This week’s choices embrace a poetry assortment and a remarkably cleareyed memoir by a survivor of sexual abuse, together with a bounty of fine fiction by Amity Gaige, David Szalay, Allison Epstein and others. Comfortable studying. — Gregory Cowles
Fagin the Thief
by Allison Epstein
You is likely to be shocked to be taught that Oliver Twist has nothing greater than a walk-on half in “Fagin the Thief.” And much more shocked to be taught that Dickens’s infamous villain emerges from this reimagining of his origins as considerably much less villainous — nonetheless a sinister grasp prison, however indelibly formed by the prejudices of Nineteenth-century London, the place whilst a boy he suffers “the pure consequence of being visibly Jewish and visibly poor.” Epstein has created a deeply nuanced character, comprehensible if not wildly sympathetic, a loner who has realized a tragic lesson: “Iron hearts can’t break.” Read our review.
