Fiction Reviews: Week of 5/19/2008

Depression-era lumber baron George Pemberton and his callous new wife, Serena, are venality incarnate in Rash's gothic fourth novel (after The World Made Straight), set, like the other three, in Appalachia. George—who coolly kills the furious father of Rachel Harmon, the teenage girl pregnant with George's bastard son—is an imperious entrepreneur laying waste to North Carolina timberland without regard for the well-being of his workers. His evil pales beside that of Serena, however. Rash's depictions of lumber camp camaraderie (despite deadly working conditions) are a welcome respite from Serena's unrelenting thirst for blood and wealth; a subplot about government efforts to buy back swaths of privately owned land to establish national parks injects real history into this implacably grim tale of greed and corruption gone wild—and of eventual, well-deserved revenge. (Oct.)

Cappellani's second novel (after Who Is Lou Sciortino?), a madcap comedy structured as a three-act play and set in contemporary Sicily, pays homage to Shakespeare and bristles with hilariously vulgar stabs at sex, art and family. Avant-garde theater director Tino Cagnotto produces a version of Romeo and Juliet ripe with crude sexual humor and starring nonclassical actors, including a 60-year-old Romeo. As the city of Catania buzzes about whether Jano Caporeale, the actor playing Romeo, will perform a lewd gesture onstage, rising Mafia kingpin Alfio Turrisi falls in love with the daughter of his rival. But this isn't the tragedy of the Montagues and Capulets; Turi Pirrotta is thrilled at the prospect of having his daughter marry Turrisi. Betty, however, might not be so easily wooed. Tino, meanwhile, has a passionate affair with a much younger man who might even be in love with him. Ineffectual culture commissioners, incompetent mobsters and lovably coldhearted aristocrats add plenty of color. Some of the jokes may be too insidery, but the sheer energy and velocity of this merry farce will sweep readers away. (Oct.)

This dark but redemptive novel, an international bestseller, marks the debut in English of Normandy philosophy professor Barbery. Renée Michel, 54 and widowed, is the stolid concierge in an elegant Paris hôtel particulier. Though “short, ugly, and plump,” Renée has, as she says, “always been poor,” but she has a secret: she's a ferocious autodidact who's better versed in literature and the arts than any of the building's snobby residents. Meanwhile, “supersmart” 12-year-old Paloma Josse, who switches off narration with Renée, lives in the building with her wealthy, liberal family. Having grasped life's futility early on, Paloma plans to commit suicide on her 13th birthday. The arrival of a new tenant, Kakuro Ozu, who befriends both the young pessimist and the concierge alike, sets up their possible transformations. By turns very funny (particularly in Paloma's sections) and heartbreaking, Barbery never allows either of her dour narrators to get too cerebral or too sentimental. Her simple plot and sudden denouement add up to a great deal more than the sum of their parts. (Sept.)

Rice makes a solid return visit to the Hubbard's Point, Conn., setting of Beach Girls (2004). As the book opens, a year soaked in Wild Turkey has passed since singer/songwriter Sheridan Rosslare lost her son, Charlie, in a random New York mugging. While Sheridan drowns her sorrows, Charlie's girlfriend, Nell Kilvert, is more assiduous; she hires private investigator Gavin Dawson to prove there was nothing random about Charlie's death. For his part, Hubbard's Point native Gavin, a New York transplant, had pretty much written off Hubbard's Point after Sheridan, once the love of his life, dumped him for his wild and reckless ways years before. Now, older and wiser, he's still in love with Sheridan and wants to start over, but Sheridan's grief soon proves a formidable obstacle. An element of supernatural whimsy, a dark secret involving a trust fund and a disturbing question related to Charlie's estranged father, Randy, add complexity, while cameos from other Beach Girls characters contribute an engaging, homey touch. (Aug.)

In her fourth novel, Kimmel (The Used World; A Girl Named Zippy; etc.) offers a beautifully wrought portrait of the brilliant and psychotic Trace Pennington, a runaway now scraping by in an Indiana farmhouse while completing her final year of college. Trace excels in school despite her abject poverty and seems destined to enter the world of academia. However, Trace is haunted by a disturbing personal history, hinted at via dreams, startling recollections and entries in her journal. Her idiosyncrasies and antisocial behavior intensify as her thoughts are increasingly intruded upon by an abusive past and complicated relationships with her family, and when Trace begins a relationship with the worldly Dr. Jacob Matthias, her inner life rapidly disintegrates into the surreal. Her fierce intelligence remains, and she battles her madness and dark memories by moving in and out of her own imaginings. Kimmel skillfully weaves together Trace's lucid moments and her diminishing sanity, providing a full picture of a troubled woman whose identity, past and present are repeatedly called into question. (Aug.)

