Adult Fiction
New adult fiction
The School on Heart’s Content Road by Carolyn Chute
Chute, author of the acclaimed The Beans of Egypt, Maine, returns to Egypt with an emotional but uneven novel portraying the St. Onge Settlement, a rural co-op community led by the mythic, flawed, Gordon St. Onge, hero of the downtrodden who people the Settlement along with Gordon's wives and children. Through her distinctive, muscular prose and vivid depictions of Maine's resilient residents, Chute revisits familiar themes: the government's injustices toward the poor, restrictive gun legislation, faults in the education system and the evils of corporations. The novel also defends and demystifies the militia movement (Chute is involved with the 2nd Maine Militia, a grassroots organization advocating for the working class). The narrative, fractured with a multitude of perspectives, jumps between Gordon, Richard Rex York, head of the local militia, and Settlement kids Mickey Gammon, 15, and precocious six-year-old Jane Meserve, whose mother is incarcerated on spurious drug charges. By turns inspiring, then preachy, Chute, who in the acknowledgments says there are five completed novels about the Settlement, which might explain the unresolved story lines, has an undeniable talent for depicting humanity at its most impassioned and impoverished. (Nov.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
The Only Son by Stephane Audeguy
A fictionalized account of the life of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's older brother, Audeguy's second novel (after The Theory of Clouds) offers a fragmented, sometimes frustrating history of François Rousseau and the momentous century in which he lived. Born in Geneva in 1705, seven years before his renowned brother, and left to fend for himself after his mother dies, François finds a mentor in the Comte de Saint-Fonds, who initiates him into a world of science and reason while simultaneously illuminating forbidden desires. After a sojourn in a Geneva prison and a brief apprenticeship to a watchmaker, François escapes to Paris, where he establishes himself among the libertines and devotes his talents to producing devices designed to further his patrons' erotic pursuits. But as the Revolution approaches, François finds that Paris is no longer a safe haven. Audeguy's precision with respect to language and detail belie the novel's faulty structure, a series of short, almost truncated scenes that keep the reader from full immersion. Still, the novel's fresh view of an oft-covered era is worth the price of admission. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
The Unpossessed City by Jon Fasman
Bestseller Fasman, whose well-received debut, The Geographer's Library (2005), was set in Da Vinci Code territory, takes a compassionate look at the hard truths of modern-day Russia in his absorbing second novel. After a failed romance, 32-year-old Jim Vilatzer is working in his father's Rockville, Md., restaurant, trying to earn enough cash to pay off a $24,000 gambling debt. In an attempt to earn more money, Jim uses his Russian language skills learned in college to get a job in Moscow with the Memory Foundation to interview and record the stories of former political prisoners. A series of interviews draws him into a far-reaching scheme involving the abduction of retired Russian nuclear and biotech scientists. The bio-thriller aspect of the plot provides a loose frame for Fasman's real concerns: Jim's personal, romantic and espionage relationships and, more importantly, the trials and tribulations of the new Russia itself. (Nov.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Cassandra and Jane by Jill Pitkeathley
Following Jane Austen's untimely death in 1817 at age 41, her most beloved sister destroyed most of their correspondence; in her first novel, House of Lords peer Pitkeathley attempts to fill in the gaps through the eyes of Cassandra, Jane's closest confidante and sharpest critic. Cassandra tells of the Austen family's precarious position on the lowest tier of Hampshire's aristocracy, Jane's early attempts at scribbling and the crushing romantic disappointments of the two. Throughout, Cassandra's detailed look at her younger sister showcases not only Jane's literary accomplishments and the low spirits, the anger, even the bitterness in her, but also her indefatigable romanticism. Cassandra's voice is perfectly pitched, true to Austen's England, and jam-packed with Austen trivia. Descriptions of known events in the sisters' lives, however, tend toward the didactic, especially compared to Pitkeathley's imaginative leaps regarding the sisters' secrets; as such, the seams between actual and imagined history are entirely too visible. Ardent Austen devotees will be undeterred by the uneven narrative, but casual fans may want to pass. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Three Minutes on Love by Roccie Hill
