The Abstinence Teacher

by Tom Perrotta

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The Abstinence Teacher illuminates
the powerful emotions that run beneath the placid surface of modern family life,
and explores the complicated spiritual and sexual lives of ordinary people.
Elegantly and simply written, the book has the distinctive mix of satire and
compassion readers have responded to in Perrotta’s other novels.

The Book of Q

by Jonathan Rabb

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Rome, present day: Father Pearse, now a researcher
at the Vatican Library, comes into possession of an ancient scroll after the
mysterious death of one Vatican priest and the disappearance of another. His
scholar's curiosity aroused, he has the document translated by an old friend
in Rome. He is stunned to learn that the scroll contains ingeniously coded letters
and the text of the Perfect Light, a Manichaean prayer that has never
been found in its written form.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

by Junot Diaz

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Rendering with warmth the endless human capacity
to persevere, this is the long-awaited--and thrillingly satisfying--first novel
from the unmistakable voice behind the short story collection Drown.

Diary of a Bad Year

by J. M. Coetzee

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An utterly contemporary and deeply thought-provoking
novel which addresses the profound unease of countless people in modern democracies
around the world.

The Elephanta Suite

by Paul Theroux

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This startling and satisfying book captures
the tumult, ambition, hardship, and serenity that mark today’s India. Paul Theroux’s
characters risk venturing far beyond the subcontinent’s well-worn paths to discover
woe or truth or peace. A middle-aged couple on vacation veers heedlessly from
idyll to chaos. A buttoned-up Boston lawyer finds succour in Mumbai’s reeking
slums. And a young woman befriends an elephant in Bangalore.

A Free Life

by Ha Jin

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From the acclaimed, award-winning author of
Waiting and War Trash comes a new novel that eloquently re-imagines
the American immigrant saga. Jin tells the story of the Wu family, that sets
out on a journey through contemporary America in search of a sense of belonging.

Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure

by Michael Chabon

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Gentlemen of the Road is set in the
Kingdom of Arran, in the Caucasus Mountains, between the Black Sea and the Caspian
Sea, A.D. 950. It tells the tale of two wandering adventurers and unlikely soul
mates, variously plying their trades as swords for hire, horse thieves, and
flimflam artists–until fortune entangles them in the myriad schemes and battles
following a bloody coup in the medieval Jewish empire of the Khazars.

Lion Eyes

by Claire Berlinski

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Of Claire Berlinski's marvelous debut novel,
Loose Lips- a perfect blend of satire, romance, and suspense featuring
a young female CIA operative- book critic Frank Bascombe observed: " It's more
than a little obvious that (protagonis) Selena Keller is Claire Berlinski.

Lust, Caution: The Story

by Eileen Chang

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Soon to be a major motion picture (directed
by Oscar winner Ang Lee), this intensely passionate story of love and espionage
brings 1940s Shanghai artfully to life even as it limns the erotic pulse of
a doomed love affair.

Protect and Defend

by Vince Flynn

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The New York Times bestselling author
of Act of Treason delivers his mostexplosive thriller yet, featuring
Americas secret weapon--CIA operative Mitch Rapp.

Tipperary

by Frank DeLaney

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The New York Times bestselling author
of Ireland returns to the saga of his strife-torn nation with an authentic
story of love and legacy as sweeping and dramatic as the land itself.

The Uncommon Reader

by Alan Bennett

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Briskly original and subversively funny, this
novella from popular British writer Bennett (Untold Stories; Tony-winning
play The History Boys) sends Queen Elizabeth II into a mobile library
van in pursuit of her runaway corgis and into the reflective, observant life
of an avid reader. Guided by Norman, a former kitchen boy and enthusiast of
gay authors, the queen gradually loses interest in her endless succession of
official duties and learns the pleasure of such a common activity. With the
dawn of her sensibility... mistaken for the onset of senility, plots are hatched
by the prime minister and the queen's staff to dispatch Norman and discourage
the queen's preoccupation with books.

Pontoon

by Garrison Keillor

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In this novel, Keillor's first Wobegon fiction
since Lake Wobegon Summer 1956 was published in 2001, we meet Evelyn, a good
church-going Lutheran, a devoted mother, a serious quilter. Only after she dies
in her sleep as she always wished she would, do we find out that she has been
living a secret life.

Merde Happens

by Stephen Clarke

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Englishman Paul West is in deep financial
merde. His only way out of debt is to accept a decidedly dodgy job touring America
in a Mini, while pretending to be typically British. Also in the car is Paul's
French girlfriend, Alexa, and his American poet friend, Jake, whose main aim
in life is to sleep with a woman from every country in the world. Preferably
in the back of Paul's Mini. But as the little car battles from New York to Miami,
and then heads west, leg-room turns out to be the least of Paul's troubles.
His work is being sabotaged, his tour plans are in tatters and his love life
becomes a Franco-American war zone. And as Paul knows better than anyone, when
you mix love and war-merde happens.

Let The Right One

by John Ajvide Lindqvist

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John Lindqvist's novel, a huge bestseller
in his native Sweden, is a unique and brilliant fusion of social novel and vampire
legend. And a deeply moving fable about rejection, friendship and loyalty.

The Gilded Seal

by James Twining

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The most audacious heist in history is about
to commence, and Tom Kirk is right in the middle of it! Whilst investigating
the theft of a stolen Da Vinci, reformed art thief Tom Kirk is confronted with
the horrifying sight of a cat nailed to the wall where the painting once stood.

Sword Song

by Bernard Cornwell

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The fourth in the bestselling Alfred series
from number one historical novelist, Bernard Cornwell. Our hero, Uhtred, has
been made Governor of London. This fourth book in the series will mostly be
set in London and will cover Alfred's building of fortified towns to hold Wesssex
and his push into Mercia.

The Reavers

by George MacDonad Fraser

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Spoiled, arrogant, filthy rich, and breathtakingly
beautiful, the young Lady Godiva Dacre is exiled from the court of Good Queen
Bess (who can't abide red-haired competition) to her lonely estate in distant
Cumberland, where she looks forward to bullying the peasantry and getting her
own imperious way. Little does she guess that the turbulent Scottish border
is the last place for an Elizabethan heiress, beset by ruthless reivers (many
of them unshaven), blackmailing ruffians, fiendish Spanish plotters intent on
regime change and turning Merrie England into a ghastly European Union province.