Reviews of notable new fiction and nonfiction.  War and Punishment, by Mikhail Zygar (Scribner). A young, distinguished, and wholly independent Russian journalist who was forced to flee his country for the West has written a superb account of all that led to Vladimir Putin’s brutal and misbegotten invasion of Ukraine. Here, through his on-the-ground reporting from Ukraine and Russia, conducted during the past two decades, and an incisive grasp of history, he describes how Putin has willfully distorted the past to serve his purposes. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. August Wilson, by Patti Hartigan (Simon & Schuster). As a child, the author of seminal plays including “Fences” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” was a bookworm: he learned to read by his fourth birthday, and stood out in kindergarten as “a miniature scholar.” This biography deftly traces his ascent to becoming one of America’s preëminent dramatists, recounting his discovery of the blues; his founding of the Black Horizons Theatre; and his careful curation of his persona. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa, by Stephen Buoro (Bloomsbury). Andrew Aziza, the Nigerian teen-ager who is the protagonist of this début novel, is a Christian who lives in a largely Muslim town. He feels ashamed of his preference for the West, which he considers to be a foil to his continent and to his Mama, who reads her Bible slowly and believes in ghosts. This shame is expressed in imaginary conversations with his stillborn brother, his schoolteacher, and the first white girl he meets, with whom he readily falls in love. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. My Stupid Intentions, by Bernardo Zannoni, translated from the Italian by Alex Andriesse (New York Review Books). This début novel is narrated by a beech marten named Archy, who is born into a life of hardship. When Archy is lamed in an accident, he is sold to a dealmaking fox, who treats him like a slave before teaching him to read and write. Archy learns about the lives of men, knowledge that prompts a host of religious questions and leads to a restless search for meaning. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. What are you reading this week? Reply to let us know. | 
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