Fiction

Tessa King is godmother to four children but desperately wants to be married and have her own family. At least she thinks she does. She's really not sure whether she's ready to give up a swinging London social life full of one-night stands, and, anyway, the man she's been in love with since they were teens is already married. And when she takes a careful look around at her married friends, Tessa begins to see that they aren't living such perfect lives: Neil cheats on Helen, who is exhausted from having twins; Fran and Nick's teenage son is doing drugs; Claudia and Al have lost another pregnancy; and single mom Billy struggles desperately to make ends meet. But when tragedy strikes the group of friends, Tessa gets the chance at what she might want most. This heavy-handed British soap opera is overstuffed with too many characters and overdramatic subplots yet remains unsatisfying. For larger public libraries where British women's fiction is popular.—Rebecca Vnuk, Glen Ellyn P.L., IL

In this first novel, Barbara Jean "BJ" Ellington is facing a summer filled with change, reminiscence, new beginnings, and hard choices. BJ has just left her cheating husband, Bryce, back in Michigan to travel with young son Sam to the home of her recently deceased grandmother, Nonna, in Pennsylvania. BJ had spent many summers as a youth with Nonna and Nonna's partner, Lena. It doesn't take long for Travis, BJ's adolescent crush and Lena's nephew, to show up and rekindle a flirtation. In the novel's first part, Althouse-Wood reveals BJ's past and present in alternating chapters. In the second, she tells the history of Nonna and Lena's relationship through BJ's reading of Nonna's notebooks. The surprising disclosures in the notebooks cause BJ concern over her relationship with Travis, and Bryce's apology and pleas for a second chance leave BJ confused about how to move forward. Skillfully weaving together summers past and present, this fascinating story is perfect for the season's waning days and is sure to please readers of women's fiction. Recommended for all public libraries.—Karen Core, Detroit P.L.

This is an effortlessly masterful novel from a legend in American letters who has spent his career chronicling the morally complex lives of New York's wealthy leisure class. Like his 1964 novel, The Rector of Justin, it's set at an elite prep school in the Northeast, and at its heart is an ugly incident involving a sexual assault in a boys' dormitory. This event ignites a dangerous conflict between two old rivals working at the school—the progressive headmaster, Michael Sayre, and the ambitious, vindictive chair of the Trustees, Donald Spencer. Spencer, who has sustained a long and quarrelsome history with Sayre, attempts to use the fallout from this incident to force the headmaster to resign. The characters here are all superbly drawn, from the unscrupulous Spencer to the tragically vulnerable young man who is assaulted. Auchincloss fearlessly examines the adolescent culture of bullying and sexual predation at this prestigious school. He also depicts the moral, political, and legal challenges faced by the valiant headmaster with extraordinary sympathy and insight. Recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/07.]—Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT

Ever since witnessing the cloud that formed over Hiroshima when the atom bomb was dropped, Akira Kumo has been enchanted by clouds. Assisted by French librarian Virginie Latour, Kumo seeks the legendary notebook of cloud study, The Abercrombie Protocol, and attempts to investigate the mystery surrounding its author: in the late 19th century, meteorologist Richard Abercrombie suddenly switched from photographing clouds to female sexual organs. Dotting this adventure tale are anecdotes about historical and imaginary characters, such as Luke Howard, Goethe, William S. Williamsson, and a painter called Carmichael, which provide an overview of the evolution of meteorology. The unusual blend of science and concupiscence stimulates consideration of the need to strike a fine balance between mind and flesh. This debut novel by French author Audeguy, published in France in 2005, is the first of a trilogy (followed by Only Son and a work in progress) that contemplates "the relationship between man, nature, technology, and history." Audeguy rekindles our appreciation of nature as we face the current climatic dilemma of global warming. Strongly recommended for public and academic libraries.—Victor Or, Vancouver & Surrey P.L., B.C.

In the early 1900s, patients at the Tamarack State Sanatorium for the Treatment for Tuberculosis are of two different sorts. The wealthy can live in some comfort by renting little chalets, while working-class patients must make do in the barracks-like dormitories. Then factory owner Miles Fairchild crosses the line by proposing a weekly discussion group, which he opens with some pompous lectures on paleontology. Soon the less fortunate patients are revealing a depth of knowledge and experience the condescending Fairchild could not have imagined. Meanwhile, emotional entanglements flare everywhere. Miles falls for Naomi, the wayward girl who drives him to the sanatorium; she's interested in a patient named Leo, trained as a chemist in Russia and now given access to the X-ray equipment by technician Irene. But Leo is forming a bond with Eudora, Naomi's best friend and herself an aspiring technician. It all leads to a very real explosion, with sabotage suspected as America's entry into World War I looms. Miles leads the charge in accusing Leo, and it's heartrending to see how his old friends turn on him. Though not as powerfully written as Barrett's The Voyage of the Narwhal, this is a deft and quietly wrenching tale of human misunderstanding. For most collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/07.]—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

The world's intelligence services are riveted by their investigations of four crashed jetliners, but a far dirtier game is afoot. Working separately at first, the Israelis and the Americans unearth traces of a well-advanced plot to explode three nuclear warheads in the heart of the sea lanes approaching New York City. Then Israeli agent Julian Granot recruits an American journalist and an FBI agent to foil the plot before Armageddon erupts. While not a roman à clef, this debut thriller by a seasoned reporter (Remembered Gate: A Spiritual Journey) purports to arise from the experiences of a real Israeli counterterrorism expert. Combining the nuts and bolts of a technothriller with the emotional resonance of young adventurers seeking truth and honor, Benedek's very readable, densely plotted, and cagily realistic saga—squeezed into two heart-pounding weeks—will have readers anticipating further escapades for her trio. Strongly recommended for popular fiction collections.—Barbara Conaty, Falls Church, VA

British screenwriter, playwright, and novelist Bennett, author of the Tony Award—winning play The History Boys, has written a wry and unusual story about the subversive potential of reading. Bennett posits a theoretical situation in which Queen Elizabeth II becomes an avid reader, and the new ideas she thus encounters change the way she thinks and reigns. Coming upon a traveling library near Buckingham Palace, Elizabeth, who almost never reads, decides to take a look. Mostly out of politeness, she begins to borrow from the library via a kitchen page. As she begins to view reading as her "duty," a way "to find out what people are like," she is exposed to increasingly sophisticated books and ideas that criticize society. As Elizabeth loses interest in the chain of ship launches and groundbreakings that make up her reign, her staff becomes resentful, and the story ends in an unexpected way. Though the book is at times annoyingly snobbish and harping that people do not read enough, the unusual story line keeps readers engrossed. Recommended for larger public libraries and libraries where British literature is popular.—Christina Bauer, Library Journal

Portland, OR, never felt drearier than it does in this thriller debut. Without a doubt, psychopathic Gretchen Lowell, a convicted serial killer, pulls all the strings from her prison cell. Just consider her current exploitation list: Archie Sheridan, the Vicodin-addicted detective whom she kidnapped and almost killed two years earlier; Susan Ward, the spunky, young newspaper features writer who's attempting to profile Sheridan; and, finally, the current serial killer, who is targeting high school girls and putting the entire city in lockdown mode. Using flashbacks and psychological tension, Cain (Confessions of a Teen Sleuth) has crafted a gory suspense piece that is absolutely impossible to put down. Sheridan's current case, a hurried analysis of local high school suspects, is almost secondary to the horror of Lowell's personality. Sheridan's suffering makes him an empathetic hero, and Susan's foolish mistakes give the novel its requisite twists. Readers may figure out the "new" killer's identity early on, but Cain never lets up on the pace. Stylistically, this is great stuff for true-crime readers and for those who enjoy Jan Burke's Irene Kelly series. Recommended for all popular collections; expect a series. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 5/1/07; a 200,000 first printing.]—Teresa L. Jacobsen, Solano Cty. Lib., Fairfield, CA

