Books & Books founder Mitch Kaplan’s latest roundup of notable books features two meditations on grief and loss—from the horrors of Oct. 7 to the chasm left by a longtime life partner—alongside a poetry collection from an international master of the form, and an essay collection about why children’s literature manners. Purchase them at the links below.
MEMOIR
When We See You Again by Rachel Goldberg-Polin
Some of the best reads are often some of the toughest reads, and this shattering portrait of grief is no exception. Rachel Goldberg-Polin and her husband, Jon, lived a comfortable and self-described “beige” life that turned decidedly black after their 23-year-old son, Hersh, was abducted by Hamas terrorists at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. Three hundred and twenty-eight days later, Hersh was executed, along with five other captives, in a tunnel beneath Gaza. Goldberg-Polin became the public face of the “bring them home” messaging throughout the hostage crisis and Israel-Hamas War, and When We See You Again is a painstaking—and painful—account of her inner and outer lives during this traumatic time. She writes about crying for literally entire days, while allowing for the slivers of hope that offer the bereaved the energy to wake another morning.
Ghost Stories: A Memoir by Siri Hustvedt
It’s a late spring of grief, as this latest nonfiction work from Siri Hustvedt looks at life following the 2024 death of her partner of 43 years, the writer and filmmaker Paul Auster. Hustvedt, whose novels include the prizewinning What I Loved and The Summer Without Men, brings their sense of generous and piercing insight to her own widowhood—the ways mourning becomes ritualized, and in which absence can create its own form of presence. For appreciators of Auster’s work, Ghost Stories includes some of his never-before-seen writing, including personal correspondence to Siri and his final, unfinished book, which was dedicated to his grandson Miles. The book also addresses other losses from Hustvedt’s family in recent years, including those of her stepson and granddaughter, and the imprint they continue to leave. Hustvedt will appear in conversation with Kaplan on Thursday at Books & Books in Coral Gables; reserve a spot here.
POETRY
The Distance of a Shout: Selected Poems by Michael Ondaatje
Before he found international acclaim as a novelist, with titles such as The English Patient and Anil’s Ghost, the now-octogenarian literary lion Michael Ondaatje was a poet, publishing 14 collections between 1962 and 2024. His 15th such book, The Distance of a Shout, finds him revisiting this beloved form, this time in the shape of a memoir. Dating back to his childhood in Sri Lanka through his life amid the natural wilds of rural Ontario, Ondaatje weaves threads of memory, space, and vivid imagery—a canoe trip upriver, a bronze Buddha unearthed—into an artful tapestry of how his rich past, even while blurry, brushes against his present. In a rave review, Publishers Weekly called The Distance of a Shout “a superb and comprehensive collection of selected works.”
ESSAYS
Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children by Mac Barnett
Barnett is one of the country’s most eminent children’s authors, having sold more than 5 million books, which have been translated into more than 30 languages; he’s also the ninth U.S. National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, appointed by the Library of Congress. All of which provides the expertise and the receipts for Make Believe, his impassioned defense of children’s books as a genre worthy of sustained adult attention and critique. Barnett’s conversational prose—one critic likened the book to chatting with the author over a cup of coffee—goes a long way in persuading skeptical readers about the urgency and vitality of so much children’s literature amidst an ongoing literacy crisis in America. Barnett will speak with Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins this Saturday at Books & Books in Coral Gables.
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