Joanna Biggs

A Very Quiet Symphony

Eliza Barry Callahan’s The Hearing Test seems to be about a temporary loss of hearing but is actually one woman’s rehearsal for the losses that come, unbidden, for us all.

Let It Tumble

“I’m drawn always to a certain richness or boldness; I know I’m going to like something if there’s death, sex, and family all in the first fifty pages.”

‘Give Me Joy’

Madonna’s genius is not just for controversy, or for pressing on the fissures in femininity, or for her bold support of once-unpopular causes. It is for doing it all with no apology.

Acts of Accompaniment

In Liliana’s Invincible Summer, Cristina Rivera Garza collects everything that might be needed to bring her younger sister’s murderer to trial. As the older sister’s quest recedes, Liliana’s world comes alive.