ASTA IN THE WINGS, Jan Elizabeth Watson, pb $14.
This cleverly constructed, beautifully written first novel tells the story of a seven-year-old and her malnourished brother, kept locked in their house by their crazy mother. When she fails to return from work, the siblings set out to look for her. Their contact with the real world brings bewilderment as well as wonderment, as sensitively and intelligently narrated by Asta. (Nancy)
THE BARON IN THE TREES, Italo Calvino, pb $13.
Twelve-year-old Cosimo balks at eating boiled snails, so he climbs an oak tree and vows never to come down. Calvino's gentle fable creates a complete alternate society that enables Cosimo to stay true to his word. (Warren)
COST, Roxana Robinson, hc $25 pb $15 (due May 26).
A family, including the divorced mother of two sons, step-father, former neurosurgeon grandfather and grandmother in early stages of Alzheimer's, gathers in a Maine cottage. When the elder son reveals his suspicion that the younger son is a heroin addict, the family plans an intervention and its ugly, dysfunctional history pours out. Robinson's writing is pitch-perfect. (Nancy)
LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER, Stewart O'Nan, pb $13.00.
This superb novella took me right back to the kitchens and tables of my waitress days. Through sparse, evocative language we experience the closing night at a Red Lobster restaurant. The tension between his ordered and ethical business life, and his mostly unethical personal life causes Manny DeLeon, the manager, great conflict. (Sally)
THE MONSTERS OF TEMPLETON, Lauren Groff, pb $14.95
Disgraced grad student Willie returns to her upstate NY hometown to lick her wounds. Her mother gives her new purpose: a research project to track down the father she’s never known – or maybe she has. Voices from the town’s past slowly reveal their stories, and we see Templeton has had more monsters than just the one in the town lake. (Rosemary)
THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA, Philip Roth, pb $14.95.
Told through the eyes of a seven-year-old Jewish boy in 1940s Newark, this is Roth’s projection of a world in which putative anti-Semite Charles Lindbergh, instead of FDR, is nominated for President. Fear grips the community and the country in this very imaginative, provocative and terrifying semi-autobiographical tale. (Sally)
RED RIVER, Lalita Tademy, pb $13.99.
Tademy weaves her family's stories into a compelling narrative bristling with distinctive voices. Her ancestors come to life as they struggle through one of the darkest days in American democracy. (Warren)
RESTLESS, William Boyd, pb $14.95.
An elderly woman living quietly in the English countryside senses that she's being watched. She reveals to her daughter her surprising past: that she was recruited in 1939 as a spy for Britain to help get America into the war and has been living for years under an assumed identity. The story has everything - is fast-paced and suspenseful - a thoroughly enjoyable literary thriller! (Nancy)
THE SEDUCTION OF SILENCE, Bem Le Hunte, pb $14.95.
Five generations of an Indian family seek enlightenment and peace. As lives crisscross and interweave, and some mistakes are repeated, the mystical presence of great-grandfather is felt. You will cheer at the ending – no peeking! (Rosemary)
TOKYO FIANCEE, Amelie Nothomb, pb $15.
Here is an elegantly written love story with humor, intelligence, and autobiographical honesty, translated from the French. You will find yourself clinging to the words as well as the story. (Sandra)
