There’s a common thread that runs through these stories of first-generation Americans: their journeys are aided by flawed, limited, transcendent love.

This year I read several novels set in war zones, where the Christmas message of God’s mercy can be especially hard to hear.

Refugees and migrants encounter homesickness as they struggle to establish identities in unfamiliar, often unwelcoming territory. Three books show how they do it.

Fiction is hard. Nonfiction is hard for different reasons: the need to ensure accuracy, the risk of angering your subjects. These books succeed brilliantly.