In “Eternity,” Providence-born author David Plante Captures the Ache of New England
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At just over two hundred pages, Eternity, the latest novel by Providence-born writer David Plante, is hardly an overstuffed book, but the world it depicts brims with disquiet. Ted Beauchemin, the novel’s middle-aged protagonist, is someone for whom home is always just hoving into view [...]

20
Aug
The book's cover and a photo of the author.
Essential Work in A Living: Working-Class Americans Talk to Their Doctors by Michael Stein, M.D.
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When Dr. Michael Stein, a doctor and writer in Providence, sees patients, he makes a special effort to learn about their work. Much of it is manual labor: “Because I am a primary care doctor in a mid-sized industrial city in the northeastern United States [...]

23
Jul
The book’s cover via publisher CLASH Books.
The Lonely Road of Monsters: A review of Selene Shade, Resurrectionist for Hire
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Selene Shade runs a successful small business in Goat Hill, a quirky little city that will strike  readers who know Providence as distinctly familiar. Which is good, because Shade’s line of work is distinctly strange. Shade’s a resurrectionist: She raises the dead for a living. [...]

17
Jun
The Failures (and Wonders) of Fatherhood: Lucas Mann’s Latest Book Explores Being a Dad Through an Innovative Lens
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In his 2009 essay “The Losers’ Club,” the Pulitzer-winning novelist Michael Chabon made a surprising connection: Writers’ careers are full of failure. So is fatherhood. “A father,” Chabon wrote, “is a man who fails every day.” Chabon’s insight came back to me while I was [...]

21
May
Kirstin Allio Wants You to Wake Up
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Double-Check for Sleeping Children is Providence writer Kirstin Allio’s second volume of short stories and her fourth book. It might also be her best. In twenty lyrical short stories of everyday life, Allio delicately reckons with the ways in which adults reveal themselves to be [...]

30
Apr