I was on a caregiving mission and didn’t have a lot of time to myself. But I did read: Amor Towles’ comic romp, A Gentleman in Moscow, a stylish retro novel of manners; Ann Shin’s The Last Exiles, a chilling and compelling work inspired by a true North Korean story of love, escape and freedom; and Olga Tokarczuk’s 1996 novel Primeval and Other Times.