Callahan's first novel outlines the ebb and flow of Democratic politics in America, from the Vietnam era through today, by following the career of Oregon congressman (and eventually senator) Michael "Mick" Whelan, as seen through the eyes of his adviser, aide, and best friend, Gabe Bontempo. The novel is rich in detail about the maneuvering that occurs, often in barrooms and private offices, before bills reach the floor of the House or Senate. Unfortunately, the story bogs down in blow-by-blow accounts of congressional debates and hearings that only an avid fan of C-SPAN would find dramatic. But it picks up speed and emotional resonance in the last half, when Gabe's devotion to Mick and his work has a devastating impact on his family life. Whelan is portrayed as a bit too much of a martyr, but having a flawed and down-to-earth narrator helps. For regional public library collections and those specializing in political fiction.—Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis

In Campbell's debut legal thriller, Dan Morgan is a Phoenix-based Perry Mason—like defense attorney trying to uncover the true culprit behind a murder. A woman and her daughter enter a home, gunshots are fired, and the woman's husband is killed; the outcome seems obvious. But, surprisingly, the father of the deceased asks Morgan to defend his daughter-in-law, and Morgan realizes that everything is not clear-cut after all. Morgan's assistant narrates, giving the story an odd hero-worship perspective. The main plot moves sluggishly toward its predetermined conclusion, and the lack of decent twists will bore fans of courtroom thrillers. Cut out all the scenes of the characters eating and drinking, and the text would be about 300 pages shorter. Campbell clearly writes what he knows—he practices law in Salt Lake City—but he tries too hard to create a literary work as opposed to just a fun and interesting read. The characterizations are also all over the place. Purchase with caution. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/07.]—Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.

Carrell (The Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox), a Harvard Ph.D. and Shakespeare specialist, crafts an exciting debut literary thriller. Kate Shelton left academe to direct Shakespeare plays, and as she rehearses Hamlet at London's new Globe Theatre, her old adviser, Roz, shows up with a mysterious gift and the admonition to "follow where it leads." Within hours, the Globe is burning and Roz is found dead, her body staged to mimic the murder of Hamlet's father. Bodies start to pile up, each re-creating another Shakespeare moment, as Kate follows Roz's clues from Harvard's Widener Library to the American Southwest. Can she find the manuscript of the lost play Cardenio, and will it reveal whether Shakespeare really wrote Shakespeare? Kate's use of her academic skills to decode letters and other historical artifacts will appeal to Da Vinci Code fans, the fast-paced globe-trotting action to Robert Ludlum readers, and the exploration of the Shakespeare mysteries to English majors everywhere. Highly recommended for all popular fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/07.]—Jessica Moyer, Univ. of Minnesota Coll. of Education & Human Development, Minneapolis

Redefining the term Wild West, this experimental novel about the aftermath of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral was originally published in Spanish in 1989, the same year Cela (The Family of Pascual Duarte) won the Nobel prize in Literature. Set in Tombstone, AZ, at the turn of the 20th century, the narrative unspools in one long sentence as a morally suspect workingman, who introduces himself as Wendell Liverpool Espana or Span or Aspen, begins his life story and just keeps going, without taking a breath. The novel is obliquely centered on the gunfight but is essentially plotless, as Espana spins yarns about characters such as his prostitute mother and his father (who claims to own a Spanish-speaking caiman) and recites spurious platitudes such as "You have to organize what you're saying so people won't get confused," advice he certainly doesn't follow. Espana's ramblings are violent and vulgar to an extreme and go nowhere in particular, functioning more as an extended metaphor for the chaotic nature of the American West. Calling this novel inaccessible would be an understatement, but as a feat of literary dexterity it is impressive. For academic libraries.—Forest Turner, Suffolk Cty. House of Correction Lib., Boston

This novel might more accurately be titled "The Women Who Supported the Good Painter," since it's more about the three women in Oscar Feldman's life than it is about the fictional artist himself. There's his wife, Abigail, more friend than lover, the dedicated and lonely mother of his profoundly autistic son. Teddy was his soul mate, his long-term mistress, and mother of his twin daughters. His sister Maxine is also a painter, less well known but perhaps more talented. All have a deep affection for Oscar, complicated by their understanding of how he needed and devoured women in both his art—figurative paintings of the female nude—and his life. Now, with two researchers penning posthumous biographies about the great man, the women remember who they were with Oscar and discover who they have become. Christensen (The Epicure's Lament) excels at imagining the inner thoughts of this mixed trio of septuagenarians, especially regarding their sexuality. Not as strong are the poorly developed biographers, who, despite being African American and Caucasian, are equally bland and undistinguishable. A solid title; for most fiction collections.—Christine Perkins, Burlington P.L., WA

Bethany, transitioning from goth teen to adult, and Roger, flailing in his forties, have washed up at Staples, a modern circle of hell where employees mindlessly rearrange office paraphernalia. In their world, security footage of the staff stealing gum is a popular download, but real communication rarely happens. Unwilling to acknowledge their mismatched friendship publicly, Roger and Bethany covertly trade mocking self-references and smirky notes about vapid coworkers. Roger shares his novel-in-progress, Glove Pond, which resembles Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf recast with characters that echo Roger's acquaintances. These early epistolary exchanges are more tiresome than funny—ennui lacking real conflict—but as growing trust allows Roger and Bethany to reveal the deaths, desertions, and depression that have waylaid them, the odd pair finds the motivation to begin taking action again. The pace mounts, and the story gains emotional weight. Coupland (JPod) has successfully explored consumer culture, technology, and malaise in his many seriocomic novels. His latest doesn't break new ground, but it still pleases. Recommended for public libraries with a readership of 20- to 30-year-olds or where Coupland has a following.—Neil Hollands, Williamsburg Regional Lib., VA

With this follow-up to his acclaimed Ireland, Delaney has crafted another meticulously researched journey though his homeland. The focus this time is on Castle Tipperary, one of the "grand houses" of the Anglo-Irish. Its story is told through the love of Charles O'Brien, an itinerant healer, for April Burke, the only child of a noble Irish family. While trying to woo her, Charles convinces April to petition for ownership of the castle as her birthright. It languishes in disrepair, a victim of the tenant evictions, the famine, and general abandonment. April rejects Charles and marries a lout who restores the castle but leaves April's life in ruin. Charles comes to her rescue, but the ill-fated Easter Rising intervenes, and both the great house and their love are riven once again. The struggles of Delaney's characters for survival mirror the history of Ireland during the colonial years from 1860 to 1922. It's a tale told many times, yet Delaney's careful scholarship and compelling storytelling bring it uniquely alive. Highly recommended for all fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/07.]—Susan Clifford Braun, Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA

This is a pre- and post-9/11 story with multiple characters and agendas. But mainly it's a love story. Maynard is an artist—or desperately wants to be. He has spent all his money on making two films: one made it to Sundance, and the other is about dogs defecating in the park. Either way, he lives the artist's life as an aesthetic seeker and nonconformist, and he's delightfully eccentric. Jennica is equally likable, though entirely different and sometimes too whiny. She knows a designer scarf when she sees one and has moved far away from her hometown just to be somewhere of great consequence. These two are destined not to be together. In his first novel, the boldly inventive Delson uses multiple narrators (including some inanimate objects), which allows us to see that dichotomy so common of multiple viewpoints in which no narrator is completely reliable. At times, the originality is distracting, as if Delson were trying too hard, as when he includes the dialog of frogs and crickets. But, overall, like a contemporary spin-off of Vonnegut, this work has something fresh that needs to be embraced and will resonate with a wide audience. Recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/07.]—Stephen Morrow, Columbus, OH

