FICTION
Released: June 19, 2012
"Even so, Eggers' fiction has evolved in the past decade. This book is firm proof that social concerns can make for resonant storytelling."
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.
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FICTION
Released: June 12, 2012
"A dazzling novel of great intensity and power. "
The Celt in question is Sir Roger Casement, who advocated on behalf of oppressed natives of the Congo and of Amazonia, but when he turns his attention to the Irish Troubles in 1916, the British feel he's gone too far, so he's caught, tried and executed.
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FICTION
Released: June 5, 2012
"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.
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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).
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FICTION
Released: May 29, 2012
"With dialogue that can go off like gunfire and a streak of nostalgia that feels timeless, this book takes its place among espionage novels as an instant classic."
In 1945 Istanbul, Allied veteran Leon Bauer is running spy missions under the cover of a U.S. tobacco-importing business.
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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: 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.
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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: May 15, 2012
"It's hard to do justice to the outré and eccentric but gorgeous quality of Pilch's prose. Here he manages to pull off some neat literary tricks, frequently and self-consciously undermining the seriousness of his subjects with pricks of irony. "
A set of loosely concatenated stories that don't quite add up to a novel but are nonetheless rich in character and in the exploration of contemporary urban life in Poland.
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FICTION
Released: May 15, 2012
"Immediate, poignant and rarely predictable, this searchingly observant work captures a huge terrain of personal aspiration against a shifting historical and social background. Impressive. "
The architecture of a family, constructed over decades, through relationships, wars and secrets, is assembled with fine detail and insight in an exceptional 20th-century saga.
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FICTION
Released: May 8, 2012
"A gripping thrill ride that's also a thoughtful coming-of-age story. "
Journalist Miller (
Inheriting the Holy Land, 2005) makes her fiction debut with a smoldering mystery set in a New England prep school.
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FICTION
Released: May 7, 2012
"Emotionally unflinching stories of considerable power, wonder and humor."
A prize-winning poet (and MacArthur Fellow grant recipient) extends her literary mastery with a debut story collection.
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FICTION
Released: May 1, 2012
"Shepherd offers an intricate plot and a thousand details of the least-admirable side of Victorian life. A must-read."
Shepherd's latest detective story (
Murder at Mansfield Park, 2010) is a Victorian tour de force that borrows characters from Charles Dickens'
Bleak House and Wilkie Collins'
The Woman in White.
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FICTION
Released: May 1, 2012
"Tends toward the claustrophobic at times, but superior and fulfilling."
New ancient Egypt–flavored fantasy from the New York resident author of
The Broken Kingdoms (2010, etc.).
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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.
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FICTION
Released: April 24, 2012
"Romance star Higgins pens a near pitch-perfect blend of comedy and touching emotion with this delightful winner."
When heiress Parker Welles learns she's lost everything due to her father's insider trading scheme, she hopes renovating a cabin in Maine will be a partial answer to her financial woes; the last thing she wants or needs is daddy's attorney and right-hand man, James, helping her salvage her inheritance--or her heart.
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FICTION
Released: April 17, 2012
A novel as contemporary as international terrorism and the war in Iraq and as timeless as mortality, from one of Britain's literary masters.
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FICTION
Released: April 17, 2012
"An evocative work about love, fate and redemption."
Up beyond Asheville, near where Gunter Mountain falls into Tennessee, evil has come to preach in a house of worship where venomous snakes and other poisons are sacraments.
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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: April 12, 2012
"Failed by the adults in her life and forced to be the grown-up when she should be experiencing first dates and football games, Liz is a wise, wry, wonderful heroine."
First-time author Thorne wears her heart on her sleeve in this semiautobiographical tale about a 14-year-old who juggles equal amounts of hope and despair in her chaotic daily life.
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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.
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FICTION
Released: April 10, 2012
"An inventive, impressive and witty book."
FICTION
Released: April 10, 2012
"The third in Dean's series is another delight, complete with perfect regency prose and an excellent mystery."
A clever Regency sleuth is much like Jane Austen with her ability to see that the mundane things of life are more important than they seem.
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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.
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FICTION
Released: April 10, 2012
"Once again Stroby demonstrates how adept he is at making readers empathize with the essentially unworthy."
