This week’s must-read books

The Master of Confessions: The Making of a Khmer Rouge Torturer
by Thierry Cruvellier  (Ecco)

Not everyone can do what Cruvellier does: act as a witness. He sat through and wrote about Rwanda’s war-crimes trials (“Court of Remorse”) and followed that up with the grueling, eight-month trial in Cambodia of Khmer Rouge killer Duch — head of the notorious S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, where tens of thousands perished. Interrogation was Duch’s specialty, and he kept meticulous records of his horrendous work (just as the Nazis did). Duch was sentenced by the court to life imprisonment.

President Taft is Stuck in the Bath
by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Chris Van Dusen (Candlewick Press)

This is the funniest kids’ history book we’ve seen in a while. The walrus-like President William Howard Taft is, yes, stuck in his tub. When the first lady can’t help, he calls on the vice president — who declares himself ready to be sworn in. The agriculture secretary brings in farmers to make butter to slip him out. Then come more cabinet members. Free at last, at the end, he flies from the tub onto the White House lawn. Lots of silly fun.

The Last Wild
by Piers Torday  (Viking)

In Torday’s first novel, 12-year-old Kester Jaynes has been locked up in a home for troubled children for six years, unable to speak since his mother died. In some not-too-distant future, most animals have been wiped out. But one day a cockroach befriends him and helps spring the boy. Pigeons pick him up and fly Kester into the wild, where other animals are hiding out. The kid finds he can communicate with these animals, and they look to him to save them. A whimsical yet thoughtful tale that brings to mind the smarts and silliness of Roald Dahl and Norton Juster. Ages 8 to 12.

A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran
by Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal and Sarah Shourd (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

The takeaway from this true story might be this: If you’re going hiking in the mountains, maybe try the Catskills. This trio of young Americans were sightseeing in the mountains of Kurdish Iraq, instead. And when a soldier in the distance beckoned to them, they did not realize they would cross an unmarked border into Iran. They were arrested as spies, and sent to Iran’s notorious Evin prison. Here, they tell of the psychological torment of constant interrogation and solitary confinement, not knowing if they would ever get out. All are back in America.

Quesadillas
by Juan Pablo Villalobos (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Looking at 1980s Mexico through the lens of a large family, Villalobos focuses on the dinner table. The narrator, Orestes — one of seven children — has to battle his siblings for his daily ration of quesadillas in a town where cows outnumber people. “We were all well aware of the roller coaster that was the national economy due to the fluctuating thickness of the quesadillas my mother served at home,” Villalobos writes. Anarchy and absurdity rule in this darkly funny tale.

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