This great saga (1888) by Portugal's greatest realistic writer has never gotten its due in the English-speaking world, which is ironic since much of it was written while its author served in the Portuguese consulate in England. Eça is also the author of The Crime of Father Amaro (1876), made into a movie of the same name in 2002 starring Gael Garcia Bernal. In this later, longer novel, Carlos Eduardo de Maia, the sole heir of an ancient, illustrious family, bears the brunt of preserving his family's hopes. The glorious aristocratic past and the vapid bourgeois present struggle within him at all times, and his incestuous love for his sister Maria Eduarda, tragic for all concerned, makes for a 19th-century melodrama in some ways reminiscent of Zola. Explanatory footnotes on historical and political matters would have been very helpful to modern readers, but even without them the novel, like those of Tolstoy, can be read for sheer enjoyment today. Costa's translation is an improvement over the stylistically mismatched version cobbled together by Patricia McGowan Pinheiro and Ann Stevens in 1965 and reprinted by Penguin in 1998. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.—Jack Shreve, Allegany Coll. of Maryland, Cumberland

It seems that large, extended families are brought together for two events, weddings and funerals, and such is the case in Enright's new novel (after The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch) when Veronica, her eight surviving siblings, and their mammy reconnect for her wayward brother Liam's funeral. As Veronica notes early on, "the seeds of my brother's death were sown many years ago," and it is those seeds, which are gradually unearthed as the book moves between past and present, describing the deconstruction of the family, that drove Liam to suicide. From a description of vodka with a "sweet and crotch-like" smell that includes a "waft of earth and adolescence" to souls that, if released, would "slop out over his teeth," Enright's writing is starkly descriptive, using the same coarse imagery that is part of her characters' daily lives. Much is raw in this novel, which is less about individuals than about people's "patience and ability to endure." While readers won't be drawn to the characters, anyone who perseveres will find a story of harsh redemption and of a future found in a child's blue eyes. An acquired taste; recommended for larger and more diverse collections.—Caroline M. Hallsworth, City of Greater Sudbury, Ont.

As she approaches the end of her life, Josephine Bonaparte reflects on her glamorous and exciting past. As a 15-year-old beauty on the Caribbean island of Martinique, she met and charmed a French military officer, Scipion du Roure, and then took the first of many lovers, the mysterious Donovan, before leaving for Paris. Josephine's subsequent unhappy marriage to an aristocrat, her narrow escape from death by guillotine, and her involvement with Napoléon all demand that she use her mind and body to gain advantages for herself and her children. Although many of the characters and incidents depicted here have roots in history, Erickson calls her book "historical entertainment, not a historical novel." For example, Josephine undertakes a clandestine journey to Russia, where she delays Napoléon's retreat and helps hasten his defeat. Her ongoing affair with Donovan, her heroic exploits during a slave rebellion, and other plot twists also reveal the author's method of "blending fact and whimsy." Fans of Erickson's earlier historical fiction (The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette; The Last Wife of Henry VIII) will enjoy this latest concoction. Readers seeking a more substantive historical re-creation of Josephine's life might consider Sandra Gulland's trilogy, starting with The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.—Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State Univ. Lib., Mankato

And now for something completely different: fans of Faulks's highly acclaimed "Birdsong" trilogy depart wartime Europe for a historical tour through the much more recent past, guided by the compellingly creepy character of Michael Engleby. Academically gifted but socially inept, Engleby comes by his reserve honestly, having suffered childhood abuse at home and then been the victim of the particularly vicious form of bullying perfected by English public school boys. Engleby develops survival skills with a heavy dependency on alcohol and drugs. At Cambridge, without a network of his own friends, he imagines himself in a relationship with popular Jennifer Arkland and insinuates himself into the fringes of her crowd. When she goes missing, Engleby suffers from memory lapses so that his past is as much a mystery to himself as it is to the reader. He eventually lands a successful career in journalism, moves in with a colleague, and experiences a brief period of contentment. But old demons resurface when Jennifer's body turns up and the past begins to encroach. This gripping tour de force is highly recommended.—Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont.

Set in the early Seventies in middle-class London, this first novel is framed around scenes of daily life featuring Tot, an eight-year-old epileptic, and her attempts to understand the workings of her family, the strange actions of her friends and neighbors, and the uncontrollable nature of her illness. The result is an odd little novel whose appeal is difficult to defend or describe. The narrative style, featuring vignettes that jump around among characters, is disjointed and confusing. The characters are rude to one another, often crass and unpleasant and mostly unlikable, which results in a dark and depressing atmosphere. But then we have Tot, a charmingly innocent young girl who finds magic in catching sticklebacks and shaking snow globes and who simply wants her father to come home and her sister to be nice to her and her mother to stop crying in the garden. It is a lot to ask of one character, but somehow, in this case, it works. For larger libraries.—Kellie Gillespie, City of Mesa Lib., AZ

This first English-language novel from Guo, who has written two other novels and is also a filmmaker, is a sometimes sad and sometimes funny tale of one young Chinese woman's attempt to learn a foreign language and assimilate into Western culture when she goes to London to study English. Zhuang's first lesson in the West is that no one can pronounce her name correctly, and she decides to call herself just "Z" in order to avoid awkward conversations about it. Every experience is new for Z, the daughter of factory owners in rural China, and she dutifully records each new word or idea in the journal she carries as religiously as her dictionary. Her confusion is compounded when she meets a man who quickly becomes her live-in lover. Z soon realizes that her ideas about love and sex may not be like those of her Western counterparts, and her naïveté leads Z into a few dangerous situations. But as her knowledge of the language grows, so does her maturity. An engrossing tale written with the novel approach of having the narrator's English growing increasingly better as the book progresses, this is recommended for most public libraries.—Leann Restaino, Girard, OH

"Crossing over from China to America" describes not only the theme behind this latest work from National Book Award—winning author Ha (Waiting) but also his own transition as a storyteller as he breaks away from novels based in China and sets this work in the United States. Keeping to his use of strong male protagonists, Jin opens with Nan Wu, who, with wife Pingping, is reunited for the first time in three years with six-year-old son, Taotao (he's just been flown to the United States from China). Opening in 1989 and spanning nearly a decade, the novel is divided into six parts and multiple brief chapters that follow the Wu family's fierce determination to make a better life for themselves. Though living the "American dream," Jin's characters, as in his other novels, are not without conflict. Nan, for instance, struggles with his passion to become a successful author even as he works to support his family. Transitioning his characters from Chinese immigrants to Chinese Americans, Jin takes his writing to a new level as he skillfully crafts an ambitiously angst-filled yet masterly tale of assimilation overflowing with both heart and culture. Highly recommended for public and academic library fiction and Asian American fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/07.]—Shirley N. Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA

After serving 14 years in prison on a murder conviction overturned by DNA evidence, Myrden is released, returning to his family and hardscrabble Canadian neighborhood. Once home, he finds his wife less interested in him than in the monetary settlement he expects as a result of his wrongful conviction; meanwhile, son Bobby is following the rough-and-tumble path he once chose, and daughter Jackie is involved in an abusive relationship with the man who may have actually committed the murder. Myrden finds solace with Caroline, his four-year-old granddaughter, and Ruth, a university professor and former lover with whom he rekindles a relationship. As Myrden takes his first steps toward building a new life, the past continues to intrude, threatening to undermine the fragile hopes he has for himself and his family. Narrated in a clipped, staccato manner meant to suggest Myrden's guarded interior life, this novel—declared a best book of the year by numerous Canadian newspapers—presents a powerfully raw portrait of a man who discovers that prisons don't necessarily require bars on the windows. This latest from Harvey (The Town That Forgot To Breathe) is recommended for most public libraries.—Lawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, Andover, MA