London-based novelist and documentary filmmaker Guo was a 2007 Orange Prize finalist for A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers. She has completely re-written, in English, this story of tough, sprightly heroine Fenfang Wang, first published in 1997 in Mandarin (and earlier this year in a different, U.K.-only English translation). Fenfang, 17, leaves her mother a note and flees her rural farming village for Beijing. An odd job cleaning a movie theater brings her in contact with a low-level director and leads to higher-paying work as a movie extra, where she's a face among thousands. Her affections, stuck between “volatile” producer's assistant Xiaolin and “beloved” American student Ben, do little to lessen the hard knocks, which keep coming. Then, at the suggestion of her friend Huizi, Fenfang gives script writing a go, and things start to change. Guo beautifully captures the sense of a young girl struggling to forge a life. Fenfang's voice is bracing and welcome. (Aug.)

Spanning the years from 1954 to 1974, bestseller Carter's third novel, a subtle and intelligent page-turner, centers on the murder of a prominent white Wall Street attorney, Philmont Castle. After literally stumbling on Castle's garroted corpse in a Harlem park, Eddie Wesley, a young and ambitious African-American writer, is afraid to identify himself to the police. An inverted cross bearing a cryptic inscription clutched in the victim's hand intrigues Wesley enough for him to pursue a trail that leads to a shadowy group of conspirators known as the Palace Council. Aided by his on-again, off-again love interest, Aurelia Treene, Wesley also searches for his beloved sister, Junie, whose disappearance may be connected to Castle's death. Though aspects of the plot require more suspension of disbelief than in Carter's previous novels (New England White; The Emperor of Ocean Park), the rich characterization and elegant writing more than compensate. 6-city author tour. (July)

Dave Robicheaux and his former partner, Clete Purcel, find trouble in western Montana in bestseller Burke's fine 17th novel to feature the New Iberia, La., sheriff's deputy (after Tin Roof Blowdown). When two security men for Texas oil millionaire Ridley Wellstone deliberately drive over Clete's fishing gear after Clete inadvertently fishes on Wellstone's private land, Clete recognizes one of them as a former associate of a mob boss who died in a plane crash years before. Soon afterward, a University of Montana coed and her boyfriend are murdered near the home where Dave and Clete are staying. Then an escaped convict from Texas turns up, pursued by a vengeful prison guard determined to return him to prison. Lyrical passages describing the Montana landscape contrast with the subtle but intense way Burke depicts the violence and perversity lurking in his characters' hearts. But despite all the nastiness, love and redemption retain the power to heal some very wounded souls in a surprising denouement. (July)

William Randolph Hearst meets Agatha Christie in this entertaining crime novel from Pulitzer Prize–winner Darnton (The Darwin Conspiracy). When assistant managing editor Theodore S. Ratnoff is found murdered in the offices of the New York Globe, a major newspaper struggling to stay afloat amid ever-decreasing readership, circulation and stock value, the killer could be any number of Globe employees who've been humiliated by the tyrannical Ratnoff over the years. Aided by enigmatic NYPD Det. Priscilla Bollingsworth, the Globe's investigative reporter Jude Hurley begins the daunting task of exonerating a laundry list of suspects, who include rogue cops, a reporter suspected of plagiarism and a disgraced executive editor. When the Globe's gossip columnist and food critic turn up dead, the case suddenly becomes much more complicated—and dangerous. Loaded with subtle social commentary and wry humor (a teen's Web journal, teenage.snivel.com, gets “close to 1.5 million hits a day”), this highly intelligent whodunit will keep readers guessing. (July)

Crais returns L.A. PI Elvis Cole to center stage after 2007's The Watchman, which showcased Cole's partner, Joe Pike, though Cole doesn't wisecrack as much as usual and he has only a few scenes with close friends to reveal his warmth and decency. This one is all about plot; the story opens with a bang and never slows. While clearing houses in the path of a forest fire in Laurel Canyon, police officers find the body of Lionel Byrd, an apparent suicide. Three years earlier, Cole, working for Byrd's attorney, uncovered evidence that cleared Byrd of a murder charge. Now new evidence suggests that he was guilty of that murder and six others, two of them committed after Cole helped exonerate him. Torn by guilt, Cole plunges into his own investigation, which leads in startling directions. Established fans will enjoy a dramatic story built not on mere twists but on hard 90-degree turns. To get the full richness of Cole and Pike, new readers should start with one of the early novels. (July)

McKinney-Whetstone weaves an intricate tapestry of love, pain and memory in her latest. Neena spends most of her adult life trying to track down her unstable, long-disappeared mother, Freeda, and funds her quest by blackmailing the married men she sleeps with. When a scam backfires in Chicago and Neena has to run for her life, she flees to hometown Philadelphia and discovers her sister, Tish, is in the hospital with a protracted pregnancy. Neena, not ready to face her grandmother Nan's rules and church-going ways, finds a flop and tries to keep her scam game going while revisiting the myriad disappointments and hurts caused by her mother's mental illness. But things get complicated when she meets Cliff, her latest mark. Meanwhile, Neena's friendship with street musician Bow Peep offers a chance at redemption, and Nan worries over her grandchildren and thinks back on Freeda's unstable father. Philly is as much a character as the women, and if all the picking at old wounds grows tiresome and predictable, Neena's dire straits are nicely handled and provide a pretty sharp hook. (July)

