One of the most lucid writers of nonfiction we have, Lawrence Weschler's work is equally saturated with concern for the complicated matters of life and a serious sense of whimsy. Calamities of Exile contains three pieces written for The New Yorker, each relating the tale of a man in exile -- one from Iraq, one from Czechoslovakia, and one from South Africa. Together the stories form a kind of palimpsest of moxie, politics, luck, misfortune, humanity, stubbornness, and the unshakable way that geography claims us.

Molly McCall