<\/p>\n
The Devotion of Suspect X<\/em>, Keigo Higashino (2005) Good People<\/em>, Patmeena Sabit (2026)<\/strong> Questions 27 & 28<\/em>, Karen Tei Yamashita<\/strong> (2026)<\/strong> In a rigorous history lesson coated in a fun, twisty work of fiction, Yamashita sets out to capture the varied political leanings and personal narratives that might lie behind a single checkbox marked yes or no or left blank. The novel \u2014 and it is one, despite being stuffed with historical figures who really lived through the incarceration\u00a0\u2014 is multi-formatted and polyvocal, making use of the kind of staggeringly varied structure that has become something like Yamashita\u2019s signature. It\u2019s broken into three \u201cboxes,\u201d as if in a historical archive, which Yamashita plumbs for precisely reproduced documents and imagined conversations about how they came to be. With stories spanning more than a century, it grapples with the role of Japanese imperialism in constructing racial identity, the place for violence in politics, what it means to be a citizen of a state \u2014 and whether one that would lock people up over race or nationality is worth having at all. The Vivisectors<\/em>, Missouri Williams (2026)<\/strong> The Full Catastrophe<\/em>, David Carkeet (1990)<\/strong> A lovelorn, laid-off linguist who gets enraged by empty expressions like \u201cHave a good one\u201d and \u201cWe\u2019ve come full circle\u201d finds a new job at the Pillow Agency, run by the rich, eccentric, incomprehensible Mr. Pillow, a believer of love. The linguist is to embed (\u201coccupy\u201d) with an assigned couple at their home, listen to their verbal interactions, and analyze whether this marriage can be saved, despite his own lack of experience in the field of commitment. This is somehow not the premise of a couple\u2019s therapy reality TV show today; it\u2019s much funnier and less self-conscious! Perhaps because it published in 1990? I thought it was headed in a surreal \u201cBeing John Malkovich\u201d direction at the start, but The Full Catastrophe<\/em> author, David Carkeet, takes a more difficult path and, with serious honesty, tackles the later-stage, post-honeymoon relationship troubles \u2014 excavated down to their true awkwardness \u2014 that come from miscommunication. Brutal things get said and heard! Because of that, I was surprised by how romantic (and hilarious) this book is. Pairs well with Ross McElwee\u2019s 1986 film \u201cSherman\u2019s March.\u201d The Makioka Sisters<\/em>, Jun\u2019ichir? Tanizaki (1948)<\/strong> While mostly focused on the relationship between the sisters, the novel takes place in the shadow of the impending world war, and in scattered moments throughout the book Tanizaki sketches a compelling depiction of people who \u2014 despite being otherwise caring, empathetic, and worldly \u2014 are reflexively loyal to a government that is, at the time of narration, actively committing unspeakable crimes abroad.<\/p>\n For fans of: Thomas Mann, Colm T\u00f3ib\u00edn, Elena Ferrante. The Odyssey<\/em>, translated by Emily Wilson (2017)<\/strong>
<\/strong>This is one of those books that stays with you long after you finish it. The hit from Japanese mystery writer Keigo Higashino, who died last month, puts a dark twist on a story about loyalty and the obligations that come with it. This was my first interaction with Higashino\u2019s famous \u201cDetective Galileo.\u201d Think of a police procedural wrapped in a shroud of mathematical philosophy. This book is a dark gem.
\u2014 Akela Lacy<\/em><\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to be lulled into thinking this propulsive, polyphonic novel is a true crime beach read: The book opens with a disclaimer about police refusing to weigh in on an open investigation, followed by short vignettes that serve as witness testimonies to an unfolding crime narrative. But it\u2019s actually a beautiful picture of community, family tragedy, and the court of public opinion, and a wonderful reminder that, despite the current political climate, we should be proud to be a nation of immigrants.
\u2014 Celine Piser<\/em><\/p>\n
It\u2019s become almost clich\u00e9 in this era<\/a> of wanton imprisonment of immigrants<\/a> to invoke the incessant relevance of the United States\u2019 WWII concentration camps for Japanese Americans, but Karen Tei Yamashita brings hundreds of new lives to one of the country\u2019s most infamous domestic crimes. She once thought \u201cthat about \u2018the camps,\u2019 we\u2019d been there, done that,\u201d she writes in a postscript to Questions 27 & 28,<\/em>\u00a0\u201cbut as those who continue to research and write about these events know very well, it\u2019s never done.\u201d The questions that make up the novel\u2019s title were the last two in an infamous loyalty questionnaire administered to incarcerees: The first asked if they would enlist in the Army for the same United States of America that had incarcerated them; the second if they would swear undying allegiance to the U.S. and forsake any ties to Japan. Between those two questions, \u201cThere are eight possible answers,\u201d Yamashita writes, some of which would get you sent to war, others that would deepen your incarceration. \u201cBut <\/em>or if <\/em>answers are useless \u2026 it doesn\u2019t matter what you think or believe; only your answers to 27 and 28 matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Maia Hibbett<\/em><\/p>\n
I read a lot of contemporary fiction and have the scars to prove it. And, candidly, I haven\u2019t even finished Williams\u2019s sophomore novel, which takes place in a lightly dystopian college town being consumed by enemies both plant and animal. Let that make this endorsement all the more ringing: It\u2019s truly rare that I slow my reading of a novel because I want to take in each sentence fully, and that I want to immediately start re-reading before I\u2019ve even closed the hardcover. Williams is a sly, darkly funny observer of our world and what she imagines as the next. Jump on board now, or risk being left behind on one of literature\u2019s up-and-coming voices.
\u2014 Katherine Krueger<\/em><\/p>\n
We often say a string of words in a very specific order that intentionally has no meaning. Or spit out a different combination of them that has the opposite meaning of what is spoken. Why is it hard to say what we want to really say?<\/p>\n
\u2014 Nara Shin<\/em><\/p>\n
This quiet, deeply thoughtful novel follows several years in the lives of four sisters in a once-prominent upper-middle-class family in a suburb between Kobe and Osaka in the late 1930s. The slowly building characterization of each sister\u2019s personality and how she moves through the world is one of the most artfully realistic portraits of family life I\u2019ve ever read.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Noah Hurowitz<\/em><\/p>\n
A great contrast from the Nolan movie, which simply regurgitates the male heroic stereotype \u2014 I think (I have not seen it).
\u2014 David Bralow<\/em><\/p>\n