Get us in your inbox
🙌 Awesome, you're subscribed!
Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon!
Browse our critics' book reviews of literature from established and up-and-coming poets and writers working in every genre
Even rabid readers need a little direction sometimes, and Time Out is happy to help with as many book reviews of intriguing, notable fiction and nonfiction as we can muster. Peruse our library for Time Out New York critics' takes on the good and bad in novels, short stories, poetry, graphic works and more.
In the opening pages of her memoir, Kim Gordon finds herself in the midst of two breakups
Read the full review
"What is memory but the telling of a story?" This could easily be the epigraph for Laura van den Berg’s debut novel but is, instead, a line found in her own book.
Read the full review
The short-story master will bring out your inner voyeur in another collection of simple, entrancingly realistic fictions
Read the full review
A cult essayist expands his oeuvre—and leaves no doubt about his talent—in this deeply relatable nonfiction collection.
Read the full review
Two teens face a stalker and deal with their own failings in a richly detailed debut.
Read the full review
Myths, metaphors and vampires: Eula Biss’s expansive exploration of vaccination will surprise you
Read the full review
This puzzle-like book, riddled with pulpy allusions, proves Darnielle’s narrative skill
Read the full review
One of contemporary literature’s most stylistically dexterous writers shines in this unique meta-fiction
Read the full review
The famed author’s latest does not live up to his earlier masterpieces Most popular Book events By Haruki Murakami
Read the full review
The author offers an exemplary portrait of Caribbean life
Read the full review
This tale of art, love and family in South America becomes a driving and analytical mystery that urges the reader through to its finish.
Read the full review
Though this volume doesn't quite measure up to this fascinating fascist's earlier novel, Kaputt, its look at a tattered, 1943 Italy is difficult but rewarding.
Read the full review
Lovely prose from poet-turned-novelist Sibum can’t make personal and political chatter the stuff of great literature.
Read the full review
Ten years in the making, this beautiful bummer of a book keeps you thinking long after you’ve finished.
Read the full review
Despite a steadfast and refreshing creation called Dermot, O'Flynn's incisive story is weakened by one ill-defined protagonist.
Read the full review
Playful sketches add up a child’s life.
Read the full review
Eggers's satire of social media, which might be his 1984 or Brave New World, touches us IRL.
Read the full review
The last title in Atwood’s trilogy simultaneously stimulates and unnerves.
Read the full review
A grumbling novelist’s confessions draw focus from his Austrian muse, the fin de siécle gadfly newspaperman Karl Kraus.
Read the full review
A tender family account from the novelist behind Charming Billy spans a century, but leaves some of its story undeveloped.
Read the full review
This emotionally draining memoir reflects the author's profound love and anger for a mother who imposed herself on his life and art. Read the full review
A ostentatiously dark and fictional Nick learns to drink blood—not booze—and awaits congratulations for his naughtiness.
Read the full review
McEwan's Cold War spies are possessed more by love, writing and personal betrayals than they are by state secrets.
Read the full review
The British novelist's adaptations shine a light on the strange, visceral and morally complicated qualities of these inescapable fables.
Read the full review
These stories, which take their cues from historical events and extant documents, fare best when Donoghue lets her imagination wander.
Read the full review
Whether poets at cocktail parties or lovers in TB wards, Munro finds a perfect marriage of character and setting in this evocative collection of short stories.
Read the full review
This stylish noir tale has two enjoyable narrators and some great patter, but its meandering story doesn't quite succeed.
Read the full review
DFW's ruminations on language, tennis and blockbuster sci-fi movies are hilarious and informative but definitely for his fans.
Read the full review
This novel of a protagonist's meditations among taxidermied creatures is a fair-to-middling installment in a near-magnificent trilogy.
Read the full review
Guided by his memory and his senses, the mature writer respsonsible for The Invention of Solitude reflects on his 63 years of life.
Read the full review
Discover Time Out original video
