The Gusto Blog

Critic Maureen Corrigan obviously liked Lauren Belfer's 532-page second novel "A Fierce Radiance" quite a bit. She wrote briefs on the book for two-- count 'em, two--separate best books of the year lists.
Her entry on Belfer's book was included in the Washington Post's lengthy list of Best Novels of the Year. And it was also included NPR's list of the Best Mysteries of 2010.
The book--which Corrigan described in the Post as "sex, spies, murder, big money [in a] story about the wartime race to make large quantities of penicillin"--was Belfer's second novel after her first "City of Light" was set in turn-of-the-20th-century Buffalo. Belfer was a former student at the Buffalo Seminary, where a great deal of the action of her first novel took place.
--Jeff Simon