Deborah Donovan
Content by Deborah Donovan
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John Dalton's debut novel, Heaven Lake, is an ambitious compilation of a coming-of-age tale, a travelogue, and a probe into the role of fate in individual destiny.
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Leah Stewart’s fourth novel, following 2011’s Husband and Wife, opens as 28-year-old Eloi
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Echoing the themes of his National Book Award nominee, The Feast of Love, Charles Baxter's latest novel examines the ways in which humanity is enriched by our capacity to both love and be love
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Colum McCann's previous novels have vividly demonstrated his ability to delve into the obscure corners of history and emerge with compelling and memorable characters.
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Grace and Mike Covey are living a charmed life in contemporary London—she’s a part-time journalist for a local paper, and he’s a sought-after BBC filmmaker.
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The rippling effects of war lie at the heart of Amanda Hodgkinson’s haunting debut novel, as one fractured family tries to build a new life together while each member struggles to bury memori
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The fifth novel in what was originally thought by critics to be a trilogy, Rhino Ranch appears to be Larry McMurtry’s last foray into the small and dying town of Thalia, Texa
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Southern novelist Jill McCorkle’s latest character-driven and emotionally vivid novel is set—as is most of her previous work—in Fulton, North Carolina, a small town in which the r
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What initially seems to be a well-researched period piece soon evolves into much more in Ann-Marie MacDonald's stunning follow-up to her highly praised debut, Fall On Your Knees.
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Louise Erdrich's 13th mesmerizing and generations-spanning tale, A Plague of Doves, takes place in the small, now-dying town of Pluto, North Dakota - a town founded by whites in the late 1800s
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Six months before Polly Cain drowned in the canal, my sister, Nona, ran off and married a cowboy.
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Minnesota author Peter Geye’s engaging second novel, following 2011’s Safe from the Sea, is also set in northern Minnesota, near the rugged shores of Lake Superior.
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Cecelia Ahern, the 22-year-old daughter of Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, writes with insight beyond her years in her debut novel, P.S.
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Anna Quindlen’s previous novels have all been centered on families—whether average, non-traditional or dysfunctional; she even calls herself “hyperdomestic.” It comes as no
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Lisa See’s previous work has highlighted the lives of women in China from the 17th century to the present.
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A mesmerizing tale of revenge, retribution and forgiveness lies at the core of Louise Erdrich's latest work, Four Souls, in which she reprises characters from Love Medicine and The B
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The chaos in the art world resulting from World War II continues to this day, as paintings, icons and sculptures routinely emerge in auction rooms and private sales.
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Karen Joy Fowler's fifth novel follows 2004's The Jane Austen Book Club, which was made into a movie last year.
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Molly Gloss' enchanting fifth novel, The Hearts of Horses, is set in eastern Oregon during the first winter of World War I.
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Joyce Maynard’s novels are beloved for their compelling and carefully drawn characters, and this—her sixth—carries on that tradition, with three characters whose lives intersect b
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Michael White, a Pushcart nominee for his short fiction, has written four previous novels, each one featuring compelling characters caught in unexpected plot twists spawned by the vagaries of human n
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A cornucopia of stories, woven intricately together by one exquisite painting, flows throughout Nina Schuyler's debut novel, each one dependent on the other, yet shining on its own.
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The reader meets quirky Chrysalis Moffat, narrator of Sandra Newman's enigmatic and rewarding first novel, as she awaits her adoptive mother's funeral.
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Readers young and old are attracted to books that explore the mysterious and emotionally powerful human-animal bond, from Lassie Come Home to The Yearling, from Black Beauty
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In her short stories and previous novels, Antonya Nelson has established her niche by portraying the domestic crisis—the tensions between spouses and generations—with a feel for the hum
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Following her well-received fictional biography of Cleopatra, Karen Essex's latest novel brilliantly captures the turbulent years of late 15th-century Italy as seen through the eyes of the bold and b
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Issue:
Elizabeth L.
