Jonathan Littell
To read the Globe's review of the books listed here, click on the title.
THE KINDLY ONES By Jonathan Littell, translated by Charlotte Mandell, McClelland & Stewart, 935 pages, $34.99
The Kindly Ones is the harrowing, morally complex first-person fictional memoir of an SS captain named Maximilian Aue, who witnesses some of the worst Nazi atrocities of the war: The first 400 pages are devoted to the heartless massacre of thousands of Eastern European Jews. But by the time Aue reaches Stalingrad, reality and fantasy switch places. The destruction of Berlin and the end of the war are depicted as an unpleasant and deeply odd psycho-sexual nightmare. André Alexis
EVERY MAN DIES ALONE By Hans Fallada, translated by Michael Hofmann, Melville Press, 542 pages, $32
At 51, Hans Fallada was locked up in a Nazi insane asylum. After the war, a friend gave him the Gestapo file of a working-class couple who performed many acts of resistance in Berlin. In 24 days, Fallada produced Every Man Dies Alone, based on this file. In 1947, two weeks before the novel's publication, he died. This testament is Fallada's attempt to retrieve the few shreds of honour and courage the Nazis, no matter how viciously they tried, could not manage to destroy. Alan Furst
THE BELIEVERS By Zoë Heller, Knopf Canada, 355 pages, $32
Some of the best contemporary writing is about subtle culture clashes, producing novels populated by characters with feet in two different worlds. Zoë Heller's latest novel focuses on the idea of having faith in what you belong to - and vice versa. The Believers is funny, serious, well plotted and well written, sympathetic without being sentimental, thought-provoking and enjoyable; in short, that rare specimen every reader hopes for when opening a new book. J.C. Sutcliffe
THE ACT OF LOVE By Howard Jacobson, Penguin Canada, 308 pages, $24
Felix Quinn, jilted in early adolescence by a movie date, feels compelled as an adult to re-enact the searing pain in order to vanquish it. He seeks out women who will cheat on him, then tells himself that this is what he actually likes. To Jacobson, love is still patient, still kind, still bears all things. It's just so much else besides: complicated, funny, cruel, sick and always worth one's while. Much like this wickedly terrific book. Cynthia Macdonald
THE CHILDREN'S BOOK By A.S. Byatt, Knopf Canada, 615 pages, $36.95
The Children's Book follows a group of Fabian families from the closing years of the 19th century to the end of the First World War. Olive Wellwood is a writer of fairy tales and the mother of seven. The children's lives seem idyllic, with the socialist consciences of their parents not precluding big houses and expensive schools. The Children's Book is an intelligent, erudite and charming companion. I should have expected no less. J.C. Sutcliffe
ALL THE LIVING By C.E. Morgan, Knopf Canada, 199 pages, $29.95
C.E. Morgan's sensitive and wise debut novel is a passionate and deeply thoughtful tale of love and loss, set against an unforgettable southern landscape. When Aloma Earle and Orren Fenton fall in love, they aren't thinking about the future, but then Orren inherits a drought-ridden tobacco farm, the differences between them, disregarded in the heady rush of their first love, become painfully obvious. This is a story about endurance and commitment, about marriage as a calling to adulthood. Fiona Foster
LOVE AND OBSTACLES By Aleksandar Hemon, Riverhead, 210 pages, $32.50
Hemon's virtues as a writer include his ability to straddle two distinct cultures, to twist stories in unexpected directions, to find startling uses for the English language. Born in Sarajevo in 1964, he arrived in the United States in 1992 as a tourist, only to find himself stranded when Bosnia descended into chaos. He worked a variety of jobs while teaching himself English, and this freshness of language helps him explore the mechanics of cultural dislocation. Stephen Amidon
SACRED HEARTS By Sarah Dunant, Virago, 465 pages, $32
Serafina must be hastily cloistered at the convent of Santa Caterina when the man she was intended to marry prefers her sister. Her rebellion against imprisonment turns convent life upside down. Dunant interweaves multiple suspenseful tales with skill and ease. Her sumptuous writing style and talent at making history relevant and characters vivid mean that Sacred Hearts is like the feisty heroine in a highbrow costume drama: gorgeously dressed, highly accomplished and impeccably mannered, but with plenty going on between the ears. J.C. Sutcliffe
