The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

Sept 2, 2014. 640 pages. Published by Random House.

"Starred Review. Trademark Mitchell...another exacting, challenging and deeply rewarding novel from [the] logophile and time-travel master." - Kirkus

From the book jacket: An elegant conjurer of interconnected tales, a genre-bending daredevil, and master prose stylist, David Mitchell has become one of the leading literary voices of his generation. His hypnotic new novel, The Bone Clocks, crackles with invention and wit - it is fiction at its most spellbinding and memorable.
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Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Nayomi Munaweera

Sept 2, 2014. 224 pages. Published by Thomas Dunne Books.

"By turns tender, beautiful, and devastating, Island of A Thousand Mirrors is a deeply resonant tale of an unravelling Sri Lanka. Incr

edibly moving, complex, and with prose you may want to eat, this debut is a triumph." - NoViolet Bulawayo, author of We Need New Names 
From the book jacket: In the

 tradition of Michael Ondatjee's Anil's Ghost and Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, Island of a Thousand Mirrors is an emotionally resonant saga of cultural heritage, heartbreaking conflict and deep family bonds. Narrated in two unforgettably authentic voices and spanning the entirety of the decades-long civil war, it offers an unparalleled portrait of a beautiful land during its most difficult moment by a spellbinding new literary talent who promises tremendous things to come.
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The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis

Sept 30, 2014. 320 pages. Published by Knopf.

"Starred Review. An absolute soul-crusher of a book, the brilliant latest from Amis... is an astoundingly bleak love story... Amis took on the Holocaust obliquely in Time's Arrow. Here he goes at it straight, and the result is devastating." - Publishers Weekly

From the book jacket: The Zone of Interest is a love story with a violently unromantic setting. Can love survive the mirror? Can we even meet each other's eye, after we have seen who we really are? Powered by both wit and compassion, and in characteristically vivid prose, Martin Amis's unforgettable new novel excavates the depths and contradictions of the human soul.
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Wittgenstein Jr. by Lars Iyer

Sept 4, 2014. 240 pages. Published by Melville House.

"Starred Review. Iyer already has a reputation for combining brainy dialogue with madcap action, but the triumph of his latest (and best) novel is that the cartoon turns out to have real substance." - Publishers Weekly

From the book jacket: The unruly undergraduates at Cambridge have a nickname for their new lecturer: Wittgenstein Jr. He's a melancholic, tormented genius who seems determined to make them grasp the very essence of philosophical thought. But Peters - a working-class student surprised to find himself among the elite - soon discovers that there's no place for logic in a Cambridge overrun by posh boys and picnicking tourists, as England's greatest university is collapsing under market pressures... [Peters and his classmates] realize that their teacher is struggling to survive. For Peters, it leads to a surprising turn - and for all of them, a challenge to see how the life of the mind can play out in harsh but hopeful reality. Combining his trademark wit and sharp brilliance, Wittgenstein Jr is Lars Iyer's most assured and ambitious novel yet - as impressive, inventive and entertaining as it is extraordinarily stirring.
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Expo 58 by Jonathan Coe

Sept 2, 2014. 288 pages. Published by New Harvest.

"Expo 58 is Coe at his funny-serious best, offering idiosyncratic mixture of slapstick and profundity in a love-and-spies story set at the height of the cold war - pure enjoyment." - Financial Times (UK)

From the book jacket: Handsome, unassuming Thomas Foley is an employee at the Central Office of Information whose particular biography (Belgian mother, pub-owning father) makes him just the man to oversee the "authentic British pub" that will be erected at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. It's the first major expo after World War II, meant to signify unity, but there's inevitable intrigue involving the U.S. and Soviet delegations. In the shadow of an immense, imposingly modern structure called the Atomium, the married Foley becomes both agent and pawn - when he's not falling head over heels for Anneke, his Belgian hostess. Funny, fast-paced, and genuinely moving, Expo 58 is both a perfect evocation of a moment in history and the welcome return of one of today's finest novelists.
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The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

Sept 16, 2014. 576 pages. Published by Riverhead Books.

