"Chateaubriand’s life was, as he says of Récamier’s, 'at once so impressive and so secluded.'” Eric Byrd reviews the third installment of his MEMOIRS FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE (@nyrb-imprints.bsky.social), translated by Alex Andriesse. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/12/27/m...

José Sotolongo’s new novel, THE OPTIMISTIC CUBAN, "offers an honest assessment of Batista’s Cuba – an assessment that is frankly underrepresented by many Cuban exiles themselves." Anthony David Vernon reviews the book from Histria Books. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/12/09/j...

"Real fans of poetry deserve such monuments – in this case, the work of a lengthy lifetime: decades of wondering and pondering, deadpan ironizing and making meaning in America, just the kind of work that must never have felt like work at all." ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/11/25/r...

"Padgett is, incredibly, 83, and he shows no signs of slowing down. ... Sometime in the back half of the 2030s we’ll have a 'Very, Very Collected Poems' to praise." Eric Bies reviews Ron Padgett's VERY COLLECTED POEMS from @coffeehousepress.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/11/25/r...

“While the poems tend to favor concrete images (building up tidy cairns of them), his poetry’s simplicity is something of a deception.” In @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social‬‬, Eric Bies reviews Jean Follain’s newly translated poetry collection, “Earthly” - ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/11/08/j...

"Here is a poet whose sympathies toward the peasantry recall the humanism of Montaigne, and whose silent, watchful animals remember Eden." Eric Bies reviews Andrew Seguin's new translation of the French poet, Jean Follain, from @thesongcave.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/11/08/j...

Like Sei Shōnagon’s Pillow-Book, "Abū Zayd’s Rain-Book reads like it could have been written yesterday, its author less a scholar than an accidental poet, which is to say a kind of lightning rod." Eric Bies reviews David Larsen's translation of THE BOOK OF RAIN. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/10/30/a...

Never before in English translation, Marina Tsvetaeva's THE STORY OF SONECHKA "brings Russianless readers very close to Tsvetaeva in a pivotal season of creation and witness." Eric Byrd reviews the book from Cherry Orchard Books (Academic Studies Press). ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/10/20/m...

In @sebastiancastillo.bsky.social's new novel, FRESH, GREEN LIFE, "the star of the show is the prose." Lee Klein reviews the book from @catapultbooks.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/09/17/s...

"FIFTY POEMS is poetry-in-translation at its best. Nimble and inventive, Lehmann gives us the rare English Rilke worth preserving immediately." Eric Bies reviews Geoffrey Lehmann’s new translation of Rilke from @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/09/14/r...

"For fans of Ulysses, Oulipo, Joseph Cornell, and the like, [@tomcomitta.bsky.social's latest novel] PATCHWORK takes textual collage to new heights." Eric Bies reviews the book from @coffeehousepress.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/08/21/t...

Really enjoyed this handwritten, snail mail interview with @ericbies.bsky.social for @necessaryfiction.com . Maybe the most personal public conversation I've had yet? Also very grateful for Eric's generous introduction

Tom Comitta (@tomcomitta.bsky.social) discusses their new book PATCHWORK (@coffeehousepress.bsky.social) with Eric Bies necessaryfiction.com/interviews/a...

"To heighten decorum, to ennoble behavior is simply not enough to diminish hate speech online." Anthony David Vernon reviews a new book by Avinash Awaghade and Ruchika Jain, HATE SPEECH AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN AN ONLINE ENVIRONMENT from Eliva Press. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/08/13/a...

“Like Gary Snyder if he could draw, McMillan’s artistry conveys an implicit philosophy of openness—to experience, nature, [and] new ideas.“ Eric Bies reviews Michael McMillan’s TERMINAL EXPOSURE from @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/07/22/m...

Peter Brooks' HENRY JAMES COMES HOME "charts a journey, clarifies an itinerary, and identifies the encounters in which a writer’s later reflections are rooted." Eric Byrd reviews the book from @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/06/13/p...

"Immortal Dark" - which is "set in a supernatural, East African-centric world" - "dramatizes the lengths that grieving people sometimes go in hopes of finding a semblance of relief." Jana Ford reviews Tigest Girma's IMMORTAL DARK @littlebrownyr.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/06/11/t...

"This book breaks boundaries for a paranormal horror novel by being the thought-provoking, society-shaming powerhouse that it is." Shaylee Geary reviews Kylie Lee Baker's BAT EATER AND OTHER NAMES FOR CORA ZENG from MIRA Books. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/06/09/k...

