BookBrowse Reviews A Gate at the Stairs: The first novel in more than a decade from the author of Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and Birds of America

It's hard to fight the urge to scrawl "love love love" in red crayon across the page, or to make a beribboned valentine full of sappy verse in lieu of actually reviewing Lorrie Moore's new book. She tops all my lists (top 10 books, top 5 writers, books you'd take to a deserted island), and my copies of her novels and short stories are filled with bookmarked passages, lovingly read over and over again. Though many aspiring writers may try desperately, no one writes like Lorrie Moore, so her lovestruck readers can do nothing but wait for her to publish another book.

Which is why A Gate at the Stairs was easily one of the most anticipated literary events of an incredibly packed season when it published in hardcover in Fall 2009. Moore's last novel, Who Will...