Throughout this private detective‘s search for answers to a resurfaced barrel of bones, we see imagery of scorched Earth and beautiful nature ruined. This Hollywood fix-it man Dash Fuller ends up setting controlled fires in an effort to clear his conscience and start fresh—even though history tends to repeat itself for those attracted to flames.

An interesting mystery unfurls thankfully, following early chapters of watching a castle‘s paint dry. We learn that places—even flood-prone, resourceless locations—have an infinite generosity. They provide. They have us back, even when we return as different people. Human benevolence is much more unpredictable. Even so, there‘s a world for all of us where we are capable of great achievements—the kind worthy of a statue.

It‘s an accomplishment to grow old in Bohane; chances are you‘re caught up in the city‘s violent, deadly current just by living there. To live, you have to be a rare combo of ruthless and smart. Survivors like Logan, Ol Boy, Gant, and Girly see the ways out—swing your knife at the leader or stay hidden, especially if you miss. The lucky people get to reminisce—an act that shows you had your shining moment and lived to talk about it.

Here you‘re on one end of the phone. If you‘re lucky, you‘re the one calling, and not feeling like you‘re on hold. High school, New York City, and Earth itself are lonely places, but there‘s a miracle found in these oceans of people—surviving and living together. If one were to look from afar, the vision of coexistence would be radiant, fascinating, and maybe even beautiful.

Faina, a surprise arrival in the snow, didn‘t capture my attention like she did her adopters (and perhaps creators) Jack and Mabel. Faina‘s mere presence, a kind of miracle in their lonely lives, is the event but the somewhat blank girl doesn‘t do much beyond showing up and—as we humans often can‘t resist—leaving. Most of the characters in the book take a hike, to discover who they are and can be.

Maybe the first sign that the unnamed narrator shouldn‘t be teaching young men is that she wheels her supplies in a CVS cart—a sign that she‘s ready to take. If she teaches the boys anything, it‘s the value of pretense: dressing well, sneaking around, crafting stories. You can spend all day trying to clean the dirt off you, or you could learn a lot more about yourself by throwing it around.

“Never Let Me Go,” a special song of Kathy‘s, also refers to the fleeting nature of our memories. They go, too. When those fade, we are left with art or objects like old cassette tapes to remind us that we are not clones, that we have thoughtful souls deserving love and a search for life‘s full offerings.

Sadie and Sam make video games together, and at times the novel feels like a lengthy Wikipedia summary of their production timeline. I never quite connected with the characters, who perhaps get a bit buried in all their different designed worlds. I do appreciate the theme: There is no perfect run-through in this life. We can only play. And when we‘re hit with life‘s many barrels, we can try to advance or, if we‘re lucky, play again.

One way out of a miserable life of pain, debt, and loneliness is a fairy tale—barflies like to hear one, hunters want to write one, and Tom and Polly drive the plot of their own as the Bonnie and Clyde of 1890s Montana. To Tom and Polly, pursuing a life of escape, beyond the usual conventions and logic, is a noble no-brainer, given that all stories and all roads, even the ones by a beautiful coastline, must end.

Cyrus vainly sets off on a quest to die for his beliefs, but the real way to give meaning to one‘s existence is to live—not even to create art as much as find beauty and grace in any small world we‘re lucky enough to find ourselves.

Everyone here drifts, to escape pain seemingly inherited from previous generations. Orvil loses himself in music and drugs, Jacqui with drinking, Opal with long walks, Lony with cutting. The wandering offers a short escape from their traumatic history, but characters like Lony know how important it is to return, to appreciate one‘s fixed place in the constellation of a family tree that holds you and still has plenty of good things to pass along.

Part of why everyone here annoys me, I think, is no one appears to have real responsibilities, even as COVID hits. Rob and Alice have a daughter they ignore, Jay‘s life has mostly been wading through an art scene while being high, and the art anyone does finally do feels pretentious and light. They have disappeared into their art, a major theme. People return when they connect with others, and mostly everyone here is too selfish to do that.

In this fun adventure, miracles like King Arthur‘s Excalibur and the Holy Grail are wonders to be attained, treasures to end quests and determine fates. Peace resides in acknowledging that we live in a bright world, shining with age-old miracles, and we just have to be near those marvels, to acknowledge their preciousness, rather than take hold of them. The relics here are like memories. They are special, but can never quite be fully grasped.