"This remains true: Collins is more than capable of creating a gut-wrenchingly beautiful narrative that is simultaneously enjoyable and eye-opening." Baran Bashar reviews Suzanne Collins' SUNRISE ON THE REAPING from Scholastic Press. #suzannecollins #hungergames ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/06/08/s...

In this "much-anticipated sequel, Painter reminds her fervent fanbase why they fell in love with her storytelling in the first place." Emily Hackett reviews Lynn Painter's NOTHING LIKE THE MOVIES from @simonandschuster.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/06/07/l...

Perspective(s) is "a breezy yet engrossing story of censorship, suspicion, and betrayal" - "a brisk afternoon read of the type to which all historical fiction ought to aspire." Claire Elliott reviews Laurent Binet's new novel from @fsgbooks.bsky.social ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/06/05/l...

@johngreensbluesky.bsky.social's new book "centers on the mind-boggling fact that, though we do have a cure for tuberculosis, roughly 150 million people have died of the disease since the cure’s inception." Claire Vaughan reviews EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/06/06/j...

Private Rites is "a perfect read for those who enjoy dark fiction and environmental dystopia, a version of our world that still wishes for the sun to stay shining." Valentine Wollnik reviews Julia Armfield's PRIVATE RITES from @flatironbooks.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/06/04/j...

"Jeneva Rose’s The Perfect Divorce delivers exactly what the title promises—a swift and amicable separation—and then turns that promise into a violent, high-stakes legal thriller." Katelyn Richardson reviews Jeneva Rose's latest, from @blackstonepub.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/06/03/j...

Steve Donoghue reviews a book about the story behind one of the great biographies of the 20th century, Ellmann's Joyce by Zachary Leader, out from @harvardpress.bsky.social: openlettersreview.com/posts/ellman...

"Peters [...] portray[s] the unrefined messiness in identity exploration—the same messiness that leads to the beautiful metamorphosis that is a blossoming belief in self-worth." Milo Spain reviews @torreypeters.bsky.social ‪STAG DANCE from Random House. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/06/02/t...

"Likes collide with dislikes; hope does its dance with dread. Idiosyncrasies occasionally shade toward universal experience, but only occasionally." Eric Bies reviews Ed Atkins' FLOWER from @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/05/22/e...

Social media bumper sticker: READ GUY DAVENPORT!

"The truth and the post-truth, properly applied, can and should be effective partners in the pursuit of a free and harmonious society." Anthony David Vernon reviews François Noudelmann's CAN WE MAKE TRUTH GREAT AGAIN? from Max Milo Editions. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/05/13/f...

"Serra’s fine book affirms that Malaparte in exile or in retreat does not write a masterpiece like Kaputt. And masterpieces are all that count." Eric Byrd reviews Maurizio Serra's MALAPARTE: A BIOGRAPHY from @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/05/04/m...

Vincenzo Latronico's new novel, PERFECTION, "styles itself as an exceptionally dry satire but, ultimately, it succumbs to the same devices it seeks to skewer." Eric Bies reviews the book from @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/05/01/v...

Laurent Binet's new novel, PERSPECTIVE(S), is "a splendid melange of unreliable narrators." Eric Bies reviews the book from @fsgbooks.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/04/24/l...

"This is a short novel, but few novels of any length that stretch their middles as much as this one can justify their longueurs. This one does, barely." Eric Bies reviews Solvej Balle's ON THE CALCULATION OF VOLUME BOOK I from @ndbooks.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/04/15/s...

"It’s poetry for everyone but misanthropes and snobs [...] There’s nothing epic here, just the amusing movements of an offbeat mind at play." ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/04/13/e... Eric Bies reviews Elaine Equi's OUT OF THE BLANK (@coffeehousepress.bsky.social).

"A mutual passion for the arts sends both men in tireless pursuit of visual material to tip into their envelopes. They can’t help but reciprocate: to enthuse, to inspire, to admire." ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/04/07/o... Eric Bies reviews John & Yves Berger's OVER TO YOU (@pantheonbooks.bsky.social).

"As far as Nelson’s other books go, this one is refreshingly rag-tag, and reads like a living document." ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/04/01/p... Eric Bies reviews Maggie Nelson's PATHEMATA, OR, THE STORY OF MY MOUTH (#WaveBooks #WavePoetry).

"Few poets have been so successful in straying so far from the subjects poets typically ply." ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/03/28/r... Eric Bies reviews Ron Padgett's PINK DUST (@nyrb-imprints.bsky.social).

"Few poets have been so successful in straying so far from the subjects poets typically ply." ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/03/28/r... Eric Bies reviews Ron Padgett's PINK DUST (@nyrb-imprints.bsky.social).