Fiction Stars 2004

Titles are listed by approximate date of publication, then alphabetically by author. Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine - unless otherwise noted.

December

• Little Fugue
  Author: Anderson, Robert
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345454103 Date: 2004
  PW
  Updated 10.19.04
• East Side Story
  Author: Auchincloss, Louis
  Publisher: Houghton $ 24 ISBN: 0618452443 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  For his 60th novel, the author follows the fortunes of the Scottish Carnochans, who prospered on New York's Upper East Side in the 19th century. This is a loving and wicked look at New York's own.
  Updated 9.9.04
• A Hard Man Is Good To Find
  Author: Blackwood, Jane
  Publisher: Zebra $ 5.99 (paper) ISBN: 0821776169 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  In this lighthearted romance, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist takes over a small-town newspaper. Soon he's alienating the staff and igniting sparks with a sexy, smart-mouthed reporter who's determined to uncover his real story.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 11.29.04
• Road to Purgatory
  Author: Collins, Max Allan
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060540273 Date: 2004
  PW
  This powerful narrative follow-up to the acclaimed graphic novel Road to Perdition opens with Michael O'Sullivan returning to Chicago and his old war against the Capone mob. Interwoven is the parallel tale of his father, chief enforcer to Irish godfather John Looney.
  Updated 11.22.04
• Children of the Streets: Stories
  Author: Ellison, Harlan
  Publisher: Severn $ 27.95 ISBN: 0727861050 Date: 2005
  LJ
  Updated 11.22.04
• Jimmy Olsen: Adventures by Jack Kirby, Vol 2
  Author: Kirby, Jack
  Publisher: DC Comics $ 19.95 (paper) ISBN: 1401202594 Date: 2004
  PW
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
  Updated 12.27.04
• Temple of Music
  Author: Lowry, Jonathan
  Publisher: Crown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0609608193 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Spanning years, countries, and classes, this novel paints a portrait of a young country at the turn of the century--a time when everything was new; every day had the power to change history, and larger-than-life figures brushed shoulders and sometimes collided with wretchedly poor working men.
  Updated 9.24.04
• The Girl Who Married a Lion: An Other Tales from Africa
  Author: McCall Smith, Alexander
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 20 ISBN: 0375423125 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Alexander McCall Smith was born in what is now Zimbabwe and grew up hearing stories that so enchanted him, he passed them along to his own children. He now shares them in this jewel of a book.
  Updated 11.2.04
• The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios
  Author: Martel, Yann
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 22 ISBN: 0151010900 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Written earlier in Yann Martel's career, these four unforgettable tales are as moving as they are thought-provoking, as inventive in form as they are timeless.
  Updated 11.2.04
• Forget Me Not
  Author: Melton, Marliss
  Publisher: Warner $ 5.99 (paper) ISBN: 0446614823 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Helen Renault's missing Navy SEAL husband Gabe is presumed dead. She learns that Gabe is alive but has no memory. Under Helen's care, he begins to heal. With his memories returning, others will do anything in their power to make sure he stays silent.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 10.4.04
• Seven Types of Ambiguity
  Author: Pearlman, Elliot
  Publisher: Riverhead $ 27.95 ISBN: 157322281x Date: 2004
  KirkusBooklist
  A psychological thriller and deeply romantic novel that speaks with unforgettable force about the redemptive power of love, this story is told in seven parts, by six different narrators whose lives are entangled in unexpected ways.
  Updated 11.2.04
• A Black Englishman
  Author: Slaughter, Carolyn
  Publisher: FSG $ 24 ISBN: 0374113998 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Set against the backdrop of India in the 1920s, this novel is the tale of a powerful and erotic love affair that combines the themes of colonial exploitation, political and ethnic tensions, race and sexuality, and the many forms of partition, both secular and religious.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 10.19.04
  
• Mantrapped
  Author: Weldon, Fay
  Publisher: Grove $ 24 ISBN: 0802117872 Date: 2004
  LJ
  After brushing past each other on the stairs above their local laundromat, Trice and Peter instantly and mysteriously switch souls. But none of this is half as awkward as when they both come home to face Peter's wife and have to decide who will sleep where.
  Updated 10.19.04

