NYT Books

In his novel “States of Emergency,” Chris Knapp doesn’t just tighten the distance between our inner lives and the world around us; he erases it.

Most bets were on Percival Everett’s “James,” but the judges chose Harvey’s “beautiful, miraculous” novel, which is set aboard a space station.

“The Impossible Man,” by Patchen Barss, depicts the British mathematical physicist and Nobelist Sir Roger Penrose in all his iconoclastic complexity.

“Set My Heart on Fire” follows a young woman through a world of drugs, music and highly conditional relationships.

Esther Kinsky reflects on the nature of seeing in a book about an old cinema in Hungary.

In “Four Points of the Compass,” Jerry Brotton explores the disorienting, dizzying history of our relationship to direction.

Sergio De La Pava’s novel “Every Arc Bends Its Radian” is a detective story that takes a strange turn in Colombia’s dark underbelly.

In “Heartbreak Is the National Anthem,” Rob Sheffield chronicles how Taylor Swift has made fans, foes and even journalists part of her story.

He memorably portrayed a frizzy-haired science teacher roping her elementary school class into adventures aboard a shape-shifting yellow bus.

In a new biography, Peter Ames Carlin chronicles the rise of an indispensable band and the evolution of its music.