Delphinium

A memoir worthy of recommending to fans of personal, coming-of-age stories with universal themes.

A deeply personal, emotionally wrenching memoir and eyewitness account of the AIDS pandemic.

A heartbreaking and realistic view of childhood that would be a great addition to any library collection. Not just for fiction readers but also for fans of memoirs like Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle and Mary Karr’s The Liar’s Club.

A deep dive into the antiquarian book market, this is best suited for hard-core bibliophiles and literati.

Solovetsky Island is where many of the techniques used in the Soviet labor camp system were developed to murderous effect. May’s writing seamlessly integrates his detailed research into this experimental prison camp with the intrigues of criminals intent on looting religious treasures. Tolya relates his terrible story years later, during Khruschev’s era of the thaw. May, the author of short fiction and reviews, has made this debut novel a masterful historical detektiv tale.