In Hill's wonderful debut, young Rosie Kettle departs her quaint desert town to chase her dreams in 1960s San Francisco. Attending art college, Rosie has a chance encounter with an illegal immigrant named Peter who publishes a music magazine. Peter gives Rosie her first job, photographing a once legendary blues guitarist and his talented young partner, David Wilderspin. That assignment catapults Rosie into a hot career on the scene, an addictive lifestyle and a troubled affair with David. The two become inseparable, settling into a dream home and having a baby. But when David sets out on tour to support his disappointing new album, the road takes more out of him than he anticipated, and soon memories of his perfect life are drowned in booze. Hill's characters are believably flawed, and her powerful romance about the intersection of love, art and independence features troubling plot developments and a strong climax while deftly avoiding artists-in-love stereotypes. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Snowy Night with a Stranger by Jane Feather, Sabrina Jeffries, Julia London
Three bestselling Regency romance authors dish up a holiday feast of jewel-tone ball gowns and smoldering glances. Feather (To Wed a Wicked Prince) introduces Lady Georgiana Carey and Ned Vasey, aka Viscount Allenton, in A Holiday Gamble, where they must circumvent their respective betrothals to consummate their attraction. In Snowy Night with a Highlander, London (The Book of Scandal) sends a masked stranger to help unescorted heiress Lady Fiona Haines travel a deserted road through Scotland's infamous Highlands. In the best of the three, When Sparks Fly, Jeffries (Let Sleeping Rogues Lie) strands holiday traveler Elinor Bancroft with her aunt and cousins at the home of the despicable Black Baron, Martin Thorncliff. While the endings are no surprise, there's plenty of romance and charm to enjoy along the way. (Nov.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Passing Game: Benny Friedman and the Transformation of Football by Murray Greenberg
Silver Bells by Fern Michaels
Bestseller Michaels (Hokus Pokus) headlines a quartet of heartwarming Christmas romances. In both Duarte's A Mulberry Park Christmas (which shares a setting with Mulberry Park) and Michaels's title tale, childhood sweethearts are reunited despite the pressures of adult life. In Dear Santa..., Ross (Impulse) strands mystery novelist Holly Berry in a blizzard-swept town, where she meets hunky hotelier Gabe O'Halloran and finds his five-year-old daughter is a determined matchmaker. Burton (I'm Watching You) contributes Christmas Past, in which widowed homicide sergeant David Ayden helps talented photographer Nicole Piper cope with the legacy of her late, violently abusive husband. It's a close fit, but each short story contains a full-fledged romance from first kiss to happy ending, both satisfying readers and encouraging them to seek out the authors' longer works. (Nov.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
The Love Song of Monkey by Michael S.A. Graziano
Neuroscientist and author Graziano (Hiding Places) has crafted a compelling fantasy based on a semi-plausible what if: a physicist constructs a state-of-the-art machine in which a terminal patient undergoes a complete molecular rearrangement, coming out unbreakable. Narrated by Jonathan, a married 20-something dying of AIDS, the novel begins with a trip to Dr. Kack, of the experimental, highly secret Kwark-King cure, which Jonathan's wife, Kitty, has insisted he try. The machine hasn't exactly been successful the intense pain has driven patients to opt out, and animals to die but Dr. Kack manages to get Jonathan all the way through. Jonathan does, indeed, emerge transformed, but in a kind of waking coma that looks a lot like death. As such, Kitty and Dr. Kack drop his body in the ocean, and the bulk of Graziano's imaginative, intelligent narrative chronicles Jonathan's ethereal voyage beyond civilization and back again as a kind of superhuman, sustained by his love for Kitty. Twin ideas of forgiveness and mercy twist through this strange, moving, patiently wrought novel, making for a trippy but charming read. (Nov.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
