God on the Rocks

For those of us who have come to recognize the British fiction writer Jane Gardam as one of the very best living novelists, this reissue of her 1978 tale of a young woman's coming of age between the world wars is cause for rejoicing. Those who've yet to encounter the magic of this marvelous storyteller are in for an even bigger treat.

June 19: On this day in 1816, the Shelleys, Lord Byron, and entourage gathered at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva to tell the ghost stories that would trigger Frankenstein. This most legendary of storm-tossed evenings inspired…

Very few debut novels exhibit the charm, assurance, emotional depth and bravura fabulation which the lucky reader will discover in Helene Wecker's

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