THE ROAD FROM RAQQA: A Story of Brotherhood, Borders, and Belonging, by Jordan Ritter Conn. (Ballantine, 272 pp., $18.) In this riveting account of two grown brothers very different journeys out of Syria, Conn pushes beyond simply humanizing, Jessica Goudeau wrote in her review. He portrays the United States, where the elder ends up, as also capable of oppression, and finds the two countries histories to be as interconnected as the brothers own.

ON EARTH WERE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS, by Ocean Vuong. (Penguin, 256 pp., $17.) Structured as a letter from a queer Vietnamese American son to his mother, who cannot read, this experimental, highly poetic novel is, in our reviewer Justin Torress words, brilliant in the way it pays attention not to what our thoughts make us feel, but to what our feelings make us think.

TOKYO UENO STATION, by Yu Miri. Translated by Morgan Giles. (Riverhead, 192 pp., $16.) Narrated by the ghost of a construction worker from Fukushima who spent his last years in a camp of homeless people in Tokyos Ueno Park, Yus glorious modernist novel, as our reviewer, Abhrajyoti Chakraborty, called it, weaves together overheard conversations, loudspeaker announcements and regretful memories of an ill-spent life. Giles received a National Book Award for her translation.

LOVE AND THEFT, by Stan Parish. (Anchor, 272 pp., $16.) A kaleidoscopic set piece worthy of a James Bond movie as directed by Robert Altman is how our reviewer, Adam Sternbergh, described this thrillers opening, in which four motorcyclists attempt a jewel heist at a Las Vegas boutique. He also lauded the artfulness of the books writing.

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