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John Williams
Assistant Editor, Books
LUCKY GAMES, Yevgenia Belorusets’s photo. Translated by Eugene Ostashevsky. (New Directions, paper, $14.95.) These extraordinary stories about the effects of the war on poor women in the eastern Ukraine’s industrial region reach the English-speaking world in that region’s wide-ranging publications. But it highlighted a conflict that was overlooked when the book was first published in 2018. Some of Belorusets’ characters are internal refugees who settle in a Kiev that looks at them with disinterest or suspicion. Others live in disputed territories, making a living against active warfare or its devastating consequences. “In these fascinating stories, Belorusets is more concerned with effect than cause,” writes Jennifer Wilson in her review. “What’s the point of finding out how we got here when we know we’ll be back again?”
EVERY GOOD CHILD DOES WELL: A Love Story, In Music Lessons, By Jeremy Denk. (Random House, $28.99.) The concert pianist’s clear memories contain a special share of grief and conflict, but he lives longest and happiest in the studio, where a series of teachers guide him to musical maturity. Denk also traces his erotic awakening as a sharp and witty gay man. Denk “finds catchy ways to illuminate music theory,” writes Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim in her review. “Most importantly, it explains abstract concepts with empathy and precision.”
LAST INTERVIEW TO HOTEL IMPERIAL: Correspondents Who Take on a World at War, Deborah Cohen’s photo. (Random House, $30.) In the years before WWII, four foreign reporters – John Gunther, HR Knickerbocker, Jimmy Sheean and Dorothy Thompson – tried to sound the alarm, as Cohen details in this group portrait. “It would be hard to overstate the collective strength and visibility of these reporters in their heyday,” Lesley MM Blume writes in her review. Yet, in the face of more desperate circumstances than ever before, reporters despaired at the continued denial and complacency of their American readers. “There are so many grim reminders of the cyclical nature of history: how racial and economic resentments can lead to terrible acts; and, above all, how people are indifferent to even the sternest warnings. On a more sarcastic note, ‘Hotel Imperial’ also reminds readers that the news industry is and remains a business.”
PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN WOMAN, María Gainza’s photo. Translated by Thomas Bunstead. (Catapult, $24.) This convoluted, dreamy mystery is set in Buenos Aires’ fake art underworld. Hidden backstories, unfounded rumors, and shady characters abound, with the occasional alligator. As one character thinks, “Couldn’t it be as enjoyable as a fake original?” Angus Trumble writes in his review, “The nasty taste of this novel lies in our fascination with forgeries, especially when executed in Robin Hood’s chivalric mode.”
The Essays of HARRY S. TRUMAN: The Extraordinary Presidency of an Ordinary Man, 1945-1953, By Jeffrey Frank. (Simon & Schuster, $32.50.) As this captivating new biography explains, Harry Truman looked like an ordinary man, but had a natural self-confidence that marked one person as a leader. Frank literally gives us this exuberant, bookish, often grumpy guy. James Traub writes in his review: “Frank puts out just enough air to bring one back into the world rather than bust the Truman myth.
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