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Rare is the novel that contains both a sense of place so evocative the reader feels he has been there himself, and characters so vividly drawn that they tenaciously lure the reader into their inner l
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First novel sure to make a splash Kantner, winner of the Milkweed National Fiction Prize for this debut novel, was born and raised in northern Alaska; his feelings for the land and the animals t
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Set in the isolated and fictitious town of Minerva, Minnesota, in the 1920s, Sharratt's luminous second novel captivates the reader from the first page with an intriguing tale of three strong women w
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Louise Erdrich's masterful storytelling shines once again in her 11th novel, The Painted Drum, in which she weaves together three stories, all connected by the mystical power of a long-lost Oj
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The third in Kevin Baker's cinematic trilogy spotlighting momentous episodes in the history of New York City, Strivers Row brings to vivid life all that was Harlem in 1943 the country in the m
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<B>In McMurtry's latest, two wild women hit the road</B> When Larry McMurtry is not writing a western, the West is usually lurking somewhere in the background.
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Jean Thompson’s latest compelling and character-driven novel, following 2011’s
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Peter Murphy’s captivating and brutally honest debut tells the story of John Devine, raised by his single mother Lily in a small town on Ireland’s southeast coast.
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Erin McGraw has made her mark with short stories peopled by quirky yet thoroughly believable characters caught up in the vagaries of familial relationships.
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In Cammie McGovern’s third novel, Neighborhood Watch, she probes the underbelly of a quiet, undistinguished neighborhood in a small Connecticut town—an unlikely setting
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Charles Baxter’s gift for the short story is manifested in Gryphon, a compilation of stories selected from four earlier collections, joined by seven previously uncollected works.
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Australian author Peter Carey, winner of the Booker Prize both in 1988 for <i>Oscar and Lucinda</i> and 2001 for <i>True History of the Kelly Gang</i>, mines the pricey wor
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John Casey’s 1989 National Book Award winner, Spartina, depicted a tightly knit Rhode Island community steeped in the sea—its financial and emotional support system.
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Anne Tyler is known and loved for her character studies—delicate and perceptive probings into imperfect, achingly familiar lives.
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The aristocratic and very British Berrybender clan continues to tackle the western frontier head-on in the second volume of Larry McMurtry's tetralogy, which unfolds in 1833 along the Yellowstone Riv
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Larry McMurtry is, of course, best known for his novels, many of which have been made into movies, including The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment and Lonesome Dove.
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In acclaimed memoirist Da Chen's fictional debut, he blends an account of China's late 20th-century political history with the gripping story of two half-brothers separated by fate.
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Tawni O'Dell made a dramatic entrance onto the literary scene with her first novel, Back Roads (1999), an Oprah's Book Club selection which garnered rave reviews.
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Tom Bailey's riveting and thought-provoking second novel, Cotton Song, zeroes in on a small town in Mississippi during the summer of 1944.
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<b>More from McMurtry's Wild West</b> Larry McMurtry's humorous take on the realities of life in the often-glamorized Old West is in high gear in his latest novel, <b>Telegraph Da
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The carefully researched The Guggenheims: A Family History is an intriguing look at one of the country's wealthiest and most influential families from the 1880s to the present, as well as
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Now in her 70s, Fay Weldon has written for 40 years about women struggling to balance their careers with family, and their sexual proclivities with the mores of their particular era.
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Michael Pearson, a professor of creative nonfiction, successfully transfers his talents to fiction writing in his debut novel, Shohola Falls, a thought-provoking blend of historical fiction an
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Canadian author Michael Ondaatje is best known for his 1992 novel, The English Patient, which won the Booker Prize that year.
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Herman Koch’s mesmerizing and disturbing novel starts out slowly, as two couples meet for dinner at a pricey, somewhat snobbish restaurant in Amsterdam.
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In his fifth novel, The Whiskey Rebels, David Liss delves once again into the financial intrigues of an earlier century and the effects they had on his cast of characters, both fic
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The Promise of the Wolves is the first in a trilogy with an unusual premise: chronicling the life of an ancient wolf pack.
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Kyle and Klint Hayes are a freshman and junior in the high school of a slowly dying western Pennsylvania coal town.
