Powerful, personal research drive ‘Without Terminus,’ ‘My Father Against the Nazis’ and ‘The Home of the Drowned.’
Consider three recent books from Minnesota publishers that use literature to confront the limits of the historical record.
In “Without Terminus,” released June 2 by Graywolf Press, Minneapolis-based writer Chaun Webster deconstructs his family’s history and recreates it as luminous, poetic nonfiction.
In “My Father Against the Nazis,” published in 2025 by Edina-based Calumet Editions, Minneapolis writer Steven Mayer uses biography to search for answers to his family’s history.
Sámi author Elin Anna Labba’s new novel, “The Home of the Drowned,” published by the University of Minnesota Press, mines family history to reveal truths about Sweden’s treatment of the indigenous Sámi people.