Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years

Brian Boyd. Princeton University Press, $49 (619pp) ISBN 978-0-691-02470-7

These intimate, magisterial, prodigiously researched biographies illuminate the contours of the great author's mind with sensuous precision. Photos. (Mar.)

Featured Nonfiction Reviews

Alexis Madrigal

NPR host Madrigal (Powering the Dream) offers a sprawling history of Oakland, Calif., that situates the bustling port city at the heart of a new, technology-dominated world Continue reading »

Abigail Leonard

“The way societies support families is critical to how women experience motherhood,” journalist Leonard asserts in this by turns piercing and poignant debut. Through four Continue reading »

John Cassidy

In this sweeping account, Pulitzer finalist Cassidy (How Markets Fail) profiles figures who have opposed capitalism over the past two centuries. Since “the rise of factory Continue reading »

Lidia Yuknavitch

Novelist Yuknavitch (Thrust) approaches her past “not as facts, but as fictions” in this stunning, genre-bending self-portrait. Drawing inspiration from Virginia Woolf and Toni Continue reading »