In Hegi's latest, the life of the protagonist, Annie, is framed by two catastrophes. One is the death of her parents on her wedding day. Her mother had been pregnant, and Annie and husband Mason end up raising her orphaned infant sister, who survived the wreck. The other—connected to a romantic triangle involving their childhood friend Jake—is Mason's suicide eight years later. The novel unfolds during the year after Mason's death as Annie and her sister/daughter, Opal, try to heal. As in her best-selling Stones from the River, Hegi addresses familiar themes such self-destruction and parental abandonment. She also offers rich characterizations, especially that of Aunt Stormy, a middle-aged German who wishes coveted possessions away from others, attends peace rallies, hosts an annual emotional cleansing ritual, explores the natural world with relish, and loves with abandon. One of Hegi's most enchanting skills is her ability to re-create setting, here a Long Island coastal community. While this book lacks the rich canvas of Stones from the River, it is a moving exploration of grief. Recommended for all libraries.—Evelyn Beck, Piedmont Technical Coll., Greenwood, SC

Hellenga puts a twist on familiar terrain in this sequel to The Sixteen Pleasures. Metafictional gymnastics ensue when a Hollywood producer descends upon Florence with a cast and crew, determined to immortalize The Sixteen Pleasures on film. Renamed The Italian Lover, the producer's script retells the story of book conservator Margot Harrington and the manuscript of Renaissance erotica she rescued from obscurity. Margot, however, has written a script of her own and is determined not to let control of her own life story fall out of her hands. Readers unfamiliar with the original novel may not immediately connect with a story that depends so closely on its predecessor. However, the realism of the filmmaking scenes and the loving depiction of the Florentine landscape just might redeem the novel for those new to Margot's story. Although some characters initially appear flat and irritating, they demonstrate obvious growth as the film shoot progresses, and their story arcs lead readers to conclusions that they may not have anticipated. An unusual experiment; recommended where Hellenga is popular.—Leigh Anne Vrabel, Carnegie Lib. of Pittsburgh

Owing to perpetual interest in the subject matter, the 2007 release of the English film Roanoke: The Lost Colony, and the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, this first novel about one of American history's most enduring mysteries may appeal to the literary and book club set. The author's two nonfiction books—Women & Guns and From Blood to Verdict—revealed her interest in feminism and crime. Here, too, she is careful with her facts, using as narrators the famous Eleanor Dare (née White), daughter of Colony leader John White and the mother of the first English child born in the New World, and Margaret, a documented Colony member. The invented portions are believable, including the ending—you can debate the details, but it seems quite logical. The events of 1587 are viewed from the perspective of the women, both of whom are all but powerless as they are carried across the Atlantic and into the New World, one by her longing for recognition from her father and the other by a notion that it had to be better than London, for she'd "never met any beggar girls from Virginia." Lots of violence and tragedy in this version of early American history; most public libraries will want to purchase for readers who enjoyed Jane Smiley's The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton. [For more on this title, visit www.risingshoreroanoke.com.—Ed.]—Mary Kay Bird-Guilliams, Wichita P.L., KS

A graduate student in mathematics particularly interested in her subject's application to music, Leela Moore is mesmerized by the sound of a violin pouring forth from the subway stop at Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA. She and violinist Mishka Bartok immediately enter into a fervent relationship, but there's a catch: Mishka, raised in Australia by his odd little family of Holocaust survivors, keeps disappearing. It turns out that he is visiting a local mosque, though not to consort with terrorists, as Leela's old friend Cobb believes. Cobb's father is a pugnacious outcast in their little town of Promised Land, SC, and Leela's father a religious obsessive; as children they formed a bond, though Cobb's obsession for Leela long ago turned to anger. An ex-military man now working under contract in security, he's out to get her—after all, she's sleeping with the enemy. Meanwhile, Mishka, as adept at the oud as he is at the violin, is really only after the truth about the father he never knew—which leads him to torture in the Middle East. With a politically charged narrative intent on sorting out issues of identity and the clash between appearance and truth, this astonishingly rich novel by the author of Oyster will entrance readers the way Mishka's music entranced Leela. Highly recommended.—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

This intriguing prequel to Humphreys's swashbuckling historical adventure debut, Jack Absolute, which was based on a character drawn from Richard Sheridan's 18th-century play The Rivals, lays the foundations of Jack's early life as a boy, a spirited teenager, and eventually a young man facing the grim reality of politics, war, and the fight for survival in the wilderness of the New World. The novel opens with Jack an outcast in the house of his abusive uncle, but his life as a provincial farmhand becomes one of aristocratic schooling when his soldier father returns from military service and takes him to London. There, he begins to understand his father's sense of bravery and honor, while his sense of art and poetry are refined by his thespian mother. But Jack becomes entangled in a dangerous love triangle that forces him into the British army. Beckoned to the New World, he experiences war, capture by Indians, and the beginning of his ties to a landscape that is at once inspiring and deadly. Humphreys is skilled at blending history with swashbuckling adventure that leaves a lasting impression, creating a a great tale that complements the first book. Readers who enjoyed Winston Graham's "Poldark Saga" historical series or George McDonald Fraser's "Flashman" series will also find this appealing. Recommended for all historical fiction collections.—Ron Samul, New London, CT

Memo to bad guys: Don't mess with Bob Lee Swagger (Black Light), even if he is getting old. Swagger returns in an exciting adventure that begins in the closing days of World War II, when Bob Lee's father, Earl (Havana), earns the Medal of Honor on Iwo Jima and takes a Japanese officer's samurai sword as a souvenir. Decades later, Bob returns the sword to the dead officer's son and family. But the sword turns out to be historically and politically important, and the Japanese family is slaughtered to get it. This horror causes Bob Lee to obsess about both avenging the family and retrieving the sword. In effect, he becomes a samurai, and his confrontations with the murderers are extremely bloody. Although heavy on both the explanations of Japanese customs and the sordid world of incredibly savage Japanese criminals, this work is compelling, exciting, and satisfying, a dark adventure that will appeal to thriller fans. Hunter is also a chief film critic at the Washington Post, where he won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003. Recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/07.]—Robert Conroy, Warren, MI

Jacobson's debut is a wide-ranging historical tale that starts and ends with the fate of a married couple. Jan Kopernik, a major in the Polish cavalry, and his wife, Anna, a university professor in Krakow, end up on separate paths when the Germans invade Poland in 1939. After the Polish cavalry launches a disastrous charge against German tanks, Jan takes refuge in a Hungarian refugee camp. Soon after, in what is the first of many terrifying adventures, he returns to Poland, working for the Polish Free Forces in the disguise of a Gestapo agent. Anna, for her part, flees to Belgium, where she works for the "White Brigade" resistance, ferrying rescued British and American aviators along the "Comet Line" to freedom. Surrounding these central characters are a host of partisans, saboteurs, soldiers, SS officers, and others caught up in the war, each with an intriguing story. Jan and Anna themselves will be severely tested in their search to find each other. Inspired by his Belgian relatives' own World War II experiences, Jacobson has written a novel that is suspenseful, rich in convincingly detailed incidents, and impeccably researched. Recommended for public libraries and all collections of historical fiction.—Ron Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson

