Date: 2007 Author: David Markson To his irascible credit, Markson swats away genre and spits at conformity. On the face…

Date: 1996 (2000) Author: Kenzaburo Oe, translated from the Japanese by Kunioki Yanagishta and Willian Wetherall “Why can’t Japan produce…

Date: 1953 Author: Saul Bellow As balladeer, Bellow presaged Bob Dylan’s hard-luck realism. Romantics at heart, both liked how the…

Date: 2000 Author: Saul Bellow Bellow’s last novel, published in 2000 at age 84, is engagingly authentic. Aging author Chick…

Date: 1938 Author: Thomas Mann No, you cannot find this easily. Yes, you should try. German novelist and Nobel Prize…

Date: 2007 Author: Lydia Davis In “Idea for a Short Documentary Film,” a one-line treatment, Davis is in a whimsical…

Date: 2007 Author: Dan Rhodes Miyuki Woodward is a character Rhodes can delight in: a half-Japanese, half-Welsh lesbian who pays…

Date: 2001 Author: Paul Bailey Kitty Crozier’s chance London encounter with Romanian refugee drifter Virgil Florescu blossoms into an improbable…

Date: 2007 Author: Alan Lightman David Kurzweil’s life has taken a tumble. His wife Bethany left him eight years ago;…

Date: 2001 Author: Denis Johnson Michael Reed’s life, like the public school studio inhabited by Flower Cannon, his improbably named…

Date: 1993 (2007) Author: By César Aria, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews “Don’t be fooled by that Aira…

Date: 2006 Author: Uwe Timm, translated from the German by Anthea Bell Timm’s trim and moving autobiographical reminiscence centers on…