Margaret Atwood, Stone Mattress: Nine Tales (New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2014) (See Matt Bell, "Not Dead Yet," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 9/212014.).
Eleanor Catton, The Rehearsal: A Novel(New York: A Reagan Arthur Book/ Little, Brown, 2008).
J. M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country (New York: Penguin Books, 1977, 1992) ("I cannot see a necessity behind what we are doing, any of us. We are no more than whim, one whim after another. Why can we not accept that our lives are vacant, as vacant as the desert we live in, and spend them counting sheep or washing cups with blithe hearts? I do not see why the story of our lives have to be interesting. I am having second thought about everything." Id. at 59.).
Louise Erdrich, The Beet Queen: A Novel (New York: Henry Holt, 1986).
Louise Erdrich, The Bingo Palace: A Novel (New York: HarperCollins, 1994) ("We all got holes in our lives. Nobody dies in a perfect garment. We all got to face the nothingness before us and behind. Call it sleep. We all begin in sleep and that's where we find our end. Even in between, sleep keeps trying to claim us. To stay awake in life as much as possible--that may be the point." Id. at 98-99.).
Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine: A Novel (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1984).
Louise Erdrich, Tracks: A Novel (New York: Henry Holt, 1988) ("Power dies, power goes under and gutters out, ungraspable. It is momentary, quick of flight and liable to deceive. As soon as you rely on the possession it is gone. Forget that it ever existed, and it returns. I never made the mistake of thinking that I owned my own strength, that was my secret. And so I never was alone in my failures. I was never to blame entirely when all was lost, when my desperate cures had no effect on the suffering of those I loved. For who can blame a man waiting, the doors open, the windows open, food offered, arms stretched wide? Who can blame him if the visitor does not arrive?" Id. at 177.).
Boris Fishman, A Replacement Life: A Novel (New York: Harper, 2014) (See Patricia T. O'Connor, "Missed Connections," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 6/15/2014.).
E. M. Forster, Arctic Summer, foreword by Anita Desai (London: 100 Pages/ Hesperus Press, 2003).
Robert Galbraith (aka J. K. Rowling), The Silkworm (New York: Mulholland Books/Little, Brown, 2014) (See Harlan Coben, "Killer Plot," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 6/29/2014.).
Damon Galgut, Arctic Summer (New York: Europa Editions, 2014) (See Thomas Mallon, "A Closet With a View," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 9/28/2014).
Damon Galgut, The Good Doctor: A Novel (New York: Grove Press, 2003).
Damon Galgut, The Impostor (New York: Black Cat/Grove/Atlantic, 2008).
Damon Galgut, In a Strange Room: Three Journeys (New York: Europa Editions, 2010) ("A journey is a gesture inscribed in space, it vanishes even as it's made. You go from one place to another place, and on to somewhere else again, and already behind you there is no trace that you were ever there. The roads you went down yesterday are full of different people now, none of them knows who you are. In the room you slept in last night a stranger lies in the bed. Dust covers over your footprints, the marks of your fingers are wiped off the door, from the floor and table the bits and pieces of evidence that you might have dropped are swept up and thrown away and they never come back again. The very air closes behind you like water and soon your presence, which felt so weighty and permanent, has completely gone. Things happen once only and are never repeated, never return. Except in memory." Id. at 146.).
Mary Gordon, The Liar's Wife: Four Novellas (New York: Pantheon, 2014) (I especially recommend the third novella, Thomas Mann in Gary, Indiana. See Valeria Martin, "Pitfalls of Privilege," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 8/17/2014.).
Sunetra Gupta, The Glassblower's Breath (NewYork: Grove Press, 1993) (From the bookjacket: "With a mordant humor and geometric precision Gupta traces the blueprints of society's model for women, the family, and sexuality. Inevitably she reveals that they support no ideal world, but offer only illusory comforts and ultimate collapse. Fierce and incisive in her exploration of a woman's struggle to conform, Sunetra Gupta delivers an unsettling take, as she lures her readers down a road glistening with shards of glass.").
Sunetra Gupta, A Sin of Color: A Novel of Obsession (Naperville, Il: Sourcebooks Landmark, 1999, 2001).
Sunetra Gupta, So Good in Black: A Novel (Northhampton, Ma: Clockroot Books, 2011).
Denis Johnson, The Laughing Monsters: A Novel (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2014) (See Joy Williams, "Rogue Territory," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 11/9/2014.).
Lily King, The Pleasing Hour: A Novel (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1999).
John Le Carre, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (New York: Scriber, 2009) ("You have to remind me all the time, intellectually remind me, that unless I sample life's dangers I shall never know its mysteries." Id. at 279.).
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (New York: Ace Books, 2000) (From the bookcover: "[T]ells the story of lone human emissary's mission to Winter, an unknown alien world whose inhabitants can choose--an change--their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.").
Ben Lerner, 10:40: A Novel (New York: Faber & Faber, 2014) (See Hari Kunzru, "Impossible Mirrors," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 9/7/2014.).
Hilary Mantel, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: Stories (New York: Henry Holt, 2014) (See Terry Castle, "Within Her Sights," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 10/5/2014.).
Eimear McBride, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing (Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 2014) (See Joshua Cohen, "Bloody Hell," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 9/21/2014.).
Ian McEwan, The Children Act: A Novel (New York: Nan A, Talese/Doubleday, 2014) (See Deborah Friedell, "The Body's Temple," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 9/14/2014.).
Celeste Ng, Everything I Never Told You: A Novel (New York: The Penguin Press, 2014) (See Alexander Chee, "The Leftovers," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 8/17/2014.).
Joseph O'Neill, The Dog: A Novel (New York: Pantheon, 2014) (See Lawrence Osborne, "Time Out Dubai," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 9/7/2014.).
Marilynne Robinson, Lila: A Novel (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2014).
Edward St. Aubyn, On the Edge: A Novel (New York: Picador/ Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2014) (From the back cover: "[H]is uproarious and sharply rendered satire of the New Age shows St. Aubyn at his finest " "Peter Thorpe is disillusioned with his conventional life as a merchant banker until he meets Sabine, the most enchanting and enigmatic woman he's ever encountered. His desire for her reaches such a pitch that he overturns his whole life, leaving everything behind to follow her into the stronghold of the New Age movement among the stunning peaks and valleys of Big Sur, California. There he meets an eccentric cast of spiritual seekers, joining them in pursuit of that elusive something (happiness?), which he never before dared to imagine possible.")
Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven: A Novel (New York: Knopf, 2014) (See Sigrid Nunez, "Shakespeare for Survivors," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 9/14/2014.).
Colm Toibin, Nora Webster: A Novel (New York: Scribner, 2014) (See Jennifer Egan, "Finding a Voice," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 10/5/2014.).
William T. Vollmann, Last Stories and Other Stories (New York: Viking, 2014) (Also see Kate Bernheimer, "Dead Souls," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 8/17/2014.).
James Welch, Fools Crow: A Novel (New York:Viking, 1986).
