by David Vann about his father, the letters of a grieving nation to Jackie Kennedy, yet another brilliant Scandinavian thriller from Jo Nesbo, and a Dickensian novel about economic collapse in modern London.
FDR’s Funeral Train by Robert Klara
A behind-the-scenes look at one of the America’s unknown political moments.
Some things about politics never change, but following Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s death in 1945, nearly every major political figure in America embarked on a bizarre, one-of-a-kind trip on a funeral train carrying his body to Hyde Park with Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Truman, every single Supreme Court justice, and, unbelievably enough, a Soviet spy all on board. Klara, a veteran reporter, has put together a thrilling piece of history that looks at the intense political and social machinations taking place as the nation mourned its president—Eleanor Roosevelt coped with fresh knowledge of her husband’s extramarital affairs, Truman worked on policy for World War II, and a massive security effort struggled to keep the high-profile passengers out of harm’s way. Sixty-five years after FDR’s death, Klara has managed to provide a fresh look at history as well as the political landscape of the 21st century.
Legend of a Suicide: Stories by David Vann
A heartbreaking look at the nature of father-son relationships.
David Vann’s first book, A Mile Down, followed his (maybe foolish) attempts to be a better seafarer than his father, who killed himself when the author was a child. Vann’s followup, Legend of a Suicide, which contains a novella and five stories, is now out in paperback. This work is also haunted by a father’s death, and a “sadder book about fathers and sons would be impossible to imagine,” Tom Bissell writes in The New York Times. “You’d have to go back to books like The Mayor of Casterbridge or The Great Santini to find a father capable of such loathsome deeds brought to life with such empathy.” And yet, a “small, lovely book has been written out of his large and evident pain.”
Letters to Jackie: Condolences From a Grieving Nation by Ellen Fitzpatrick
250 of the millions of letters sent to Jackie Kennedy after her husband’s death.
“Where were you when Kennedy was shot?” has become a question that defines a generation. And a straightforward one to answer. But how did you feel? That one is more likely to be subject to the shades of memory. Ellen Fitzpatrick wanted to “recapture how Americans thought” in the weeks and months that followed, she says, “But how do you do that? And then I remembered the condolence letters." Jackie Kennedy received more than 800,000 condolence letters in the two months after her husband’s death, and 1.5 million in the following two years. Fitzpatrick sifted through the letters for months, reading the 200,000 pages of letters kept at the Kennedy Library in Boston. She picked 250 moving letters to appear in her book, Letters to Jackie, and began contacting the writers and their families to learn their stories. Fitzpatrick told USA Today that the book "makes you see what drives a democracy: the people. It was just fascinating."
The Devil’s Star by Jo Nesbo
Detective Harry Hole is back to face down a serial killer with an eerie trademark.
Just in time for a season of beach reads, Jo Nesbo has released his third novel featuring detective Harry Hole, this time tracking down a bizarre serial killer in the midst of a blistering summer in Oslo. The Devil’s Star first finds Hole as he attempts to cope with a drinking problem and a job that’s hanging on by a thread. However, he quickly gets pulled into an investigation into a string of increasingly disturbing murders, in which each victim is left with the mark of a five-pointed star. As Hole is forced to work with a longtime enemy to solve the case, Nesbo creates both a gripping mystery and a fascinating character study of the detective himself, who Publisher’s Weekly called “one of today’s most fascinating fictional detectives.”
A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks
Seven characters over seven days traverse the complexities of modern life.
A week before Christmas Day in 2007, the English bank Northern Rock collapsed, revealing major problems throughout the financial system. Mirroring our current financial woes, A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks follows seven characters through those seven days as they navigate their own lives through the trials and complexities of modern London. The disparate cast of characters includes a hedge-fund manager in the middle of the biggest trade of his career, a recently arrived professional footballer from Poland, a young lawyer, a student swayed by Islamist theory, a book reviewer, a schoolboy addicted to genetically enhanced pot, and a Tube train driver. Both satiric and comical, A Week in December investigates the characters’ self-deceptions and what must be done to confront the realities of the modern world in a time of crisis. A Week in December "include[s] beautifully written riffs on how money really works... [it] is vigorous, authentic and often hilarious,” the Chicago Tribune says. “Faulks [has] set a formidable standard ... clever and convincing, [it reminds] us that fiction always has the final word."
