Clare Sestanovich

Oct 8, 2024 | centerforfiction.org | Rita Bullwinkel |Ruthvika Rao |Mai Sennaar |Clare Sestanovich

Vijaya and Sree are the daughters of the Deshmukhs of Irumi. Hailing from a lineage of ancestral aristocrats, their family’s social status and power over villagers on their land is absolute. Krishna and Ranga, brothers, are the sons of a widowed servant in the Deshmukh household. When Vijaya and Krishna meet, they forge an intense bond that is beautiful and dangerous.

Jun 28, 2024 | newinbooks.com | J.T. Tierney |Cathy Lamb |Rosalind S. Brown |Clare Sestanovich

in Books to Read if You Like..., eBook, Literary Fiction, News 6 Richly Woven Stories of Tenacity and LoveStep into a world of tenacity and love with our selection of six new literary fiction novels. Each richly woven story promises depth, emotion, and unforgettable characters. Join us as we delve into these compelling narratives that celebrate the resilience of the human spirit.

Jun 12, 2024 | entertainment-mag.com | Clare Sestanovich

Each of these elements makes sense intellectually — the novel is insistently concerned with different ways of being “of use” to the world — but the proportions are off. The first half of the book is a staid bildungsroman about the loneliness of elite achievement; think Elif Batuman’s “The Idiot” with fewer jokes.

Jun 10, 2024 | nytimes.com | Clare Sestanovich

ASK ME AGAIN, by Clare SestanovichClare Sestanovich's debut story collection, " Objects of Desire " (2021), introduced readers to a formally accomplished writer whose style calls to mind alienated, realist forebears such as Ann Beattie, Richard Yates and Mary Gaitskill. Her subject matter, too, is squarely old-school New Yorker (where she used to be an editor, and where several of her stories have been published).

Jun 10, 2024 | nyjournalofbooks.com | Clare Sestanovich

“worth reading . . .”When a novel, like this one, is light on plot or narrative tension, the protagonist’s voice and character must carry the story. That’s what makes Ask Me Again so frustrating. In simple, largely unemotional prose, it traces 10 years in the life of the third-person narrator, Eva, starting when she’s a middle-class 16-year-old in Brooklyn. Sometimes the narrative voice’s simplicity opens the world in a wonderfully fresh way.