Edgar-winner French blurs the boundaries between victim and cop, memory and fantasy, in this stunning sequel to her debut, In the Woods. Det. Cassie Maddox, a dead ringer for Lexie Madison, whose body has been found on the outskirts of the Irish village of Glenskehy, agrees to masquerade as Lexie in a police effort to identify her murderer. Cassie journeys to Whitethorn House, the rambling mansion Lexie shared with four fellow Ph.D. students and tells the friends that she survived the attack. As she probes deeper into the close-knit group, Cassie finds herself becoming emotionally attached to the stoic Daniel, sensitive Justin, gadabout Rafe and dependable Abby. But as tensions rise in the house and in Glenskehy, Cassie must decide if the biggest threat comes from without or lurks within. French cleverly subverts the conventions of the locked room mystery, ratcheting up the tension at every turn with her multidimensional characters. Readers looking for a new name in psychological suspense need look no further than this powerful new Irish voice. (July)

Scott's (Royal Harlot) fictionalized account of the colorful and remarkable life of Nell Gwyn, mistress to King Charles II, gives the two a lovely mutual affection. Nell, raised in a brothel, senses she's destined for better things, and before her mother can sell her virginity to the highest bidder, she procures her own protector. Selling oranges at the Theater Royal is the next step on Nell's career path, and here she catches the eye of the king, who loves women, but does not bed young girls like Nell, who is just 13. As time passes, Nell rises to her natural role as a comic actress (in Restoration England, one step up from a whore) and has no qualms about using sex to rise yet higher. As her lovers grow in rank, she keeps the ultimate prize of the king's love in mind. Nell's life makes a lively story, but for all the wit and cleverness, the bawdy humor doesn't always translate into contemporary laughs. Just as affection, here, doesn't translate into security for Nell. (July)

Sharpe continues her theme of women coming to terms with emotionally crippling relationships in her affirming latest (after Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakthrough), about three very different women who buddy up at a retreat for “suddenly single” women. Gratingly chipper Cindy Matterson has managed to forgive her cheating husband's endless affairs, but now he's dumping her for good. Meanwhile, Ann Redding, newly widowed, freshly fired and desperately broke, is mad as hell at her husband for killing himself after wiping out their bank account, while frumpy, plump and meditative Martha Danvers puts an unusual spin on “mistress” by fantasizing that she's the secret lover of a high-profile politician who is in a coma. Each woman has clearly reached a low point in her life when the invitations arrive from Betsy Spalding, who runs the retreat. Cindy, Ann and Martha mix like oil and water, but they pull together in time for a laugh-out-loud ending. Sharpe delivers a cheeky overcoming-adversity narrative that's laced with wisdom and humor. (July)

At the start of bestseller Pearson's tension-filled sequel to Killer Weekend, a member of Blaine County sheriff Walt Fleming's search and rescue team is shot dead while looking for a missing skier during a snowstorm in Idaho. Soon after this tragedy, Walt's best friend, veterinarian Mark Aker, disappears; someone sexually assaults Aker's assistant; unexplained illnesses strike a nearby water-bottling facility; and hundreds of livestock die mysteriously. Walt realizes almost too late that the perplexing events are all tangentially tied to a masterfully planned domestic terrorist attack—and he could have a front-row seat at a Ruby Ridge–like showdown. The conflict between the two worlds Walt serves, “the obscenely affluent residents of Ketchum/Sun Valley and the locals who provided services for them,” provides an ideal backdrop. Pearson's relentless sense of pacing and serpentine plot will have readers furiously turning pages until the end. Author tour. (July)

Szewczyk's entertaining debut novel chronicles a one-night stand gone wrong. Kas Sienkiewicz and her buddy Libby are whisked away by their rich layabout friend, Max, on a luxurious South African vacation. At the posh resort, Kas catches the attention of hunky ranger William Johnson. Nursing a wounded ego after learning that her ex was cheating on her (and his fiancée), Kas heeds her friends' urgings and has a fling with William. When he later turns up in New York, the well-meaning if culturally backward William convinces Kas to take him in, and he gets to work on an ill-fated book. Scenes involving Kas's Polish immigrant parents and their reactions to the new presence in Kas's life are stellar. Subplots involving an arrogant and wealthy tube sock heir and Max's ongoing revenge campaign against Kas's ex simmer, sometimes hilariously, and Szewczyk, an editor at Kirkus Reviews, keeps the story moving briskly with breezy prose, witty one-liners and goofball antics. (July)