Elbow, a woodworker, wants to create a special kind of box that only one person can place something into, and anyone can pull from. Sounds like a strange idea, except many characters here do a version of this. John writes a book he hopes many will read; Frank cooks for his restaurant patrons; Mary takes photos. A good life means creating something for others: a personal, creative achievement, as well as a wide, open space for others to grow.

We know the destructive possibilities of “alternative facts.” Wellness finds the positivity in creating a fiction. A good story can convince you that the person you just met is your soulmate, or that the sugar pill you just took cured your stomach problems. There‘s a whole Internet of stories out there. Who knows what‘s true? Our best shot at happiness is to select the screens and windows that show generosity, humanity, and love.

Though Chip awaits edits on his script, chef Denise perfects sauerkraut, Gary makes his living on waiting for markets‘ upward trends, and their Dad seeks a mind-altering drug for his Parkinson‘s, it‘s clear by the book‘s final page that the most satisfying change for all is to delete some darlings and begin again.

In a novel that gets confusing with its big family tree, where everyone is named Elizabeth, Henry, and Richard, the only name to remember really is Thomas Cromwell. Whether being beaten to the ground by his father early on or being later encircled by royal enemies, the tough Cromwell survives. Without his presence, the book is about a King trying to get a divorce. With him, we‘re watching a fighter from the outside achieve Highness.

The rough names, stamped on everyone, are fixed in Lee County: Maggot, Angus (for Agnes), Coach, Woody, and, of course, our title character. The nicknames are given by others, done to them, like a light curse. Like “hillbilly” and other dishonorifics, heavy with history, the labels never completely disappear. People truly grow when they move toward life‘s greater efforts like love and art and decide: I am not who you say I am.

Despite the title, the writing lacks the exaggeration and fun mock-seriousness of his TV interviews and standup. The writeups accompanying his impressive celeb caricatures at times here feel part Wikipedia entry and part…namedrop? Or at least like a list of famous people he‘s met and/or admired. Sometimes we get a great fleshed out story (like the one recounting his first Tonight Show appearance), but often times we‘re left with a quick sketch.

John Lennon believes in the power of his subconscious mind, which seems to receive both present, passing flashes of inspiration, and radiating echoes of the past. That antenna-like connection leads to brilliant music; at other times, it leads to noise. In the novel, Lennon seeks the peace of a private island, where he has the space to Scream out trauma and reset. Unfortunately, for artists like Lennon, there is never quiet. He is always tuned in.

In a novel featuring women guarding their seemingly supernatural, influential powers, writing one‘s story appears as the most impactful -craft. As women here sacrifice identity to not disrupt the natural bliss of Bellinas and the boyish men trying to govern it, one‘s written account, planted like a bomb, affirms if not the exact truth, an authorship—someone not sharing a byline with anyone else, someone taking complete control of their own story.

In this creepy book with great, creepy sentences, Maurice and Charlie wait in the port/purgatory of Algeciras. They are restless, cruel, old men who have somehow survived a life of dealing drugs and pain. Despite their meanness, their friendship is special; their damaged souls fit together. The ending signals that hope exists, even for life‘s most lost, and peace arrives when people and things arrive safely at their rightful destination.

Patch‘s quest to find a fellow captive he‘d known only in darkness takes him to coal mines, bank robbery, jail, elaborate home construction, and lots of art. He goes from misfit pirate wannabe (his most interesting phase, in my opinion) to saint of all trades. His quest is seen as noble by characters, but it‘s easy to see selfishness as his voyage extends. When you dedicate your life to finding someone, you forget the ones who are already there.

There‘s not much going on in Gilead, Iowa, which leaves lots of time for reflection. Reverend Ames does just that, writing letters to his young son. The journal entries reveal his family history and current tensions with his visiting godchild who shares his name. Conflicts between father and son span generations here, but humans have a holy power that appears in the act of forgiveness—a miracle that turns life‘s doubters into believers.

On any given day in 1919, Babe Ruth, whose observing background presence is the best part of the story, can hit a ball to the sky. He can also strike out. The lives of characters here can change in the flash of a gun, the birth of a child, the spreading of sickness, a sudden trade. Hope, however, begins with arrival in a new home, a city that itself is arriving in a new era, where despite the world‘s present ugliness, anything seems possible.

