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"Horse Heaven"
by Jane Smiley
Nobody captures domestic dysfunction more brilliantly than Jane Smiley, but she's
equally adept at satire, which is why her fans should nicker with delight at "Horse
Heaven." Shot through with hilarity and high intelligence, this racetrack epic is a
winner--by at least a mile.
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"The Human Stain"
by Philip Roth
In "The Human Stain," a classics professor utters the word "spook" in public and is
immediately hounded out of his job. Roth's latest draws a brilliant bead on the demons of
political correctness--and includes yet another appearance by his tail-gunning alter ego
Nathan Zuckerman.
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"White Teeth"
by Zadie Smith
The subject of much transatlantic buzz, Zadie Smith's first novel takes on race and sex,
class and history. Yet this is no polemical tract but a wickedly inventive comedy, with a
large London cast and an unmistakable bite to its prose.
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"The Feast of Love"
by Charles Baxter
In his new novel, Charles Baxter serves up a series of heart-rending and hilarious riffs on
modern romance. "The Feast of Love" operates on the same illogical principles as its
subject--yet somehow it all coheres, thanks to the author's delectable prose and delicious
cast of characters.
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"Bee Season"
by Myla Goldberg
In this accomplished first novel, the 9-year-old heroine aces a school spelling bee and
ends up driving her eccentric Brooklyn clan off the rails. "Bee Season" is a wise and
witty exploration of family life--and appropriately enough, a hands-down linguistic
triumph.
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"Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates"
by Tom Robbins
The shaggy-dog story is an art unto itself, and Tom Robbins may be its finest, most
outlandish practitioner. His latest production features a swinging CIA operative, an
Amazonian shaman, and enough sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll for an entire anarchist army.
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"Anil's Ghost"
by Michael Ondaatje
Set in the wake of Sri Lanka's ferocious civil war, "Anil's Ghost" is
truly a tale of paradise lost. Michael Ondaatje fuses the personal and
political with his usual finesse--and his lyrical prose and off-center
characters make this a worthy successor to "The English Patient."
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"Stern Men"
by Elizabeth Gilbert
"Stern Men" chronicles the ancient enmity between two lobster-fishing communities off
the coast of Maine. This isn't the comic novelist's traditional turf, but Elizabeth Gilbert
squeezes some incredible mileage out of her crustacean quarrel, along with many a witty
observation about small-town angst.
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"Affinity"
by Sarah Waters
In "Affinity," a Victorian woman makes her charitable rounds at London's grimiest
prison--and finds herself drawn to an enigmatic female inmate. What follows is an eerie
tale of power and possession, which Sarah Waters (who's just been named the London
Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year) recounts in lyrical and sometimes lascivious
prose.
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"Tides of War"
by Steven Pressfield
After an earlier chronicle of heroic,
spear-chucking Spartans, Steven Pressfield goes Greek on us once again. This time his
novel revolves around charismatic warrior Alcibiades, whose exploits on and off the
battlefield make for a properly Hellenic tour de force.
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