November

• Darwin's Wink: A Novel of Nature and Love
  Author: Anderson, Alison
  Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312331991 Date: 2004
  LJ
  An exquisite story of two naturalists who find unexpected love as they work to save a rare bird species on an island off the coast of Mauritius. "An exquisitely written, deeply felt novel."--Alev Little Croutier (Seven Houses).
  Suggested Reading: For the Birds | Darwin, Naturalists & Evolution
  Updated 8.16.04
• Case Histories
  Author: Atkinson, Kate
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316740403 Date: 2004
  KirkusBooklist
  This new novel from award-winner Kate Atkinson is a breathtaking story of families divided, love lost and found and the mysteries of fate. As Private Detective Jackson Brodie investigates three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge.
  Updated 8.12.04
• A Light To My Path
  Author: Austin, Lynn
  Publisher: Bethany $ 12.99 (paper) ISBN: 1556614446 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Kitty, a house slave, always figured it was easiest to do what she'd always done--obey Missy and follow orders. But when word arrives that the Yankees are coming, Kitty is faced with a decision: continue to follow the bidding of her owners, or embrace this chance for freedom?
  Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
  Updated 11.2.04
• Snowed In
  Author: Bartolomeo, Christina
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312320884 Date: 2004
  LJ
  This touching and witty new novel is written by the author of This Side of Angels.
  Updated 11.22.04
• The Stone That the Builder Refused
  Author: Bell, Madison Smartt
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 29.95 ISBN: 037542282x Date: 2004
  KirkusLJ
  The finale in the Toussaint Louverture trilogy spans the last two years of Toussaint's life, his triumphant struggle and the compromises made for a free Haiti. Toussaint was the legendary leader of the only successful slave revolution in history.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 10.19.04
• Hannah Coulter
  Author: Berry, Wendell
  Publisher: Shoemaker & Hoard $ 25 ISBN: 1593760361 Date: 2004
  PWBooklist
  Hannah Coulter is the latest installment in Wendell Berry's long story about the citizens of Port William, Kentucky. In his unforgettable prose, readers learn of the Coulters' children, of the Feltners and Branches, and how survivors "live right on."
  Updated 11.29.04
• Bighead
  Author: Brown, Jeffrey
  Publisher: Top Shelf $ 12.95 ISBN: 1891830562 Date: 2004
  PW
  Jeffrey Brown is back - and with a Bighead, no less! An irreverent and clever super-hero parody, featuring the most amazing hero of all time: Bighead. Witness inept villains clash with an all-too-emotional hero, in the epic graphic novel that will leap all cliches in a single bound. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
  Updated 12.27.04
• McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories
  Author: Chabon, Michael (ed)
  Publisher: Vintage $ 13.95 (paper) ISBN: 1400078741 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  A stellar group of contemporary fiction masters offer their original takes on the tried-and-true genres of adventure, science fiction, crime story, romance, horror and more. Contributors include Michael Chabon, Roddy Doyle, Heidi Julavitz, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Amy Tan, Peter Straub, and Jonathan Safran Foer.
  Updated 9.24.04
• Scream Queens of the Dead Sea
  Author: Elbom, Gilad
  Publisher: Thunders Mouth $ 22 ISBN: 1568583222 Date: 2004
  PW
  A young graduate of the Israeli army decides to moonlight as an assistant nurse at a mental institution in Jerusalem. But as the human inventory inside begins to mirror the psychotic norms of the outside world, the inexperienced ex-soldier finds himself trapped in a hilarious yet terrifying freak show.
  Updated 10.4.04
• Damned If I Do: Stories
  Author: Everett, Percival
  Publisher: Graywolf $ 15 ISBN: 1555974112 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Percival Everett is a master storyteller who ingeniously addresses issues of race and prejudice by simultaneously satirizing and celebrating the human condition. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: African American Stars
  Updated 11.22.04
• Courage Consort: Three Novellas
  Author: Faber, Michel
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 23 ISBN: 0151010617 Date: 2004
  KirkusLJ
  In each of these novellas, Faber creates a unique, self-contained world, where the perennial human drama plays out in all its passion and ambiguity.
  Updated 9.20.04
• Torture the Artist
  Author: Goebel, Joey
  Publisher: Macadam Cage $ 23 ISBN: 193156177x Date: 2004
  LJ
  Vincent Spinetti is an archetypal tortured artist, a sensitive young writer who falls victim to alienation, parental neglect, poverty, depression, alcoholism, illness, nervous breakdowns, and unrequited love. He is painfully unaware that these torments are due to the secret manipulations of New Renaissance, an experimental organization that is testing the age-old idea that art results from suffering.
  Updated 10.7.04
• The Distance Between Us
  Author: Hamilton, Masha
  Publisher: Unbridled $ 24.95 ISBN: 193296102x Date: 2004
  LJ
  This beautifully turned novel is the heartfelt story of a war correspondent who loses her lover and her detachment in one tragic moment within a seemingly endless conflict.
  Updated 11.2.04
• Locas: A Love & Rockets Book
  Author: Hernandez, Jaime
  Publisher: Fantagraphics $ 49.95 ISBN: 156097611x Date: 2004
  PWBooklsit
  One of the most humane, graceful and imaginatively inexhaustible artists in American popular culture, Jaime Hernandez has created in Locas one of the great American novels of the last 25 years, graphic or otherwise. Spanning a quarter-century, Locas tells the story of Maggie Chascarrillo, a bisexual, Mexican-American woman attempting to define herself in a community rife with class, race and gender issues.
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
  Updated 10.4.04
• The Line of Beauty
  Author: Hollinghurst, Alan
  Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 24.95 ISBN: 1582345082 Date: 2004
  PW
  This emotionally charged, disarmingly comic novel weaves the tale of a 20-year-old's private pursuit of beauty as expressed through his dangerous yet rewarding love affairs with a young black clerk and a Lebanese millionaire as he navigates within a world driven by rising fortunes, politics and money, and power and riches in 1980s Britain.
  Updated 9.20.04
• North of Nowhere, South of Loss: Stories
  Author: Hospital, Janette Turner
  Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 039305991x Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Janette Turner Hospital explores the infinite incarnations of loss in these prize-winning stories. Her characters oscillate between estrangement and intense connectedness, between a permanent sense of dislocation and a yearning to belong.
  Updated 7.26.04
• The Sun Witch
  Author: Jones, Linda Winstead
  Publisher: Berkley $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0425199401 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  This first book in Jones's new Sister of the Sun trilogy introduces the three Fyne sisters, who live under a curse that makes true love unattainable for them. When youngest sister Sophie meets the soldier of her dreams, she discovers Nature has gifted her with fertility.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 12.6.04
