A simple, poetic story about a a Chinese peasant who abandons her rural life in search of something better.

A promising premise gone wrong.

Alice Blackwell is a fictional character: She isn’t Laura Bush, but the veil is thin enough to set tongues wagging in Washington and beyond.

Helen Walsh's novel about an interracial couple struggling with the racist small-town England of the 1970s and ’80s courses with life but leaves us desensitized in the end.

Bynum proves she has enduring talent with this novel, which maintains the delicate, light touch of her first book while navigating the blurry line between adolescence and adulthood.