Best-selling author Johansen captivates readers with her latest suspense thriller. The paranormal element is eerily believable as Megan Blair, a Pandora with amazing psychic powers, suddenly faces her own mortality. Megan is working as a physician at an Atlanta hospital when she is contacted by Neal Grady, a man who knew her late mother. When Grady lifts his control of Megan, allowing her to experience the voices she hasn't heard in the 12 years since her mother's death, Megan agrees to help him capture Molino, the evil child-slave dealer who killed her mother. Together, Megan and Grady travel the globe in search of the Ledger, a centuries-old book detailing the descendants and financial holdings of the Devanezes, a family with strong psychic abilities. A white-knuckled race ensues as Molino, Megan, and Grady simultaneously search for the Keeper of the Ledger, and danger is never far behind. Scintillating love scenes between Grady and Megan fill the pages as the suspense escalates toward an explosive conclusion. Recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/07; a 500,000-copy first printing.—Ed.]—Sheri Melnick, Harrisburg, PA

This major Vietnam novel depicts the era's distinctive psychedelic brutality, the ineptitude of the U.S. military effort, and the otherworldly theater of the "intelligence" operations surrounding the politics of the war. Skip Sands is starting out in the hazy world of the CIA under the tutelage of his uncle, Col. F.X. Sands, a veteran of World War II and many years of mercenary covert actions. They are involved in an assassination in the Philippines, where the novel begins in November 1963, and then move on to Vietnam. There, the Colonel sets up an undercover situation for Skip. Whether the Colonel is a rogue agent gone over the edge is open to question. Down at the bottom of the command chain are the brothers Houston, Bill Jr. and James, members of the alcoholic, sociopathic underclass of rural and Bible Belt America last seen in Johnson's Angels. It is these characters with whom the author seems truly in touch. Moving chronologically, the novel proceeds into the late Sixties, when the war seems not so much lost as running down on the political, military, and cultural energy powering it earlier. Ugly and fascinating, with many shattering scenes, this long work may seem familiar to fans of Apocalypse Now but is nevertheless gripping. Recommended for all fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/07.]—Jim Coan, SUNY Coll. at Oneonta

Born in Iran and raised in Los Angeles, Xerxes Adam straddles two cultures in his effort to negotiate a place for himself. Having fled Iran after the overthrow of the Shah, his family settles into a typical suburban life, whose very isolation mirrors the internal conflicts of each character. Desiring distance from his parents and the identity issues they represent, Xerxes moves to New York City, where he believes his anonymity will be assured. But the events of September 11 make such anonymity impossible, placing Xerxes on a collision course with his family, his past, and his sense of self. While there is no shortage of fiction that deals with the subjects of racial and cultural identity, Khakpour's first novel refuses to oversimplify these issues for the sake of a smoother narrative. An incredibly complex book, it acknowledges that navigating the demands of multiple cultures is anything but a tidy process. Recommended for public and academic libraries.—Chris Pusateri, Jefferson Cty. P.L., Lakewood, CO

In this absorbing study of a serial killer, told in the first person, Kinder offers a rather sympathetic view of a man who outwardly possesses the characteristics of a highly functional citizen. In fact, it's difficult not to like Arthur Blume: He's even-tempered, bright, and a well-respected teacher of creative writing. In fact, for a novel featuring a murderer, very little violence takes place. Instead, Kinder relates the latest chapter in Arthur's peripatetic life, which has him searching for elusive tenure and hoping to rekindle the creative magic he exhibited in his only novel, published 20 years ago. Besides his being remarkably laid-back, Arthur's dominant character trait is his insistence that everyone be treated fairly. This philosophy, and Arthur's reluctance to offer the smallest bit of information about himself, both frustrates and fascinates his new lover, Grace, a fellow professor who ultimately learns more than she wants to know. Kinder based much of this first novel on her experiences with a real-life serial killer named Robert Weeks, and her handling of her fictional character shows a sophisticated understanding of a madman's thought processes. For most general fiction collections.—Kevin Greczek, Hamilton, NJ

Narrator Angela Russo's sardonic and self-deprecating humor saves Kline's (Desire Lines) third novel from being just another story of a single woman (age 33), frustrated with life in the city (New York), leaving for a simpler place (Maine), hoping she has found Mr. Right (or, in this case, "Maine Catch," his online dating site screen name). Seen through Angela's eyes, what could have been stock characters on the road to self-discovery—the Italian grandmother, remarried father, concerned friend from high school, new gay friend in Maine, callow lover, handsome stranger—turn out to be real people with pasts of their own. Hurtling into a new life after a career-ending event-planning disaster, Angela observes her own behavior critically, surprised at how she is able to throw caution to the wind. As winter approaches on Mount Desert Island, Angela's passion for cooking is reawakened, and she begins to believe in the gift (il regalo) her grandmother told her she had. Recommended for public libraries, especially where Elizabeth Berg and Elinor Lipman are popular.—Laurie A. Cavanrugh, Brockton P.L., MA

Krúdy (1878–1933), a well-known early 20th-century Hungarian author, produced a prolific body of 60 novels and 3000 short stories before dying in relative obscurity. In this novel, appearing in English for the first time, Eveline leaves the city for her country estate in order to forget her love for Kálmán. Eveline's story becomes inextricably intertwined with the lives of the locals: she is wooed by the legendary Álmos-Dreamer, provides lodging and company for the odd Miss Maszkerádi, and tries to keep peace with Gypsy-loving neighbor Pistoli. In this community, everyone knows everything about one another, making each interaction full of complications, village gossip, and intrigue. Krúdy eulogizes a way of life already disappearing as the work was being written and presents a glimpse of rural Hungary that is at once comic, nostalgic, romantic, and erotic. The introduction by John Lukacs provides insight into Krúdy's life and works. Recommended for academic collections or large public libraries.—Heather Wright, ASRC Management Srvcs., Cincinnati

Lippincott moves on from his previous literary visits to Bloomsbury (Mr. Dalloway; Our Arcadia) to America from 1930 through 2001 as viewed through the eyes of three lifetime friends. Kathryn, Luke, and Starling form a seemingly unbreakable bond at age five that lasts until 16-year-old Starling has sex with a very drunk and subsequently angry Luke. Kathryn eventually reunites them, and they move to the wonderland of post—World War II New York together. The result is a poignant, intimate, and highly nuanced novel with nary a false word or feeling. Although it has a gay-oriented subplot, it is highly accessible to readers of all sexual persuasions, focusing on the complexities of friendship rather than those of sex. Despite the book's relatively short length, it is deeply descriptive; Lippincott's depiction of a Billie Holiday concert at the Apollo, for instance, is so detail perfect that you will feel that you experienced Lady Day in person. Highly recommended for both academic and public libraries.—Jim Dwyer, California State Univ., Chico

Presented as 12 connected short stories, this debut novel offers a beautifully written, highly amusing, and sometimes sobering look at contemporary Russian Jewish immigration to America. Throughout, the trials of assimilation prove baffling to young and old alike—not what they expected to find in the golden land of opportunity. In the title story, Masha, a recent high school graduate living in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood (the locale of all the stories) needs to help her parents figure out the mysteries of the supermarket, English classes, getting jobs, and so on. The relief money that these immigrants receive from Jewish organizations gets them started, but because of religious assimilation in Russia, they are unfamiliar with synagogue services or the structure of the Jewish community. In other stories, Masha searches for love while battling depression and unemployment, though she does socializes more in the story "Russian Club." Elsewhere, two immature dancers crash at a young couple's apartment in "Dancers," thinking that being Russian is the sole requirement for such hospitality, and in "What Do You Dream of, Cruiser Aurora?" two seniors navigate the social system with some success. Litman, a Russian immigrant herself, skillfully shows the clash of cultures and the learning process of assimilating into America. Highly recommended.—Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, MD

