Michelle Brafman follows her rich and insightful first novel about family and tradition, Washing the Dead, with this compelling profile of a suburban Washington, DC, neighborhood. Moving chronologically from 1993 to 2007, Bertrand Court follows the diverse residents of the eponymous cul-de-sac, tracking their daily routines, their secrets, and their sorrows in seventeen exquisitely crafted, interlocking narratives. Brafman, an award-winning filmmaker as well as a widely published writer honored with a Special Mention in the Pushcart Prize Anthology, employs humor, deft pacing, and artful jump-cuts to vividly and warmly evoke the lives and families of policy wonks, politicos, and housewives.

At Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC. Click here for more info.