• Dinarzad's Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Fiction
  Author: Kaldas, Pauline (ed)
  Publisher: Univ of Arkansas $ 24.95 ISBN: 1557287813 Date: 2005
  LJ
  Updated 12.27.04
• Dangerous Deceptions
  Author: Kerstan, Lynn
  Publisher: Signet $ 7.50 (paper) ISBN: 0451212487 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  The award-winning author of Heart of the Tiger begins a trilogy about a secretive fellowship dedicated to righting wrongs in the highest circles of Regency society, and the men and women who risk their lives--and their hearts--for justice.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 10.4.04
• Secrets of a Summer Night
  Author: Kleypas, Lisa
  Publisher: Avon $ 6.99 ISBN: 0060091290 Date: 2004
  PW
  This first title of a delectable new series introduces the delightful, husband-hunting "Wallflowers"--four young ladies who enter London society with the common goal of marriage. Here, Annabelle Peyton is determined to resist the titleless yet equally resolute seducer, Simon Hunt.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 10.12.04
• Crossways
  Author: Kohler, Sheila
  Publisher: Ontario Review $ 23.95 ISBN: 0865381127 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Updated 8.9.04
• Fred the Clown
  Author: Langridge, Roger
  Publisher: Fantagraphics $ 16.95 ISBN: 1560976101 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
  Updated 11.2.04
• The Good Man
  Author: Lee, Edward, Jae-Suk
  Publisher: Bridge Works $ 21.95 ISBN: 1882593944 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  With this striking novel, Edward Jae-Suk Lee delivers the beautifully and poignantly told story of Gabriel Cuttman, an aging Korean War veteran--a good man who has done bad things and is struggling with a terrible secret.
  Updated 5.31.07
• The Autobiography of God
  Author: Lester, Julius
  Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312288204 Date: 2004
  LJ
  From the author of Lovesong: Becoming a Jew comes this provocative new novel that asks the question: If God exists, then how could he allow the Holocaust to happen?
  Suggested Reading: Questions of Faith
  Updated 11.2.04
• Banishing Verona
  Author: Livesey, Margot
  Publisher: Holt $ 24 ISBN: 0805074627 Date: 2004
  PWKirkusLJ
  Deftly plotted and filled with unexpected twists, Banishing Verona marks the arrival of another lyrical and wise novel from a writer whose work "radiates with compassion and intelligence and always, deliciously, mystery" (Alice Sebold).
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 10.7.04
• Serving Crazy With Curry
  Author: Malladi, Amulya
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 12.95 ISBN: 0345466128 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Malladi tells of a woman's struggle for acceptance by her traditional Indian family.
  Suggested Reading: Stars of India
  Updated 10.7.04
• Wild Rose
  Author: Morren, Ruth Axtell
  Publisher: Steeple Hill $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 0373785275 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  An outcast all her life, Geneva Patterson endures the cruel taunts of the townspeople. Once a respected sea captain, Caleb Phelps moves to her small Maine town after he is accused of a shameful crime. Through God's grace, Geneva and Caleb try to find redemption and love.
  Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
  Updated 10.4.04
• Runaway
  Author: Munro, Alice
  Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 140004281x Date: 2004
  KirkusBooklistPW
  Alice Munro's superb new collection contains stories about women of all ages and circumstances, from a young woman who wants to leave her husband and a country girl who takes a job at a resort hotel to a woman who can foresee the future and its consequences.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 10.12.04
• Magic Seeds
  Author: Naipaul, V.S.
  Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 0375407367 Date: 2004
  PWBooklistLJ
  A present-moment novel that takes readers into the hearts and minds of those who use terrorism as an ideal and a way of life, this is a moving tale of a man searching for his life and fearing he has wasted it, and the conflicts between the rich and the poor.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 2.7.05
• The Power of Two
  Author: O'Shea, Patti
  Publisher: Lovespell $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0505525933 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  In the fourth title of this futuristic, action-adventure series, elite operative Cai Randolph must find an enigmatic figure named Banzai McGuire. Now more than ever Cai needs her partner, the dark-souled Jacob Tucker, to trust her completely.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 11.29.04
• Strike the Harp: American Christmas Stories
  Author: Parry, Owen
  Publisher: Morrow $ 14.95 ISBN: 0060572361 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  From the celebrated author of Our Simple Gifts, comes an all-new collectionof heartwarming holiday tales.
  Suggested Reading: Christmas Stars
  Updated 8.25.04
• Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2
  Author: Proulx, Annie
  Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743257995 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  From Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Annie Proulx comes a stellar collection of short stories set in Wyoming.
  Updated 9.24.04
• Zanna's GIft: A Life in Christmases
  Author: Richards, Scott
  Publisher: Forge $ 12.95 ISBN: 0765312379 Date: 2004
  LJ
  From the pen of a masterful storyteller comes a touching and inspirational story of love, loss, and the true meaning of Christmas that is sure to become a timeless classic that will be passed from generation to generation.
  Suggested Reading: Christmas Stars
  Updated 11.2.04
• The Retreat
  Author: Rimbaud, Patrick
  Publisher: Atlantic $ 24 ISBN: 0871138778 Date: 2004
  PWKirkus
  A gripping historical novel focused on Napoleon's dramatic invasion of Russia, The Retreat is a stirring follow-up to The Battle, winner of France's Goncourt Prize.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 11.22.04
• Gilead
  Author: Robinson, Marilynne
  Publisher: FSG $ 23 ISBN: 0374153892 Date: 2004
  KirkusBooklistPW
  In 1956, toward the end of Rev. John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. This is also the tale of wisdom forged during his solitary life and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Epistolary Stars
  Updated 8.12.04
• The Godfather Returns
  Author: Winegardner, Mark
  Publisher: Random $ 26.95 ISBN: 1400061016 Date: 2004
  PWBooklist
  Winegardner--whose proposal for this novel was chosen in an international competition--brings new artistry and vision to Mario Puzo's mythic characters.
  Suggested Reading: Mobbed Up
  Updated 12.6.04
• Big Breasts and Wide Hips
  Author: Yan, Mo
  Publisher: Arcade $ 27 ISBN: 1559706724 Date: 2004
  PW
  The winner of China's most prestigious prize for fiction--soon banned after it ran afoul of the guardians of official morality--spans seven time periods, from the end of the Qing dynasty to China's post-Mao years, presenting the female body as the book's most important image and metaphor.
  Updated 11.22.04

