FICTION
Released: April 10, 2012
"Even better than the bestselling Serena (2008), for here Rash has elevated melodrama to tragedy. "
Lonely young woman meets mysterious stranger. What might have been trite and formulaic is anything but in Rash's fifth novel, a dark tale of Appalachian superstition and jingoism so good it gives you chills.
Read full book review >
FICTION
Released: Feb. 1, 2012
"His prose spare but spirited, Glynn (Winterland, 2011, etc.) spins an all-too-likely tale of secrets, lies and power corrupted. Chilling."
FICTION
Released: Feb. 14, 2012
"A romping good read that is character-driven yet intellectually provocative on issues of law, religion and morality--historical fiction at its best."
Brown's first novel is a heart-poundingly vivid, intellectually provocative account of the legal case against a fictional woman condemned to death for secretly burying her dead, illegitimate newborn in Cromwell's England.
Read full book review >
FICTION
Released: Jan. 9, 2012
"Engaging and accessible, thoughtful without being daunting: This may be the novel that brings Muslim-American fiction into the commercial mainstream."
Actor/playwright/filmmaker Akhtar makes a compelling debut with a family drama centered on questions of religious and ethnic identity.
Read full book review >
FICTION
Released: March 1, 2012
"A novel of "the invisible tissue of civilization," of "community or freedom," and of the precious fragility of lives in the balance."
An astonishing novel, both in ambition and achievement, filled with revelations that appear inevitable in retrospect, amid the cycle of life and death.
Read full book review >
FICTION
Released: April 5, 2012
"At every turn, James' prose is crisp, observant and carefully controlled; unlike the narrator of "Escape Key," who grows increasingly aware of his fiction's shortcomings, James projects a deep emotional intelligence."
A well-turned set of stories defined by emotional and physical separation, particularly in the Indian-American diaspora.
Read full book review >
FICTION
Released: Jan. 3, 2012
"A head-shakingly perfect blend of zombie schlock, deadpan wit, startling profanity, desperate improvisation and inventive brilliance."
A remarkable debut, LA noir with eye-bulging refinements, from a poet and short-story writer who says of himself: "As a writer he strives to be a hack. Hacks get paid. He's not sure if hacks talk about themselves in the third person, though. That might just be a side effect of his meds."
Read full book review >
FICTION
Released: March 15, 2012
"A literary tour de force."
In Dau's debut fiction, Younis, a perceptive, observant boy in a nameless Central Asian land, is caught up in the war on terror.
Read full book review >
FICTION
Released: Feb. 7, 2012
"Gallagher loves character development but respects plotting enough to give it full measure. The result is that rare beast, a literary page turner. "
FICTION
Released: May 22, 2012
"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."
FICTION
Released: April 3, 2012
"An exceptionally fine study of love, war and the double-edged role of memory, which can both sustain and destroy. Prize-winning material."
It's extremes that rivet us in Olmstead's searing seventh novel: the heaven of first love; the hell of the battlefield.
Read full book review >
FICTION
Released: June 26, 2012
"Riveting, heartbreaking, profoundly moving."
In Walker's stunning debut, a young California girl coming-of-age in a dystopian near future confronts the inevitability of change on the most personal level as life on earth withers.
Read full book review >
FICTION
Released: April 12, 2012
"Complex in theme, complex in narrative, this is a masterful literary exploration of the specter of conscience and the formidable cost of reconciliation."
In Flanery's debut literary fiction, Sam Leroux has a publisher's assignment to write the biography of a famous South African author, Clare Wald, imperious, reticent, evasive about her writing and disinclined to discuss her catastrophic personal life.
Read full book review >
FICTION
Released: May 1, 2012
"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 >
FICTION
Released: April 17, 2012
"This is the first of Icelandic author Ómarsdóttir's novels to appear in English, and it shouldn't be the last. Somewhere in the reader's mind, Catch-22 echoes faintly."
FICTION
Released: June 12, 2012
"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 >
FICTION
Released: May 22, 2012
"The inventiveness of Mantel's language is the chief draw here; the plot, as such, will engage only the most determined of Tudor enthusiasts."
FICTION
Released: July 17, 2012
"Grim indeed, yet eloquent and utterly compelling."
Independently intelligible sequel to the dark fantasy
Bitter Seeds (2010), something like a cross between the devious, character-driven spy fiction of early John le Carré and the mad science fantasy of the X-Men.
Read full book review >
FICTION
Released: June 1, 2012
"Independently intelligible but best appreciated after volume one--and with a huge surprise twist in the last sentence. "
Part two of the topnotch space opera begun with
Leviathan Wakes (2011), from Corey (aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck).
Read full book review >
FICTION
Released: May 22, 2012
"As in Mulligan's hard-nosed debut, the real star here is Providence, which the author knows intimately."
Fresh from the Most Corrupt State competition comes a second persuasive entry that links pretty much every citizen of Providence to a child-snuff-porn ring.
Read full book review >
