Sticking with our recent focus on somber, war-related writing (thanks for ruining upbeat fiction for me, Putin), we present the 1979 novel about three people in a boarding house in post-war Brooklyn. Two of those people are scarred by the war, and the third is a young writer who’s determined to understand things that maybe can’t be understood without experiencing them. The book is slower than the movie, with languid descriptions and elaborate character sketches, but also with immersive writing and more robust depictions of the people caught in the war. 1940s Poland comes alive. The resistance movement, the struggles of the targeted Jews, the complexities of mental illness in an era before useful therapy and medication—all of this makes Sophie’s Choice a sweeping, absorbing historical fiction that deserves its reputation. Reviewed on March 24, 2022