Satire at its best is constructive social criticism, and Miles (Dear American Airlines; Want Not) is perfecting this craft in the 21st century. Outside a convenience store in Biloxi, MS, Cameron Harris waits in his wheelchair while his sister runs in to buy beer. Cameron is an alcoholic. Cameron is a paraplegic. Cameron is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. And, on this day, as he stands up and begins to walk, Cameron becomes a miracle. His hermetic life is soon turned upside down with floods of prayer requests and a reality television crew following him around. While Cameron’s doctor searches for a scientific explanation for his recovery in the medical literature, the Vatican dispatches an officer from the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints to open an investigation. As the world focuses on the mystery of his recovery, Cameron struggles to conceal a long-held secret that complicates our understanding of divine agency. VERDICT With sincerity and wit, Miles pens a strong, sardonic rumination on the religious boundaries of the miraculous.

Throughout his decorated literary career, Wideman (Sent for You Yesterday; Philadelphia Fire) has compiled an extended meditation on how we are able to heal by transmuting personal and historical facts into constant reimagining. This sprawling collection of short stories is an unapologetic resurrection of those facts in today’s political climate, with Wideman’s introduction addressed directly to the president of the United States. The author returns to the streets of Pittsburgh and his childhood memories, envisions a conversation between John Brown and Frederick Douglass, and probes the popular culture we use to escape, forget, and grieve. Each story is a parallel universe just out of reach, with the whole assembled like shards of broken glass. Interspersing pieces that include microfictions like “Bunny and Glide” and prose poems like “Snow,” Wideman elucidates loneliness and helplessness with lyrical economy and rhythmic sadness. VERDICT A deeply personal collection of stories illuminating the thinning and cyclical threads of history that both sustain us and tear us apart.

With the premiere of The Deuce on HBO, interest in the work of David Simon has been reignited, and The Wire is his magnum opus. Journalist and author Abrams (Boys Among Men) delves deep into the show’s creation and enduring legacy through interviews with the actors, writers, and producers who brought the show to life. Whether it’s Dominic West reflecting on the allure of his character Detective James McNulty or actor Michael B. Jordan discussing the lasting impression of being in an ensemble cast of primarily black actors, Abrams underscores the indelible mark the show has left on actors and audience alike. Weaving all the interviews together is the enduring connection between the city of Baltimore and the creators of the show, a city that David Simon and the writers of The Deuce recently visited for inspiration. VERDICT Building upon Rafael Alvarez’s The Wire: Truth Be Told, the author further underscores the reasons why the show is often referred to as the greatest of all time.

One of Australia’s greatest authors, two-time Booker Prize winner Carey (Oscar and Lucinda; True History of the Kelly Gang) has drawn inspiration from his native country throughout his career, weaving historical and fantastical tales ranging from the 1942 Battle of Brisbane to transporting a glass church from Sydney to Bellingen. Here, he uses the famous Redex Trial, a cross-country car race, to probe the unfurling legacy of colonialism in 1950s Australia. Desperate to acquire his own dealership, Titch Bobs sees both fame and financial windfall in winning the Redex Trial. With wife Irene as his copilot and neighbor Willie as navigator, he sets off across Australia’s unfinished roads and rural landscape. While Titch remains intensely focused on winning the race, Irene and Willie uncover painful personal histories along the way that intertwine with Australia’s forgotten people and communities. VERDICT Carey employs both a multivoice narrative and a continent-spanning car race to emulate the disparate voices and fits and starts that comprise Australia’s history.

Few John Updike fans would enjoy Self’s splintered, swirling narratives. Yet drug-addled psychiatrist Zach Busner, a recurring character in Self’s fiction, is startlingly similar to Updike’s Rabbit Angstrom in his inability to process new forms of eroticism and spirituality as the stability of a world founded in modernist principles crumbles around him. Here, in the final book of the trilogy begun with Umbrella and Shark, Self probes the absurdity of the information age through two seemingly disparate narratives: the trials and tribulations of a wayward spy engaged in an affair with a tank commander, and the struggle of Zach’s family to provide for him as he ages. Set against the backdrop of the Second Gulf War, Self’s story lines are folded into a meditation on the meaning of a “double life” in a technology-soaked era. Bewildered by a world of spiritual decay and hyperconnectedness, Zach (like Rabbit) ultimately runs from himself. VERDICT The narrative reads and feels like an endless data stream, underscoring Self’s deliberate attempt to bury the reader in an avalanche of information. A sardonic end to Self’s modernist trilogy.

As a member of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign staff, Graham- Felsen helped articulate Obama’s message of empathy and cooperative change across social media outlets. Here, in his debut novel, he weaves those themes into a story about two friends navigating adolescence across the racial divide. Nicknamed Green, Dave is one of the few white kids attending Martin Luther King Middle School in Boston. His life is occupied with a daily struggle to fit in, which extends from his clothing to his demeanor. Through a shared admiration for Larry Bird and the Celtics, a black classmate named Marlon becomes one of Dave’s only friends and allies. Together, they manage the awkwardness of middle school under constant pressure to succeed from parents, teachers, and the larger community. As Marlon and Dave form their own individual identities, however, their similarities slowly become eclipsed by their differences, from family backgrounds to life goals. VERDICT Based on Graham-Felsen’s childhood in Boston in the 1990s, this work poignantly captures the tumultuous feelings of adolescence against the historical backdrop of a racially segregated city and country.