By Ray Saadi – Book Editor

 

A THOUSAND MILES TO NOWHERE

By John Gregory Brown, Lee Boudreaux Books $26

Deserting New Orleans on the eve of Hurricane Katrina’s arrival, Henry Garrett found himself three days later at a roadside motel in a small Virginia town tortured by what he left behind in New Orleans, his broken marriage to Amy, his teaching job… well, everything. The proprietor of the motel thinking he’s a refugee from Katrina insists on his staying without charge as long as he likes. He decides instead to visit his sister in Baltimore, but before he can leave, he’s involved in a tragic incident and is invited by the sheriff to stay awhile. Eventually, Henry hits the road again, hoping to mend the ravages of his past and restore a family connection. 

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The TSAR OF LOVE AND TECHNO

By Antony Marra, Hogarth Publishing $25

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Roman Markin, a failed a portrait artist, is enlisted by Soviet censors to remove, beginning with his own brother, political dissenters from official images, as well as all Stalin’s enemies. One day, however, he discovers an opportunity to add his brother’s image in each painting he’s tasked with editing and it is these paintings that reverberate throughout the extraordinary collection of women recounting their stories and those of their grandmothers, former gulag prisoners who settled their Siberian mining town.