This mostly tepid anthology, edited by King (son of Stephen King and author of We're All in This Together) and McNally (America's Report Card), has a few stimulating moments amid a flood of formulaic stories about inept people who are given powers that serve only to spotlight their insecurities. There are a few standouts: Stephanie Harrell's “Girl Reporter” reveals the origins of a Superman-like hero through the first-person narration of a Lois Lane–like reporter. For Jim Shepard, in “In Cretaceous Seas,” the “superhero and super villain all in one” is “a shitty son, a shitty brother, a lousy father, a lazy helpmate, a wreck of a husband” who means well but hates himself for not doing better. Sam Weller's “The Quick Stop 5” is a hilarious story about five people at a gas station who are turned into superheroes after biofuel spills from a truck. Weller's presentation of “super-power” as a subjective term resonates as one flips through the pages of this anthology. Readers who can't get enough of superheroes will get the most out of this. (July)

Kramer's impressive debut, a thriller, introduces Riley Spartz, a Twin Cities investigative TV journalist. Riley's favorite source, a former Minneapolis homicide detective, suspects a serial killer is behind two cold murder cases of women named Susan strangled on November 19 one year apart. Still grieving for her late patrolman husband, Riley relishes the distraction of a possible hot story. After discovering that a raincoat links the two victims, one a 26-year-old waitress, the other a teen prostitute, Riley unearths other cases that may fit the pattern, including the apparently solved murder of a former Miss Duluth and the suspicious suicide of a terminally ill woman. Kramer, a freelance television producer, delivers more than another ho-hum remix of a 48 Hours episode thanks to a snappy subplot—Riley's exposure of a bad veterinarian doing scam pet cremations. Readers will look forward to seeing a lot more of the appealing Riley, who cares about justice as much as snagging at least a 40 audience share. (July)

In bestseller's Thor's intriguing seventh Scot Horvath novel, Scot, a former navy SEAL who's recently quit working for Homeland Security, pursues a mystery involving a recently discovered ancient Koran. Differing from the original, this Koran suggests a secret exists that, if revealed, will change the entire nature of the warlike extremist versions of Islam. Furthermore, it has links to Thomas Jefferson and his war on Muslim pirates (think: “to the shores of Tripoli” in the Marine Corps hymn), handwritten notes in Jefferson's first-edition copy of Don Quixote and other clues hidden in Jefferson's Monticello home. First, Scot has to make up with his boss, President Jack Rutledge, who used him badly in his previous outing, The First Commandment, but once that's done, Scot finds himself in the thick of a furious battle. Fortunately, Scot's romance with girlfriend Tracy Hastings remains offstage. A stunning revelation on the last page will surprise even the most savvy thriller readers. 10-city author tour. (July)

Mac Reilly, an L.A. PI who hosts a cold case crime show called Mac Reilly's Malibu Mysteries, investigates a hot case or two in this sparkling novel of romantic suspense from bestseller Adler (Meet Me in Venice). Mac is strolling along the Malibu shore when he hears a female scream from a neighbor's house. Rushing to the rescue, Mac encounters a young woman with “the face of a naughty angel,” who points a handgun at him. When the gun goes off by accident, Mac makes a hasty exit and later learns he's met one of the girlfriends of Ronald Perrin, a “billionaire investment mogul” married to Hollywood actress Allie Ray, who wants a divorce. Ron asks Mac to find out who's following him, while Allie hires Mac to discover who's stalking her. When Allie vanishes after the Cannes Film Festival, the fun really begins. Infused with Malibu glamour and set in alluring locales in Mexico, Italy and France, this summertime read offers plenty of romantic élan and international intrigue. (July)

Virtually all of these 22 stories from octogenarian Connell (Mrs. Bridge) are set in the U.S.—“an insensate, vulgar, flatulent, bloodless...nation of merchant, thugs, Protestants, and barbers”—where trapped characters fantasize of faraway lands. Its women—profiteering grifters and whores (“St. Augustine's Pigeon,” “Hooker”), reactionary viragoes (“Mrs. Proctor Bemish”), an evil secretary and a despotic nanny, to name a few—are set up as straw ladies to be torched by reams of male resentment. The misogyny of Mulbach, an embittered insurance salesman who occupies some 90 pages across three stories, as well as the more subdued, exotically inclined sexism of the book's other recurrent voices (Uncle Gates and Koerner), are frequently unpalatable. But they aren't the measure of Connell's vision, which includes inspired depictions among the bile (in particular of Mulbach's young son, Otto, and of a horrifying WWII scene in Guadalcanal). But Connell is also no Céline, whose effulgent prose could transcend his venomous obsessions, and the book ends up trapped in its characters' own unpleasantness. (July)

The fiction debut of conservative political commentator Herschensohn (Taiwan: The Threatened Democracy) imagines a dire near future in which coordinated sleeper-cell terrorist attacks have turned the U.S. into the Islamic Fundamentalist Republic of America. Opposing the takeover are the men and women of Sebotus—the Surviving Executive Branch of the United States—housed in a secret underground city in Virginia and led by the no-nonsense acting U.S. president, Eli Jared. While struggling to maintain morale at Sebotus, Jared argues with his liberal secretary of HUD, who wants to beat the invaders “honorably.” Even readers who share the author's politics are likely to raise an eyebrow over sentences like “Even at times of extreme importance—times of life or death; of peace or war; of the determination of whether all civilization will be victorious or defeated—there is a pretty woman.” The less than credible means by which Jared and his team plan to defeat the enemy may raise additional eyebrows. (July)

