NYT Books

“Impossible Creatures” has prompted comparisons to Tolkien, Lewis and Pullman, but action, not awe, is Katherine Rundell’s strong suit.

“Survival Is a Promise,” a new biography by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, is an unabashed homage to the poet known for her political commitment and community building.

In “Prisoner of Lies,” Barry Werth tells the story of a young C.I.A. operative who spent two decades waiting out the postwar era in a Chinese jail cell.

In her engrossing book “A Wilder Shore,” Camille Peri tells the story of R.L.S. and his American wife, Fanny Van de Grift.

Priscilla Morris’s novel “Black Butterflies” makes the case for art in times of war.

Joshua Leifer’s “Tablets Shattered” is both a history of Judaism in America and a cri de coeur from a heartbroken member of the tribe.

In his fast-paced novel, Alejandro Puyana recounts the struggles and impossible choices of a family in deeply troubled Venezuela.

Ian Frazier’s history roams far and wide, on foot and in the archives, celebrating (if not romanticizing) a perennially “in between” part of New York.

Rosie Schaap’s new memoir, “The Slow Road North,” recalls her grief and her subsequent move out of Brooklyn.

“Swallow the Ghost,” by Eugenie Montague, is an up-to-the-minute mystery that defies convention.