NYT Books

In Hilary Plum’s novel “State Champ,” a mediocre receptionist goes on a hunger strike — only to question the purpose of protest.

“Fever Beach” is a wacky blend of Floridian farce and the perverse politics of our time.

Laurence Leamer, the author of “Capote’s Women” and “Hitchcock’s Blondes,” takes the measure of another powerful man and his female muses.

“The Village Beyond the Mist” may or may not have inspired the Studio Ghibli masterpiece, but it’s transporting nonetheless.

“Sleep,” the debut novel by Honor Jones, moves back and forth in time between a 35-year-old mother’s present and her disturbing, unresolved past.

A new novel considers the perplexing life and times of G.W. Pabst, the Austrian filmmaker who worked in the shadow of the Reich.

A new book by the historian Ian Kumekawa tracks the varied career of a gigantic boat in an era of profound economic change.

In “The Peepshow,” Kate Summerscale tells the stranger-than-fiction story of a sensational murder case that rocked 1950s London.

In Franziska Gänsler’s novel, “Eternal Summer,” a tenuous bond forms between strangers stranded in a hotel as the world burns.

In “The Original Daughter,” the debut novel by Jemimah Wei, a Singaporean family craters under the weight of ambition, jealousy and things left unsaid.