Abdulrajak Gurnah was the 2021 Nobel Prize winner for Literature. His literary afterlife is just beginning. Born in Zanzibar, although writing in English, and living in England, he was virtually unknown among readers, even among many of the elite intellectuals of the literary world, despite being shortlisted for a Booker Prize with an earlier book and a few lesser prizes. Only one of his nine novels was still in print in the United States when he won. Read the Full Story >>
Book Reviews
The Observer showcases poetry, fiction, romance, thrillers, horror, non-fiction, memoirs and other literature, with a focus on Appalachia, Appalachian authors, and timely themes from around the world.
Asking Questions, Recovering Truth
I came across When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill just after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The reviews indicated that it was a book about women’s rage, and also dragons. What’s not to love, I thought? I did indeed love it, but I was also surprised by the tender coming-of-age story about a grieving girl, and the powerful indictment of a society that tries to force its people to sweep their traumas under the carpet. Read the Full Story >>
Fear & Injustice
When I picked up The Lioness, the latest from author Chris Bohjalian, I thought it would be a well-written beach-read-style page-turner. The combination of 1960s Hollywood and the hot Serengeti settings made me think this novel would be a thriller above all, more fun perhaps than Bohjalian’s past works. But while this book makes for compulsive reading, be forewarned that it does not shy away from extraordinary acts of violence, brutal mistakes, and their rippling consequences. Read the Full Story >>
Anger & Conspiracy
Alma Katsu’s newest historical horror novel, The Fervor, feels unsettlingly familiar despite its World War II setting. Although the story begins with the outbreak of a mysterious illness in a Japanese-American internment camp, it eventually merges in surprising and satisfying ways with two parallel story lines: one about a female reporter trying to uncover a government conspiracy, and the other focused on a grieving widow who gets sucked into a homegrown white nationalist movement. A touch of magical realism, mostly based on Japanese folklore and fairy tales, ties the book together. Read the Full Story >>
A Journey of Discovery in Italy
One Italian Summer is a love letter to mothers, written through the lens of a grieving daughter. As the novel begins, thirty year-old Katy has just lost her mother, Carol, to cancer. Read the Full Story >>
An Ordinary Person in a World Turned to War
and that Ukraine’s heritage is not distinct from Russia’s. Highlighting Ukraine’s rich literature is a clear way to counter this false narrative, and Serhiy Zhadan is one of the best writers in translation with whom to start. Read the Full Story >>
Isolated & Together, Tales of Strength
While Queen of the Sea unfolds like a page-turning mystery, filled with scandalous secrets, court intrigues, and forbidden loves, both the text and the illustrations have a restrained, subtle beauty to them. Read the Full Story >>
It Turns On Love
When you thumb through Bolu Babalola’s short story collection, Love in Color: Mythical Tales From Around the World, Retold, you’ll surely recognize some of the names that double as titles. Scheherazade, of the Arabian Nights; Nefertiti, a legendary ancient Egyptian queen; perhaps even Psyche, from the Greek story of Eros and Psyche. Many of the names may be unfamiliar, featuring myths from western and southern Africa, China, and Mesopotamia. But even if you know the original incarnations of these stories, Babalola’s versions will still feel entirely new. Read the Full Story >>
Love of Place (and Politics)
As one goes through the pages of Koonce’s book and learns more about the strides made by different groups in gaining political representation across West Virginia, it is easier to understand his fascination with local politics. While one may not necessarily agree that voting is the right that affirms all others, it is undoubtedly a tool of empowerment, one that is inextricably tied to Jefferson County’s local character, history — and future. Read the Full Story >>
Blue-Collar Tragedy
Undone Valley, William R. Soldan’s first novel, opens with two epigraphs from none other than French existentialists Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. They give the reader a feel for the bleakness that is about to come but also of the introspective nature of Soldan’s well-delineated characters in what is nevertheless a gripping literary thriller. Read the Full Story >>
Jelani Cobb & The Kerner Report — Oct 27
Speaking about the killing of George Floyd in May of 2020, Jelani Cobb writes, “the flames of a single incident seemed to combust, and all at once, over the country.” Cobb’s recently published book, The Essential Kerner Commission Report, “distills the full Kerner Report to its most significant and enduring parts.” The current book is a much slimmer volume, but no less timely or relevant. Read the Full Story >>
Green Bank: The Town That Stood Still
For decades, Green Bank and its surroundings have attracted people seeking a quieter life, including Stephen Kurczy, a rara avis reporter who hadn’t “owned a cellphone in nearly a decade” when he decided to make it the theme of his book, The Quiet Zone: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence. Read the Full Story >>
Voices From the Past
In 1972, Anne Lawrence, a 21-year-old junior at Swarthmore College studying history and sociology, traveled through the coalfields of central and southern West Virginia, as well as Kentucky and Virginia. Her goal was to interview retired miners and their families about their union experiences, including their participation in the Battle of Blair Mountain that took place in Logan County, WV from August 25 to September 2 of 1921. Read the Full Story >>
An Introduction to Gurney Norman
Even though he is not a prolific author – he has published just four works of fiction in the last five decades – Kentucky’s Gurney Norman’s body of work has earned him a major place in Appalachian literature. The reissue of Allegiance, a collection of short stories and vignettes in a primarily autobiographical key, is as good an introduction as any Norman title to a world of close connection to the land, acute observation of both human interactions and nature, and an engaging, poetic voice that captures the pure joy of storytelling. Read the Full Story >>
The Toil And The Grind
William Trent Pancoast (born 1949) is one of those rare authors who still writes about the workplace and, more specifically, blue collar jobs like assembling auto parts at a General Motors plant or seeding a golf course Read the Full Story >>
