In 1964, John Berryman sat in Abbott Hospital in Minneapolis, recovering from an alcohol-fueled East Coast reading tour, and sketched out a plan for The Dream Songs . . .

Eleni Kefala’s Time Stitches, originally published in Greek in 2013, is a spellbinding adventure through open-ended, unbounded time.

Colm Tóibín introduces readers to Lispector by way of the writer José Castello’s recollection of finding the great Brazilian Jewish novelist on a street in Rio, gazing into a shop window populated by naked mannequins.

During schoolyard spats between young boys, conflicts rarely end in punches. There is, instead, a perpetual appeal to those higher up in the food chain—all grade-school boys magically have a big brother who is ready, apparently, to fight someone half their age . . .

Mei-mei Berssenbrugge’s work is almost entirely resistant to summary. If you tried to paraphrase A Treatise on Stars—her first new book since 2013’s Hello, the Roses—you might find yourself, as I have, babbling . . .

Under the stewardship of Reviews Editor Rachel Mennies, we’re looking for roughly 1,500-to-3,000-word review essays that lift us to your singular inquiry-driven vantage: show us what your chosen book reveals to you that only you can show. Begin new conversations; bring us along for your investigations . . .