Can a stingray wound become literary gold? Does the stingray get a vote? Hmm. Whose story is it?

A young writer’s memoir wrestles with complex questions of place and identity.

Recalling a time when artists could lose themselves — and find inspiration — in the utterly foreign.

Savor this deeply researched love letter to every bibliophile’s favorite object.

A brilliant debut sure to scandalize Jefferson worshippers; human decency and magical realism fighting Nazi atrocities in occupied Poland; and celebrating the bicentenary of a Brontë with an homage to Jane Eyre–all in Historical Novels Review.

Two beautifully rendered debut novels, one set in post-WWII Japan and the other in mid-WWI Italy, and a blood-pumping tale of slave revolt in ancient Rome.

A memoir spotlighting family dysfunction amid old-Hollywood glamour, a scholarly coffee table history of the Battle of Agincourt, and a drug-fueled alternative history of Vietnam and its aftermath.

A refreshingly non-partisan dissection of the social safety net’s unintended consequences.

An exegesis on the nature of time, a sympathetic revisiting of a notorious woman’s story, and the last survivor of an ancient culture, all in the winter issue of the Historical Novels Review.

There’s light and charm amid dark subjects of murder, incest, Nazis, and bad parents.