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No
Man's Land
by Duong Thu Huong
Huong's prose style is so intensely sentimental
and unfashionably melodramatic that her novel
becomes a kind of steam bath inside of which
American readers can sweat out their literary
preconceptions.
March
by Geraldine Brooks
Though aspects of Little Women are
revisited in Geraldine Brooks' novel, March
is definitely not aimed at the children who were
the intended audience of the original , but rather
at the adults who remember it.
Sointula
by Bill Gaston
If you wedge a wannabe writer subject to gall
bladder attacks into a stolen kayak with a failed
mother off her depression meds who is carrying her
child's father's ashes in a cigar case you have
only a fraction of this incredible novel's
plot.
Stop
That Girl
by Elizabeth McKenzie
In some circles, McKenzie's debut has been
heralded as the greatest thing to hit humanities
since the epistolary novel, if not the
Bildungsroman. Too bad Stop That Girl is a
bit of a literary siesta.
So
This Is Love
by Gilbert Reid
From Paris to Italy, from war-torn Bosnia to
rural Canada, the stories in So This Is Love
range and reflect the versatility of the author
himself, a film, television and radio producer who
has done many things.
Ha-Ha:
A Novel
by Dave King
In his first novel, Dave King successfully
paints a complex portrait of a man unable to
communicate. The happy ending is elusive, but the
reader remains hopeful for Howard's future.
A
Thread of
Grace
by Mary Doria Russell
In A Thread of Grace, in flowing and at
times wonderfully evocative prose, Mary Doria
Russell tells the story of everyday people, people
you get to know and understand.
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Cloud
Atlas
by David Mitchell
Highly complex and brilliantly inventive,
Cloud Atlas is a gripping, post-modern novel
that creates new worlds and even languages within
them.
The
Holding
by Merilyn Simonds
Though January's reviewer found The
Holding's ending contrived, she advises readers
not to give Merilyn Simonds' long-awaited novel a
miss. "There's a lot of magic here."
Villages
by John Updike
In his 21st novel, John Updike examines how the
sexual resume of one man encapsulates his entire
life. Through the filter of his memory, we follow
Owen Mackenzie from his first furtive fumblings to
the fragile climax of old age as he struggles to
comprehend the mysteries of female love and desire.
Baker
Towers
by Jennifer Haigh
Baker Towers is Jennifer Haigh's second
novel. Her first, Mrs. Kimble, won the
PEN/Hemingway Award for outstanding first fiction.
Baker Towers seems likely to bring Haigh
more acclaim.
Much
Ado About Jessie
Kaplan
by Paula Marantz Cohen
In her sophomore novel, Paula Marantz Cohen
brings William Shakespeare and the Dark Lady of his
sonnets to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where a widow
thinks she's the reincarnation of the mysterious
woman for whom sonnets 127 to 152 were written.
Fascination
by William Boyd
Some readers -- especially those turned-off by
Woody Allen films -- might find this collection
unbearably full of self-indulgent anxiety. However,
Boyd turns angst into art and consistently makes it
a fresh experience from story to story.
Snowleg
by Nicholas Shakespeare
In his newest book, Snowleg, Shakespeare
returns with another story of disrupted romance set
against the turbulence of politics. This time, he's
changed the scenery from South America to Cold War
Germany, spanning 25 years in the lives of a man, a
woman and the Berlin Wall that put them asunder.
The
Master
by Colm Tóibín
The Master is Tóibín's
fifth novel and marks his second shortlisted entry
for the Booker prize, following on from the success
of The Blackwater Lightship.
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