Subscribe
Works of fiction that address matters of heart and soul.
In her teaching at Barnard College and in her works of fiction, memoir, and literary criticism Mary Gordon probes questions of self, faith, love and femininity in the modern world. Her most recent novel, The Love of My Youth, finds former lovers meeting abroad for the first time in more than thirty years. Writing in The Barnes & Noble Review, Heller McAlpin praises Gordon's power to "probe questions about serendipity in life and love, and whether there is such a thing as a fated soulmate." This week, she picks three novels that illuminate how hard it is to love someone well, even ourselves.
By Ford Maddox Ford
"Because it reminds us of the difficulty of knowing anything or anyone properly, the mysteries of sex, the conflict between an ideal of virtue and an actual living body."
By Georges Bernanos
"If for nothing else, for the end, "The great temptation: how easy it is to hate onself." And, "What does it matter, grace is everywhere?" This is a love story in the purest sense."
By Katherine Anne Porter
"One story in a collection, all wonderful, but this one is sublime. In a few pages it deals with life and death, war, romantic love, women and work...and makeup!"
Email
Print
Share
Emma Brockes' mother Paula escaped from South Africa with a smuggled pistol and a dark secret. A daughter unravels her family's covert past -- and a suspenseful legal drama -- in this hard-boiled memoir of survival.
Expand your memory, puzzle-solving skills, and sense of metaphysical wonder with philosopher Daniel C. Dennett's tasting menu of user-friendly neuroscience and poetic lingual pursuits.
Thespian-turned-P.I. Jasmine Sharp searches for a missing actress and veteran detective Catherine MacLeod tries to solve the case of a murdered one. Their paths intertwine amid the Scottish theater community with uproarious and gory results.
Please sign in to add a comment on this article.