Okay, I had to take a little time out from reading and writing book reviews to get a few final things in order and then have a baby, but now I’m back with some thoughts on Tom Rachman’s really stellar book and, hopefully in the next day or two (if I can successfully take advantage of nap time), some notes on the amazing and magical Laura van den Berg as well. Rachman’s debut novel, which follows the reporters and employees of...

Jascha Kessler The assumption that “contemporary history” is also manifested in “contemporary literature” is one of those notions with a long tradition. It can be traced back in critical discourse to Aristotle’s Poetics, in which he remarked that poetry is superior to history. The metaphysical problem underlying historical writing was already present in Plato’s The Sophist: where it is asked whether “history,” a narrative...