Faith-based fiction doesn't get better than Billingsley's entertaining soaps, notable for their humor, wonderful characters and challenging life situations that many readers, Christian or not, can identify with. Her latest dramedy scores a direct hit on the ever-popular subjects of love, marriage and divorce (after The Pastor's Wife). Houston divorce court judge Vanessa Colton-Kirk and little sister Dionne have major man problems while their happily married sis, Rosolyn Frazier, appears to have it made. Vanessa's architect husband, Thomas, feels neglected and is desperate for a child. Fed up with Vanessa's workaholic ways, Thomas strays into an intense affair with a young woman who flaunts her quick pregnancy in Vanessa's face. Dionne, who's vowed to marry before turning 30, discovers her lover, Roland, still married, has been cheating on her for years. The sisters learn heavy love lessons about lies, honesty and forgiveness. Luckily, Billingsley makes some of the spiritual angst hilarious. Case in point: the sisters' venerable Aunt Ida knows her trusty Bible can also be used as a weapon when necessary. (July)

New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum finds herself saddled with the teenage son of Loretta Rizzi, her latest skip, at the start of one of the less cohesive entries in Evanovich's bestselling series (Lean Mean Thirteen, etc.). When Mario “Zook” Rizzi and his obsession with the online role-playing game “Minionfire” become too much for Stephanie to handle, the pair camp out at Trenton cop Joe Morelli's house. Stephanie also takes a job with the mysterious Ranger, helping him “babysit” Brenda, a fading music star in town for a concert. After Loretta is kidnapped, Stephanie and Morelli discover that to ensure Loretta's safety, they'll have to find the $9 million that disappeared after a bank robbery committed by Loretta's recently paroled brother, Dom. A mild-mannered stalker and the upcoming nuptials of Stephanie's colleague Lula to Ranger's right-hand man, Tank, add to the crazy fun. Despite a number of unresolved subplots, this Plum adventure won't disappoint those looking for the perfect summer beach read. (June)

Richmond (The Year of Fog) returns to San Francisco for another enjoyable blend of mystery and domestic fiction. Twenty years ago, Ellie Enderlin's sister, Lila, a mathematical prodigy, was murdered, and Andrew Thorpe, Ellie's English professor and a friend, exploited the family's grief with a true-crime bestseller that claimed Peter McConnell, Lila's married lover and colleague, was the killer. On a coffee-buying trip to Nicaragua, Ellie encounters McConnell, whose life was destroyed by Thorpe's conjecture. Sparked by this meeting, Ellie traces her way back through Lila's life and work, pursuing leads that the manipulative Thorpe abandoned when they did not fit his literary ambitions. Though many of Ellie's suspects lead her to dead ends, each gives her greater understanding of her sister, of mathematics and of herself. When she finally discovers the truth, Ellie's clarity about the past brings her new hope for the future. Vivid descriptions and loving explanations of the city and intelligent forays into the sciences of coffee and mathematics enhance Richmond's quietly captivating novel. (June)

Correction: Our May 5 review of Todd Hasak-Lowy's novel Captives contained incorrect bibliographic information. The correct publisher is Spiegel & Grau. The book's price is $24.95, ISBN 978-0-385-52773-6. It will be published in October.

Though she came to prominence late in her career, Guest (1920–2006) remains less well-known and less well-understood than fellow New York School poets John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Kenneth Koch and James Schuyler. Like them, Guest (who was an editorial associate at Art News from 1951 to 1959) has multiple threads from the visual arts running through the 20-odd books and chapbooks collected here, but what this collection reveals more than anything else is the striking, cohesive majesty of Guest's tone, which can be at once funny, deep and full of Eros while pursuing some pretty difficult images and ideas: “Vases! Throats! Lactations!/ The milk of time in the reservoir moon/ Stones with cloud currents as sylphs/ in nightclothes swim, moon on thicket/ stems climb vases, wastrels” (from “The Türler Loses”). Guest's three masterworks—Moscow Mansions (1973), Fair Realism (1989) and Defensive Rapture (1993)—are worth the price of admission alone, but surprises like the hilarious The Countess from Minneapolis (1976) or steely and charming late work like Rocks on a Platter (1999) and Miniatures (2002) might end up being many readers' favorites. This book, one of the year's essential releases, should be part of any library of 20th-century American poetry. (July)

The straightforward poems of Parker's fifth collection reach for opposing poles, combining the sublime and the everyday, the lumbering elephant and the ethereal butterfly. Parker's fascination with the commonplace—the dog drinking from the toilet, a child standing under a waterfall, the morning commute—makes an owl flying in front of a drive-in movie projector into a visitation, and the recollection of a valet job approaches transcendence: “I loved being/ in other people's cars,/ which felt like being out of my body/ and driving around in other people's bodies,” he writes in “Cars Poetica.” While elevating the familiar, Parker also humanizes the heavens, as in “Jelly Jar Ode,” which describes “the bulletin board that is// the sky,” on which “push pins/ tack the dark, the night / an office cleaned by God.” With irreverent juxtapositions and liturgical echoes, Parker seeks answers to big questions, stumbling sometimes or telling too much, and sometimes anchoring his poems with poignant ironies and vivid images; always, Parker writes with great sincerity. (June)