"Starred Review. Waters is a master of pacing, and her metaphor-laced prose is a delight - until the last page, the reader will have no idea what's going to happen. Waters keeps getting better, if that's even possible after the sheer perfection of her earlier novels." - Kirkus

From the book jacket: It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa - a large, silent house now bereft of brothers, husband, and even servants - life is about to be transformed as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers...

Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize three times, Sarah Waters has earned a reputation as one of our greatest writers of historical fiction, and here she has delivered again. A love story, a tension-filled crime story, and a beautifully atmospheric portrait of a fascinating time and place, The Paying Guests is Sarah Waters's finest achievement yet.
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A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride

Sept 9, 2014. 227 pages. Published by Coffee House Press.

"The tome of the moment remains Eimear McBride's A Girl Is A Half-formed Thing - believe the hype, she's the real deal." - The Independent (Ireland)

From the book jacket: Eimear McBride's acclaimed debut tells the story of a young woman's relationship with her brother, and the long shadow cast by his childhood brain tumor, touching on everything from family violence to sexuality and the personal struggle to remain intact in times of intense trauma.
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The Children Act by Ian McEwan

Sept 9, 2014. 240 pages. Published by Nan A. Talese.

"Starred Review. McEwan, always a smart, engaging writer, here takes more than one familiar situation and creates at every turn something new and emotionally rewarding in a way he hasn't done so well since On Chesil Beach (2007)." - Kirkus

From the book jacket: Fiona Maye is a High Court judge in London presiding over cases in family court. She is fiercely intelligent, well respected, and deeply immersed in the nuances of her particular field of law...But Fiona's professional success belies domestic strife. Her husband, Jack, asks her to consider an open marriage and, after an argument, moves out of their house. His departure leaves her adrift, wondering whether it was not love she had lost so much as a modern form of respectability; whether it was not contempt and ostracism she really fears. She decides to throw herself into her work, especially a complex case involving a seventeen-year-old boy whose parents will not permit a lifesaving blood transfusion because it conflicts with their beliefs as Jehovah's Witnesses. But Jack doesn't leave her thoughts, and the pressure to resolve the case, as well as her crumbling marriage, tests Fiona in ways that will keep readers thoroughly enthralled until the last stunning page.
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Egg and Spoon by Gregory Maguire

Sept 9, 2014. 496 pages. Published by Candlewick Press.

"Starred Review. Egg and Spoon is a beautiful reminder that fairy tales are at their best when they illuminate the precarious balance between lighthearted childhood and the darkness and danger of adulthood." - School Library Journal

From the book jacket: Elena Rudina lives in the impoverished Russian countryside. Her father has been dead for years. One of her brothers has been conscripted into the Tsar's army, the other taken as a servant in the house of the local landowner. Her mother is dying, slowly, in their tiny cabin. And there is no food. But then a train arrives in the village, a train carrying untold wealth, a cornucopia of food, and a noble family destined to visit the Tsar in Saint Petersburg - a family that includes Ekaterina, a girl of Elena's age. When the two girls' lives collide, an adventure is set in motion, an escapade that includes mistaken identity, a monk locked in a tower, a prince traveling incognito, and - in a starring role only Gregory Maguire could have conjured - Baba Yaga, witch of Russian folklore, in her ambulatory house perched on chicken legs.
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Love is the Drug by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Sept 30, 2014. 352 pages. Published by Reagan Arthur.

Starred Review. Lost memories, a deadly pandemic flu and the children of D.C.'s elite come together in this sophisticated bio-thriller... Utterly absorbing. Ages 13 & up." - Kirkus

From the book jacket: Emily Bird was raised not to ask questions. She has perfect hair, the perfect boyfriend, and a perfect Ivy-League future. But a chance meeting with Roosevelt David, a homeland security agent, at a party for Washington DC's elite leads to Bird waking up in a hospital, days later, with no memory of the end of the night. Meanwhile, the world has fallen apart: A deadly flu virus is sweeping the nation, forcing quarantines, curfews, even martial law. And Roosevelt is certain that Bird knows something. Something about the virus--something about her parents' top secret scientific work--something she shouldn't know.
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