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In 2011, Emily Rapp's baby was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease, a genetic, degenerative condition with no cure. He died just shy of his third birthday. In her new memoir, The Still Point of the Turning World, Rapp writes about what it's like to care for a terminally ill child.

William H. Gass' fiction has been a secret handshake among brainy readers for years. Critics universally adored The Tunnel, his 1995 opus, even though it was nearly impossible to read. With Middle C, Gass has given us another dense, suffocating novel about language and the self.

The Bird Artist, Howard Norman's 1994 novel about the murder of a lighthouse keeper, is set in Witless Bay. Author Da Chen writes that the distinctive setting makes this novel a success. What is your favorite book with an unforgettable setting? Tell us in the comments.

Swedish writer Karin Tidbeck's debut story collection, Jagannath, is suffused with the myths of her homeland — and the American oddities she picked up as a student here. Reviewer Alan Cheuse says the stories are weird — but it's a good kind of weird.

Mary Poppins, the star of the P.L. Travers books and Walt Disney movie, has followed the east wind from London and landed on Broadway, where her stories have been turned into a lavish $20 million musical. The show opens Thursday night — but if you're expecting a live-action replica of the Julie Andrews film, you're in for a big surprise.

In the course of his career, Thornton Wilder wrote plays, novels and essays — but none as enduring as Our Town. Wilder biographer Penelope Niven attributes the play's success to its universal setting: a "mythical village" that "incorporates characteristics from every mythical village."

Michael Kranish and Scott Helman's biography of Mitt Romney — The Real Romney — is now out in paperback with a new afterword. The authors discuss Romney's shift to the right, his faith and his recent comment that no one's ever asked to see his birth certificate.

More than 10 years since a new generation of Americans went into combat, the soldiers themselves are starting to write the story of war. Three recent releases show how their experiences give them the authority to describe the war, fictionalize it, and even satirize it.

More than 10 years since a new generation of Americans went into combat, the soldiers themselves are starting to write the story of war. Three recent releases show how their experiences give them the authority to describe the war, fictionalize it, and even satirize it.

In Saturday Night Live writer Simon Rich's latest novel, What in God's Name, God plans to do away with people so he can focus on opening a restaurant in heaven. An angel makes him a bet that if he can bring two shy, lovelorn humans together, God must spare humanity.