THIS WEEK IN FEBRUARY

HOT BOOKS

• 

  WASH by Margaret Wrinkle Fiction Runner-Up for the 2014 Dayton Literary Peace Prize.Wash is a shortening of Washington, the name of a first-generation slave who, because of his size and strength, had been chosen to father children in the slave community. The novel explores the often-buried history of slave breeding in the early 19th century, "offering fresh insights into our continuing racial dilemmas."

• 

  CONTESTED LAND, CONTESTED MEMORY: ISRAEL'S JEWS AND ARABS AND THE GHOSTS OF CATASTROPHE by Jo Roberts Nonfiction Runner-Up for the 2014 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Canadian journalist Roberts shows the reader the tangled histories of Jewish and Palestinian-Israeli lives today and frames the possibilities for peace in the region.

• 

  THE WOMAN WHO LOST HER SOUL by Bob Shacochis Fiction Winner of the 2014 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. With a story of multiple characters, set on three continents over a turbulent century, Shacochis shares his vision of the catastrophic events that have led to the ongoing war on terror that the world is experiencing today.

• 

  YOUR FATWA DOES NOT APPLY HERE by Karima Bennoune
  
  Nonfiction Winner of the 2014 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Bennoune recounts the legions of Muslims around the world whose struggles against fundamentalist violence are almost never reported in the media. She tells of thousands of Muslims who have been imprisoned or killed trying to stem the tide of fundamentalism in their own countries.
•