KAHN AND ENGELMANN By Hans Eichner, translated by Jean M. Snook, Biblioasis, 336 pages, $21.95
A fascinating family saga, Kahn & Engelmann chronicles five generations of Jewish life. Beginning in 1880 near Lake Balaton, Hungary, the narrative moves episodically from turn-of-the-century Vienna through the 20th century's convulsions, culminating in the Holocaust, the foundation of Israel and the battles for the survival of the Jewish state. Chris Scott
FOUR FREEDOMS By John Crowley, Morrow, 390 pages, $33.99
Four Freedoms roots its narrative in the gritty particulars of the home front - specifically Ponca City, Oklahoma - during the Second World War, but through John Crowley's attention to detail and his considerable stylistic and character-building skills, it transcends those particulars and finds its terrain in the universal, a domain of sex, love, despair, loss and, too fleetingly, hope. Robert Wiersema
LOVE AND SUMMER By William Trevor, Knopf Canada, 212 pages, $32
William Trevor's 14th novel, set "some years after the middle of the last century," begins with the death of a matriarch who specialized in hate, but its focus is love in all its needy, dangerous, difficult forms. For love, like truth, is always "blemished," Trevor suggests. The course of true love in this marvellously written, consummately plotted book is as unpredictable as it is imperfect - no mean feat for a story based on the timeworn romantic. Janice Kulyk Keefer
A GATE AT THE STAIRS By Lorrie Moore, Bond Street/Doubleday Canada, 322 pages, $29.95
Sarah Brink is a chef who runs her own restaurant, and the soon-to-be mother of an adopted biracial toddler. She hires the young Tassie Keltjin as a nanny. Sarah, somewhat inadvertently, initiates Tassie into in the ways of being a woman and becomes an unwitting, wavering guide through love and motherhood, betrayal, loss, self-reliance and sadness. Sarah is vivid, poignant and multifaceted, but it is Tassie Keltjin, this novel's voice and moral compass, who grips the reader and doesn't let go. Lisa Moore
THE GATHERING NIGHT By Margaret Elphinstone, McArthur & Company, 375 pages, $24.95
Elphinstone's fast-paced, intriguing story is set 8,000 years ago on the west coast of Scotland. Apart from being an utterly convincing historical fiction, it also includes a murder mystery, a spiritual quest, a family drama, a landscape-altering tidal wave, an exploration of tribal politics and a Stone Age "trial" to rival anything concocted by John Grisham, followed by a thrilling, harrowing chase scene. H.J. Kirchhoff
MATHILDA SAVITCH By Victor Lodato, Doubleday Canada, 292 pages, $29.95
Mathilda is a devious, loquacious 12-year-old, thrust toward maturity by her changing body and the sudden, violent death of her 17-year-old sister. In a single day, a family of two college professors and their daughters is torn asunder. Playwright Victor Lodato's debut novel has just made the search for the best U.S. novel of 2009 much, much simpler. With its utterly captivating voice, brisk plot and timely but lasting philosophical investigations, this is one of the strongest debuts in decades. Darryl Whetter
JULIET, NAKED By Nick Hornby, Riverhead, 406 pages, $32.50
This is a love triangle, born of CDs and e-mails and, finally, face-to-face confrontations between middle-aged adults: reclusive musician Tucker Crowe, English college lecturer and Crowe expert Duncan Thomson, and Duncan's lover Annie. It is also about the muddled interactions between art and life, and between human beings. Hornby advances the story via his usual clever dialogue. About art, especially music, he is consistently insightful. Charles Foran
HOMER AND LANGLEY By E.L. Doctorow, Random House, 208 pages, $32
In 1947, two New York "disposaphobes," the wealthy Collyer brothers, died bizarre deaths in their mansion, which was packed to the ceiling with hoarded junk. It was three weeks before authorities discovered that Langley lay dead less than 10 feet from where the body of his brother, Homer, was found. Langley had been crushed by one of his own booby traps, made out of bales of newspapers. Doctorow's novel is not so much a recounting of the bizarre story as a journey inside it. Richard Bausch
THE ANTHOLOGIST By Nicholson Baker, Simon & Shuster, 256 pages, $32.99
