Last week I recommended two nonfiction books about politics and a fun novel with a lead character modeled on former first lady Laura Bush.
This week, I’m back with two more novels and a terrific political biography you shouldn’t miss.
No list of political fiction is complete without Ward Just. Now, in his 80s, and a former journalist, he is the master of turning a mirror on America. He has a rich backlist, but for our purposes today I’m recommending “Echo House.”
The novel begins in the 1930s as Senator Adolph Behl, powerful and privileged, awaits a call expecting to hear he’s been chosen as the vice-presidential candidate. The nod goes to someone else and the loss will set off political ripples through Washington and down through the generations of the Behl family. Publisher’s Weekly calls it a political novel “par excellence.”
My second must-read is one that the bookstore Politics & Prose in Washington. recommends when some tourist wanders in and asks about political fiction.
Titled,“I, Claudius,” it’s the fictionalized autobiography of Roman Emperor Tiberius Claudius. Aauthor Robert Graves has packed it with enough political intrigue that it could be the story of contemporary D.C. right now!
And last, a political biography. So many to choose from! But I’m urging you to read David Blight’s biography of Frederick Douglass, titled “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.”
Blight draws us into the fatalism of the approaching Civil War and Douglass’ dawning belief that war was the only way to vanquish slavery.
He tells us of Douglass’ life during Reconstruction and how his life was influenced by three white men and a European woman.
Adam Gopnik writes of Douglass: “In the end, Douglass fascinates us because he embodies all of the contradictions of the Black experience in America.” Those are contradictions we’re still wrestling with today.
Lesley M.M. Blume's new book tells the story of John Hersey, the young journalist whose on-the-ground reporting in Hiroshima, Japan, exposed the world to the devastation of nuclear weapons.
Author Ariel Sabar explores the lives of Harvard's Karen King and of Walter Fritz, the porn producer who convinced her the papyrus fragment he gave her — "The Gospel of Jesus's Wife" — was genuine.
Alice Randall's innovative new novel chronicles the history of Black Detroit beyond Motown, and features a cast of real life artists, doctors, sports figures, activists and movers and shakers.
Democratic political advisor and author Jennifer Palmieri talks to Kerri Miller about feminism and her new book, “She Proclaims: Our Declaration of Independence from a Man's World.”
What forces propel young people to give up everything to join a violent extremist movement like the so-called Islamic State? That's the question that drove Fatima Bhutto to write the novel "The Runaways."
Jean Guerrero tells NPR she became fascinated, when reporting from the border, with how a descendant of Jewish refugees ended up as the person crafting Donald Trump's "harshest rhetoric and policies."
M.T. Anderson's new graphic novel — with gorgeous art by Jo Rioux — adapts the old legend of the drowned city of Ys, giving it better, fuller female characters and a timely environmental message.
Author Madeleine Ryan was diagnosed with autism while she was writing her new novel — she says creating her main character helped her embrace the way she processes her own thoughts and feelings.
