While Strout’s masterful design draws us in, it is the searing emotional specificity of her language that captures us.

The story spans 60 years, and as Broderick tells the tale of Roza Mojewska and Otto Brack he tells the story of Poland itself, touching on Hitler’s goal of annihilating the Poles to give the Germans space.

John Matteson reviews "The Fate of the West" by Bill Emmott

Tommy Tighe argues that being Catholic is hipster in itself. So, he contends, why not mine the tradition for its quirkiest customs and celebrate them without reservation?

The book grapples with the biggest of issues: the meaning of life, the problem of evil and the value of praying to a God who seems only rarely to intervene in human affairs.