The Anthologist is a meditation on poetry framed as a novel. The main character (Baker's alter ego, it seems pretty clear) is Paul Chowder, a poet seized by self-doubt, so blocked that he can't even deal with his fallback job: writing the introduction to a poetry anthology. His girlfriend, Roz, is fed up and has moved out and he wants her back: We have the premise of a plot. But it's not the story that makes the novel such a page-turner - it's Baker's fabulous gift in parsing a thought entertainingly. Joan Thomas
NINE DRAGONS By Michael Connelly, Little, Brown, 374 pages, $34.99
Nine Dragons not only brings back popular Los Angeles homicide detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch, but also features an intricate, wide-ranging and compelling story to go with credible, sympathetic characters and exotic locations - unusual for Harry, who seldom leaves L.A. There are more twists and turns in the final 40 or 50 pages of this novel than most books contain in their entirety, but it all makes perfect sense and ties together most satisfyingly. H.J. Kirchhoff
LOVE IN INFANT MONKEYS By Lydia Millet, Soft Skull, 177 pages, $17.50
Lydia Millet's book is an exploration of the worlds of celebrities and animals, which proves incredibly fertile creative territory. Each of the book's stories involves the relationship between a celebrity (ranging from Sharon Stone to Nikola Tesla) and at least one animal (a Komodo dragon and some pigeons, respectively). What these stories reveal most of all is that, within the space of imagination, of fiction, is where our most remarkable, revelatory and moving experiences occur. Pasha Malla
WAR DANCES By Sherman Alexie, Grove Press, 256 pages, $30.95
Alexie's collection of short stories and poetry is a leap forward. War Dances, for all his trademark energy and bravery, shows a more mature voice that does not see economy as a betrayal of passion. A paradox in his writing is that you can be in the middle of delighted laughter when he will hit you with a sentence so true to the core of a character's pain that you suck in your breath or are startled to realize you are crying. Gale Zoë Garnett
UNDER THE DOME By Stephen King, Scribner, 1,074 pages, $39.99
In 100 years, Stephen King will, I guarantee, be in the canon. And one of the main reasons will be his whopping novel Under the Dome. It begins with shocking immediacy, when an invisible dome encapsulates the town of Chester's Mill, Me., without warning and with a burst of casualties. This novel will keep readers up all night, then haunt their dreams when they sleep. It is perhaps King's finest novel since The Stand, and that's just about the highest praise I can give. Robert Wiersema
HOW TO PAINT A DEAD MAN By Sarah Hall, Faber & Faber, 289 pages, $24
There are four characters, four stories, four time periods, which while linked thematically, touch one another only in oblique ways. While there is a plot in the book, one that compels us to keep turning the pages, the novel is more of a meditation on the effects and consequences of loss. Hall suggests that art, its appreciation as well as its creation, is a kind of compensation, and is a path through beauty to a more profound understanding of life. Lewis DeSoto
BROOKLYN By Colm Tóibín, McClelland & Stewart, 262 pages, $32.99
Eilis is the a young woman torn between Ireland and the United States in Tóibín's Brooklyn. The novel has no pure-good or pure-evil characters. The mirroring between Ireland and America - Eilis's two jobs, two boyfriends, two futures - is effective because the intent isn't simply ironic; there are no easy choices here. Rather, we see that the star of the story is never the place but the person; it is always Eilis who compels, because she holds both worlds - plainly, quietly, paradoxically, essentially - within her. Annabel Lyon
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS: An Annotated Edition By Kenneth Grahame, edited by Seth Lerer, Harvard University Press, 273 pages, $45.50
If Seth Lerer's exquisite new annotated edition of Kenneth Grahame's masterpiece produces the same sedative effects on other children as on mine, adults will have the good fortune of going back on their own, savouring not only the story but also lingering over a gallery of colour illustrations, E.H. Shepard's drawings and a running commentary. By turns ecstatic and elegiac, and always without pathos, sentiment or pyrotechnics, The Wind in the Willows is also always there, ready to provide us, when we feel lost, with all the comforts of Home. Maria Tatar