(Scribner, $28.) Egan’s engaging novel tells overlapping stories, but is most fundamentally about a young woman who works at the Brooklyn Naval Yard during World War II. (Random House, $28.) In this Man Booker Prize-winning first novel by a master of the short story, Abraham Lincoln visits the grave of his son Willie in 1862, and is surrounded by ghosts in purgatory. (Lee Boudreaux/Little, Brown, $26.) On the eve of his 50th birthday and a former lover’s wedding, a mediocre novelist takes refuge in literary invitations that enable him to travel around the world. (Delete, paper, $17.99.) Seamlessly mixing the religious with the obscene, Krieger’s poetry is inventive and powerful. (HarperCollins, $28.99.) What if human beings are neither inevitable nor ultimate? That’s the premise of Erdrich’s fascinating new novel. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.) Eugenides’s expert debut collection of short stories is his first book since “The Marriage Plot” in 2011.įUTURE HOME OF THE LIVING GOD. (Holt, $32.50.) Auster’s book is an epic bildungsroman that presents the reader with four versions of the formative years of a Jewish boy born in Newark in 1947.įRESH COMPLAINT: Stories. (Harper/HarperCollins, $27.99.) Tracing the lives of two Americans in Israel, this restless novel explores the mysteries of disconnection and the divided self.Ĥ 3 2 1. (Riverhead, $27.) In his delightful first story collection, the author of the National Book Award-winning novel “The Good Lord Bird” continues to explore race, masculinity, music and history.įOREST DARK.

(Riverhead, $26.) The new novel by the author of “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” and “How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia” mixes global unrest with a bit of the fantastic.įIVE-CARAT SOUL.

(Custom House/Morrow, $26.99.) This novel’s densely woven plot involves an independent-minded widow and the possible haunting presence of a giant serpent.ĮXIT WEST. (Little, Brown, $26.) Anxiety, self-consciousness and humiliation are the default inner states of the characters in these 11 stories.

(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26.) This masterly novel follows its 70-something heroine on a road trip through England. (Akashic, paper, $15.95.) This funny, perceptive and ambitious work of historical fiction by a Kenyan poet and novelist explores his country’s colonial past.

(Grove, $24.) A gift book from the British novelist, containing otherworldly and wickedly funny stories.ĭANCE OF THE JAKARANDA. CHRISTMAS DAYS: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days.

Best books to read 2017 19 year olds