Book reviews from Tin House Press — fiction, nonfiction, children’s and independent titles, read and reviewed by our editorial team.
In this novel’s version of planet Earth’s distant future, much like our contemporary world, some have rejected artificial intelligence and technology, while others seek to hasten humanity’s transformation. But in Vaughn’s accelerated dystopian society, humanity remains threatened by the Geometry, a mysterious superintelligence capable of erasing entire populations. After an amnesiac woman bursts from a …
As the music industry has undergone a profound paradigm shift in the 21st century, it has left a lot of history behind: small labels that released seminal music, studios where those classics were recorded, sessions so significant that they established one Southern town as “the Birthplace of Country Music.” If a culture commemorates battlefields and …
“Throughout history, rulers of humankind narrowly defined the world’s center to be their own corner of the world,” writes Stoffer. From the Babylonians and Romans to the Zhou dynasty and the Aztecs, imperial civilizations have made dramatic claims about their importance and exceptionalism. In this work, Stoffer argues that our history is more accurately defined …
Thirty-one-year-old Ezzie Halevi is used to life behind the scenes. As a producer for The Wake Up Show, she’s rarely the one anyone is watching, which is why she can’t stop thinking about her recent encounter with Lee Morgan. Lee, a handsome TV chef 10 years Ezzie’s senior, steals the hearts of viewers and his …
This collection of some 40 pieces brought together by writer, translator, and filmmaker Valente offers up an eclectic, daunting overview of the life and career of the singular free-jazz composer, performer, and poet Cecil Taylor. As Gary Giddins puts it in his fine essay, “The Avant-Gardist Who Came in From the Cold,” Taylor inherited a …
In 1943, on New York’s Long Island, American intelligence operative Conor Thorn is testifying at the trial of his late wife Grace’s rapist, Buster Seaker, the son of a high-powered political official. Although his testimony goes well, he can’t keep his rage contained and winds up in a fight with the offender on his way …
Kawamura Haruki is already a sailor, but the wartime Imperial Japanese Navy sends him to New Georgia, part of the Solomon Islands. His brothers are in the war also, and he holds a treasured letter from one of them, folded neatly and kept hidden in his pants cuff. He’s originally from a farm outside of …
Mami even says, “I gave birth to the better version of me. This one came out white.” After moving from the Bronx to New Jersey, 12-year-old Izzy (in a family full of Ignacias it’s what she prefers) enters a predominantly white school. Instead of making her feel special, her blond hair now makes her blend …
Psychologist Marjorie “Jorie” Holmes lives in a society where women control everything; following an event known as the Shift, men are no longer around, and the creations of men, including books, have been eradicated. The purpose of this was to “expunge the negative effects of the patriarchal system,” as men are considered “brutal, bloodthirsty, barbaric …
It’s Sam’s last day as the janitor aboard an intergalactic space station, and his best friend Kai is throwing a retirement party to celebrate. But things quickly go south when a mysterious epidemic turns the station’s residents into zombielike creatures that feed on flesh and subsume victims into a giant mega-monster. The only thing that …
