Jean Zimmerman

Anna Pitoniak's novel follows Evan and Julia, newly-minted Yale graduates trying — and finding it difficult — to make new lives for themselves in New York City on the eve of the crash of 2008.

Lijia Zhang's debut novel — about a young woman in China who fights her way out of the sex trade to become a teacher — is sensitively drawn, full of folk wisdom and concise, touching imagery.

Emily Bitto's new novel is set in the overheated avant-garde art scene of Depression-era Melbourne, where two girls — conventional Lily and sharp-tongued, exotic Eva — form a complicated bond.

Steven Price's hefty new novel stars William Pinkerton, whose father founded the famous detective agency that bears his name, plus a colorful cast of Victorian ne'er-do-wells. And a severed head.

Lindsay Hatton makes a bold move in her new novel: She lifts a character from John Steinbeck's 1945 classic Cannery Row -- and then the author himself — for a tale of thwarted romance by the sea.

Emma Cline's spooky new novel starts with a teenaged girl spying on a shabby-glamorous group of Mansonesque cult followers. She follows, desperate for attention — and eventually, they see her too.

Yaa Gyasi's debut novel traces the terrible impact of slavery on generations of an African family, beginning with two sisters in 18th century Ghana — one who stayed, and one shipped to America.

Herta Müller's remarkable novel tells the story of a young schoolteacher who becomes convinced, through gruesome clues, that the Romanian dictator's secret police are closing in on her.

Novelist Evie Wyld departs from straight-ahead fiction in her new graphic novel about a young girl describing childhood summers in Australia — and her dark fascination with the sharks in the water.

Marie NDiaye's unflinching new novel handles heavyweight emotions — guilt, shame, grief, cruelty — with sharp-edged writing and clear-eyed courage. It's an intense read, but an engrossing one.

The real, historical Thomas Jefferson never wrote anything about Sally Hemings, his slave and companion for decades. But she comes to life in a complex new novel from author Stephen O'Connor.

Kate Mosse's new gothic thriller uses the concept of taxidermy as a clever skeleton on which to hang its scares. It's a dark and tangled tale that's definitely not for the squeamish.

Helen Simonson's new novel is a gently charming portrait of a small British town in the last, fraught moments before the outbreak of World War I.

Pat Barker's latest novel completes the trilogy she began with Life Class. Her first foray into the World War II era is rich with evocative language, though it occasionally verges on soap opera.

When Yann Martel gave us the international sensation Life of Pi in 2001, readers discovered a novelist-alchemist, capable of spinning gold out of improbable characters and anomalous scenarios. A tiger and a teenager awash together on the deep blue sea for 227 days? Only Martel could charm us into that ...

"Here be dragons" warns a widely misunderstood inscription, originally in Latin, on a 16th century globe. The phrase has become a legendary reference to unknown pockets of the earth, where who knows what strange beasts lurk. But it turns out the globe in question probably wasn't warning against immense, fire-breathing ...

John Lennon "Walrus" eyeglass frames are for sale on the Web; Strawberry Fields has become a Tic Tac flavor. The Smart Beatle has been entombed by pop culture and rampant capitalism. There's nothing more to be written about him. It's all been said — but no one said it to ...

Dear Ms. You,

Hey, Mary-Louise Parker, you're a killer actress, you've hit 50, and you've written a funny, clever, genuinely moving book, Dear Mr. You. You took a form, the epistolary novel, mashed it up with another form, the celebrity memoir, and turned them both on their heads. Thirty-four intimate ...

"White is truth," stated mystic-philosopher-scientist Emanuel Swedenborg. "It is the glowing cloud on the horizon that shows the Lord is coming. White is wisdom." The color that we usually think of as the absence of color drives The White Road, Edmund de Waal's shimmering paean to porcelain.

In 2010 de ...

Our thoroughly modern world can't let go of Salem. The communal madness that gripped a small Massachusetts Bay Colony village in the late 17th century still bedevils us — so to speak — over three centuries later. Stacey Schiff's excellent history The Witches: Salem, 1692, measures our continued fascination with ...