Mahasweta Devi, Bengali Writer and Activist Who Fought Injustice, Dies at 90

Here is the latest Book News from The New York Times.

Mahasweta Devi, Bengali Writer and Activist Who Fought Injustice, Dies at 90
Ms. Devi’s work, which has been translated into many languages, reflected her time spent documenting India’s tribal communities.

Nonfiction: A Memoir by the Daughter of Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly
Nadja Spiegelman’s “I’m Supposed to Protect You From All This” recounts generations of cruel mothering.

Fiction: A Novel Looks at the Flip Side of Life in Jamaica’s Montego Bay
Nicole Dennis-Benn’s first novel, “Here Comes the Sun,” looks past the opulent hotels of Jamaica’s tourist industry.

Colson Whitehead on Slavery, Success and Writing the Novel That Really Scared Him
“Can we just talk about the book?” asks the author of “The Underground Railroad,” the latest Oprah Winfrey book club selection. “I’m not a healer.”

My Bookshelf, Myself: My 10 Favorite Books: Tilda Swinton
The actress shares the titles she’d most want with her on a desert island.

The Poet Kevin Young Is Named New Director of Schomburg Center
Mr. Young will start in his post at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem in late fall.

‘March’ Graphic Novel Revisits Civil Rights Movement in Rich Detail
This comic book trilogy, which tells the story of the civil rights movement and its nonviolent philosophy, is being adopted by more and more schools.

Fiction: In ‘Hot Milk,’ a Woman Struggles to Break Free of Her Hypochondriacal Mother
In Deborah Levy’s new novel, “Hot Milk,” a woman brings her hypochondriacal mother to a clinic in Spain.

Fiction: In Delia Ephron’s ‘Siracusa,’ Relationships Fall Apart Under the Sicilian Sun
Relationships unravel and a child manipulates her elders as two couples share a Sicilian holiday.

Bookends: Why Do So Many Contemporary American Authors Send Their Characters Abroad?
Siddhartha Deb and Charles McGrath discuss the impulse for fiction writers to send their characters to distant places.

Books of The Times: Review: ‘How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything’
Rosa Brooks writes her prescription for the future of war after spending time working behind the scenes at the Pentagon.

Books of The Times: Review: ‘Underground Railroad’ Lays Bare Horrors of Slavery and Its Toxic Legacy
Colson Whitehead explores with brute realism and fablelike allegory a network of black and white activists who helped slaves escape to freedom.

Fiction: A Debut Novel Grapples With Work, Marriage and Fertility
Jessica Winter’s “Break in Case of Emergency” is a funny and moving commentary on that point in a woman’s life when everything seems to come into question.

Fiction: Tribes of TriBeCa: Jay McInerney’s Latest Downtown Novel
In Jay McInerney’s third novel about them, “Bright, Precious Days,” Russell and Corrine Calloway struggle with their marriage and the economy.

Nonfiction: Ask Polly, and Heather Havrilesky Will Answer
Life tips and a shoulder to cry on in Heather Havrilesky’s “How to Be a Person in the World.”

Books of The Times: Review: ‘The Selfishness of Others,’ or I’m O.K. — You’re a Narcissist
Kristin Dombek’s book, subtitled “An Essay on the Fear of Narcissism,” shows how a clinical term metastasized into a sweeping description of our entire culture.

Like Magic, Muggles Make New Harry Potter Play Disappear From Bookstores
From Brooklyn to Seattle, fans of the book and film series turned out at midnight on Saturday for the release of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”

Books of The Times: Review: ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ Explores the Power of Time
This book is the script of a production that just opened in London, and even though it lacks the play’s much-talked-about special effects, it is a stay-up-all-night read.

Her Husband’s Death Motivates Sheryl Sandberg to Write Another Book
Ms. Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, and a collaborator will focus on hardship and resilience.

‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ Goes From Stage to Page on Saturday at the Witching Hour
Even though J.K. Rowling isn’t the author of this play, Scholastic’s midnight release of the script as a book is expected to draw thousands to stores this weekend.

How a Currency Intended to Unite Europe Wound Up Dividing It
In a new book, a Nobel laureate economist pins the blame for Europe’s economic tragedy on the euro.

Nonfiction: The Story Behind the Yom Kippur Mole
“The Angel,” by Uri Bar-Joseph, tells the story of the mole at the heart of Sadat’s government.

Neighborhood Joint: Spanish on the Shelves, Latin Culture in the Air at a Bookstore in Queens
Librería Barco de Papel, one of a dwindling number of Spanish-language bookstores in New York, connects Latino immigrants to their roots.