McCafferty's fourth installment (after Charmed Thirds) in a series featuring livewire Jessica Darling attempts to cross the bridge between teen fiction and adult chick lit. Jessica has now graduated from college and is living in a Brooklyn sublet with her best friend, Hope, and their gender-bending high school classmate, Manda, earning a pitiful living babysitting her niece and editing for an almost nonexistent magazine. When Marcus, the love of her life, proposes to her from his dorm at Princeton, she takes the next week to decide whether she wants to marry the 22-year-old freshman or go on living her life in New York—a city he hates—without him. Despite the novel's witty and candid writing style, Jessica Darling was perhaps better left in her teen years and McCafferty's talents better put to use beginning a new series for twentysomethings. This installment is unlikely to win new readers, although fans of the series will definitely want to read it. Recommended only where the first three novels were popular.—Anika Fajardo, Coll. of St. Catherine Libs., St. Paul, MN

Five years after Speaks the Nightbird, prolific, best-selling author McCammon once again features Matthew Corbett in a pre—Revolutionary War adventure. Working as a clerk for a local magistrate, Matthew becomes involved in the hunt for a serial killer terrorizing New York in 1702. At the same time, he is obsessed with the man in charge of the local orphanage where he lived as a youth. As each murder occurs, Matthew finds himself more involved with the investigation, even as he is recruited by a new employer. Throughout, he believes that many seemingly unrelated events are actually part of a larger conspiracy. McCammon continues to build on the world he created in his earlier novel, working to present the everyday life of the period as a backdrop to the main story. His characters are well drawn, and McCammon keeps the story moving. Fans of Speaks the Nightbird will certainly enjoy this follow-up, and new readers should appreciate it as well. Recommended for all public library collections.—Joel W. Tscherne, Cleveland P.L.

McCourt's first novel, Mawrdew Czgowchw (1975), gestured a hugely ambitious comedy about an opera diva, in glissandoing prose that could probably break glass if read aloud. The titular heroine's name was pronounced Mardu Gorgeous, and the other jokes were unabashed in their grandiloquence and camp. McCourt here returns with a proper sequel, posited in 1950s New York. Mawrdew might be working for the CIA or as a double agent or a psychoanalyst; the story unrolls "a manuscript in the form of an extended telegram, entailing the allegorized matter of an epic fable." As with Pynchon's Against the Day, the narrative reads more like extended fiction whose velocity and virtuosity you savor rather than a traditional, linear, or conclusive novel. Further, McCourt's rapid-fire referencing of literary turf wars may befuddle some readers, but as with opera fans, those with a passion for such things will devour this latest work. Recommended for collections already owning Mawrdew Czgowchw or McCourt's reflexive, nonfiction study of New York City gay culture, Gay Street.—Travis Fristoe, Alachua Cty. Lib. Dist., Gainesville, FL

McInerney's latest novel (after The Alphabet Sisters) is the saga of the Faraday sisters of Tasmania through 20 years of rough patches and triumphs. Their unconventional household consists of Miranda, Eliza, Sadie, Clementine, widower father Leo, and baby Maggie, unexpectedly born to 16-year-old Clementine. When the sisters rally around to raise Maggie, she quickly becomes the center of the Faraday universe and ends up being one of the wisest characters in the book. McInerney is a talented storyteller, narrating her story with a lightness that does not feel frivolous. Her characters are far from one-dimensional, although in the hands of another author they could have been. The conclusion is particularly satisfying and somewhat unexpected. Overall, a great story and a great read; recommended for all women's fiction collections.—Anastasia Diamond-Ortiz, Cleveland P.L.

Chloe Dale, commissioned to illustrate Wuthering Heights, lives contentedly in rural New York with husband Brendan, a history professor writing a book about the Crusades. Their life changes dramatically when son Toby introduces his girlfriend, Salome Drago, a brooding Croatian refugee with a disdain for the conventional. Chloe has misgivings about Salome, suspecting that she has trapped Toby into marriage when she becomes pregnant and the couple moves in. Chloe's nerves are further frayed from living under the same roof with someone who "has yet to bring so much as a dish to the table." Chloe is also disturbed by the presence of a menacing poacher who roams their property with a shotgun. Still another story is woven throughout in short, tantalizing passages. Jelena, Salome's mother, speaks about their family's tragic past, when their town was under attack by Serbs, and Orange Prize winner Martin (Property) describes the horrifying collapse of Yugoslavia in terms of such haunting human stories. Suddenly, the trespassers are no longer girlfriends and poachers but intruders from other countries and other cultures. A major novel; highly recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/07.]—Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

The award-winning Murphy (Here They Come) has extrapolated from details of the life of legendary Dutch dancer and suspected World War I spy Mata Hari to create a fictional persona marked by sensitivity, desperation, and longing. The novel begins with an imagined scenario in which this daring woman remembers skipping school as a child to take a death-defying walk in the ocean at low tide. The memory of this incident functions as something of a thread of courage for Margaretha Zelle, a.k.a. Mata Hari, throughout her adult life. Margaretha went from an abusive marriage spent mainly on an island in the South Pacific to a career as a famous burlesque dancer and courtesan to imprisonment in 1917 Paris as a suspected German spy. Murphy reconfigures the narrative in various ways, moving, for example, between chapters describing Mata Hari's current imprisonment and chapters recounting her past—a technique that effectively builds tension concerning Mata Hari's fate. Though the novel is as fascinating as Mata Hari herself and occasionally brilliant in the way it re-creates her life, some readers may not find the protagonist's voice or painful circumstances to their liking. Nevertheless, this is recommended for most fiction collections as a haunting portrayal of an intriguing woman.—Maureen Neville, Trenton P.L., N.J.

Nahai's fourth novel (Cry of the Peacock won the Los Angeles Arts Council Award for fiction and Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith was a finalist for Britain's Orange Award) is both riveting family drama and compelling historical fiction. The book opens in the late 1950s Iran, when Bahar is born into a low-income Jewish family, and takes readers into the early 1980s revolution that brought the mullahs to power. Told in the voice of Yaas, Bahar and husband Omid's hearing-impaired daughter, the novel looks at how denial limits individuals, keeping women from protesting their subservience and creating separations that prevent solidarity. As the couple's marriage unravels, readers witness the forbearance of women hampered by gender, religion, and custom. What's more, the text illuminates police brutality under the Shah and zooms in on upper-class Jews overtly contemptuous of the less privileged. The multiple ways Jews and Muslims intersect is also clearly presented, offering a fascinating glimpse into Persian life prior to the 1979 insurgency. Richly detailed, emotionally intense, and tremendously moving, this work is highly recommended for all libraries.—Eleanor J. Bader, Brooklyn, NY

This noted Dutch author's latest novel is thought-provoking and succinct, with vaguely surreal undertones. An author boards a plane; skims articles in an on-flight magazine about Brazil, Australian Aboriginal art, and small Austrian cities; daydreams about a female passenger; then writes part of an introduction for a book on angels. Out of these elements, a story seems to emerge. A wealthy young Brazilian woman named Alma survives a gang rape in the slums of São Paolo. Her best friend, Ahmut, accompanies her to Australia to help her forget the trauma. Alma has a brief, cold-blooded affair with an Aboriginal artist, after which she and Ahmut take jobs as angels, participating in an elaborate publicity stunt staged in Perth during an international writers' conference. Abruptly, the scene shifts to Erik Zontag, a Dutch literary critic, as he travels to Austria for a week of indulgent deprivation in a health spa, which leads to a surprising connection with the earlier narrative. Woven throughout the accessible text are reflections on travel, relationships, and the hollowness of postmodern life, played against Milton's Paradise Lost. Highly recommended.—Reba Leiding, James Madison Univ. Libs., Harrisonburg, VA