A slave like James—and the owners who control him—know that the most powerful weapon is the pencil, not the pistol. A command of language does just that: commands. To tell a story that remains, that places cruelty on the record for all to see, that announces its author by name as someone in complete control of their own narrative? That‘s its own mighty shot.

Despite the title, an interpreter for The Hague is close with no one. The nameless language-expert‘s mind is frequently manipulated by men who know how to talk. Her life gets worse when she takes people at their word and ignores the warning signs present in the rooms they strut through—feelings that are impossible to record but somehow need to be taken into account when it‘s time for judgment.

The boy “Griz” has a helpful map and Swiss Army knife to guide himself through a barren Earth, but the novel also sees apocalyptic value in a good story. “Brand” deploys his spinning yarns to swindle. Griz writes his personal account as an act of faith—that it will be read by someone who needs it, sure, but also that it will keep him alive. If you‘re writing, after all, that means the journey hasn‘t concluded and a good ending is still possible.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is an ode to the librarians—those who guard the books and share their immense, beautiful world of fact and fantasy to young people. I found hope in this novel, that the most lonely and forgotten people—an orphan in 15th century Constantinople, a plow driver broken by war, a child left alone on a spaceship—will make contributions experienced centuries later, when they dedicate their lives to protecting the stories they love most.

Kya is laughed at by classmates, abandoned by family, ignored or attacked by lovers. No wonder she hides in the marsh. The town feels thinly sketched. The quarterback is arrogant, the defense lawyer swaggers, the two cops go to diners. Cliches aside: almost every adult, particularly those in authority, is insensitive to her pain. Any violence she brings to them is strangely thought of as a win, where the real victory is moving on without them.

For many in Manhattan Beach, there‘s a comfort in fog—a kind of peace that takes Anna and her father away from a heavy life. Both characters equally have a gift of diving into a murky cloud and finding what‘s lost. The best characters find treasures by dropping into the unknown and having faith that they have the capacity to endure.

When Stella takes on a new identity in California, or her daughter Kennedy leaves for New York, or Stella‘s sister Desiree runs away from her hometown, they each pursue a kind of freedom, a new potential. For the less sensitive, running is easy and leads to a comfortable life. The journey is tougher for those who can‘t help but turn around toward those they love, who choose not to forget.

Truth in True Crime is impossible, unless you can learn the entire complicated life of each assailant, accomplice, and victim. The author Darnielle gets us to feel for all three. Devil House says the ethical way to tell the true story of a tragic murder is to put yourself in the place of every single person involved — to understand them, bring them to life to a loving audience, like the best fiction writers giving us the best fictional characters.

In Lockwood‘s book, going on the Internet is called “opening the portal.” The narrator seems to have built a professional life there as a humor writer, until a new arrival calls her back through the door. A baby born with Proteus Syndrome, too rare for both the physical and digital world, transcends both places like the cover‘s circular rainbow, calling everyone nearby to attention and appearing as a kind of short-lived miracle.

The parents have ruined the AirBNB, and the younger generation is ashamed of the irresponsible partiers who refuse to address the mess. The outside world crumbles too. Our best chance to repair a broken place: the arrival of new life. As we grow, we bear responsibility for our home. We are more likely to put out fires when we see the innocent who truly had nothing to do with them. We are moved to act because their presence feels like a miracle.

Amor has only felt the full love of her family when she was struck by lightning — her father held her in his arms, her mother, brother, and sister ran to her aid. Since that childhood moment, Amor has been left aside, called only for funerals. And the youngest sibling always dutifully returns. Because if you don‘t have family, what do you have? As Amor sits on the roof of an old home, watching from a distance, you can guess her answer: Freedom.

In The New York Trilogy, three private investigations fail, or succeed in upending the lives of the investigators. In fact, the studied are frequently in control of the studier, much like an author guides a reader. Watching a mysterious character only leads to self-destruction—a strange feeling for someone who didn‘t quite love a book but didn‘t quit, and knew the only way out was to reach the final page.

In “Archive,” remembering those lost to history (the Apaches) or the present (refugees) is a noble effort. When you dedicate your life to archiving, however, you inevitably leave others behind and unrecorded. Two documentarians tear up their old lives and bring their kids (and us) on a long, pretty dull car ride, made worse when you see the selfishness of the effort, and how commemoration of some makes others disappear.