October

• Human Capital
  Author: Amidon, Stephen
  Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374173508 Date: 2004
  KirkusPWBooklist
  As the fortunes of two crumbling families become perilously interwoven, a terrible accident leads one of the patriarchs to begin speculating with human lives instead of money. The unforeseen consequences bring the novel to a devastating climax.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Adult Books for Young Adults
  Updated 9.7.04
• The Darling
  Author: Banks, Russell
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060197358 Date: 2004
  KirkusPWBooklist
  Raising serious philosophical questions about terrorism, political violence, and the clash of races and cultures, this political/historical thriller is Russell Banks at his best.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 8.12.04
• Before You Know Kindness
  Author: Bohjalian, Christopher
  Publisher: Crown $ 25 ISBN: 1400047455 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  For ten summers, the extended Seton family met at their country home in New Hampshire to spend a week together playing tennis and badminton and golf, and drinking gin and tonics on the homestead porch to celebrate the end of the season. But during the 11th summer, everything changes after a terrible accident.
  Suggested Reading: Summertime Stars
  Updated 8.13.04
• Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
  Author: Clarke, Susanna
  Publisher: Bloombury $ 29.95 ISBN: 1582344167 Date: 2004
  KirkusBooklistPWLJ
  Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that it leaves readers longing for more.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Magic & Magicians | Adult Books for Young Adults
  Updated 7.12.04
• The Green Age of Asher Witherow
  Author: Cunningham, M. Allen
  Publisher: Unbridled $ 24.95 ISBN: 1932961003 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Rich in historical detail, this gorgeously written debut novel tells the story of a young soul coming of age during the boom and bust years of a California Welsh coal mining in the 1860-70s. M. Allen Cunnignham writes about a place at once gritty, yet magical. He captures an intimate connection between the characters and a sweeping landscape, where the future seems filled with promise but where a day's labor is bone breaking and dangerous. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 8.16.04
• What You've Been Missing
  Author: Desaulniers, Janet
  Publisher: Univ of Iowa $ 15.95 ISBN: 087745910x Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Updated 8.9.04
• Red Queen: A Transcultural Tragicomedy
  Author: Drabble, Margaret
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 24 ISBN: 0151011060 Date: 2004
  KirkusPWLJBooklist
  Prior to her impending trip to Seoul, Barbara Halliwell receives a memoir of a Korean crown princess, written more than 200 years ago. But from whom? The story she avidly reads turns out to be one of great intrigue as well as tragedy.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 9.20.04
• Cheat and Charmer
  Author: Frank, Elizabeth
  Publisher: Random $ 25.95 ISBN: 1400060915 Date: 2004
  KirkusLJ
  Twenty-five years in the making, a first novel that has already been compared to The Sun Also Rises and The Last Tycoon, Cheat and Charmer is certain to be one of the most admired literary debuts of the season. Written by Pulitzer Prize--winning biographer Elizabeth Frank, Cheat and Charmer is a masterful and richly detailed work of fiction-a Tolstoyan novel of marriage, sisterhood, art, politics, compromise, and betrayal set in Hollywood, New York, Paris, and London of the 1950s. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction | McCarthyism Stars
  Updated 9.20.04
• Early Leaving
  Author: Goldman, Judy
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060594586 Date: 2004
  LJ
  From the critically acclaimed author of The Slow Way Back comes this piercingly honest, stunning portrait of a mother whose overwhelming love has dark repercussions for her only child.
  Updated 8.16.04
• The Coal Tattoo
  Author: House, Silas
  Publisher: Algonquin $ 22.95 ISBN: 1565123689 Date: 2004
  PW
  House's masterful third novel tells the story of how two sisters--who can't live together yet can't bear to be apart--learn to live through their painful pasts and need each other once again. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 8.2.04
• War Trash
  Author: Jin, Ha
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 25 ISBN: 0375422765 Date: 2004
  PWKirkusBooklistLJ
  Ha Jin's masterful new novel casts a searchlight into a forgotten corner of modern history, the experience of Chinese soldiers held in U.S. POW camps during the Korean War. In 1951 Yu Yuan, a scholarly and self-effacing clerical officer in Mao's "volunteer" army, is taken prisoner south of the 38th Parallel. Because he speaks English, he soon becomes an intermediary between his compatriots and their American captors.
  With Yuan as guide, we are ushered into the secret world behind the barbed wire, a world where kindness alternates with blinding cruelty and one has infinitely more to fear from one's fellow prisoners than from the guards. Vivid in its historical detail, profound in its imaginative empathy, War Trash is Ha Jin's most ambitious book to date.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 8.16.04
• Trespassing
  Author: Khan, Uzma Aslam
  Publisher: Metropolitan $ 27 ISBN: 0805075747 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Updated 8.9.04
• Janet & Me
  Author: Mack, Stan
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 14 ISBN: 0684872781 Date: 2004
  LJPW
  Featuring his trademark documentary cartooning style, acclaimed journalist-artist Stan Mack chronicles a poignant, unflinching, and intensely personal story of love and loss, and the remarkable relationship at the heart of it all.
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
  Updated 11.2.04
• Ghost in the Shell
  Author: Massamune, Shirow
  Publisher: Dark Horse $ 24.95 ISBN:1593072287 Date: 2004
  PW
  Deep into the 21st century, the line between man and machine has been inexorably blurred. In this rapidly converging landscape, cyborg super-agent Major Motoko Kusanagi is charged to track down the most dangerous terrorists and cybercriminals, including "ghost hackers," capable of exploiting the human/machine interface by reprogramming human minds to become puppets to carry out their criminal ends.
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
  Updated 12.27.04
• Gilgamesh: A New English Version
  Author: Mitchell, Stephen (ed)
  Publisher: Free $ 24 ISBN: 074326164x Date: 2004
  PW
  In the tradition of Seamus Heaney's bestselling translation of Beowulf comes a brilliant new rendering of the oldest epic in the world by esteemed translator and bestselling author Stephen Mitchell.
  Updated 8.16.04
• Astonishing Splashes of Colour
  Author: Morrall, Clare
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060734450 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, this compelling novel takes its title from J.M. Barrie's description of Peter Pan's Neverland and follows the life of Kitty, a woman who, in a sense, has never grown up.
  Updated 7.13.04
• Run No More
  Author: Mulvany, Catherine
  Publisher: Pocket Star $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0743493834 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  This first novel by a talented newcomer is a stunning paranormal romantic suspense tale about a woman who must travel through time to save the man she loves.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts | Romance Stars
  Updated 9.7.04
• The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great
  Author: Pressfield, Steven
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385500998 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  In the brilliantly imagined first-person voice of Alexander the Great, acclaimed novelist Pressfield brings to life his epic battles, his unerring command of his forces, and the passions and ambitions that drove him.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | Ancient Greece
  Updated 7.26.04
• Get Your War On 2
  Author: Rees, David
  Publisher: Riverhead $ 12 (paper) ISBN: 1594480486 Date: 2004
  PW
  The brilliant, irreverent clipart comic returns in this hilarious sequel to the smash cult hit.
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
  Updated 8.23.04
• Shantaram
  Author: Roberts, Gregory
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312330529 Date: 2004
  KirkusPW
  Based directly upon the experiences of its author, Shantaram is the story of a man who escapes from a maximum security in Australia to arrive in Bombay, the crossroads of the underworld, where he works in a first-aid station and smuggles drugs and guns.
  Updated 8.2304
• Northern Lights
  Author: Roberts, Nora
  Publisher: Putnam $ 25.95 ISBN: 0399152059 Date: 2004
  KirkusPW
  Lunacy was Nate Burke's last chance. As a Baltimore cop, he'd watched his partner die on the street--and the guilt still haunts him. With nowhere else to go, he accepts the job as Chief of Police in this tiny, remote Alaskan town, where he unearths the secrets and suspicions that lurk beneath Lunacy's placid surface. And his discovery will threaten the new life--and the new love--that he has finally found for himself.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 9.6.04
• Playing With Boys
  Author: Rodriguez, Alisa Valdes
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312332343 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Marcella, Olivia, and Alexis--each a Latina in her late twenties--bond not only over the trouble with men but about how tough it is to make life work in Los Angeles, no matter what you do. Playing with Boys is the vibrant new novel by the bestselling author of The Dirty Girls Social Club.
  Suggested Reading: Latino/Latina Stars
  Updated 8.16.04
• The Plot Against America
  Author: Roth, Philip
  Publisher: Houghton $ 26 ISBN: 0618509283 Date: 2004
  KirkusPWBooklistLJ
  In this alternate history, Pulitzer Prize-winner Roth considers what it would be like for his Newark family--and for a million such families all over the country--during the menacing years of a Charles Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happened to be Jews would have every reason to expect the worst.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Alternative History | Adult Books for Young Adults
  Updated 9.22.04
• The Christmas Matchmaker
  Author: Savery, Jeanne
  Publisher: Zebra $ 4.99 (paper) ISBN: 0821776533 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  It's a Christmas full of unexpected romance when a man rescues a widow and her child from a raging snowstorm and brings them along to a house party for the holidays.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars | Christmas Stars
  Updated 10.4.04
• The Saint of Incipient Insanities
  Author: Shafak, Elif
  Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374253579 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Shafak tells a comic and heartbreaking story of a group of twentysomething friends and their never-ending quest for fulfillment, presenting a vibrant exploration of love, friendship, culture, nationality, exile, and belonging.
  Updated 9.22.04
• In the Land of Second Chances
  Author: Shaffner, George
  Publisher: Algonquin $ 21.95 ISBN: 1565124405 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Reminiscent of It's a Wonderful Life, a captivating novel about the valuable lessons a small town learns from a mysterious traveling salesman.
  Updated 7.26.04
• The Last Song of Dusk
  Author: Shanghvi, Siddharth Dhanvant
  Publisher: Arcade $ 23.95 ISBN: 1559707348 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Updated 9.9.04
• Snowleg
  Author: Shakespeare, Nicholas
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 015101146x Date: 2004
  KirkusBooklist
  The award-winning writer of The Dancer Upstairs presents this beautifully written, sensitive story that spans the Cold War in 1960s East Germany to the 1980s, about one man's longing for a love he had the chance to grasp but failed to take.
  Updated 9.20.04
• The Jungle
  Author: Sinclair, Upton - Peter Kuper
  Publisher: Comics Lit $ 15.95 ISBN: 1561634042 Date: 2004
  PW
  Peter Kuper's Classics Illustrated adaptation of Upton Sinclair's whistle-blowing novel on the conditions at the Chicago slaughter houses in the early 20th century is brought back to press in a beautiful larger size hardcover. One of his best and most poignant works, this seminal novel created a scandal and brought about legislation of the meatpacking industry.
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
  Updated 12.27.04
• System of the World
  Author: Stephenson, Neal
  Publisher: Morrow $ 27.95 ISBN: 0060523875 Date: 2004
  KirkusPWLJ
  New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson pens the final volume in his hugely ambitious and compelling epic of intrigue, adventure, and excitement, filled with a remarkable cast of characters in a time of genius, discovery, and change.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | All Stars
  Updated 9.22.04
• The Send-Away Girl
  Author: Sutton, Barbara
  Publisher: Univ of Georgia $ 24.95 ISBN: 0820326550 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Barbara Sutton's quirky debut collection tracks the emotional journeys of characters struggling to find harmonious relationships with the people they are expected to love and be loved by. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 8.13.04
• A Complicated Kindness
  Author: Toews, Miriam
  Publisher: Counterpoint $ 23 ISBN: 1582433216 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  This landmark literary novel balances unbearable sadness and beauty in the voice of a witty, beleaguered teenager whose family is destroyed by fundamentalist Christianity.
  Suggested Reading: Questions of Faith
  Updated 9.22.04
• Soul City
  Author: Toure
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 19.95 ISBN: 0316741582 Date: 2004
  LJ
  From the popular author of the groundbreaking debut The Portable Promised Land comes an inventive and hilarious first novel about an African-American utopia threatened by the darker side of human nature.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts | African American Stars
  Updated 10.7.04
• A Bit on the Side: Stories
  Author: Trevor, William
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 067003343x Date: 2004
  PWKirkusBooklist
  From the bestselling author of The Story of Lucy Gault, Death in Summer, After Rain, and Felicia's Journey comes a collection of short fiction. Trevor is a regular contributor to "The New Yorker" magazine.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 9.7.04
• Villages
  Author: Updike, John
  Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 1400042909 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Updated 10.7.04
• Honored Guest
  Author: Williams, Joy
  Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0679446478 Date: 2004
  PWBooklist
  Updated 9.7.04