Since the 1980s, Peacock has used her gifts for meter and rhyme to portray, and to praise, her own experience, framing brief encounters, regrets and sexual joys with energy and clarity that suggest poets from Edna St. Vincent Millay to Marilyn Hacker. This sixth collection touches on what she has shared with her husband—their first encounters as teenagers, their years apart before they fell in love as adults, his near-fatal illness and their happy life in Toronto now: “you drop a clue,/ and the land reshapes;/ I pick it up,/ and we pull through,/ so far.” This entertaining if occasionally glib volume may seem to some readers a model of how to put one's own life into verse. Yet readers who seek unity in Peacock's sixth collection might look not to its people but to its cats—the feline members in Peacock's household are the subjects of the book's strong sonnets. When one cat dies, the poet considers mortality, family and pathos more generally; when another thrives, “The sound of well-being starting/ and continuing, the full flesh clock, true/ to its pledge—now-were, now-ere—is our purr.” (June)

Honored for his plainspoken, blue-collar manner—its honesty, and the literary learning it belies—Stern, born in 1925, is now writing his strongest, strangest poems. Like 2005's Everything Is Burning, this collection displays passionate attachments—to daily pleasures, poets living and dead whom Stern has befriended (especially in a warm elegy for William Matthews) and memory itself. In 1946, one poem remembers, “I was a bellows/ and one by one my lungs were ruined but I wouldn't/ change my life, what for?” The short poems mostly comprise single, extended sentences, piling up Stern's gruff loves and recollections faster than death and old age can knock them down: a poem about a weather vane finds Stern “amazed/ that we could last the way we do compared to/ birds just blown by the wind.” The scenes in this 17th collection come from his youth in Philadelphia and New York City, and from exurban New Jersey, where he lives now. The final section, a long poem in dialogue form entitled “The Preacher,” imagines a conversation with the younger poet Peter Richards, whose subjects include Kant, Mingus, the uses of anger and the variety of wildflowers; it may not stick in many readers' memories, but the short poems before it certainly will. (May)

The title poem of Hollander's 19th book of poems announces that ”light keeps one thing in the dark:/ The matter of its very origins.” With its turn on a colloquial phrase (“in the dark”), its investigation of philosophical problems and its interest in unanswerable questions, the punning claim typifies this sometimes didactic but ultimately moving collection. The Yale-based poet has always made his wide learning known: formal agility and literary history are once again on display—here are syllabics, deft haiku stanzas, virtuosic collations of off-rhyme and witty updates on the Romantic ballad, the medieval lament and the popular song of the sheet-music era. Half the volume might be classed as light verse—one poem pursues “Allegories on the banks of the Nile,” and another ends by asking “what's a 'meta-' for?” Yet the book shines when it takes up more serious concerns: the New York City of Hollander's childhood, which he recalls with delight, casts its retrospective light on old age, and some of the best stanzas use their wordplay to reflect on “what we have all been sentenced to, the full stop.” Detractors might find too much language about language, but admirers will respond that here we see one of the smartest writers having fun and exploring, with elegance and gravity, his own life. (May)

This first career retrospective from Wormser (Carthage) should make his unpretentious, undaunted and unpredictable work better known. Recently poet laureate of Maine and known for his rural life, Wormser has always been drawn to plain speech, to the unpretentious, honest virtues he finds in blue-collar New England ways. Yet he also sustains an interest in quirky words, in awkwardly capacious long lines and in the more elaborate storytelling of his own Yiddish-speaking forebears. The combination made for sad, confident poems beginning in the 1980s, most confident when they involved characters—“The Suicide's Father,” for example, begins: “Everything has become a museum./ Where I live is where I lived.” Wormser's 2000 breakthrough, Mulroney and Others, consisted largely of vivid poems about, or spoken by, other people—the high school teacher who wishes he couldn't predict his students lives, the hippie kid who joined the army in frustration. The new poems here also display these same strengths. (May)

One poem early in Levin's fourth collection begins, “We were born to be blessed, to be torn into being/ Alive, to be weary and open and lost”; it represents well the collection's strength of feeling, its striving for optimism even in wartime and its tropism toward the new. Though Levin (Mercury) is known for her use of inherited forms, few of these short, intense poems adopt rhyme or obvious meter; instead, they work hard for sincerity and variety, alternating between long, clear sentences and breathy, short lines. Her topics also vary, from present loves to Greek and Roman antiquity, sometimes making one of the topics comment on the rest. “Boy with a Thorn” addresses a bronze sculpture of a runner from 2,000 years ago, supposedly a military messenger who died on the job: “If this is the first time/ You faltered in the middle of everything,/ It will not be the last.” Some of Levin's new poems should please fans of W.S. Merwin, and others should appeal to admirers of Mary Oliver. Sometimes she avoids skepticism almost too well, drawing conclusions so simple they are hard to trust: at other times, though, her commitment to lyricism comes as a breath of summer air. (May)

