Lola, California

Edie Meidav's poignant novel is rooted in the story of Lana and Rose, whose sibling-like friendship in 1980s Berkeley is sundered by time -- and by a terrible tragedy. Now, Lana's charismatic father is on death row, and Rose hopes to bring father and estranged daughter together again before it's too late. Brilliantly evoking the millennial shadows that haunt its California setting and rich with humor and heartache, it's one of the most arresting and thought-provoking books of the season.

June 20: Today is World Refugee Day, as designated by the United Nations in 2001. According to the renowned sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, the modern refugee problem should not be attributed to wars and despots but to a civilization that…

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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