Reviews of notable new fiction and nonfiction.  Parfit, by David Edmonds (Princeton). Widely regarded as one of the most important philosophers of the past century, Derek Parfit made contributions to questions about identity, future generations, and freedom, but his central project was to argue for the objective nature of morality. Edmonds’s companionable biography tracks this work while assembling a portrait of how Parfit grew from a young boy with strong moral intuitions to a kind, perfectionistic man who devoted almost all of his waking hours to his mission. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. Biting the Hand, by Julia Lee (Holt). In this affecting memoir, a literature professor whose parents emigrated from South Korea writes about her “inheritance” of what Koreans call han—a culturally specific mixture of rage and shame—as well as the insidious tendency of “racial shame” to separate “people of color from one another.” Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. Hungry Ghosts, by Kevin Jared Hosein (Ecco). In this novel, set in rural Trinidad in the nineteen-forties, the disappearance of a wealthy farmer upends carefully tended boundaries of class and identity. The farmer’s wife orders one of his employees, part of a community of indigent laborers on the village outskirts, to take over his duties. But, soon enough, those with power make a game of his desire for a more expansive life. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. The Weeds, by Katy Simpson Smith (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Two women, living centuries apart, scour the Colosseum for plant samples in this lyrical, incisive novel. In 1854, one helps the botanist Richard Deakin (a historical figure) catalogue the amphitheatre’s flora; in 2018, the other assists an academic tracking the changes in its ecosystem since Deakin’s time. The twin narratives mimic field-work notebooks, with headings by family and vivid illustrations. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. What are you reading this week? Reply to let us know. | 
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