Faves of 2015: Fiction

My year in fiction was at times more meh than I’d like to admit. I did read a lot of good books, but figuring out this list was a lot easier than it has been in years past. The first three titles on the list are my top three favorites, but honestly, A Bollywood Affair, The

The Tsar of Love and Techno

Having raved about Anthony Marra’s debut novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, a couple of years ago, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on his latest offering. The Tsar of Love and Techno is somewhat similar to its predecessor in its focus: life during and after Soviet rule. But where Marra had a whole novel to convey the

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

Set in war-torn Chechnya, Anthony Marra’s A Constellation of Vital Phenomena begins with terror. Russian soldiers burst into a house and abduct a man in the middle of the night, burning down his house and taking him somewhere no one ever returns from. His neighbor and longtime friend, Akhmed, watches helplessly until they leave, then