Siegfried

Moonglow

Michael Chabon · 480 pages

A man bears witness to his grandfather's deathbed confessions, which reveal his family's long-buried history and his involvement in a mail-order novelty company, World War II, and the space program.

Soldiers of Salamis

Javier Cercas · 224 pages

"In the final moments of the Spanish Civil War, as the remnants of the Republican army retreat north into exile, fifty prominent Nationalist prisoners are taken out to be shot. Among them is Rafael Sanchez Mazas - writer, fascist and founder of the Spanish Falange." "As the machine guns begin to fire, Sanchez Mazas takes advantage of the commotion and escapes into the forest. When his hiding plac

Mother Night

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. · 202 pages

Mother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense. American Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. But is he really guilty? In this brilliant book rife with true gallows humor, Vonnegut turns black and white into a chilling shade of gray with a verdict that will haunt us all.

The Last Flight of Poxl West

Daniel Torday · 362 pages

"All his life, Elijah Goldstein has idolized his charismatic Uncle Poxl. Intensely magnetic, cultured and brilliant, Poxl takes Elijah under his wing, introducing him to opera and art and literature. But when Poxl publishes a memoir of how he was forced to leave his home north of Prague at the start of WWII and then avenged the deaths of his parents by flying RAF bombers over Germany during the wa

Summertime

J.M. Coetzee · 266 pages

A rich, funny, and deeply affecting autobiographical new novel from one of the world's greatest living writers.A young English biographer is working on a book about the late writer, John Coetzee. He plans to focus on the years from 1972–1977 when Coetzee, in his thirties, is sharing a run-down cottage in the suburbs of Cape Town with his widowed father. This, the biographer senses, is the period w

Hostage

Elie Wiesel · 213 pages

It's 1975, and Shaltiel Feigenberg, a professional storyteller and writer, has been taken hostage. He has been abducted from his home in Brooklyn, New York, blindfolded and tied to a chair in a dark basement. His captors, an Arab and an Italian, don't explain why Shaltiel has been chosen, just that his life will be bartered for the freedom of three Palestinian prisoners. As his days of waiting com

The Blind Assassin

Margaret Atwood · 638 pages

More than fifty years on, Iris Chase is remembering Laura's mysterious death. And so begins an extraordinary and compelling story of two sisters and their secrets. Set against a panoramic backdrop of twentieth-century history, The Blind Assassin is an epic tale of memory, intrigue and betrayal...

Atonement

Ian McEwan · 371 pages

On a hot summer day in 1934, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment’s flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant and Cecilia’s childhood friend. But Briony’s incomplete grasp of adult motives—together with her precocious literary gifts—brings about a crime that will change all their lives. As it follows that crime’s repercussions through the c

The Book of Illusions

Paul Auster · 288 pages

The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards

Kristopher Jansma · 354 pages

"Can a leopard ever really change his spots? Can a person ever change? These are the timeless questions that Kristopher Jansma asks in this enchanting debut novel about three great friends--two men and one woman--their triumphs and failures in life and love and their globe-spanning adventures. From the jazz clubs of Manhattan to the villages of Sri Lanka, these three remarkably engaging characters

My Life as a Man

Philip Roth · 332 pages

Contains three stories: an autobiographical narrative told by the author Peter Tarnopol and two of Peter's stories, "Useful Fictions."

The Ringmaster's Daughter

Jostein Gaarder · 299 pages

The theme of a father finding a long-lost daughter runs through this novel which is told by Petter, a precocious child and fantasist. Petter's magical interior world contains Metre Man, a midget with a green felt cap and a bamboo cane; Metre Man runs his life and urges him to do things.

Famous Last Words

Timothy Findley · 396 pages

En 1945, dans un palace abandonné des Alpes autrichiennes, un écrivain américain traqué, zélateur du fascisme, couvre les murs et les plafonds de ses souvenirs : la Chine de 1924; la France de 1936; l'Espagne de 1938; les Bahamas de 1942. Une méditation sur l'homme et sur l'histoire, par un écrivain canadien anglais de calibre international.

The New Confessions

William Boyd · 476 pages

Fugitive Pieces

Anne Michaels · 304 pages

Anne Michaels's fiercely beautiful debut novel tells the interlocking stories of three men of different generations whose lives are transformed by the events and shifting effects of the same war. At its center is poet Jakob Beer: traumatically orphaned as a young boy during the Second World war, rescued from the mud of a buried Polish city and secreted to a Greek island by Athos Roussos, scientist

Clea

Lawrence Durrell · 287 pages

The fourth and culminating novel in the Alexandria Quartet. Once again past episodes are raked over with a new perspective as the narrator casually begins an affair with the woman of the title, another character from the earlier books.

Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder

Evelyn Waugh · 370 pages

Everything Is Illuminated

Jonathan Safran Foer · 288 pages

A young man arrives in the Ukraine, clutching in his hand a tattered photograph. He is searching for the woman who fifty years ago saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Unfortunately, however, he is aided in his quest by Alex, a translator with an uncanny ability to mangle English into new forms; a 'blind' old man haunted by memories of the war; and an undersexed guide dog named Sammy Davis, Jr, J

The Untouchable

John Banville · 410 pages

(From the Hardcover edition) Twenty years after his "retirement," ex-spy Victor Maskell attempts to come to terms with what has happened to his life by embarking on his memoirs. This is the plot which fuels Banville's stunning new novel--a story that goes beyond the mere facts of espionage to penetrate the intricate heart of the spy.

Beatrice and Virgil

Yann Martel · 224 pages

Fate takes many forms. . . . When Henry receives a letter from an elderly taxidermist, it poses a puzzle that he cannot resist. As he is pulled further into the world of this strange and calculating man, Henry becomes increasingly involved with the lives of a donkey and a howler monkey--named Beatrice and Virgil--and the epic journey they undertake together.With all the spirit and originality that

Sophie's Choice

William Styron · 625 pages

The gripping, unforgettable story of Stingo, a 22-year-old writer; Sophie, a Polish-Catholic beauty who survived the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz; and Nathan, her mercurial lover. The three friends share magical, heart-warming times until doom overtakes them as Sophie's and Nathan's darkest secrets are revealed.

The Resurrection of Joan Ashby

Cherise Wolas · 534 pages

""A stunning debut...Reminds me of my most favorite authors: J.D. Salinger, Carson McCullers, Truman Capote, Joan Didion." --A.M. Homes I viewed the consumptive nature of love as a threat to serious women. But the wonderful man I just married believes as I do--work is paramount, absolutely no children--and now love seems to me quite marvelous. These words are spoken to a rapturous audience by Joan

The Luneburg Variation

Paolo Maurensig · 139 pages

The Chosen

Chaim Potok · 284 pages

It's about two jewish boys from different jewish sects with very differing doctrine. The kids meet in the unlikely circumstance of a baseball game, and a terrible accident, that leads them to be lifelong friends