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Michael Malone is a prolific writer who has won awards ranging from an Emmy to an Edgar; he favors robust casts of characters and sprawling, intricate plots--and he continues in that vein with his
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The aftermath of the Civil War—specifically, the Reconstruction era in Alabama—comes to vivid life in Taylor M.
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Stephanie Kallos' well-received debut novel, 2004's Broken for You, was praised for its engaging cast of eccentric characters.
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Readers of Connie May Fowler's earlier novels, including Before Women Had Wings, will recognize some familiar elements in this, her fifth: her unique blend of lyrical prose and mysticism, musi
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Ava Dabrowski—eight years out of college and satisfied, if not completely happy, with her well-paying job at a Chicago ad agency—has come to a crossroads. An affair with her boss h
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In Dennis McFarland's earlier novels, including his well-received debut, The Music Room (1990), and the acclaimed Prince Edward (2004), he displayed a remarkable finesse for creating scenes of fa
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Rachel Pastan's 2004 debut novel, This Side of Married, chronicled the attempts of a well-meaning but pushy mother to manipulate the love lives of her three grown daughters, with often humorou
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<B>The beat of a city's heart</B> Novelist Keith Ridgway is inspired by Dublin, his home.
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John Burnham Schwartz introduced readers to two Connecticut families inextricably bound by tragedy in his breakout novel Reservation
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Aaron and Dorothy may have seemed an odd couple to family, neighbors and co-workers.
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Jodi Picoult, in her 19 previous provocative, plot-driven novels, has tackled a broad spectrum of timely social issues—from child abuse and capital punishment to organ donation and Asperger&r
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Muddy River, a small provincial Chinese city, is the setting for this intense and thought-provoking debut novel from Yiyun Li, who was raised in Beijing.
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The traditional true-crime novel often takes the form of an introspective look at the criminal, focusing on aberrations in upbringing that might lead to a life of crime.
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Issue:
Santa Fe author Jo-Ann Mapson has written 10 previous novels set in the contemporary West, including Solomon’s Oak (2010), a prequel to her latest engaging, character-driven story.
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This spellbinding debut novel set in the north woods of Wisconsin resonates with the reader on many levels.
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Stef Penney's mesmerizing debut novel, winner of Britain's Costa Book of the Year Award (formerly the Whitbread Award), entertains on several levels.
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Michelle Hoover’s debut novel is a haunting, beautifully told story that explores the hardships of the Great Depression by focusing on two families—neighbors who are in many ways comple
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Art historians have written profusely about how Theo van Gogh supported his brother Vincent financially and unfailingly encouraged his artistic endeavors.
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Child abuse and its aftermath permeated Trezza Azzopardi's debut novel, The Hiding Place, which was a finalist for the Booker Prize.
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Writing with the family stories of her own grandmother's struggle to raise two girls on a mud-slogged Southern farm reverberating in her memories, debut novelist Hillary Jordan has crafted an unforge
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David Lozell Martin's 11th novel is a marvelously over-the-top vehicle for his outspoken views on subjects as diverse as Native American sports mascots ("Can you imagine a football team named the San
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Shani Boianjiu’s eye-opening and brutally honest debut novel chronicles the abrupt coming-of-age of three young Israeli girls—Yael, Lea and Avishag—who grow up in a small village,
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Readers of Dennis McFarland's previous novels have marveled at his perceptive handling of varied facets of the human experience, including alcoholism, sexual abuse, aging, death and suicide.
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The fast-growing crime of identity theft lies at the core of Jenefer Shute's riveting novel, User I.D., but she takes the phenomenon to a whole new level.
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The seemingly bucolic setting of South Carolina’s Low Country reveals its seamier side in Bret Lott’s latest novel, a follow-up to 1999’s
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When Richie Rossiter, an acclaimed songwriter and pianist adored by his avid—if aging—public, dies suddenly in London, he leaves behind not one, but two grieving families.
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<B>War's hidden costs</B> Tim Gautreaux's mesmerizing second novel opens with a family searching for one of its own in the years following WWI.
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Joseph Kanon has made his mark in the literary thriller genre, starting with 1997’s Edgar-winning Los Alamos.
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