Mohammad's methods place him (with Katie Degentesh, Gary Sullivan and others) in the recent school of poets called Flarfists, who derive their work from Internet searches and treasure outlandish “bad” or tasteless lines. After three books and countless provocative posts on his popular blog, lime-tree.blogspot.com, Mohammad may no longer count as an enfant terrible, but his poetry retains its destructive force. Sometimes baffling, often offensive, on occasion ingenious, Mohammad highlights cheesy, clunky or trashy locutions in a frontal attack on our notions of poetic craft, culture and taste. His works can morph into perverse self-portraits: “some people think I'm a gluttonous porcine/ furry man-killing goldmine made of sweet gold.” Some titles mock icons of culture as in the parodies of Frank O'Hara with which the volume concludes. Others pile on such celebrities as Celine Dion or try hard to violate taboos (“Mom forced me to drink her shimmering oriole juice”). Sometimes Mohammad attacks both sense and grammar: “subtext beef guilt philanthropy blanket/ titanium seagull prong.” The outlandish vagaries of Mohammad's new work will stoke the fires of those who have found thrills and controversy in Flarf so far. (May)

Despite the minimal crime element, Sansom's third Mobile Library mystery (after 2007's Mr. Dixon Disappears) still succeeds as a light farce. Mobile librarian Israel Armstrong puts his plans to resign on hold when his superiors in Northern Ireland offer him and his irritable companion, Ted Carson, a free trip to London to represent the district at an annual mobile library convention. Armstrong even manages to overcome Carson's initial reluctance by appealing to his pride, betting Carson that their own ratty, aged and broken-down vehicle won't win a prize at the gathering. Soon after arrival in London, the van disappears, and the duo, aided by Armstrong's irrepressible mother, set off on a comic quest to recover it in time for the competition. The book's high point is the acerbic portrayal of the personalities making up the Mobile Library Steering Committee, but most every page will elicit a grin, if not a chuckle. (Aug.)

Near the start of this stellar stand-alone from Rosenfelt (Play Dead), ordinary guy Timothy Wallace, still grieving for his wife, Maggie, who was blown to bits in a boating explosion on Long Island Sound a few months earlier, hears a gruesome secret from a fellow bar patron on New Year's Eve. Tim was investigated and cleared as a person of interest in Maggie's death, but now Tim becomes a suspect in a second woman's death. Meanwhile, as a partner in a security construction firm that's prospered in the wake of 9/11, Tim is focused on his company's part in the building of the Federal Center, a huge complex funded by the U.S. government, in Newark, N.J. The president is due to appear at the center's opening festivities. Det. Jonathon Novack believes Tim's a stone-cold killer and is eager to arrest him. Rosenfelt keeps the plot hopping and popping as he reveals a complex frameup of major proportions with profound political ramifications both terrifying and enlightening. Author tour. (July)

The body of a cranky heiress kick-starts Houston's uneven ninth installment in her backwoods Wisconsin series featuring spunky police chief Lewellyn “Lew” Ferris (after 2007's Dead Madonna). Along with Paul Osborne, a retired town dentist and deputy coroner, Lew investigates the murder of Nolan Reece, whose battered body washes ashore one Thanksgiving morning. Shorthanded, Lew and her on-again off-again beau enlist the help of Ray Pradt, a skilled local tracker-poacher with the ears of a wolf, to unravel the tangled motives surrounding the death of the universally unpopular Nolan. Houston often overloads her characters with familiar backstories (both Paul and Ray are recovering alcoholics) and infuses her subplots with predictable red herrings, such as the angst of Nolan's teenage daughter, Blue. Still, series fans will appreciate Loon Lake's starring role, with its local color and murderous urges lurking just beneath the placid waters. (July)

In the Thurlos' less than engaging fifth Sister Agatha mystery set in smalltown New Mexico (after 2007's False Witness), Jane Sanchez, a parishioner at Our Lady of Hope Monastery, requests a time to discuss an important matter with the Harley-riding investigative reporter turned nun. When someone shoots Jane to death, everyone assumes she was killed to prevent her from divulging a dark secret. Anonymous threats made against the monastery add impetus for Sister Agatha to figure out who murdered Jane. Sheriff Tom Green, having benefited from Sister Agatha's help in previous cases, welcomes most of her input, but when her findings point to the possibility of a dirty cop, the cooperative attitude cools considerably. After a promising start to the series, Bad Faith, subsequent entries have become more routine. Unless Sister Agatha improves her track record, she's likely to disappear into the cloister. (July)

