This Month

As we flipped through many books this month, we found ourselves drawn to stories in which a sense of home emerges, either in the rear-view mirror or as a goal that's not quite attained. Vendela Vida's latest novel tracks a young woman searching for her origins in the frozen North, while chef Madhur Jaffrey recreates the tastes and spices of her Indian childhood. The Russian émigré of Anya Ulinich's satirical novel is looking for a new home, while the the titular refugee of Frederick Reuss' Mohr is fleeing the home he left in Germany. Alt-comics veteran Alison Bechdel offers a moving memoir of growing up with a closeted father. A survey of Oscar Niemeyer's houses reveals a private side of a modernist architect best known for his public projects. We close with an interview with Alain De Botton, the prolific essayist whose most recent book is the The Architecture of Happiness.
- Toby Warner, Managing Editor