Kolya can talk his way out of anything: a jail cell, the den of a cannibal killer, a prison camp — not because he‘s a con artist but because he tells a good story and knows how to connect with people. He‘s a writer. Our best authors, like Kolya, like Lev the poet, like Benioff, weave a tale that — no matter how farfetched — brings light and hope to our darkest, most brutal times, where there‘s no food, no peace, and no happy ending in sight.

“Nonso, you have destroyed yourself because of me,” Ndali says to her lover just before he sells his chicken farm and faces a new life in Cyprus — one filled with unexpected suffering, dealt cruelly by others. When Chinonso returns to Nigeria, there‘s nothing left of him. While one can understand Nonso for fighting fire with fire, Orchestra suggests grace is found in those who quietly accept their fate, who find others in need, and wail with them.

Wallace, a biochem student from Alabama, hates it at his midwest university, and who can blame him? He‘s in a story where nothing happens and every conversation — between co-workers, lovers, or “friends” — is an over-sensitive fight about feeling ignored. There‘s no drama here — nobody wants anything interesting — unless you count constant arguing. Wallace takes 300 pages deciding if he wants to leave. For me, the decision is way too easy.

Like her hawk, Agnes sets her husband free to fly away, to go to London to stage the great plays in his mind. In life, we leave the ones we love — sometimes to chase a vision, other times to accept the cruel fate of death. The joy in life is found in the return — when we reach our hand out in faith and our loved ones land home. If a call goes unanswered, use every kind of possible art to go out and find them.

In debate, Adam must always prep for the “spread,” a confusing barrage of so much information that defense against each point is impossible. “Topeka”‘s slow set of character reflections finds narrative-changing power in repurposing language, in how debate becomes rap-battle with just a few tweaks. But there‘s peace when words and their meanings dissolve, no wires are crossed, and everyone shouts the same simple thing into the unintelligible noise.

In Shuggie Bain, alcoholism flips the parent/child relationship. Young Shuggie takes care of his mother Agnes, and Agnes is the one who cries and lashes out — poisoned by the pull of booze and the men who take advantage of women with such addictions. The novel is heartbreaking because a smart boy with a rescuer‘s heart is left to find his own way in an unwelcome world. You can‘t save everyone, he learns, or you‘ll never live your own life.

While the complexity of Chiang‘s stories often left me feeling far behind, the best science fiction should do just that. I don‘t need to understand sci-fi as much as be there to explore its big questions. Questions like: In a fixed future, do our choices matter? Yes, says Exhalation. A mind, to reach its potential, needs cultivation by other minds. The choices we make for each other matter most. We must love, teach, and, of course, make Art.

There‘s an unexpected layer to this Battle Royale — a sad marriage on the battlefield. Katniss dresses Peeta‘s wounds, does all the hunting, feigns love, and waits around for an end to her misery. The Hunger Games audience surprisingly responds not to kills but to demonstrations of love, even when they‘re performed. When the world is hard enough as it is, our real hope is not to survive, but to find a perfect partner to run through the fire with.

Nobody is perfect in Deacon King Kong — not Hot Sausage drinking on the job, or Tommy Elefante moving booze from the docks, or Sister Gee hiding the truth now and then, and certainly not Sportcoat, who begins the novel firing his gun. Officer Potts, another imperfect soul, says: “A lot of saints don‘t start out well, but they end that way.” The good people “clean the dirt,” — around them, and in themselves, and trust when their work is done.

Quichotte is a blur, in the most exciting way. A spy author‘s new story about a dreamer named Quichotte, who‘s on a quest for the heart of a popular TV star, begins to feel like his own life. Our world is a blur: A game-show host is President; our biggest phonies appear on “reality” TV. Such an indecipherable mess can be depressing or it can be hopeful — our wildest, most impossible ideas have the chance to be brought to life and considered Real.

Events looked so grim for Washington‘s troops in the fall of 1776, I found myself thinking, “How do we end up winning this thing?” McCullough‘s book explores a great victory made possible by a series of small miracles. While there‘s luck involved in weather and timing, however, we see there is a super-strength earned and achieved when you have good leaders that lead by example and keep you walking one step at a time, in the dark, across the ice.

Can Mickey, a rock-and-roll dreamer, change, or is his identity as fixed as his unlucky draft number? For a book about a disappearance, “Chances Are” has a lot of slow drives, bike rides, and recliner naps. For a reunion between supposed besties, the three former college bros rarely spend a moment all together. My issue with the book is the point Russo makes: The men who‘ve been friends for 45 years don‘t seem to know each other at all.