Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share their mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email bellis@denverpost.com. – Barbara Ellis
‘I Give You My Silence,’ by Mario Vargas Llosa, translated by Adrian Nathan West (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2026)
I GIVE YOU MY SILENCE
By Mario Vargas Llosa. Translated by Adrian Nathan West.
Farrar, Straus [Amp] Giroux. 246 pp. $28.This, the Nobel Prize winner’s final novel, is essentially a love letter to his native Peru, weaving historical, cultural and sociological facts and musings throughout the fictional narrative. The framing story follows Toño, a struggling writer, would-be academician and lifelong devotee of traditional Peruvian creole music. When Toño is awed by the masterful performance of an obscure creole guitarist, he is moved to write a book about him. Swept away by his own thoughts, Toño grandiosely expands this simple biography with the fantastical theory that after the (not inevitable) defeat of the Shining Path, only this unique music can reunite Peru, so divided along class, race, gender and regional lines. As Toño endlessly expands this biography, so too does Vargas Llosa expand his novel with subtle renderings of Peruvian society, academia, authors and the publishing world. — 3 1/2 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
‘We All Want Impossible Things,’ by Catherine Newman (HarperCollins, 2022)
For those who have been lucky enough to have one lifelong best friend, any goodbye comes too soon, no matter how long the friendship has flourished. Ash lovingly cares for her friend Edi at a hospice center while she is in her last few days of life. A heartbreaking yet beautiful space is created, where suffering is expected but often tempered by joyful memories and the help of a caring, compassionate staff as well as extended family members who gather toward the end. The subject of grief and loss, depressing as it may be, is treated with gentle humor and a sweet connection between two souls who expected their close friendship would carry on for many more years. — 4 stars (out of 4); Karen Goldie Hartman, Westminster
‘Awake: A Memoir,’ by Jen Hatmaker (Avid Reader Press, 2025)
Jen Hatmaker awoke one night to discover her husband talking on the phone to another woman. The disclosure of his affair led to the end of their 26-year marriage. This is the story of her grief and her recovery in the months following. Hatmaker’s husband had been a youth pastor at an evangelical church; she had been the “plus one” who was equally active in that ministry. But leadership by women was banned in that setting; rules and morality were hard and fast, a bit problematic, given her husband’s unfaithfulness. Hatmaker pulls no punches about the pain of the divorce and the emotional upheaval that she and her children experienced. The two factors that contributed most to her healing were her friends and a newfound commitment to self-care. (A best book of the year by The New York Times and Oprah Daily.) –– 2 1/2 stars (out of 4); Jo Calhoun, Denver
‘The Rest of Our Lives,’ by Ben Markovits (Faber & Faber, 2025)
‘The Rest of Our Lives,’ by Ben Markovitz (Faber & Faber, 2025)
Middle-aged Tom Layward takes a spontaneous road trip. He drops his daughter off at Carnegie Mellon University and instead of returning to his New England home, he drives to California. Oops. How much is this accidental, and how much is it prompted by his wife Amy’s affair years ago? A middling success at teaching writing, Tom reasons, “I never had a problem you couldn’t solve by going to the gym.” This prompts him to begin a project, playing pickup basketball games across the country and turning his experiences into a book. And we’re along for the ride. As the miles add up, Tom reviews his life and his marriage, and takes more than one wrong turn. I really wanted to love this book, in part as it was short-listed for the 2026 Booker Prize. But just like Tom, we don’t always get what we want. — 2 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker
‘The Colony,’ by Annika Norlin, translated by Alice E. Olsson (Europa Editions, 2025)
A disparate group of people come together over time to live off the grid. Some are traumatized or flawed, some are evading the authorities or family, and at least one just wants to avoid people in general. There is no overarching ideology at play, just a gradual accumulation of preferences and inclinations, shaped in part by the will of the group’s informal leader, but mostly molded by the group’s shrugging passivity. Much of the narrative tracks the various paths that unpredictably brought these people together. What causes the community to unravel is, perhaps, unsurprising. Norlin explores themes of man vs. nature, social norms and the utopia of communal living. (A New York Times Notable Book of 2025 and winner of the Vi Literature Prize in Sweden.) — 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
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