Publisher Weekly Best Books of the Year 2008: Fiction

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“May you live in interesting times” is a quote commonly attributed to Confucius, probably erroneously, but Robert F. Kennedy did use it in a speech in 1966, adding a rueful twist: “Like it or not, we live in interesting times....” Regardless of your thinking on these current times, they are certainly anything but boring, and we feel the same about the books published this year.

Once again, we take the opportunity near year's end to review the year in books, highlighting the very best of what American publishing had to offer in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, comics, religion, lifestyle and children's. There were the authors we expected to deliver, and they did: Louise Erdrich with The Plague of Doves, Richard Price with Lush Life, Jhumpa Lahiri with Unaccustomed Earth, Lydia Millet with How the Dead Dream. A breakthrough surprise about cricket, Netherland by Joseph O'Neill, delighted us, while Tim Winton's Breath took ours away. We listened to our elders in How to Live: A Search for Wisdom from Old People; thought about our planet with The Soul of the Rhino; examined our history in The Hemingses of Monticello and Abraham Lincoln: A Life; and, thanks to Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, we even considered Jesus for President.

1. When Will There Be Good News? By Kate Atkinson
   
   
   (literature and fiction)
   
   "Unrelated characters and plot lines collide with momentous results in Atkinson's third novel to feature ex-cop turned PI Jackson Brodie."
   
   


2. 2666: A Novel by Roberto Bolano
   
   
   (literature and fiction)
   
   "Bolaño's sprawling masterpiece revolves around a passel of academics, a reclusive German writer and a fictionalized Juarez, Mexico. Pure brilliance."
   
   


3. Hold Tight By Harlan Coben
   
   
   (literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers)
   
   "Edgar-winner Coben's unnerving thriller follows a sadistic suburban killer in a New Jersey community with his usual mastery."
   
   


4. The Brass Verdict By Michael Connelly
   
   
   (literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers)
   
   "This beautifully executed crime thriller brings together two popular Connelly characters, LAPD Det. Harry Bosch and L.A. lawyer Mickey Haller."
   
   


5. Master Of The Delta By Thomas H. Cook (harcourt)
   
   
   (literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers)
   
   "Edgar-winner Cook examines the slow collapse of a prominent Southern family in this magnificent tale of suspense set in 1954."
   
   


6. The Konkans By Tony D'souza
   
   
   (literature and fiction)
   
   "This story of an Indian-American family's immigrant experience in Chicago is loaded with humor and pathos. Young in writer-years, D'Souza writes with a seasoned hand. "
   
   


7. The Plague Of Doves By Louise Erdrich
   
   
   (literature and fiction)
   
   "Erdrich's 13th novel, a multigenerational tour de force of sin, redemption, murder and vengeance, finds its roots in the 1911 slaughter of a farming family near Pluto, N. Dak."
   
   


8. The Likeness By Tana French
   
   
   (literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers)
   
   "Fans of psychological suspense will embrace Irish author French, who blurs the boundaries between victim and cop, memory and fantasy, in this stunning sequel to her debut, In the Woods."
   
   


9. Sea Of Poppies By Amitav Ghosh
   
   
   (literature and fiction)
   
   "Diaspora, myth and a fascinating language mash-up propel the Rubik's cube of plots in Ghosh's picaresque epic. The cast is marvelous and the plot majestically serpentine, but the real hero is the English language, which has rarely felt so alive and vibrant."
   
   


10. Ritual By Mo Hayder
    
    
    (literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers)
    
    "Readers looking for visceral thrills need look no further than this British crime novel involving African witchcraft."
    
    


11. The Lazarus Project By Aleksandar Hemon
    
    
    (literature and fiction)
    
    "Dueling story lines about Central European immigrants dovetail into a masterful account of the immigrant experience and the quest for identity in MacArthur genius Hemon's second novel, an NBA finalist."
    
    


12. Day By A.l. Kennedy
    
    
    (literature and fiction)
    
    "Kennedy's highly stylized and immeasurably sad sixth novel (after Paradise) follows former Royal Air Force tail gunner Alfred Day as he relives his experiences in a WWII German prison camp."
    
    


13. My Revolutions By Hari Kunzru
    
    
    (literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers)
    
    "A reformed London radical's past returns to haunt him in Kunzru's divine novel."
    
    


14. Unaccustomed Earth By Jhumpa Lahiri
    
    
    (literature and fiction)
    
    "The gulf that separates expatriate Bengali parents from their American-raised children—and that separates the children from India—remains Lahiri's subject for this faultless follow-up to The Namesake."
    
    


15. Sway By Zachary Lazar
    
    
    (literature and fiction)
    
    "Lazar channels the Rolling Stones, Kenneth Anger and a Manson family associate in this piercing examination of the dread and exhilaration of the late 1960s."
    
    


16. The Boat By Nam Le
    
    
    (literature and fiction)
    
    "The stories in Le's stunning debut collection cover a vast geographic territory and are filled with exquisitely painful and raw moments of revelation, captured in an economical style as deft as it is sure. "
    
    


17. The Given Day By Dennis Lehane
    
    
    (literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers)
    
    "In a splendid flowering of the talent previously demonstrated in his crime fiction (Gone, Baby, Gone; Mystic River), Lehane combines 20th-century American history, a gripping story of a family torn by pride and the strictures of the Catholic Church, and the plot of a multifaceted thriller."
    
    


18. Flesh House By Stuart Macbride
    
    
    (literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers)
    
    "Scottish author MacBride's dry wit turns what could have been a gratuitously gory slasher story into a crackling thriller."
    
    


19. How The Dead Dream By Lydia Millet
    
    
    (literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers)
    
    "Millet is as lyrical, haunting and deliciously absurd as ever in this Heart of Darkness–style journey into massive loss."
    
    


20. Netherland By Joseph O'neill
    
    
    (literature and fiction)
    
    "A Dutch-born equities analyst gets swept up by a fast-talking, crooked-dealing Bangladeshi cricket enthusiast in post-9/11 New York City in O'Neill's beautifully written and intelligent novel. "
    
    


21. Knockemstiff By Donald Ray Pollock
    
    
    (literature and fiction)
    
    "They don't come much grittier than this debut collection set in Knockemstiff, Ohio, a grimy pocket of derelicts, perverts and criminals. "
    
    


22. Lush Life By Richard Price
    
    
    (literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers)
    
    "Price trains his sharp eye and flawless ear on Manhattan's Lower East Side in this manic crescendo of a novel that explores the repercussions of a seemingly random shooting."
    
    


23. Serena By Ron Rash
    
    
    (literature and fiction)
    
    "This implacably grim tale of greed and corruption gone wild—and of eventual, well-deserved revenge—follows the dealings of a Depression-era lumber baron and his callous new wife. "
    
    


24. Breath By Tim Winton
    
    
    (literature and fiction)
    
    "Two daredevil Australian teens get involved with a dangerous surfer (and his more dangerous wife) in this taut story of death, life, pleasure and thrill-seeking."
    
    


25. The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle By David Wroblewski
    
    
    (literature and fiction)
    
    "A Wisconsin mute hides out in the woods with hyperintelligent dogs in Wroblewski's contemporary riff on Macbeth. "
    
    


Source:
http://www.publishersweekly.com

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