Gregory McNamee

1 month ago | kirkusreviews.com | Gregory McNamee

“If you try to talk about North Korea in Asia, a lot of people just sort of shake their heads as if everyone there [is] a bit crazy—a don’t-worry-about-it sort of thing. And that piqued my interest.”So it was, Harry Allen tells Kirkus by Zoom from his home in Dubai, that he decided to visit what is perhaps the most hermetic and, certainly, most thoroughly policed country on Earth. “I’d read a few nonfiction accounts of life in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” he continues.

Feb 12, 2025 | kirkusreviews.com | Gregory McNamee

A boy is born into an unhappy home, the product of an arranged marriage between a vivacious young woman and a much older man of local importance, “relentless in his demand for her body.” Disgusted and miserable, Raya finally returns to her parents, taking her son, Karim, with her—but then, seeking the excitement of a different life, leaves him to his grandparents’ care and heads for the bright lights of Dar es Salaam. Another boy, Badar, is born in a distant village.

Jan 17, 2025 | kirkusreviews.com | Gregory McNamee

A native of rural Michigan, Callan Wink moved, 20-odd years ago, to more rural country still: Montana’s Yellowstone River valley. The trout-rich river passes by the small town of Livingston, a place where you can’t cast a line without snagging a writer: it’s been home to literary luminaries such as (once upon a befuddled time) Richard Brautigan, Thomas McGuane, Doug Peacock, Russ Chatham, and—especially and everlastingly—Jim Harrison.

Sep 25, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Gregory McNamee

Some people cleaned out their garages during the Covid-19 confinement. Some binge-watched streaming videos. Some took online classes. That’s not so unusual. One day, when an inventory is taken, thousands of books will be counted as Covid literature. But what is unusual is that King’s book, Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel’s Messiah (Doubleday, Oct. 29), grew not just from the pandemic but also from a needle-in-a-haystack treasure hunt.

Sep 24, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Gregory McNamee

John Lewis arrived in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986, representing an urban Atlanta district that was largely but not exclusively Black. He soon earned a reputation for gravitas and well-deliberated decisions; within a few years he bore the sobriquet “the Conscience of Congress.”In his wisdom and manner, Lewis could be Solomonic, even saintly. But, as David Greenberg makes plain in his new book, John Lewis: A Life (Simon & Schuster, Oct. 8), Lewis was not without his human shortcomings.