Celebrate The Great Gatsby's move to the public domain by reading this superior version of it! The Chosen and the Beautiful is languid and glamorous, boasting not only the perfect roaring twenties voice, but elements of magic and strangeness that beautifully fit both the story and its era. Vo's artful twists on the original novel give us a deeper look at wealth, racism, and queerness.
At first glance, you might assume that The Lamplighters is a novel about stoic, lonely men smoking pipes and sharing tins of soup in the middle of the ocean. But it is just as much about the women and families these men leave behind when they depart for their lighthouse shifts. There are secrets untold, emotions hidden, and the unhappiness that festers when one feels trapped. The novel moves quickly in brief chapters that jump in time and create a haunting feeling—one both dreamlike and tragic.
What seems like a cute children's book for adults is in fact a dark, occasionally funny, tiny punch of a novel. It is told by M, a daughter of a traveling salesman in 1970s Chile, and she turns out to be at once the most and least reliable narrator. Things are not what they seem to M, but her frank descriptions of things happening around her make both wonder and horror much more palpable. This is a beautifully translated novel, both subtle and stark.
