Peter C. Baker

Reading, Reading, Reading

“My gold standard for a novel is whether it’s doing something that only a novel can do, or that a novel can do best.”

Staying Alive

Marlen Haushofer’s The Wall is a gripping drama of survival that plays with the conventions of the “last man” genre.

Death Drives

Pedestrian fatalities are rising dramatically in the US, and Angie Schmitt’s Right of Way gives a rare look at why and what might be done about it.

The Bloodhound

A distinct thread of anger runs through all of Nicholson Baker’s work: anger at what people with power get up to in the shadows, anger at how they lie about it, anger at how we forget.

A Legacy of Torture in Chicago

“Chicago has a police torture problem. The exact size of this problem is not known and perhaps never will be. What is known for sure is that between 1972 and 1991 at least 125 black Chicagoans were tortured by police officers in the Area 2 precinct building on the city’s predominantly black South Side.”