Slow Air

Robin Robertson. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), $23 (80pp) ISBN 978-0-15-100746-2

""The beach is still bright./ The children I never had/ run to the edge"" in the harsh, melancholic Slow Air carved into precise eddies by Robin Robertson. Following up on the London poet's debut A Painted Field, these lyrics aim straight for ""the steady burning pilot/ light of fear behind the eyes.""

Featured Fiction Reviews

Joseph Earl Thomas

The magnificent first novel from Thomas (Sink, a memoir) centers on an Iraq War veteran who works in a Philadelphia emergency room. Joey, who grew up in poverty, relies on Continue reading »

Briony Cameron

Cameron debuts with an exciting and multidimensional story inspired by the women pirates who sailed the Caribbean in the 17th century. Jacquotte Delahaye, who is of Haitian and Continue reading »

Marcela Fuentes

Fuentes debuts with the astonishing story of two malas, or women who challenge traditional Mexican gender norms. The year is 1951 and Pilar Aguirre, who is eight months pregnant Continue reading »

Scott Preston

Preston’s blistering debut takes place in the farthest reaches of northern England, on “cloud-eaten” fells battered by wind and inhabited mostly by sheep. There’s nothing much Continue reading »