Of Loss and Lavender, by Sinan Antoon, translated from the Arabic by the author (Other Press). The central characters of this contemplative novel are two Iraqi men—unknown to each other—who both immigrate to the U.S. in the wake of the Gulf War, and proceed down different paths. Sami, a retired doctor, moves to Brooklyn to live with his son’s family. After arriving, he’s diagnosed with dementia, and clings to memories of the home that he was reluctant to leave behind. Omar, an Army deserter, is eager to “amputate” Iraq “entirely from his memory”; as he settles into life on a farm in New Jersey, he tells people that he’s from Puerto Rico. The narrative, which roams freely among its characters’ perspectives, is a work of translation in every sense, as it seeks to convey, often through metaphor, the incomparable experience of exile.
No Way Home, by T. C. Boyle (Liveright). This novel of quiet menace begins when a medical resident in Los Angeles, Terrence, receives a phone call informing him that his mother has died. He soon goes to Nevada, where she lived, where he meets Bethany, a receptionist with a drinking problem. He is immediately—and dangerously—attracted to Bethany, who has a sinister ex-boyfriend who refuses to keep a distance. As the three characters grow entangled in destructive ways, Boyle’s novel becomes a psychological drama full of tension, even as Terrence comes to feel that he is at an impasse.