September

• How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater
  Author: Acito, Marc
  Publisher: Broadway $ 21.95 ISBN: 076791841X Date: 2004
  KirkusPW
  Set in 1983, this is a deliciously funny romp of a novel about one overly theatrical and sexually confused New Jersey teenager's larcenous quest for his acting school tuition.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts | Summertime Stars
  Updated 9.6.04
• The Clerkenwell Tales
  Author: Ackroyd, Peter
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385511213 Date: 2004
  KirkusPW
  This clever and colourful novel begins with "The Nun's Tale, and continues with "The Friar's Tale, "The Merchant's Tale and "The Clerk's Tale. Thus, story by story, Peter Ackroyd builds his portrait of medieval London. The people are disenchanted with the Church, with its wealth and corruption, its Pope in Rome and its Pope in Avignon. But heresy is dangerous -- almost as dangerous as rebellion. This is a novel about spies and counterspies, radicals and idealists, murderers and arsonists, sects and secret societies. It is a tale richly atmospheric and satisfying in its historical detail. - Publishers Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 7.19.04
• Hissy Fit
  Author: Andrews, Mary Kay
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060564644 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Welcome to the wonderful world of bestselling author Mary Kay Andrews, where the bourbon is cold, the manners are genteel, and a cheating varmint of an ex-fianc gets the comeuppance he so richly deserves.
  Suggested Reading: Antiques Mysteries | Romance Stars
  Updated 7.13.04
• The Librarian
  Author: Beinhart, Larry
  Publisher: Thunder's Mouth $ 15.95 (paper) ISBN: 1560256362 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  The acclaimed Edgar-winning mystery writer returns with this timely election novel that is to the present administration what his American Hero (filmed as Wag the Dog) was to Bush senior.
  Suggested Reading: Political Fiction
  Updated 8.9.04
• When the Nines Roll Over and Other Stories
  Author: Benioff, David
  Publisher: Viking $ 23.95 ISBN: 0670033391 Date: 2004
  PW
  From one of Hollywood's hottest young screenwriters and the widely acclaimed author of The 25th Hour comes a collection of cool, urbane, and skillfully crafted stories.
  Updated 7.6.04
• Katya
  Author: Birdsell, Sandra
  Publisher: Milkweed $ 24 ISBN: 1571310436 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Published in Canada as The Russlander, this historical novel is set in 1917 Russia and depicts peaceful lives uprooted by revolution.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 8.16.04
• Liberating Paris
  Author: Bloodworth-Thomason, Linda
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060596708 Date: 2004
  PW
  The creator of TV's Designing Women makes her publishing debut with this story of small town American life--the story of six friends on the verge of middle age who must come to terms with the past in order to claim the future for themselves and their children.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 8.9.04
• The Inner Circle
  Author: Boyle, T.C.
  Publisher: Viking $ 25.95 ISBN: 0670033448 Date: 2004
  BooklistPWLJ
  Fresh on the heels of his bestselling Drop City, Boyle's tenth novel features fabulous characters, a rollicking plot, and more sex than pioneering researcher Dr. Alfred Kinsey ever dreamed of documenting . . . or almost.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 7.13.04
• The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green
  Author: Braff, Joshua
  Publisher: Algonquin $ 23.95 ISBN:1565124200 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  A hilarious and heartbreaking novel about the unreasonable expectations a narcissistic father places on his less-than-perfect son.
  Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Young Adults
  Updated 7.6.04
• My Pleasure
  Author: Brockway, Connie
  Publisher: Pocket $ 6.99 ISBN: 0743463234 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  In the second title in the Regency-era Rose Hunters trilogy, Helena Nash works as the companion of an overbearing society matron and her great-niece, Flora. When Helena helps Flora secretly marry a poor nobleman, her actions lead her to the dangerous side of London and into the arms of swordsman Ramsey Munro.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 11.2.04
• Florence of Arabia
  Author: Buckley, Christopher
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400062233 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  A merciless dismantling of both American ineptitude and Arabic intolerance, Florence of Arabia is Christopher Buckley's funniest and most serious novel yet, a biting satire of how U.S. good intentions can cause the Shiite to hit the fan.
  Suggested Reading: Satire
  Updated 8.25.04
• Madeleine is Sleeping
  Author: Bynum, Sarah Shun-Lien
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 22 ISBN: 0151010595 Date: 2004
  PW
  Updated 6.7.04
• Safelight
  Author: Burke, Shannon
  Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 1400062012 Date: 2004
  KirkusLJ
  It’s 1990, and New York City is in shambles: unemployment reigns, crack wars rage, and whole neighborhoods burn as delinquent landlords cash in. Struggling to come to terms with his father’s death, paramedic and photographer Frank Verbeckas descends into the chaos and misery of upper Manhattan, taking photographs of the ill, the wounded, the dying, and the down-and-out. Accompanying him on his wanderings are his loudmouthed partner, Burnett; his best friend, Hock, who boosts drugs from the hospital; and his brother, Norman, a surgeon who can’t understand why Frank is in such pain. Frank’s ruin seems inevitable, but when he meets Emily, a professional fencer whose days are numbered by a fatal illness, his world changes. Against everyone’s advice, Frank and Emily fall in love. Together, they try to find a way out of the murk of guilt and sadness and learn to draw meaning and beauty from despair.

