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* Kertes, Joseph. The Afterlife of Stars. Little, Brown. Jan. 2017. 256p. ISBN 9780316308113. $26; ebk. ISBN 9781478935209. F In 1956 the Beck family flees Hungary. The Soviet Union has [...]

Sellers, Susan. Vanessa & Virginia. Houghton Harcourt. May 2009. c.224p. ISBN 978-0-15-101474-3. $23. F Sellers's elegant first novel imagines life in Britain's Bloomsbury circle from the point of view of [...]

Koppelman, Amy. I Smile Back. Two Dollar Radio, dist. by Consortium. Dec. 2008. c.184p. ISBN 978-0-9763895-9-0. pap. $15. F A beautiful, thirty-something suburban housewife, Laney Brooks is married with two [...]

Elva, Marta. American Tumbleweeds. Circling Rivers. May 2016. 294p. ISBN 9781939530011. pap. $14.99; ebk. ISBN 9781939530028. F The Ramirez family lives in El Paso, TX, and has its comfortable world [...]

Schine, Cathleen. They May Not Mean To, But They Do. Sarah Crichton: Farrar. Jun. 2016. 304p. ISBN 9780374280130. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780374712204. F For Joy Bergman, aging has not been [...]

* Miske, Karim. Arab Jazz. MacLehose: Quercus. Mar. 2016. 256p. tr. from French by Sam Gordan. ISBN 9781681446141. $26.99. F When Ahmed Taroundat, a troubled young man, discovers the murder [...]

Poliner, Elizabeth. As Close to Us as Breathing. Lee Boudreaux: Little, Brown. Mar. 2016. 368p. ISBN 9780316384148. $27; ebk. ISBN 9780316384117. F Tragedies define lives, and Poliner (Mutual Life & [...]

* Samuel, Sigal. The Mystics of Mile End. Morrow. Oct. 2015.304p. ISBN 9780062412171. pap. $15.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062412188. F Shortly after David Meyer rejects Orthodox Judaism, his wife, Miriam, dies [...]

* James, Kelvin Christopher. People and Peppers: A Romance. Harvard Square. Mar. 2015. 215p. ISBN 9781941861981. pap. $22.95. F Vivion Pinheiro is growing a crop of the hottest peppers in [...]

* Singer, Judy Reene. In the Shadow of Alabama. Kensington. Jun. 2017. 320p. ISBN 9781496709455. pap. $15; ebk. ISBN 9781496709462. F When Rachel Fleischer's father dies, she feels no sorrow [...]

* Lazar, Zachary. I Pity the Poor Immigrant. Little, Brown. Apr. 2014. 256p. ISBN 9780316254038. $25; ebk. ISBN 9780316254045. F When investigative crime reporter Hannah Groff decides to write about [...]

Clark, Matt. Hook Man Speaks. Berkley: Penguin/Putnam. Oct. 2001. c.208p. ISBN 0-425-18162-6. pap. $13. F Leonard Gage is the embodiment of the Hook Man, a figure well known from the [...]

* Meallet, Sandro. Edgewater Angels. Doubleday. Jul. 2001. c.336p. LC 00-065882. ISBN 0-385-50151-X. $21.95. F Coming-of-age in the projects is generally a grim business for a young man. However, in [...]

Meidav, Edie. The Far Field: A Novel of Ceylon. Houghton. 2001. c.582p. ISBN 0-618-01366-0. $25. F An archetypal story concerns the misguided Westerner who immerses himself in non-Western culture. Planning [...]

Chavarria, Daniel. Adios Muchachos. Akashic Bks. Jun. 2001. 245p. tr. by Carlos Lopez. LC 00-109264. ISBN 1-88451-16-5. pap. $13.95. F Celebrated in Latin America for his noir detective fiction, Uruguayan [...]

* Benitez, Sandra. The Weight of All Things. Hyperion, dist. by Little, Brown. Feb. 2001. c.256p. LC 99-051759. ISBN 0-7868-6399-4. $22.95. F The unimaginable cruelty of war becomes even more [...]

Setton, Ruth Knafo. The Road to Fez. Counterpoint: Perseus. Mar. 2001. c.192p. ISBN 1-58243-082-9. $23. F Setton's debut novel concerns a young woman's perilous journey of self-discovery. Growing up in [...]

Sherrill, Steven. The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break. Blair. 2000. c.312p. ISBN 0-89587-197-1. $19.95. F The Minotaur, having endured 5000 years of immortality, is currently living in a trailer park [...]

* Konrad, George. Stonedial, Harcourt. May 2000. c.296p. ISBN 0-15-601294-4. $24. F Proof of the dictum that you can't go home again, itinerant Hungarian intellectual Janos Dragoman returns to the [...]

Clement, Catherine. Theo's Odyssey. Arcade, dist. by Little, Brown. 1999. c.608p. tr. by Steve Cox & Ros Schwartz. ISBN 1-55970-499-3. $25.95. F In this textbook-cum-novel, Theo, a 14-year-old French boy [...]

McPeek Villatoro, Marcos. The Holy Spirit of My Uncle's Cojones. Arte Publico. Sept. 1999. c.272p. LC 99-22554. ISBN 1-55885-283-2. pap. $12.95. F At his Uncle Jack's funeral, Antonio McCaugh Villalobos [...]

(*) St. Aubin de Teran, Lisa. The Palace. Ecco. Jun. 1999. c.272p. ISBN 0-88001-662-0. $23.95. F The author of the acclaimed memoir The Hacienda (LJ 4/1/98) returns to the Italy [...]

