The Seaboard Review of Books: Thursday Edition
May 7, 2026
In this issue:
Song of the Seasons by Michael Otis (Fiction)
Amapiano Eyes by D. Nandi Odhiambo (Fiction)
Shy Cat and the Stuff-the-Bus Challenge by Dian Day and Amanda White (Fiction, Children’s)
Dear Kenneth, by Cole Degenstein (Non-Fiction, Graphic Memoir)
The Mobile Ruin Traces the Berlin Wall’s Travels (Non-Fiction)
Summoning by Jacqueline Bell (Poetry, Chapbook)
One River: New and Selected Poems by Ricardo Sternberg (Poetry)
Thanks for reading this issue of The Seaboard Review of Books!
James M. Fisher, editor-in-chief
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Fiction
Song of the Seasons by Michael Otis
What does it mean to be authentic, not just in love but in art? In Song of the Seasons, Michael Otis poses that question through an inspired conceit: a teenage musician who trades his soul to the devil for fame, only to discover that sincerity is far harder to manufacture than success. Otis’s sophomore YA novel is a wise, warmly observant look at adoles…
Amapiano Eyes by D. Nandi Odhiambo
If Chester Himes and Martin Heidegger were the same person (much to the consternation of both, no doubt) they might have written a book like Amapiano Eyes. Here we find all the drug-fueled assault and murder of a classic noir novel fused with remarks about “the long-while in the short-while,” “beings and things gathered together in a given that was unfo…
Non-Fiction
Dear Kenneth, by Cole Degenstein
If conflict is the lifeblood of a story, Dear Kenneth has a healthy, even bold, blood count. Not that Cole, the unhappy, insecure narrator/illustrator of this graphic novel would see himself as remotely bold. But perhaps he is, without realizing it—and in those conflicting sensibilities, conscious versus un, lies the story’s intriguing, bemusing appeal.
The Mobile Ruin Traces the Berlin Wall's Travels
Though the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 happened more than three decades ago, the event still has historical resonance. The guarded wall encircled West Berlin, preventing people from East Berlin and nearby areas of East Germany from access to the West.
Poetry
Summoning by Jacqueline Bell
I congratulate Jacqueline Bell for winning the Raven Chapbook Contest 2025 with her elegiac, gorgeous book of poetry, Summoning. The chapbook also includes six of her sister, Judy Critchly’s west coast paintings.
Children’s
Shy Cat and the Stuff-the-Bus Challenge by Dian Day and Amanda White
Dian Day is the author of two novels, The Clock of Heaven, and The Madrigal, both of which I enjoyed reading. She then appeared to stop writing for a while (the interview below explains why), but she has since returned, this time with Shy Cat and the Stuff-the-Bus Challenge
On May 23, with a week of Short Story Month left to go, The Seaboard Review of Books is launching its new monthly feature, Saturday Shorts. Mark your calendars for “Riot at Legion No. 9” by the critically acclaimed Sarah Mintz!
Her most recent book, NORMA, was praised in the Toronto Star as a “delicate feat” that “results in a powerful, destabilizing examination of loss, age and the darkness that — potentially — awaits us all.” True, but I can tell you first-hand that it’s also chest-bustingly funny.
“Riot at Legion No. 9” similarly handles sadness and humour, taking readers into a depressed mining town in Western Canada, a place where the drinks flow steadily at the Royal Canadian Legion—and everyone wants to win the weekly raffle.
We’re really excited to be launching Saturday Shorts with this amazing story, and just wait until you see all the other amazing writers we’ve been working with for future editions. Woot woot!
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
Reviewed by Lisa Timpf
Matt Haig’s The Life Impossible, published in 2024, is largely set on Ibiza, a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea. Retired math teacher Grace Winters is living alone in a bungalow in the Midlands in England when she finds out that Christina, a colleague she befriended but has lost contact with, has left her a property on Ibiza. Curious, Grace goes to check it out. Christina disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and Grace tries to find out more about what happened to her. In the process, she learns more about the ecology of the island, and encounters a mysterious alien entity referred to as La Presencia.
As was the case with Haig’s book The Humans, mathematics makes its way into the story in interesting ways. Thanks to La Presencia, Grace also acquires superhuman powers. The novel touches on the ecology of Ibiza, and the conflict between development and conservation. There are also philosophical discussions about what it means to truly enjoy living, and our connection with other living creatures. Interesting characters including a misanthropic goat named Nostradamus add to the entertainment value. Readers who enjoyed Haig’s other books will likely find this one appealing. Just be prepared to deal with a sudden urge to visit Ibiza…
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