ............................................................................................125 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................. 126 Don’t wait on the mail for reviews! You can read pre-publication reviews as INDIE Q&A: REUBEN “TIHI” HAYSLETT ........................................132 they are released on kirkus.com—even before they are published in the magazine. You can also access the current issue and back issues of Kirkus Reviews on our FIELD NOTES.....................................................................................146 website by logging in as a subscriber. If you do not have a username or password, please contact customer care to set up your account by calling 1.800.316.9361 or APPRECIATIONS: LAURA ESQUIVEL’S LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE AT 30 ........................................................................... 147 emailing [email protected]. | kirkus.com | contents | 1 november 2019 | 3 fiction A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO These titles earned the Kirkus Star: FREE FALL Abramowitz, Andy THE ILLNESS LESSON by Clare Beams ...............................................5 Lake Union Publishing (396 pp.) $24.95 | Jan. 1, 2020 A BEAUTIFUL CRIME by Christopher Bollen ..................................... 9 978-1-5420-1465-6 AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins .............................................13 A narcissistic man is kicked out of HOUSE ON ENDLESS WATERS by Emuna Elon; the house by his wife after a one-night trans. by Anthony Berris & Linda Yechiel ...........................................15 stand while also having trouble at work; his tentative sister seeks success in her THIS IS PLEASURE by Mary Gaitskill ..............................................18 career. THE BLACK CATHEDRAL by Marcial Gala; Davis Winger, who’s in his mid-30s, is confident that he’s a trans.