‘A lesson in what jealousy’ll do to a man’
Set in Paris (1940) and Baltimore (1992), a bestselling prize-magnet of a (2011) novel features a dazzling meditation on friendship, loyalty, manhood, race, and the truths and half-truths we tell our past and present selves. The new edition has a striking new cover, but “it arrives without a critical introduction or any contextual apparatus to differentiate it from earlier editions,” our reviewer notes. —Selena Mercuri reviews Half-Blood Blues (Canadian Classics Edition), by Esi Edugyan (Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2026) $24.99 / 9781443478731