Fiction

The Piano Teacher: A Novel

by Janice Y. K. Lee

In 1942, Will Truesdale, an Englishman newly arrived in Hong Kong, falls into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their love affair is soon threatened by the invasion of the Japanese as World War II overwhelms their part of the world.

Brothers

by Yu Hua

"Baldy Li...comes into the world on the same day his father slips to a disgraceful demise while ogling women in a public toilet.... Yet even as Baldy Li and his mother, Li Lan, cower under the taunts of their neighbors, things begin to change for the better." —Publishers Weekly

The Quiet Girl

by Peter Hoeg

Kaspar Krone is a world-renowned circus clown, and a man in some deep trouble. Drowning in gambling debt and wanted for tax evasion, Krone is drafted into the service of a mysterious order of nuns who promise him reprieve in return for his help safeguarding a group of children.

Home Safe

by Elizabeth Berg

"Helen Ames is a popular and prolific writer living in Oak Park, Illinois.... But Helen has lost her ability to write. Her inner world is as stunned and hushed as her cherished home in the wake of her husband’s sudden death." —Publishers Weekly

Land of Marvels

by Barry Unsworth

"It is 1914, and, after three years in the deserts of Mesopotamia, the British archeologist John Somerville believes he is on the brink of a great discovery. Before he can uncover what he thinks was the residence of the last Assyrian king, Somerville must fight off plans for a railway that will encroach on his dig site...." —The New Yorker

So Long, See You Tomorrow

by William Maxwell

On a winter morning in the 1920s, a shot rings out on a farm in rural Illinois. A man named Lloyd Wilson has been killed. And the tenuous friendship between two lonely teenagers—one privileged yet neglected, the other a troubled farm boy—has been shattered.

How I Became a Famous Novelist

by Steve Hely

"Words are Pete Tarslaw\'s thing, and after watching a bestselling novelist prattle on about the truth, his calling, and other ridiculous ideas on TV, Pete concludes that the sole way to save face at his ex-girlfriend\'s upcoming wedding is to become a famous novelist himself." —Publishers Weekly

A Reliable Wife

by Robert Goolrick

He placed a notice in a Chicago paper, an advertisement for "a reliable wife." She responded, saying that she was "a simple, honest woman." She was, of course, anything but honest....

Old Filth

by Jane Gardam

"This mordantly funny novel examines the life of Sir Edward Feathers, a desiccated barrister known to colleagues and friends as Old Filth (the nickname stands for "Failed in London Try Hong Kong"). After a lucrative career in Asia, Filth settles into retirement in Dorset. With anatomical precision, Gardam reveals that, contrary to appearances, Sir Edward\'s life is seething with incident...." —The New Yorker

Tinkers

by Paul Harding

An old man lies dying. As time collapses into memory, he travels deep into his past where he is reunited with his father and relives the wonder and pain of his impoverished New England youth.

Non Fiction

The Geography of Bliss

by Eric Weiner

"In the last two decades, psychologists and economists have learned a lot about happiness, including who\'s happy and who isn\'t. The Dutch are, the Romanians aren\'t, and Americans are somewhere in between. Eric Weiner—a peripatetic journalist and self-proclaimed grump—wanted to know why. So with science as his compass, he spent a year visiting the world\'s most and least happy places...." —The Washington Post

Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity

by Rebecca Goldstein

In 1656, Amsterdam’s Jewish community excommunicated Baruch Spinoza, and, at the age of twenty–three, he became the most famous heretic in Judaism. In Betraying Spinoza, Rebecca Goldstein sets out to rediscover the flesh-and-blood man often hidden beneath the veneer of rigorous rationality, and to crack the mystery of the breach between the philosopher and his Jewish past.