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Best Fiction of 2012: The Top 25 (page 2)

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Cover art for WISH YOU WERE HERE
FICTION
Released: April 17, 2012
Kirkus Star WISH YOU WERE HERE
by Graham Swift

A novel as contemporary as international terrorism and the war in Iraq and as timeless as mortality, from one of Britain's literary masters. Read full book review >
Cover art for BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK
FICTION
Released: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Star BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK
by Ben Fountain
"War is hell in this novel of inspired absurdity. "
Hailed as heroes on a stateside tour before returning to Iraq, Bravo Squad discovers just what it has been fighting for. Read full book review >
Cover art for CANADA
FICTION
Released: May 22, 2012
Kirkus Star CANADA
by Richard Ford
"At the start of the novel's coda, when Dell explains that he teaches his students "books that to me seem secretly about my young life," he begins the list with The Heart of Darkness and The Great Gatsby. Such comparisons seem well-earned."
A great American novel by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author. Read full book review >
Cover art for GONE GIRL
FICTION
Released: June 5, 2012
Kirkus Star GONE GIRL
by Gillian Flynn
"One of those rare thrillers whose revelations actually intensify its suspense instead of dissipating it. The final pages are chilling."
A perfect wife's disappearance plunges her husband into a nightmare as it rips open ugly secrets about his marriage and, just maybe, his culpability in her death. Read full book review >
Cover art for BEAUTIFUL RUINS
FICTION
Released: June 12, 2012
Kirkus Star BEAUTIFUL RUINS
by Jess Walter
"A superb romp. "
Hollywood operators and creative washouts collide across five decades and two continents in a brilliant, madcap meditation on fate. Read full book review >
Cover art for A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING
FICTION
Released: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Star A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING
by Dave Eggers
"Even so, Eggers' fiction has evolved in the past decade. This book is firm proof that social concerns can make for resonant storytelling."
A middle-aged man scrapes for his identity in a Saudi Arabian city of the future. Read full book review >