Gilligan, Ruth. Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan. Tin House. Jan. 2017.352p. ISBN 9781941040492. pap. $15.95. F In Gilligan's (Forget) novel about the lives of Irish Jews, nothing is as [...]

Dermansky, Marcy. The Red Car. Liveright: Norton. Oct. 2016. 224p. ISBN 9781631492334. $24.95; ebk. ISBN 9781631492341. F When Leah Caplan, an aspiring novelist, learns that Judy, her mentor and former [...]

Tempest, Kate. The Bricks That Built the Houses. Bloomsbury USA. May 2016.400p. ISBN 9781620409015. $26; ebk. ISBN 9781620409022 F In her first novel, playwright, poet, rapper, and winner of the [...]

* Foenkinos, David. Charlotte. Overlook. May 2016. 224p. tr. from French by Sam Taylor. ISBN 9781468312768. $26.95. F This best-selling French novel has many different guises. It is the true [...]

Kerney, Kelly. Hard Red Spring. Viking. Mar. 2016. 448p. ISBN 9780525429012. $27.95; ebk. ISBN 9780698194281. R Guatemala's tragic history in the 20th century has been defined by dictators, poverty, constant [...]

Kricorian, Nancy. All the Light There Was. Houghton Harcourt. Mar. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9780547939940. $24. F The German occupation of Paris during World War II holds a special terror for [...]

von Schirach, Ferdinand. Guilt. Knopf. Feb. 2012. c.160p, tr. from German by Carol Brown Janeway. ISBN 9780307599490. $24. F German defense attorney von Schirach follows his stunning debut, Crime, with […]

Beyer, Marcel. Kaltenburg. Houghton Harcourt. Apr. 2012. c.352p, tr. from German by Alan Bance. ISBN 9780151013975. $26. F Dresden ornithologist Hermann Funk meets with a translator to whom he relates [...]

Donohue, Keith. Centuries of June. Crown. May 2011. c.342p. ISBN 9780307450289. $24. F A man's late-night visit to the bathroom results in a fall, opening a hole in his head [...]

* Kelman, Stephen. Pigeon English. Houghton Harcourt. Jul. 2011. c.288p. ISBN 9780547500607. $24. F Ten-year-old Harrison Opuku has recently immigrated to London from Ghana. Harri is a joyous child who [...]

Roy-Bhattacharya, Joydeep. The Storyteller of Marrakesh. Norton. Jan. 2011. c.352p. ISBN 9780393070583. $23.95. F This tale about the disappearance of a beautiful foreigner one night in Marrakesh is told by [...]

Shange, Ntozake & Ifa Bayeza. Some Sing, Some Cry. St. Martin's. Sept. 2010. c.576p. ISBN 978-0-312-19899-2. $26.99. F Sisters Shange (for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is [...]

Jewish Noir: Contemporary Tales of Crime and Other Dark Deeds. PM Pr. Oct. 2015.448p. ed. by Kenneth Wishnia. ISBN 9781629631110. pap. $17.95. F Short story collections of noir fiction have [...]

Cantor, Rachel. Good on Paper. Melville House. Jan. 2016.320p. ISBN 9781612194707. $25.95; ebk. ISBN 9781612194714. F Shira Greene has been asked to translate a new book by Romei, a Nobel [...]

* Nadler, Ben. The Sea Beach Line. Fig Tree. Oct. 2015. 344p. ISBN 9781941493083. pap. $15.95; ebk. ISBN 9781941493090. F When Izzy Edel receives an enigmatic postcard from Alojzy, the [...]

Hope, Jessamyn. Safekeeping. Fig Tree. Jun. 2015.384p. ISBN 9781941493069. pap. $15.95; ebk. ISBN 9781941493076. F In 1994 Kibbutz Sadot Hadar becomes a haven for several individuals trying to make better [...]

Mordecai, Pamela. Red Jacket. Dundurn. Apr. 2015.400p. ISBN 9781459729407. pap. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781459729421. F Growing up on a Caribbean island, Grace Carpenter is a misfit. Her freckled copper-colored skin [...]

Torday, Daniel. The Last Flight of Poxl West. St. Martin's. Mar. 2015.304p. ISBN 9781250051684. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9781466871816. F Poxl West has just published a memoir of his experiences as [...]

* Nguyen, Bich Minh. Short Girls. Viking. Jul. 2009. c.303p. ISBN 978-0-670-02081-2. $25.95. F Van and Linny Luong enact the stereotypical roles of studious, straight-A sister and pretty, popular slacker. [...]

Sheck, Laurie. A Monster's Notes. Knopf. Jun. 2009. c.544p. ISBN 978-0-307-27105-1. $28. F Poet Scheck's (Captivity) lyrical first novel is a reimagining of the life of Frankenstein's monster--still alive in [...]

Baugh, Carolyn. The View from Garden City. Forge: Tot. Aug. 2008. c.320p. ISBN 978-07653-1657-8. $24.95. F In Baugh's assured first novel, a young American studying Arabic in Cairo befriends the [...]

* Neugeboren, Jay. 1940. Two Dollar Radio, dist. by Consortium. 2009. c.274p. ISBN 978-0-9763895-6-9. pap. $15. F Dr. Eduard Bloch, the Austrian Jewish physician who cared for Adolph Hitler's family, [...]

* Peebles, Frances de Pontes. The Seamstress. Harper: HarperCollins. Aug. 2008. c.656p. ISBN 978-0-06-073887-7. $25.95. F This engrossing historical saga of Brazil in the 1920s and 1930s follows sisters Emilia [...]