An eclectic round-up of the favorite books of the year from our critics.
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Book Review: “Kraft” — A Pitch Perfect Satire of Neoliberal Dreamin’
A powerful allegory for our techno-crazed, consumption-addicted, soul-crushing times.
Book Review: “The Turncoat” and “Marrow and Bone” — Two Revealing Looks at World War II
For each of these major, prize-honored writers — Siegfried Lenz and Walter Kempowski– birth = destiny = art.
Book Review: “Tyll” — The Thirty Years War, From a Prankster’s Point of View
Daniel Kehlmann’s narrative gift is so prodigious as to be almost aggravating.
Book Review: “Old Rendering Plant” — Existence on Trial
Hilbig’s prose demands sentence-by sentence commitment. It gravitates to the dark and dense, and occasionally surreal.
Book Review: “To the Back of Beyond” — Extreme Ambiguity
Evidently, plain-spoken language plus doubt and apprehension equate to novels that, once opened, are very hard to put down.
Book Review: Peter Handke — A Writer At War With Himself
The imperative to engage with landscape, and thus leave or at least minimize the self, has become of great importance to Peter Handke.
Book Review: “My Marriage” — An Extraordinary Rediscovery
Despite the pain of inhabiting Alexander Herzog’s disintegrating world, I absolutely could not put My Marriage aside.
Book Review: “The Last Weynfeldt” — The Virtues of a Wry, Cosmopolitan Vibe
In this enjoyable novel, Martin Suter has chosen to sidestep depth in favor of colorful characters fine-honing their hopes and dreams..
Best Books: Notable Volumes, For Better or Worse, in 2015
Our demanding critics supply lists of books that piqued their interest this of the year.