Sunday's Book Review

On the Cover of Sunday's Book Review

'The Wrong War'

By BING WEST
Reviewed by DEXTER FILKINS

This crushing critique of the war in Afghanistan goes a long way toward explaining why America's embrace of counterinsurgency strategy has not delivered its promised success.

Also in the Book Review

'Townie: A Memoir'

By ANDRE DUBUS III
Reviewed by DARCEY STEINKE

Andre Dubus III recalls his upbringing in a Massachusetts mill town, and the tormentors he and his siblings had to fight through.

•  Excerpt

'Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin'

Reviewed by THOMAS MALLON

The letters of the travel writer Bruce Chatwin provide sharp renderings of misadventure and mores.

'The Adults'

By ALISON ESPACH
Reviewed by ALEX KUCZYNSKI

As this first novel's 14-year-old narrator looks on, her affluent suburban family disintegrates.

'Heat Wave: The Life and Career of Ethel Waters'

By DONALD BOGLE
Reviewed by DAVID HAJDU

A historian of African-American entertainment seeks to rehabilitate the image of the pioneering actress and singer Ethel Waters.

'The Oracle of Stamboul'

By MICHAEL DAVID LUKAS
Reviewed by JAMES HYNES

A young girl is swept up by the intrigue of the sultan's court in this novel of the late Ottoman Empire.

'Open City'

By TEJU COLE
Reviewed by MIGUEL SYJUCO

The peripatetic hero of Teju Cole's indelible novel reflects on his adopted New York, the Africa of his youth, today's America and a Europe wary of its future.

'The Night Season'

By CHELSEA CAIN
Reviewed by ZOE SLUTZKY

The serial killer Gretchen Lowell is locked up, but a new threat confounds Detective Archie Sheridan in Chelsea Cain's new thriller.

'The Secret Soldier'

By ALEX BERENSON
Reviewed by TODD PRUZAN

With Saudi Arabia reeling after a series of terrorist attacks, Alex Berenson's reluctant hero is the kingdom's only hope.

'Portraits of a Marriage'

By SANDOR MARAI
Reviewed by LIESL SCHILLINGER

In monologues set in Budapest, Rome and New York, Sandor Marai's characters explore a decades-old love triangle.

'The Illumination'

By KEVIN BROCKMEIER
Reviewed by SCOTT HUTCHINS

All across this deeply felt novel's world, human pain has been made literally visible.

'How to Run the World'

By PARAG KHANNA
Reviewed by STEPHANIE GIRY

Parag Khanna offers a chaotic view of power in the 21st century.

'Montecore: The Silence of the Tiger'

By JONAS HASSEN KHEMIRI
Reviewed by ANDER MONSON

Jonas Hassen Khemiri's novel is told in two voices, a generation and the distance from Tunisia to Sweden separating them.

'Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age'

By SUSAN JACOBY
Reviewed by TED C. FISHMAN

Susan Jacoby challenges the optimistic marketing that has made old age seem pleasant and carefree.

'She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth'

By HELEN CASTOR
Reviewed by MIRANDA SEYMOUR

Helen Castor examines the lives of four plucky royal consorts who struggled over the throne of England.

'Romanov Riches: Russian Writers and Artists Under the Tsars'

By SOLOMON VOLKOV
Reviewed by JENNIFER HOMANS

In Solomon Volkov's telling, the Romanovs nurtured and sustained Russia's great creative minds.

'The Invisible Line'

By DANIEL J. SHARFSTEIN
Reviewed by RAYMOND ARSENAULT

A history of how three African-American families of mixed ancestry stopped being black.

'The Landmark Arrian'

Reviewed by STEVE COATES

A newly annotated edition of "The Campaigns of Alexander," by the second-century Greek historian Arrian.