  In short, cinematic scenes, with not a word wasted and nothing told that can be shown, Shannon Burke leads us on a powerful journey through the darkest precincts of the street and of the soul. Honest, terse, and enormously moving, Safelight is a debut of remarkable depth, a stunning, clear-eyed, and sympathetic portrait of American life and death–a love story not for the faint of heart. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts | African American Stars
  Updated 9.22.04

• The Collected Stories of Truman Capote
  Author: Capote, Truman
  Publisher: Modern Library $ 24.95 ISBN: 0679643109 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Updated 9.7.04
• Crystal Lies
  Author: Carlson, Melody
  Publisher: Waterbrook $ 12.99 ISBN: 1578568404 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
  Updated 10.4.04
• The Children's War
  Author: Charlesworth, Monique
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400040094 Date: 2004
  KirkusPW
  Interweaving the stories of Ilse, a half-Jewish girl, and Nicolai, a Hitler Youth, The Children's War is a gripping, unforgettable story of growing up in a world gone mad.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | Child Soldiers | World Wars
  Updated 8.16.04
• Apocalypse Then: Stories
  Author: DeMarinis, Rick
  Publisher: Seven Stories $ 22.95 ISBN: 1583226370 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Updated 10.4.04
• Queen of Dreams
  Author: Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 21.95 ISBN: 0385506821 Date: 2004
  BooklistLJ
  In lush and elegant prose, Divakaruni has crafted a vivid and enduring dream--the story of Rakhi, a young artist, who finds solace in a dream journal written by her recently deceased mother.
  Suggested Reading: Stars of India
  Updated 7.6.04
• Life Mask
  Author: Donoghue, Emma
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 26 ISBN: 0151009430 Date: 2004
  KirkusPW
  The bestselling author of Slammerkin turns her attention to the Beau Monde of late 18th-century England, transforming the private drama of three celebrated Londoners into a robust, full-bodied portrait of a world, and lives, on the brink of revolution.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 7.26.04
• Curse of the Appropriate Man
  Author: Freed, Lynn
  Publisher: Harvest $ 13 (paper) ISBN: 0156029944 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  This collection of 14 short stories deals with the struggles between mothers and their wayward daughters, the often preposterous bonds that tie men and women together, and the complex games masters and servants play with one another.
  Updated 7.26.04
• The Divine Husband
  Author: Goldman, Francisco
  Publisher: Atlantic $ 24 ISBN: 0871139154 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Acclaimed and award-winning author Goldman delivers his third novel, a masterpiece love story, supported by an unforgettable cast of characters striving for love or success in the heady late 19th-century atmosphere of Guatemala City and New York.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 8.13.04
• The Pacific and Other Stories
  Author: Helprin, Mark
  Publisher: Penguin $ 25.95 ISBN: 159420036x Date: 2004
  PWLJBooklist
  This collection of 16 stories displays the remarkable scope, incomparable wit, and deft prose that have come to be Helprin's signature. Lighthearted, glittering fables are met with starker tales that sound the depths of sacrifice and duty.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 9.20.04
• Tokyo Tribes
  Author: Inoue, Santa
  Publisher: Tokyopop $ 9.95 (paper) ISBN: 1595321861 Date: 2004
  PW
  Tokyo Tribes paints a vivid, somewhat surreal vision of urban youth. When the heat between two of Tokyo's gangs gets personal, a bitter rivalry explodes into all-out warfare.
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
  Updated 9.27.04
• The Love Wife
  Author: Jen, Gish
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400042135 Date: 2004
  LJPW
  From the highly praised author of Mona in the Promised Land and Who's Irish? comes a generous, funny, explosive novel about the new "half-half" American family.
  Updated 7.26.04
• Broken for You
  Author: Kallos, Stephanie
  Publisher: Grove $ 23 ISBN: 0802117791 Date: 2004
  KirkusBooklistLJ
  Funny, heartbreaking and alive with a potpourri of eccentric and irresistible characters, this fresh and compulsively readable debut novel is about two women in self-imposed exile whose lives intersect, transforming both their worlds.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Debuts
  Updated 8.16.04
• The Weatherman
  Author: McCown, Clint
  Publisher: Graywolf $ 23 ISBN: 1555974058 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Responsibility, free will, and fate loom large in McCown's hilarious, suspenseful new novel. Taylor Wakefield uses his position as an unqualified weatherman for a fly-by-night broadcasting company to try to drop hints about his cousin's guilt in a murder case.
  Suggested Reading: Stormy Weather
  Updated 9.20.04
• The Secret Goldfish: Stories
  Author: Means, David
  Publisher: Fourth Estate $ 22.95 ISBN: 007164890 Date: 2004
  PWLJ
  From the Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winning author of Assorted Fire Events comes an extraordinary story collection.
  Updated 8.16.04
• The Butler Did It
  Author: Michaels, Kasey
  Publisher: Harlequin $ 6.50 (paper) ISBN: 0373770065 Date: 2004
  PW
  In this brand-new Regency romance, Morgan Drummond, the Marquis of Westham, finds his passions stirred when he meets debutante Emma Clifford, who is staying at his residence thanks to the Drummond's enterprising butler and a discreet classified ad.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 8.23.04
• April Fool's Day
  Author: Novakovich, Josip
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060583975 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  "In this harrowing and hilarious novel, Josip Novakovich's wry Croatian Candide is our sympathetic guide through the recent history of the Balkans, and through the pleasures and sorrows of an ordinary and extraordinary life."--Francine Prose.
  Suggested Reading: Former Yugoslavia
  Updated 7.26.04
• The Falls
  Author: Oates, Joyce Carol
  Publisher: Ecco $ 26.95 ISBN: 0060722282 Date: 2004
  KirkusPW
  In her new novel, set against the mythic-historic backdrop of Niagara Falls in the mid-20th century, Joyce Carol Oates explores the American family in crisis.
  Updated 7.6.04
• Heir to the Glimmering World
  Author: Ozick, Cynthia
  Publisher: Houghton $ 24 ISBN: 0618470492 Date: 2004
  KirkusBooklistOW
  Ozick pays homage to the most beloved writers of the 19th century--Charles Dickens, the Brontes, George Eliot--in a story set on the outskirts of the Bronx in the 1930s.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 8.9.04
• The Fearless Man
  Author: Pfarer, Donald
  Publisher: Random $ 25.95 ISBN: 1400062675 Date: 2004
  PW
  Updated 10.12.04
• The Skin of the Sky
  Author: Poinatowska, Elena
  Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374265755 Date: 2004
  LJBooklist
  The Skin of the Sky details the efforts of a country to join the 21st century and paints the portrait of a lonely man who can find true contentment and satisfaction only in the stars.
  Updated 10.19.04
• The First Desire
  Author: Reisman, Nancy
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 24 ISBN: 0375423087 Date: 2004
  PW
  A debut novel "of startling assurance and poise" (Nicholas Delbanco, author of What Remains), The First Desire takes readers back to the 1929 disappearance of Goldie Cohen and what happened to her family during the tumultuous years that followed.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 7.19.04
• Joy Comes in the Morning
  Author: Rosen, Jonathan
  Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374180261 Date: 2004
  PW
  Compassionate rabbi Deborah Green is drawn into the world of a Holocaust survivor who has recently attempted suicide. When she becomes involved with his son, their hesitant, often awkward courtship reawakens hope in the midst of chaos.
  Updated 7.12.04
• The Painting
  Author: Schuyler, Nina
  Publisher: Algonquin $ 22.95 ISBN: 1565124413 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Set in 1870s Japan and France, this atmospheric novel tells the story of a Japanese woman who escapes her arranged marriage by painting memories of her lover, which she secretly sends to an importer in Paris.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 9.20.04
• A Handbook of American Prayer
  Author: Shepard, Lucius
  Publisher: Thunder's Mouth $ 22 ISBN: 1568582811 Date: 2004
  PW
  Updated 11.2.04
• Fire Point
  Author: Smolens, John
  Publisher: Crown $ 22 ISBN: 0609611046 Date: 2004
  PW
  From the author of Cold comes a suspenseful, atmospheric story of love, revenge, and redemption set in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
  Updated 7.26.04
• The Finishing School
  Author: Spark, Muriel
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 16.95 ISBN: 0385512821 Date: 2004
  KirkusPW
  From the author of Aiding and Abetting comes the story of a school master at a vaguely dubious finishing school in Lausanne, Switzerland, and his jealously over a student prodigy with a historical novel already in progress.
  Suggested Reading: School Stars
  Updated 8.16.04
• Unfinished Life
  Author: Spragg, Mark
  Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 1400042011 Date: 2004
  LJBooklist
  Updated 6.1.04
• Outside Valentine
  Author: Ward, Liza
  Publisher: Holt $ 23 ISBN: 0805075984 Date: 2004
  PWBooklistLJ
  Debut novelist Ward interweaves a trio of voices--haunting, dangerous, and full of longing--mysteriously linked by a shocking crime and the search to heal the past.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts | All Stars| Adult Books for Young Adults
  Updated 9.20.04
• Little Earthquakes
  Author: Weiner, Jennifer
  Publisher: Atria $ 26 ISBN: 0743470095 Date: 2004
  LJPW
  From the New York Times bestselling author of In Her Shoes comes a hilarious and warmhearted story of three young women who find friendship against the background of new motherhood.
  Suggested Reading: Chicklit Stars
  Updated 9.18.04
• Citizen Vince
  Author: Walter, Jess
  Publisher: Regan $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060394412 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  From a highly acclaimed young novelist comes a story of witness protection, petty thievery, local politics and murder set against the turbulent backdrop of the 1980 presidential election.
  Suggested Reading: Political Fiction
  Updated 8.25.04
• Broken As Things Are
  Author: Witt, Martha
  Publisher: Holt $ 23 ISBN: 080507595x Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  "A sensitive Southern tale of weirdly imaginative children and hapless adults. Ms. Witt has staked out a territory somewhere between Harper Lee and Flannery O'Connor." - E. L. Doctorow. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts | Adult Books for Young Adults
  Updated 6.10.04
• The In-between World of Vikram Lall
  Author: Vassanji, M.G.
  Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 140004216x Date: 2004
  PWKirkus
  The author of The Book of Secrets, winner of the first Giller prize, brings readers a novel that is rich in sensuous detail and political insight. Neither colonists nor African, neither white nor black, an Indian brother and sister find themselves somewhere in between in their band of playmates. These are the friendships that will haunt the rest of their lives.
  Updated 7.26.04
• Songbird
  Author: Zacharius, Walter
  Publisher: Atria $ 24 ISBN: 0743482115 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  In this haunting and moving debut novel that echoes the emotional intensity of The Pianist, a young woman must rely on her remarkable strength of character in order to survive the devastation of World War II.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | Debuts | World War Stars
  Updated 6.10.04