Iris Lockhart leads a solitary if spicy life, managing her clothing shop in Edinburgh and dallying with her married lover. But when Iris learns that she has a great-aunt Esme waiting to be released from Cauldstone Hospital, where she has been locked away for 60 years, it is as if a bomb has dropped. The hospital is closing, and someone must collect Esme, who upon inspection seems frail, quiet, and a little quirky but hardly mentally ill. As far as Iris knew, her grandmother Kitty had no siblings; Kitty is still alive but suffering from Alzheimer's. The secret of Esme's existence is only the first of many family secrets revealed in a tale told through shifting viewpoints, among them Kitty's fragmented recollections. A sudden ending to this finely wrought family exposé may leave some readers in the lurch, but the psychological suspense along the way should satisfy those looking for both strong plot and characterization. O'Farrell's (After You'd Gone) fourth novel is recommended for literary fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/07.]—Keddy Ann Outlaw, Harris Cty. P.L., Houston

Evangelical Christians and proponents of sex education (other than abstinence) usually don't see eye to eye, which certainly holds true in this novel by the author of Little Children. Ruth Ramsey is a tenured teacher who happily and quite successfully teaches sex ed to students at the Stonewood Heights high school. She firmly believes in providing kids with frank yet solid information so that they can make good choices. Ruth is also the divorced parent of two daughters, one a talented and avid soccer player. It is at a Saturday game that Ruth meets Tim Mason, a member of the Tabernacle, a local evangelical Christian church. This particular congregation has already had some run-ins with Ruth over her teaching methods, and Ruth is concerned when she discovers Tim leading the girls in prayer after a particularly exhilarating game. Perrotta deals with these timely issues by having characters from the different camps forced to confront one another. What results from these civilized exchanges, which feel so human in their complexity and confusion, is a more personal, inside view of how such tensions play out. Recommended for most collections and especially for Perrotta fans. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/07.]—Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OH

In this new work by Italian author Piperno, Daniel Sonnino, a 33 year old from a wealthy Jewish family in Rome, ruefully looks back on his youth in the 1980s. Daniel recalls his extravagant grandfather Bepy, whose life in post-Holocaust Italy embodied the adage that living well is the best revenge—at least until the family fortune takes a nosedive. The rest of the novel centers on Daniel's unrequited infatuation with Gaia, the beautiful blond granddaughter of Bepy's former partner. Jews, no matter how wealthy, remain outsiders to the Roman upper classes, and Daniel dramatically refers to himself as the second Jew crucified by a Roman oligarchy. Though the novel is rich in detail, one might wish that reading about the revels of wealthy Romans were more fun. Daniel's obsessive dwelling on the embarrassments of his youth grows somewhat tiresome after 300 pages. Though this title was a prize-winning best seller in Italy, it seems unlikely that it will be that popular in America and so might be best for academic and larger public libraries.—Leslie Patterson, Brown Univ. Lib., Providence

National Book Award finalist Plante's latest novel plumbs the depths of a man's sorrowful obsession with his son's death and, by extension, the obsession of all people with their deceased loved ones. Shortly before his son dies in a freak accident, Gerard Chauvin finds a Sanskrit message in an abandoned fireplace that spurs his fascination with letters and writing. Increasingly estranged from his wife, Chauvin becomes drawn to an eclectic group of bereaved individuals also obsessed with the origins of the alphabet. Bizarre coincidences occur throughout, yet, remarkably, in Plante's hands they seem natural rather than forced. The group keeps finding the same book, L'Histoire de l'écriture, whose cryptic messages lead them to London, Athens, and northern Syria. The more the group travels, the more they learn that the alphabet's origins, like the inexplicable reason some live and some die, is unknowable. Yet this gives Chauvin comfort, his grief even giving way to joy. Not to be confused with other code-breaking books, e.g., Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and its readalikes, this work is both captivating and thought-provoking. Though at times heavier on philosophy than action, it should interest academic libraries and public libraries with strong literary collections and book clubs.—Chantal Walvoord, Plano P.L. Syst., TX

Single-by-choice mother Marta Zinsser prides herself on following her bliss; she doesn't worry what others think. But her daughter Eva wants nothing more than to be one of the cool girls. And so Marta makes an effort to conform for Eva's sake. But after tangling with the local alpha mom, helping care for her Alzheimer's-suffering mother, trying to land the client of a lifetime, and dating again after a ten-year dry spell, Marta wonders if it's time to give up and give in. Porter's (Flirting with Forty) new novel is a return to the Pacific Northwest and another mom who's just trying to do her best by her self and her kids on her own terms. Vivid characters and quick dialog support a strong plot, although some elements of the subplot get too light a touch. Marta is smart and funny, but her narrative can get a bit talky (covering consumer culture's enablement of women's insecurity and the price working mothers pay compared to working fathers). Overall, however, the novel's got strong appeal for fans of women's fiction and mom lit. For all public libraries.—Amy Brozio-Andrews, Albany P.L., NY

The gift of a cello bow sets young Feliu Delargo on the path to becoming a musician. His education takes him from backwater Catalonia to anarchic Barcelona and, eventually, the royal court in Madrid. He forms an on-again, off-again relationship with eccentric pianist Justo Al-Cerraz, and their fame mushrooms. Though Feliu strives to be a good man, he doesn't always know how to achieve this goal. Does music simply make it easier for monsters to dream sweet dreams? When should a man discard music and take a stand? Pressed into performing for the strutting dictators Hitler and Franco at a clandestine meeting near the Spanish border, Feliu plays to save a friend, but his choice leads to heartbreak. Time and setting, character and plot come together in this exceptionally appealing first novel about a master cellist and his complicated relationship with the country of his birth and the poisoned times in which he performs. Readers will be captivated by this delightful book, loosely inspired by the life of the great cellist Pablo Casals. Recommended for general and historical fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/07.]—David Keymer, Modesto, CA

In Roth's ninth installment in the Zuckerman saga, the reclusive author leaves his mountain retreat in the Berkshires to return to New York City for a promising new treatment for incontinence, a lingering reminder of his battle with prostate cancer. Almost immediately, Zuckerman is contacted by Richard Kliman, a brash young journalist who is working on a biography of the long-forgotten writer E.I. Lonoff, one of Zuckerman's mentors and the subject of Roth's first (and best) Zuckerman novel, The Ghost Writer (1979). Scandalous new details have emerged about Lonoff's sex life, and Kliman wants to break the story. Zuckerman resents Kliman's Zuckerman-like ambition, and argues heatedly that Lonoff's literary work is the only thing that matters. His private life is off limits. Meanwhile, Zuckerman becomes obsessed with a beautiful, wealthy young Texan and imagines an elaborate seduction, which he is simply too old and too sick to put into effect. While not one of Roth's strongest works, this novel has all the elements: unreliable narrators, authorial games, meditations on the use and abuse of literature, and a firm grounding in the reality of post-9/11 New York. Recommended for most fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/07.]—Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles

Fans of Patrick O'Brian's works and other novels in the naval adventure genre will enjoy Russell's first novel, which takes place aboard the HMS Themis during the 1793 naval war between England and revolutionary France. The Themis sets sail with a crew on the verge of mutiny, owing to Capt. Josiah Hart's cowardice and cruelty. Battles with both the crew and the French navy insure a fast-paced and eventful narrative as the novel builds toward a climactic confrontation between Hart and 1st Lt. Charles Hayden. The contrast between Hayden's heroism and Hart's villainy often seems a bit too sharply drawn; however, Russell produces a satisfying resolution to their conflict while avoiding a storybook happy ending. The novel benefits from thorough research and a mastery of the technical details of sailing in the 1790s, though lines like "the back line, reeved through a block made fast to one of the shear heads, was then hauled" will have landlubbers frequently reaching for their nautical dictionaries. Russell is currently working on a sequel to be set in the Mediterranean in 1794. Recommended for medium to large libraries.—Douglas Southard, CRA International Lib., Boston

