Old Lady
Youth Lab
The Reading Room · Hazel Reads Three

The debuts everyone bet on

First novels worth the noise.


Book 1

Martyr!

Kaveh Akbar

READ IT

An Iranian-American poet, newly sober, chasing meaning toward a dying artist in a museum. A poet's novel, and it earns the exclamation. Read it.

Book 2

The Ministry of Time

Kaliane Bradley

FOR SOME

A Victorian polar explorer pulled into the present, half spy novel, half romance. Great fun that can't quite decide what it is. Enjoyable anyway.

Book 3

Rejection

Tony Tulathimutte

SKIP IT

Linked stories about humiliation and the internet, brutally sharp. Impressive and airless. Admire from a safe distance.

Now tell me what you’re reading. Have you read any of these? Or something better? Bring it to the Reading Room.

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