August

• Harbor
  Author: Adams, Lorraine
  Publisher: Knopf $ 23.95 ISBN: 140004233x Date: 2004
  KirkusPW
  A powerful first novel that engages the tumultuous events of today: at once an intimate portrait of a group of young Arab Muslims living in the United States, and the story of one man's journey into-and out of-violence.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 6.14.04
• Checkpoint
  Author: Baker, Nicholson
  Publisher: Knopf $ 15.95 ISBN: 1400044006 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  From Nicholson Baker, best-selling author of Vox and the most original writer of his generation, his most audacious novel yet.
  Meet Jay. Meet Ben.
  Jay has summoned his old friend Ben to a hotel room not far from the nation's capitol. During the course of an afternoon, they will share a delicious lunch and will crack open a bottle of wine from the hotel minibar. They will chat about everything from Ben's new camera to Iraq to the unfortunate fate of a particular free-range chicken.
  And Jay will explain to Ben exactly why and how he is planning to commit a murder that will change the course of history.
  Updated 8.9.04
• The Last Night of a Damned Soul
  Author: Benaissa, Slimane
  Publisher: Grove $ 24 ISBN: 0802117805 Date: 2004
  LJ
  This extraordinary novel by an award-winning Algerian author tells the story of a young man from a moderate Arab-American family who is enticed into a Muslim fundamentalist group through his boss and a Palestinian coworker, and winds up conspiring to plot a terrorist attack.
  Updated 9.20.04
• The Lovers of Algeria
  Author: Benmalek, Anouar
  Publisher: Graywolf $ 16 (paper) ISBN: 155597404x Date: 2004
  PWLJ
  Updated 8.16.04
• Complete Short Novels
  Author: Chekhov, Anton
  Publisher: Everymans $ 23 ISBN: 1400040493 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Updated 6.30.04
• Last Call: Stories
  Author: Cook, K.L.
  Publisher: Univ of Nebraska $ 25 ISBN: 0803215401 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Updated 8.25.04
• Birds Without Wings
  Author: De Bernieres, Louis
  Publisher: Knopf $ 25.95 ISBN: 1400043417 Date: 2004
  LJBooklist
  Louis de Bernieres's last novel, Corelli's Mandolin, was met with the highest praise: "Behind every page," said Richard Russo, "we sense its author's intelligence, wit, heart, imagination, and wisdom. This is a great book." A. S. Byatt placed the author in "the direct line that runs through Dickens and Evelyn Waugh." Now, de Bernieres gives us his long-awaited new novel. Huge, resonant, lyrical, filled with humor and pathos, a novel about the political and personal costs of war, and of love-between men and women, between friends, between those who are driven to be enemies. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 9.22.04
• Sammy's Hill
  Author: Gore, Kristin
  Publisher: Miramax $ 23.95 ISBN: 1401352197 Date: 2004
  BooklistLJ
  Kristin Gore, comedy writer and daughter of Tipper and Al Gore, makes her hilarious and touching fiction debut with a poignant look at Capitol Hill as seen through the eyes of a particularly charming young intern.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts | Political Fiction
  Updated 8.16.04
• Maybe Baby
  Author: Darlington, Tenaya
  Publisher: Back Bay $ 13.95 (paper) ISBN: 0316000752 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Darlington's quirky sense of humor and emotional honesty is sure to appeal to fans of such critical and commercial successes as Aimee Bender, Meghan Daum, and, Haven Kimmel.
  Updated 6.30.04
• The Second Life of Samuel Tyne
  Author: Edugyan, Esi
  Publisher: Amistad $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060736038 Date: 2004
  PW
  Haunting and atmospheric, this debut novel portrays the heartbreak, hardship and moments of surprising grace in the life of a man struggling to realize his destiny.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 7.12.04
• Jigs & Reels: Stories
  Author: Harris, Joanne
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060590130 Date: 2004
  LJ
  A volume of refreshingly unique short fiction is delivered by the bestselling author of Coastliners and Chocolat.
  Updated 8.16.04
• The Silver Screen
  Author: Howard, Maureen
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670033588 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  The Silver Screen is the third in a series of novels that began with A Love's Almanac and Big as Life--each is complete on its own, but the characters and themes are woven as a tapestry of the four seasons.
  Updated 6.1.04
• The Wasp Eater
  Author: Lychak, William
  Publisher: Houghton $ 21 ISBN: 0618302441 Date: 2004
  LJKirkus
  Set in an old New England mill town in 1979, The Wasp Eater is the story of a nine-year-old boy's dream of reuniting his estranged parents, and is a haunting tale of characters caught in the crossfire of their desires and fears.
  Updated 7.8.04
• Wedding of the Two-Headed Woman
  Author: Mattison, Alice
  Publisher: Morrow $23.95 ISBN: 0066213789 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  From critically acclaimed author Mattison comes a lyrical and moving meditation on love, marriage, and identity.
  Updated 6.1.04
• Being Committed
  Author: Maxted, Anna
  Publisher: Regan $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060096691 Date: 2004
  PW
  In this fourth hilarious yet poignant novel, Maxted takes a funny, rueful look at intimacy (and its substitutes), commitment phobia, and the power others have over us.
  Suggested Reading: Chicklit
  Updated 7.26.04
• Cloud Atlas
  Author: Mitchell, David
  Publisher: Random $ 14.95 (paper) ISBN: 0375507256 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  From David Mitchell, the Booker Prize nominee, award-winning writer and one of the featured authors in Granta's Best of Young British Novelists 2003 issue, comes his highly anticipated third novel, a work of mind-bending imagination and scope.
  Suggested Reading: Dystopian & Apocalyptic Fiction
  Updated 5.10.04
• The Tree Bride
  Author: Mukherjee, Bharati
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 25.95 ISBN: 1401300588 Date: 2004
  BooklistPW
  In piecing together her ancestor's transformation from a docile Bengali Brahmin girl-child into an impassioned organizer of resistance against the British Raj, the contemporary narrator discovers and lays claim to unacknowledged elements in her "American" identity.
  Suggested Reading: Stars of India
  Updated 8.16.04
• An Evening of Long Goodbyes
  Author: Murray, Paul
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400061164 Date: 2004
  KirkusBooklistPW
  Vastly entertaining and outright hilarious, Paul Murray's debut heralds the arrival of a major new Irish talent. His protagonist is endearing and wildly witty-part P. G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster, with a cantankerous dash of A Confederacy of Dunces' Ignatius J. Reilly thrown in. With its rollicking plot and colorful characters, An Evening of Long Goodbyes is a delightful and erudite comedy of epic proportions.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Debuts
  Updated 6.30.04
• Waiting for Teddy Williams
  Author: Mosher, Howard Frank
  Publisher: Houghton $ 24 ISBN: 0618197222 Date: 2004
  PW
  Haunted by a dark mystery in his family's past, eight-year-old E.A. is an outcast in his Vermont town, except when it comes to baseball. A drifter named Teddy, who is determined to do one decent thing in his life, teaches E.A. how to really play ball.
  Updated 6.14.04
• Snow
  Author: Pamuk, Orhan
  Publisher: Knopf $ 26 ISBN: 0375406972 Date: 2004
  PW
  From the acclaimed author of My Name Is Red comes a spellbinding tale of colliding romantic, political, and spiritual passions. Ka, a Turkish poet, is drained of feeling and inspiration by years of lonely political exile in Germany. But when he becomes stranded in a Turkish border town, he will discover whether he is brave enough to seize a last chance for happiness.
  Updated 7.19.04
• Jimbo in Purgatory
  Author: Panter, Gary
  Publisher: Fantographics $ 29.95 ISBN: 1560975725 Date: 2004
  PW
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
  Updated 8.16.04
• Saints at the River
  Author: Rash, Ron
  Publisher: Holt $ 24 ISBN: 0805074872 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Drawing on the same lyrical prose and strong sense of place that distinguished his award-winning first novel, One Foot in Eden, Ron Rash has written a book about the deepest human themes: the love of the land, the hold of the dead on the living, and the need to dive beneath the surface to arrive at a deeper truth. Saints at the River confirms the arrival of one of today's most gifted storytellers. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 5.10.04
• Sweet and Vicious
  Author: Schickler, David
  Publisher: Dial $ 23 ISBN: 0385335687 Date: 2004
  KirkusBooklist
  In this first novel, the acclaimed author of Kissing Manhattan brings readers a larger-than-life legend of a tough guy on the run and the outrageous woman who tames his spirit. Passionate, criminal, comical and possessing all the dark enchantment of a fairy tale, Sweet and Vicious is a modern love story shot straight from the heart of David Schickler's miraculous imagination. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts | Driven Stars
  Updated 9.20.04
• Strange but True
  Author: Searles, John
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0688175716 Date: 2004
  PW
  Hailed as "a masterful storyteller (Frank McCourt), the author of Boy Still Missing is back with a haunting new novel of family, mystery, and miracles.
  Updated 7.6.04
• No Dark Valley
  Author: Turner, Jamie Langston
  Publisher: Bethany $ 12.99 ISBN: 0764227300 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  When Celia's grandmother dies, she must return to the small Southern town she hoped never to see again. In this masterfully written, inspiring story of reconciliation, Celia and the guilt-ridden next-door neighbor will both come to recognize the vastness of God's grace.
  Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
  Updated 9.7.04
• Colors Insulting to Nature
  Author: Wilson, Cintra
  Publisher: Fourth Estate $ 24.95 ISBN: 0007154607 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  "The publisher is reputedly bouncing up and down about this first novel by pop culture doyenne Wilson, whose columns can be spotted on Salon.com. Teenaged Liza wants to be a starlet, but she is really something much more special."--Library Journal.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 7.6.04