Anna, an Italian journalist based in Kenya, is struggling to find her way. Although she is supposed to be writing articles about Africa, she spends most of her time drinking too much, juggling two men, and avoiding her housekeeper, Mercy, who knows what's best for Anna and tells her frequently. Anna lives life as an observer; drinking becomes a way to avoid coping with men, writing, and human misery (which is epidemic in Africa). When circumstances finally force her to address these issues, she finds that she's lost Mercy—both the person she grew to love and the state of grace she desperately needs—and her struggle to find both is when the true story begins. The story is hard to get into; Anna is prickly, and we can't sympathize with her until the second half of the novel, when the plot becomes more focused and she is faced with a real challenge. This debut is a book of almosts: half of a plot and a shadow of a character nearly make a complete book, but not quite.—Kellie Gillespie, City of Mesa Lib., AZ

First published in Germany in 1995 as Tod und Teufel, this murder mystery is set in the city of Cologne in the year 1260. While stealing apples from the archbishop's orchard, Jacob the Fox sees architect Gerhard Morart fall to his death from the scaffolding of his own cathedral. He spots a "tall black shadow" on the scaffolding—the devil? No, simply the murderer, bent on leaving no witnesses. Fortunately, Jacob finds stalwart allies to help him puzzle out the reasons behind Morart's death, because the killer isn't working alone. Schatzing's (The Swarm) rather generic title masks a work of compelling originality, including a magnificent chase scene through the fish market. Political intrigue, philosophical musing, and a dash of romance mix together beautifully in a thriller that makes history not only palatable but quite entertaining. If only the epilog had focused on the Fox and his friends rather than what actually happened in Cologne! Strongly recommended for medium and large public libraries and highly suitable for academic fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/07.]—Laurel Bliss, San Diego State Univ. Lib., AZ

Images of home in its many guises permeate Israeli novelist Shalev's latest work to be translated into English, following Blue Mountain, The Loves of Judith, and Esau. With the land of Israel in the background and frequently the foreground, the intertwined stories introduce two teenage handlers of messenger homing pigeons whose love blooms in the 1940s through the War of Independence and the battle for Jerusalem, as well as narrator Yair Mendelson, his unusual conception, his unhappy marriage, and his longing for a home of his own. Yair achieves his wish: he builds his new home with the help of his female contractor, with whom he falls in love. All the characters and their families are linked, homing pigeons make their nests, and the characters whose lives come together all have "homing" stories as well. Magical realism works beautifully in this powerfully suffused novel of love, loss, and the need for home. Highly recommended.—Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, MD

Comedian Smith, whose Openly Bob nosed out other humor collections by David Sedaris and Alison Bechdel for a 1997 Lambda Award, achieves mixed results in his wisecracking debut novel. When Nelson, assistant on a second-tier sketch comedy show (think MADtv), meets Roy, a sexy Alaskan salmon fisherman, he wonders if his long romantic drought is over. When he also falls for guest host Dylan Fabizak, an actor struggling to put his drug addiction and prison time behind him (imagine a blonde Robert Downey Jr.), he wonders whether he has a chance with the Hollywood bad boy. Or is Nelson simply indulging in "swishful thinking"? Since Dylan plays a fisherman in his next film, the romantic triangle plays out over a summer in the land of the midnight sun. Smith-as-novelist has a knack for pacing and observation, and his love for the milieu is undeniable, but the comedian in Smith has a compulsion to work in punch lines every page or two (call it the chocolate chip cookie aesthetic), which results in contrivances and breaks the mood as often as it entertains. Not to every taste but a solid beach read; recommended for large popular and gay fiction collections.—Stephen M. Sposato, Chicago P.L.

This is the sad story of Dora Damage, a young mother in 1860s London who's married to an arthritically crippled bookbinder. With her husband unable to work, Dora's family comes precariously close to being evicted from their squalid apartment, and it falls upon Dora to secure their income. This was an era in which reputable women didn't work outside the home, so when Dora is forced to take over her husband's bookbinding business, she does so on the sly. Dora manages to find a benefactor willing to hire her (she's a woman, after all), but the work involves binding books of a pornographic nature. Morally repulsed but financially in need, she accepts the inevitable: she takes the job binding the volumes, which happen to be intended for the many genteel men of upper-crust society. Starling's first and last novel (she died of surgical complications four days after its completion) manages to illuminate the harshness and ugliness that discrimination in any form brings. Adult language; recommended.—Marika Zemke, Commerce Twp. Community Lib., MI

Karsan Dargawalla is expected to inherit a great family responsibility in the Indian village of Haripir. His father is the Saheb, or the keeper of Pirbaag, the Shrine of the Wanderer, a 12th-century Sufi mystic. As such, the Saheb is regarded as an avatar of God by pilgrims and locals alike. But Karsan feels no call to follow his father, and as a young man in the early 1970s, he makes his way to America and Harvard. He eventually becomes a professor, marries, and settles in Canada, cutting all ties with his old life. But three decades later fate—or karma—brings Karsan back to Haripir, where he confronts not only ancient family history but also current sectarian troubles, including his brother's possible involvement in Muslim terrorism. Vassanji is a prize-winning novelist in Canada who deserves to be better known to American readers. With its sweeping historical themes and finely drawn details, this novel may remind readers of the work of such distinguished writers as Rohinton Mistry. Highly recommended.—Leslie Patterson, Brown Univ. Lib., Providence

This latest from novelist/biographer White (e.g., Genet) is another in a long line of speculative fictions delving into the lives of great writers. White's subject is the realist writer and poet Stephen Crane as he lies on his deathbed in Bavaria dictating his final novel about a boy prostitute. Although White is a dazzling, inventive writer, he cannot pull off his imitation of Crane; his sharp, witty verbosity is an ill match for the spare realism of Crane's style. This is unfortunate, for White's descriptions of turn-of-the-century New York City are breathtaking and the plot beyond and around Crane's writing is excellent and compelling. Despite its one weakness, this book is recommended for all public and academic libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/07.]—Christopher Bussmann, Pratt Inst. Lib., Brooklyn, NY

Augustus Cain is a Mexican War (1846–48) veteran with a dark vocation: he catches runaway slaves and returns them to their owners for monetary reward. But "soul catching" has turned him into a rough gambler and alcoholic; he wants to clear his debts and make one last run up north before heading west to forget his troubled life and begin anew. His final job is to find two slaves who ran from a sinister plantation owner in Virginia. However, when he finds one of them, Rosetta, in Boston, he realizes that this mystical young woman can change his life forever. In a sweeping novel spanning the tumultuous time in American history between the Mexican and Civil wars, Cain crosses paths with legendary abolitionist John Brown, locates the Underground Railroad, and encounters other slave catchers as well as con men who could jeopardize his future. White has created a complicated and deeply scarred protagonist looking for salvation in a dark vision of human bondage, suffering, and deeply rooted changes that will split the nation into civil war. Very convincing and well wrought; suitable for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/07.]—Ron Samul, New London, CT

By choosing to tell the story of Perry L. Crandall, a 31-year-old man with an IQ of 76, from Perry's viewpoint and in his own voice, debut author Wood has set herself quite a challenge. Although getting used to Perry's narrative takes a bit of time, the technique ultimately succeeds. Perry's life in a small coastal town is radically changed by two events early in the novel: the death of his caretaker grandmother and his winning $12 million in the Washington State Lottery. Soon, Perry's relatives—who'd only just cheated him out of the inheritance he was due on his grandmother's death—are holding out their hands for money. Wood keeps the reader guessing as to how the story will end, and the resolution is satisfying. She meets her goal of portraying a mentally challenged person as a fully realized, functioning human being. Perry's worldview is so charming and fair that by the end, you might think he's the smartest character in the whole book [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/07.]—Amy Watts, Univ. o