Chasing her retirement number, superthief Crissa Stone (
Cold Shot to the Heart, 2011, etc.) fills bunches of money bags. And body bags.
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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.
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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.
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FICTION
Released: April 1, 2012
"A veteran cop herself, Dial (The Broken Blue Line, 2010, etc.) does authenticity to the max, and readers will like that. But it's tough, vulnerable, never-say-die Josie that they'll love. "
FICTION
Released: March 29, 2012
"Let's hope Laukkanen writes more thrillers like this one."
FICTION
Released: March 27, 2012
"Gripping, perfectly balanced and highly recommended."
Beginning of a new historical-fantasy trilogy, set in the same Mongol Khanate–style universe as the short novel
Bone and Jewel Creatures (2010).
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FICTION
Released: March 25, 2012
"The river, the raft, a stash of money coveted by bad guys, nonstop adventures that edify, terrify and deepen the bond between Sue Ellen and Jinx. A highly entertaining tour de force. "
The author of the prize-winning Hap and Leonard series (
Devil Red, 2011, etc.) charts a course that may remind you of a distaff Huck and Jim.
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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.
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FICTION
Released: March 13, 2012
"With his third featuring brash, breezy, unflappable Carter (Eyes of the Innocent, 2011, etc.), Parks propels himself to a niche shared by only a handful of others: writers who can manage the comedy-mystery."
FICTION
Released: March 13, 2012
"Good cops, bent cops, tormented and demented cops, cops of every description inhabit Rizzo's world, all of them utterly believable and intensely interesting. For readers compiling a short list of crime fiction, here's an essential."
In Manfredo's tender and terrific latest, a burned-out cop can't quit because he's also a devoted dad.
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FICTION
Released: March 5, 2012
"Ballard writes brilliantly about the nightmarish underside of modern life, and this novel makes us poignantly aware of the loss of his voice. "
Ballard (1930–2009) creates a world reminiscent of
A Clockwork Orange and
V for Vendetta in this novel of suburban fascism.
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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.
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FICTION
Released: March 1, 2012
"A tour de force with no room for subtle characterization, complicated moral dilemmas or descriptions of anything that's not instantly material to Jane's job—just an hours-long jolt of pure, adrenaline-fueled plot."
Jane Whitefield's latest attempt to hide someone other people are looking for puts her in even more danger than usual, and that's not easy.
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FICTION
Released: Feb. 28, 2012
"A truly spellbinding work even audiences jaded by standard U.S./U.K. fantasy will devour. Kudos to the publishers for taking the plunge--but what took them so long?"
First English translation of a work written in Russian in 1997, from an award-winning Ukrainian husband-and-wife team now resident in Moscow.
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FICTION
Released: Feb. 28, 2012
"Strengthened by characters with depth and something interesting to say, this winning first installment in a trilogy is sure to thrill fans of modern romantic fiction."
A little romance and a little magic make for a surprising page turner as a glass artist falls for a vintner on an island in the Puget Sound.
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FICTION
Released: Feb. 15, 2012
"The author at his best."
Parables of emotional complexity and moral ambiguity, with lessons that are neither easy nor obvious, by a short-story master (For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, 1999, etc.).
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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.
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FICTION
Released: Feb. 14, 2012
"Screwball romance with a likable and vulnerable heroine."
Plucky bride-to-be makes an unexpected connection after she appropriates a stranger's cellphone.
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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: Feb. 1, 2012
"Landay is yet another lawyer-turned-writer, and it's inevitable that he'll be compared to Scott Turow, but this novel succeeds on its own merits."
Landay does the seemingly impossible by coming up with a new wrinkle in the crowded subgenre of courtroom thrillers.
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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: Jan. 24, 2012
"Enthralling, dizzying and as impressive as they come."
Third entry (
The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man, 2011, etc.) in Spain-resident Englishman Hodder's time-travel/alternate-reality/steampunk saga; though originally billed as a trilogy, the ending here leaves considerable scope for further augmentation.
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FICTION
Released: Jan. 12, 2012
"Brutal, irreverent and very funny. An honest-to-goodness heir to Portnoy's Complaint."
A family man suffers from money woes, a judgmental spouse and a hectoring mother. But things don't get really funny until he discovers Anne Frank living in his attic.
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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.
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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."
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