NYT Books

In “The Militia House,” by John Milas, an abandoned building in Afghanistan captivates and terrifies the Marines stationed nearby.

His best novels, charged with a distrust of authority, retain their sweep and power.

New short fiction by Agustina Bazterrica, Joyce Carol Oates, Nishanth Injam and Kathleen Alcott.

“Blight,” by Emily Monosson, chronicles the threats fungal pathogens pose to humans, animals and plants as the world’s most devastating agents of disease.

In “Jews in the Garden,” the journalist Judy Rakowsky helps a relative uncover the truth of what happened to their family during World War II.

New books by Heidi Julavits, Amelia Possanza and Fern Brady explore a future of self-discovery by mining the past.

“Not Even the Dead,” a novel by Juan Gómez Bárcena, is a transhistorical epic with echoes of Cormac McCarthy and Joseph Conrad.

Elisabeth Egan and Tina Jordan talk about Helen Fielding’s novelthe, and Gregory Cowles and Juliana Barbassa discuss all things translation.

“I regret that I never met Hilary Mantel,” says the Booker-winning Scottish novelist, whose most recent book, “Young Mungo,” is now out in paperback. “I would be delighted with three of her.”

Andrew Lipstein’s shrewd novel finds a moneyed Brooklynite so unmoored that he starts to identify with animals he has long overlooked.