The tension created by the murder mystery plot returns to the question of “who [do] you stand with?” Risto’s loyalty is to both his fellow clandestinos from Africa and his Italian wife; to Mogadishu, Somalia and Naples, Italy. Domini’s use of genre—be it the murder mystery plot, the film noir characters, or the inclusion of fairytale tropes—point to how an individual’s perception shapes and colors one’s relationship with culture.

Gass toiled over diction, cadence of free modification, and the emergent properties of prose style. The William H. Gass Reader is a collection of crumbs that will draw you into a labyrinth of letters that will transform your understanding of language

William T. Vollmann’s two-volume set, Carbon Ideologies: No Immediate Danger and No Good Alternative, combines journalism, research, and philosophy in a way that has become synonymous with his nonfiction.

Marie NDiaye’s My Heart Hemmed In begins with a mysterious injury.