Date: 2001 Author: Heidi Julavits Julivits’ first novel is a study of human contamination in which closeness is bad news.…

Date: 1994 Author: Romesh Gunesekera “It was 1962,” says Triton, “the year of the bungled coup.” Triton is 11, and…

Date: 1986 Author: Richard Ford Here’s how Richard Ford gets to you, circling in for the kill: “I know I’m…

Date: 1990 Author: Ryszard Kapuscinski, translated by William Brand Journalist Kapuscinski’s “pathological lack of discipline” often placed him in harm’s…

Date: 1951 (2004) Author: Graham Greene Untouchable as a manifesto of passion and the rigors of guilt, this is also…

Date: 1945 Author: J.D. Salinger It’s easy to get the feeling Salinger saw post-modernism coming and retreated from the world…

Date: 2004 Author: John Burdett Pinch yourself after the first 20 pages. A black Marine named Bradley is found bitten…

Date: 1981 (1999) Author: D.M. Thomas Billed in its admiring synopsis as a “work of great virtuosity,” Thomas’ trance-like novel…

Date: 1992 (1996) Author: W.G. Sebald, translated from the German by Michael Hulse Seemingly about German exiles, this book is…

Date: 1972 (2006) Author: Roger Kahn Kahn’s measured classic — a personal history of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team of…

Date: 2003 Author: Martin Amis Amis is getting some heavy monkeys off his back. His father Kingsley, an elegant conservative…

Date: 1986 (2007) Author: Lorrie Moore Scenario 1: Benna Carpenter is a nightclub crooner adored by Gerard, who instructs preschoolers…