Book Reviews

Novuyo Rosa Tshuma’s “House of Stone” uses a young man’s search for his personal ancestry as a way of unearthing hidden aspects of his country’s violent past.

Alex Kotlowitz discusses “An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago,” and John Lanchester talks about his new novel, “The Wall.”

The artist Tillie Walden pays graphic homage to the classic children’s book.

In her 1981 book “Psychoanalysis,” Malcolm explores psychiatry and mental health.

Jerry Craft’s tale of an artistic black kid navigating a mostly white prep school, and Lincoln Peirce’s new series about a medieval girl who longs to be a knight.

Greek gods prowl the First World War. Medieval French nuns become executioners. A future U.S. rounds up Muslims. A scorned aristocrat pulls off the ultimate heist.

Six new paperbacks to check out this week.

Peter H. Reynolds’s ‘Say Something!’ helps teach kids about compassion and justice.

Readers respond to recent issues of the Sunday Book Review.

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

In “Good Kids, Bad City,” Kyle Swenson tells the story of three men who suffered a terrible injustice and a city, Cleveland, complicit in the wrong.

The crime writer, whose latest Guido Brunetti mystery is “Unto Us a Son Is Given,” says Charles Dickens “will teach any writer how to plot and can turn a sentence into an incantation.”

Margaret Verble — a voting member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma — explores her heritage in a sprawling and deeply satisfying new novel.

Her latest novel, “Lost Children Archive,” follows a New York family on a cross-country journey to strengthen the bonds of family.

The novelist and Iraq war veteran Kevin Powers makes the case for the enduring influence of Kurt Vonnegut’s famous novel about the lasting trauma of war.

Preet Bharara on justice, a chronicle of gun violence in Chicago, a grown-up fairy tale and more.

She’s taken old fairy tales, seasoned them with 20th-century history and pop-culture references, and frosted them with whimsical, even bizarre details.

A selection of books published this week; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading.

In “The Mastermind,” Evan Ratliff shows how a teenage tech nerd transformed himself into a cartel boss, overseeing operations from North Korea to Somalia to Brazil.

Philipp Blom’s “Nature’s Mutiny” looks at the impact of the 17th century’s “little ice age” on civilization.