July

• City of Glass
  Author: Auster, Paul, Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli
  Publisher: Picador $ 14 (paper) ISBN: 0312423608 Date: 2004
  PW
  In Auster's groundbreaking, Edgar Award-nominated masterwork, an unknown voice on the telephone is begging a mystery writer for help, drawing him into a world far stranger than any he has ever created in print.
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
  Updated 5.17.04
• The Lemon Table: Stories
  Author: Barnes, Julian
  Publisher: Knopf $ 22.95 ISBN: 1400042143 Date: 2004
  PWBooklist
  Master prose stylist Julian Barnes presents a collection of stories whose characters are growing old and facing the end of their lives--some with bitterness, some with resignation, and others with raging defiance.
  Updated 6.15.04
• Let the Church Say Amen
  Author: Billingsley, Reshonda Tate
  Publisher: Pocket $ 13 (paper) ISBN: 0743477146 Date: 2004
  LJ
  "In her riveting second novel, ReShonda Tate Billingsley -- winner of the Gold Pen Award for Best New Author for My Brother's Keeper -- crafts a bold and heartwarming story of family and faith that will inspire readers everywhere." - Publishers Marketing
  Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
  Updated 9.20.04
• Had a Good Time: Stories from American Postcards
  Author: Butler, Robert Olen
  Publisher: $ ISBN: Date:
  BooklistKirkus
  In his dazzling new book of stories, Butler explores America by finding artistic inspiration in an unlikely and fascinating place--the backs of postcards from the early 20th century.
  Updated 6.1.04
• The Food of Love
  Author: Capella, Anthony
  Publisher: Viking $ 21.95 ISBN: 0670033227 Date: 2004
  LJ
  In the spirit of Like Water for Chocolate and Chocolat, Capella's delicious first novel, tempts readers to devour it at one sitting and confirms that fine food and romance are a winning combination.
  Suggested Reading: Cooked Books | Debuts
  Updated 7.13.04
• Buddy Cooper Finds a Way
  Author: Connelly, Neil
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 0743246640 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Reality collides with the world of make-believe in this remarkable debut novel of a man haunted by his past--and terrified of his future.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 4.26.04
• Bad Ground
  Author: Cramer, W. Dale
  Publisher: Bethany $ 12.99 (paper) ISBN: 076422784x Date: 2004
  PWBooklistLJ
  To honor his mother's dying wish, 17-year-old Jeremy seeks out his bitter, estranged uncle. Despite his uncle's protests, he takes a job as a miner where his faith is tested by gritty coworkers, the threat of danger . . . and the possibility of love.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Christian Fiction Stars
  Updated 6.1.04
• Circus in Winter
  Author: Day, Cathy
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 23 ISBN: 015101048x Date: 2004
  KirkusLJPW
  From 1884 to 1939, the Great Porter Circus made the unlikely choice to winter in an Indiana town called Lima. Day follows a colorful cast of circus people into their everyday lives and brings the greatest show on earth to the page.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Circus Stars | Debuts
  Updated 5.17.04
• A Seahorse Year
  Author: D'Erasmo, Stacey
  Publisher: Houghton $ 24 ISBN: 0618439234 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  D'Erasmo's novel is about love at the very edge, about the things people do out of love, the unexpected risks of intimacy, and how families shatter and re-form under duress.
  Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Young Adults
  Updated 6.10.04
• The Big Love
  Author: Dunn, Sarah
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316738158 Date: 2004
  PWLJ
  Hilarious and heartbreaking, combining the emotional incisiveness of Jane Austen with the up-to-the-minute frankness of Sex and the City, Dunn's latest work will be the passing must-read novel of the summer.
  Updated 7.13.04
• Rear View: Stories
  Author: Duval, Pete
  Publisher: Mariner $ 10.00 (paper) ISBN: 0618441409 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Starkly honest, gritty, and at times darkly humorous, the 12 stories in Duval's debut collection feature blue-collar workers, lapsed Catholics, bullies, and smalltime thieves struggling with their jobs, their relationships, and their families.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 6.1.04
• Voyageurs
  Author: Elphinstone, Margaret
  Publisher: Canongate $ 24 ISBN: 1841955493 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Set against the magnificent backdrop of 19th-century Canada, addresses the timeless themes of war, love, and the emotional bonds that bind us to one another.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 6.1.04
• Four Souls
  Author: Erdrich, Louise
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0066209757
  KirkusBooklist
  A stunning new novel from one of America's premiere novelists is a book that brings back the characters from her beloved New York Times bestseller, Tracks.
  Updated 4.21.04
• Bet Your Bottom Dollar
  Author: Gillespie, Karin
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 19.95 ISBN: 0743250109 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Serving up heaping portions of small-town wit and Southern cadence, the first novel in the new "Bottom Dollar Girls" series crackles with more secrets thana slumber party.
  Updated 5.10.04
• Splitting Storm
  Author: Gutteridge, Rene
  Publisher: Heartquest $ 9.97 ISBN: 0842386025 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  In this gripping novel with underlying themes of faith and spiritual blindness, FBI agent Mick Klein embarks on a journey to discover the truth about his brother's murder.
  Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
  Updated 10.4.04
• Mortal Love
  Author: Hand, Elizabeth
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0061051705 Date: 2004
  PWKirkus
  The breakout book from acclaimed author Hand is a powerful, beautifully written and romantic story of art, obsession, and imagination that ranges from Victorian London to present-day New York.
  Updated 5.10.04
• Ghost Writer
  Author: Harwood, John
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 0151010749 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Harwood's tantalizing tale of suspense and family secrets weaves Victorian ghost stories into the present where they start to come true. This astonishing, assured debut shows just how dangerous family skeletons--and stories--can be.
  Suggested Reading: Literary Gothic
  Updated 9.13.06
• Blackbird House
  Author: Hoffman, Alice
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 19.95 ISBN: 0385507615 Date: 2004
  KirkusPW
  With "incantatory prose" that "sweeps over the reader like a dream," (Philadelphia Inquirer), Hoffman follows her celebrated bestseller The Probable Future with an evocative work that traces the lives of the various occupants of an old Massachusetts house over a span of 200 years.
  Updated 6.21.04
• Sock
  Author: Jillette, Penn
  Publisher: Griffin $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 0312328052 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  When a police diver finds the body of his ex-lover in the waters off New York City, he realizes she was the love of his life, so he sets off to find her killer along with her best friend, a gay hairdresser.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 5.7.04
• An Unfinished Season
  Author: Just, Ward S.
  Publisher: Houghton Mifflin $ 24 ISBN: 0618036695 Date: 2004
  KirkusPWBooklist
  The distinguished chronicler of American social history and political culture hauntingly captures the 1950s, a time when even the small-town family could not escape the nationwide suspicion and dread of "the enemy within."
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | McCarthyism Stars | Labor Stars
  Updated 6.1.04
• Deborah
  Author: Kreitman, Esther Singer
  Publisher: Feminist $ 24.95 ISBN: 1558614699 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Originally published in Yiddish in 1936, Esther Kreitman's vivid and poignant autobiographical novel follows the life of Deborah, a rabbi's daughter, from the ages of 14 to 18. Because she is a girl, Deborah is condemned to household chores, barred from the books she yearns for and destined for an arranged marriage. I. B. Singer has said that his sister Esther and her thwarted hunger for learning and experience inspired his story "Yentl." Wrtten with grace and passion, Deborah is a rare gem by a writer undervalued in her own time and too long forgotten in ours. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 8.16.04
• Country of Origin
  Author: Lee, Don
  Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0393058123
  PWBooklist
  The mystery of an American woman's disappearance in Tokyo is intertwined with the mystery of her origins. Her best chance at being found may lie in the improbable hands of a neurotic Japanese cop ridiculed by his peers.
  Suggested Reading: Asian American Stars | Debuts
  Updated 5.7.04
• The Preservationist
  Author: Maine, David
  Publisher: St Martins $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312328478 Date: 2004
  PW
  Maine has penned a compelling and fresh novel based on the story of Noah and the flood, told with wisdom, wry humor and a modern sensibility.
  Suggested Reading: Questions of Faith
  Updated 6.14.04
• Amagansett
  Author: Mills, Mark
  Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399151842 Date: 2004
  LJBooklist
  Amagansett is a novel as sweeping and haunting as the landscape of sky and sea it evokes. Beautifully and powerfully told, it announces the arrival of a gifted writer who skillfully weaves together a delicate love story, a brutal murder, an unforgettable evocation of a place and time, and characters shaped by the epic forces of nature, class, war, and memory. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 8.12.04
• Carnivore's Inquiry
  Author: Murray, Sabina
  Publisher: Grove $ 24 ISBN: 0802117694 Date: 2004
  PW
  Told in highly intelligent prose reminiscent of Patrick McGrath or Angela Carter, this is a sly, unsettling exploration of the questionable appetites that lurk beneath the veneer of North American civilization.
  Updated 6.1.04
• The Assignment
  Author: Olsen, Mark Andrew
  Publisher: Bethany $ 12.99 (paper) ISBN: 076422817x Date: 2004
  LJ
  In his first solo novel, Olsen poses the question: What if the Restrainer of II Thessalonians, an immortal man, flawed and discouraged over his inability to better succeed at his immense mission to restrain evil in the world, is discovered? And what if at a time when the world hangs on the precipice of a third world war, this man is given one final opportunity to do battle with the Evil One?
  Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
  Updated 6.1.04
• What Happened to Henry
  Author: Pywell, Sharon L.
  Publisher: Putnam $ 19.95 ISBN: 0399151680 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  In this funny, moving, wise, and powerful tale, a family struggles to understand their own son--who is either crazy or blessed--not unlike the Cold War America in which they live.
  Suggested Reading: Atomic Age Stars
  Updated 4.8.04
• DB
  Author: Reid, Elwood
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 23.95 ISBN:0385497385 Date: 2004
  LJ
  This stunning fictional imagining of legendary American folk hero D.B. Cooper's daring hijacking and its aftermath is penned by one of the toughest, most distinctive voices in American fiction.
  Updated 6.1.04
• The Impartial Recorder
  Author: Sansom, Ian
  Publisher: Fourth Estate $ 24.95 ISBN: 0007157398 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Updated 7.13.04
• Field Study: Stories
  Author: Seiffert, Rachel
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 19.95 ISBN: 0375422595
  Kirkus
  From Rachel Seiffert - chosen as one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists in 2003 - comes a collection of stories that clearly exhibits the range of her talents. In a variety of settings- historical and contemporary, domestic and international- and circumstances, these stories map the terrain of human behavior with a nuance and subtlety that are at once dazzling and unsettling. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 4.8.04
• Age of Bronze: Sacrifice
  Author: Shanower, Eric
  Publisher: Image Comics $ 29.95 ISBN: 1582403600 Date: 2004
  LJ
  While Trojan prince Paris returns to Troy with Helen, the Achaean fleet mistakenly attacks Mysia, then is scattered by a storm. High King Agamemnon gathers the army again, but for the fleet to sail, the gods require the life of Agamemnon's eldest daughter, Iphigenia.
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars | Ancient Greece
  Updated 11.2.04
• Momumental Propaganda
  Author: Voinovich, Vladimir
  Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 0375412352 Date: 2004
  KirkusBooklist
  From the author of The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin comes a brilliant new novel spanning 50 years of Russian history--from the tumult following the Second World War to the chaos of today's "new Russia."
  Suggested Reading: Stalin
  Updated 8.12.04
• The Assistants
  Author: Williams, Robin Lynn
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060723866 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Compulsively readable and sinfully gossipy, this is the tale of five Hollywood personal assistants who band together to turn the tables on their celebrity employers--written by a former personal assistant to a star.
  Suggested Reading: Hollywood & Film Stars
  Updated 5.4.04