Inside The New York Times Book Review Podcast: Inside The New York Times Book Review: Megan Abbott’s ‘You Will Know Me’
Megan Abbott discusses her new murder mystery, and Marilyn Stasio talks about several new true-crime books.

Letters to the Editor
Readers respond to recent reviews of books by Cynthia Ozick, Peter D. Kramer, Anne Tyler and Larry Tye.

By the Book: Liane Moriarty: By the Book
The author of “The Husband’s Secret” and, now, “Truly Madly Guilty” hated “Moby-Dick” as a child: “I’m sure I will like it when I grow up. I just seem to be taking such a long time to grow up.”

Open Book: Classic Words, Fresh Looks
“Classic Penguin” showcases recent design work for books by Dostoyevsky, Joyce, Borges, Steinbeck and dozens of others.

Fiction: The Spy Who Came in From Headquarters
“Breaking Cover” by Stella Rimington and “The Wolf of Sarajevo” by Matthew Palmer are espionage novels written by people who know the business.

Fiction: Stewart O’Nan’s New Thriller Is Set in Post-World War II Jerusalem
Stewart O’Nan’s “City of Secrets” features espionage and existential angst in 1940s Jerusalem.

Fiction: A Cambridge Student Who Tries to Do Good Goes Missing
Susie Steiner’s smart, stylish second novel, “Missing, Presumed,” involves the disappearance of a postgraduate student.

Fiction: A Fictional Surveillance Expert Is Being Watched, and the Watcher Wants Him to Know It
In Patrick Flanery’s “I Am No One,” a surveillance expert starts receiving mysterious packages.

Fiction: A Countdown Thriller in Which the Hero Inhabits Many Alternate Universes
Blake Crouch’s “Dark Matter” is alternate-universe science fiction bolstered by a smidgen of theoretical physics.

Fiction: A Thriller for Fans of ‘The Girl on the Train’ and ‘Gone Girl’
In Flynn Berry’s “Under the Harrow,” a woman is determined to find her sister’s murderer.

Fiction: In This Thriller, a Restaurant Worker Impersonates a Venture Capitalist
The hero of Alan Glynn’s novel “Paradime” looks just like a tech visionary.

Fiction: In From the Cold War: A Couple Confront Personal and Political Treachery
In Helen Dunmore’s “Exposure,” a woman’s husband is not who she thought he was.

Fiction: Death Masks and Smuggled Artifacts in a Mexican-Set Thriller
In Lili Wright’s “Dancing With the Tiger,” an Aztec treasure is found and a woman heads to Oaxaca to restore her father’s professional reputation.

Fiction: A Blackmailer Lures Men Into Compromising Positions in This Japanese Noir
A woman works the Tokyo underworld, getting the goods on high-powered men, in Fuminori Nakamura’s “The Kingdom.”

Fiction: In a Very British Thriller, There’s a Killer in the Garden
Suspicion strains neighborly relations when a teenager is attacked in a communal yard in Lisa Jewell’s 13th novel, “The Girls in the Garden.”

Fiction: A Novel Gives Voice to Dead Friends — or Maybe Lovers
In Samuel Ligon’s novel “Among the Dead and Dreaming,” the dead speak.

Fiction: A Serial Killer Stalks Stockholm in This Creepy Nordic Noir
A detective seeks a therapist’s help in stopping a killer’s gruesome spree in Erik Axl Sund’s “The Crow Girl.”

The Shortlist: History as It Didn’t Happen: Thrillers Consider the What-Ifs
New books include Tim Baker’s “Fever City,” an alternate take on the Kennedy assassination.

A Rogues’ Gallery of New True-Crime Titles
New books include “True Crime Addict” by James Renner and “The Dragon Behind the Glass” by Emily Voigt.

Inside the List
Ruth Ware, whose novel “The Woman in Cabin 10” is No. 4 on the hardcover fiction list, says she “definitely” owes a debt to Agatha Christie.

Editors’ Choice
Nine new books recommended by the editors of The New York Times Book Review this week.

Paperback Row
Seven new paperbacks to check out this week.

James Alan McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Writer, Dies at 72
Mr. McPherson grew up in the South, overcoming segregation to graduate from Harvard Law School and become the first black writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

How a Hollywood Talent Agency Won Big With Sports
In James Andrew Miller’s forthcoming book, executives with CAA Sports and athletes like LeBron James describe the agency’s impact on sports — and the way sports affected the agency.

Wife of Raif Badawi, Saudi Prisoner, Feels Pain From Afar