Maureen Corrigan

Richard Russo's novel, Bridge of Sighs, is a story about unexceptional people in an unexceptional upstate New York town. But the novel, Maureen Corrigan says, is anything but unexceptional; it's pound-for-pound the best new fiction on shelves today. Russo won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Empire Falls, a story about the relationships between people in a small town in Maine.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews “Run” (HarperCollins) the new novel by Ann Patchett.

Fresh Air's book critic reviews Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice, Janet Malcom's joint biography of Gertrude Stein and her longtime companion, Alice B. Toklas.

Fresh Air's book critic reviews Away, an extraordinary novel of immigration and epic adventure from Amy Bloom, the author of Come to Me and A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You.

Fresh Air's book critic reviews Circling My Mother, the new memoir by novelist Mary Gordon; the book chronicles Anne Gordon's battles with polio, alcoholism, and eventually with senile dementia, and details the author's acceptance of both "the burdens and blessings of caring for her mother in old age."

The sun set on the British Empire 60 years ago this summer, on Aug. 15, 1947, when India officially gained its independence. A new work of narrative history called Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire probes the behind-the-scenes political machinations — and the potentially scandalous secret love affair — that facilitated the handover.

Min Jin Lee's debut novel, Free Food for Millionaires, tells the story of a young Korean-American woman whose Ivy League education exposes her to a glitzy, glamorous lifestyle — one she's drawn to, but can't afford to maintain.

Stephen Carter's latest novel is his second excursion into the lesser-known world of the African American upper-middle class. In New England White, he tells the story of Lemaster and Julia Carlyle, two minor characters from his best-selling fiction debut, The Emperor of Ocean Park.

Maureen Corrigan recommends non-fiction books to read this summer.

Sometimes it pays to let yourself be manipulated. My first instinct upon seeing Hilma Wolitzer's new novel was to pooh-pooh it as a bald appeal to book clubs across the land.