{"id":7893,"date":"2025-09-07T12:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T12:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/7893\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T12:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T12:26:07","slug":"oliver-twists-villain-is-reimagined-in-fagin-the-thief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/7893\/","title":{"rendered":"Oliver Twist’s villain is reimagined in ‘Fagin the Thief’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\""Fagin“Fagin the Thief,” by Allison Epstein (Doubleday, 2025)<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share their mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email bellis@denverpost.com. \u2013 Barbara Ellis<\/p>\n

\u201cFagin the Thief,\u201d by Allison Epstein (Doubleday, 2025)<\/p>\n

Character reimagining has given us Elphaba from \u201cWicked\u201d (\u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d) and \u201cJames\u201d (\u201cAdventures of Huckleberry Finn\u201d). Epstein presents the backstory of Jacob Fagin, Dickens\u2019 much-loathed villain in \u201cOliver Twist.\u201d Alternating between 1793 and 1838 in Victorian London, this story humanizes Fagin and shows him to be a somewhat sympathetic character, although still a manipulative mentor to young thieves.<\/p>\n

The original story was branded as antisemitic due to Dickens\u2019 descriptions of the prejudicial norms of society in those times. This story of Fagin highlights the cruelty of discrimination, the plight of the poor and the importance of role models. Readers are left with the questions \u201cIs it acceptable to feel sympathy for an evil man?\u201d and \u201cIs morality only for the rich?\u201d\u00a0It is not necessary to have read \u201cOliver Twist\u201d to enjoy this book. It stands on its own as a historical novel with excellent descriptions of 19th-century London and brings the characters of \u201cOliver Twist to life.\u201d \u2014 4 stars (out of 4); Terry Romer, Denver<\/p>\n

\u201cBug Hollow,\u201d by\u00a0Michelle Huneven\u00a0(Penguin, 2025)
\n\""Bug“Bug Hollow,” by\u00a0Michelle Huneven\u00a0(Penguin, 2025)<\/p>\n

Family dynamics propel this fast-paced novel. The Samuelson family in Altadena, Calif., endures an unwieldy casserole of experiences and emotions from the 1960s to the 2010s. Don\u2019t let the humor lull you: The pivotal event is the accidental death of a son at 18, who is a continuing presence in the family. In a fairly brief novel, Huneven garnishes the story with surprises, detailing her characters with precision and a sure hand. My favorite is Phil, the dad, but the entire family is memorable, primarily due to their foibles. Huneven is an author I\u2019ll read again. \u2014 3 stars (out of 4);\u00a0Neva Gronert, Parker<\/p>\n

\u201cPerfection,\u201d by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes (New York Review of Books, 2025)<\/p>\n

A young Italian couple, digital nomads, seek adventure and the beautiful life within the expat community in edgy, experimental Berlin in the early 21st century.\u00a0 The author explores the impacts of a life spent largely on social media, isolated from one\u2019s physical environment \u2013 the dissonance, for example, between a perfectly curated apartment and the messiness of lived reality, the transitory nature of friendship within this youthful, mobile tribe, and even how the intangible, cool vibe of one moment can prove fleeting and nonreplicable.\u00a0 A gem, beautifully translated. \u2014 3 1\/2 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Cranes Fly South,\u201d by Lisa Ridzen, translated by Alice Menzies\u00a0 (Vintage Books, 2025)<\/p>\n

Six months ago, Bo was forced to move his ailing wife into a nursing home because he could no longer care for her. Now, his 57-year-old son claims that Bo\u2019s beloved elkhound must go for the same reason. Bo\u2019s response? \u201cI fantasize about cutting him out of my will, making sure he doesn\u2019t get a penny.\u201d This situation might not sound like much of an \u201cupper,\u201d but Bo\u2019s sensitive, humorous, and unflinching determination to keep his dog makes for a page-turner. When stripped of almost everything, what\u2019s left? Plenty, Bo would tell us. There\u2019s not a false note in this book. (This debut novel by a Ph.D. student researching masculinity norms won the Swedish Book of the Year Award.) \u2014 4 stars (out of 4); Michelle Nelson, Littleton<\/p>\n

\u201cKing of Ashes,\u201d by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books, 2025)<\/p>\n

Years ago, our hero left behind his broken, blue-collar family in Richmond, Va., to join the Black bourgeoisie in Atlanta and a heady career as a wildly successful financial adviser. A family emergency brings him back home, where he assures everyone that he will \u201cfix everything.\u201d He is soon pulled into an underworld of drugs, violence, escalating dangers and missing bodies. Can he face his family\u2019s secrets?\u00a0 Can he, indeed, fix everything? Cosby doesn\u2019t shy away from gritty details or warts-and-all characters in this noirish novel. No easy fixes and no tidy endings here. \u2014 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Fagin the Thief,” by Allison Epstein (Doubleday, 2025) Editor\u2019s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[10324,489,2112,156,2113,111,139,69,2110,2111],"class_list":{"0":"post-7893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-book-reviews","9":"tag-books","10":"tag-colorado","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-the-know","17":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}