Lt. Jack Daniels of the Chicago PD has been in tight spots before, but she's never been in a bloodbath like the one in her over-the-top fifth outing (after 2007's Dirty Martini). Pitted against one of her deadliest enemies plus three vigilante snipers armed with top-flight equipment, Daniels faces a prolonged fight for survival in which everyone on her side is disabled in significant ways and her opponents are out to slaughter everyone dear to her. The simple, brutal plot line tests Daniels's ingenuity, resolve and strength, not to mention readers' credulity. Konrath mutes the humor that leavened earlier entries in the series, while the constantly shifting points of view do little to aid the story's flow. Fans, however, won't want to miss this book because of some surprising developments in Daniels's personal life and an ending that promises more shocks in the next installment. (July)

At the start of McInerny's uplifting 27th Father Dowling mystery (after 2007's The Widow's Mate), a stranger asks the pastor of St. Hilary's if it's all right for the priest to have put ashes on his forehead. After all, as Nathaniel Green admits, he's not a Catholic. Furthermore, Nathaniel has just been released from prison, where he spent nearly 10 years after admitting he'd turned off the life support system of his wife, Florence, who was suffering from terminal cancer. Having lost his Catholic faith after Florence's death, Nathaniel is now returning to his old parish, much to the consternation of his sister-in-law and others. In his usual gentle, thoughtful way, Father Dowling makes compassionate decisions while other members of his parish become entangled in a complicated web of crime and deceit. Readers who long for a down-to-earth story of ordinary people and events will be well rewarded. (July)

After digging in rural Mississippi in Effigies (2007), Faye Longchamp returns to her home turf—Joyeuse Island, Fla.—to excavate the remains of a 19th-century hotel her family once owned in Evans's fine fourth archeological mystery. Soon after Faye unearths a large emerald on the site, someone beats to death Faye's beloved boss, Douglass Everett. In a secret pocket in Everett's pants the police discover the emerald. Later, Wally, Faye's “long-time friend who had kept her secrets back when she lived one step ahead of the law and the tax collector,” stumbles off a dock into her boat and dies, a knife in his back. Might the emerald somehow be connected to both murders? As the story settles into a comfortable pace that allows the reader to savor the characters, Faye and her Creek buddy, Joe Wolf Mantooth, seek to bring their friends' killer to justice. In the end, love prevails, without being either sappy or sexual. (July)

Lecard follows his acclaimed debut, Vinnie's Head (2007), with a second crime novel that deftly mixes dark humor with a fast-moving plot. Pablo Clench, who manages the nightshift at a San Francisco strip club, stumbles on the chance of a lifetime after surveillance of his lust-interest, exotic dancer Aphrodite Anderson, leads him to her lover, Aaron Rogell, an inventor who's made some amazing breakthroughs in the field of nanotechnology. Clench manages to infiltrate Rogell's company after persuading the head of human resources to retire, and gradually inserts his own people into positions of authority. Clench eventually shows his hand, but threats of blackmail and extreme bodily harm fail to get Rogell to divulge the secret of his invention. When Rogell's wife, Amanda, learns of his philandering, she hires Tony Baloot, a sad-sack PI, to get the goods on Rogell. The various plot lines converge in a farcical blend of violence and satire that will have many readers grinning in spite of themselves. (July)

Fans of stylish English detective work will welcome Malliet's droll debut, the first in a new series. When Sir Adrian Beauclerk-Fisk, a pompous cozy author, invites his four grown children to his Yuletide wedding to Violet Winthrop at his 18th-century manor outside Cambridge, none of the four is pleased at the prospect of a young stepmother who could inherit their father's vast fortune. Besides, Violet's considered a black widow who did in her first husband. Soon after Sir Adrian announces during a family dinner that he and Violet are already wed, eldest son Ruthven turns up dead in the wine cellar. Sir Adrian's subsequent murder in his office doesn't inspire tears from either his bride or his first wife. Detective Chief Inspector St. Just and Detective Sergeant Fear of the Cambridgeshire constabulary conduct a lively investigation that underscores how the lack and the love of money might be at the root of society's ills. (July)

Campbell-winner Bear reveals the secret war between fae and the Elizabethan court in this dramatic prequel to Blood and Iron and Whiskey and Water. Framed with the intrigues of queens and courtiers, the story focuses on the mutual respect and growing love of Kit Marley (aka Christopher Marlowe) and Will Shakespeare. As Morgan le Fey rescues Kit from assassins, various factions recruit Will to bolster their political machinations with the magic of poetry. Kit pulls Will into Faerie and both are forced to face their own deepest desires and fears, which cannot be resolved until they deal with a power even higher than mortal Queen Elizabeth or fae Queen Mab. Copious quotes and intelligent speculation about their lives and works mark this sensitive and sensual look at the two supreme playwrights of the English Renaissance. The story's second half, Hell and Earth, is due out in August. (July)

This uncomplicated series debut introduces Konowa Swift Dragon, professional soldier turned full-time cynic. Exiled for killing the brutal viceroy of Elfkyna, an appointee of the Calahrian Empire who secretly served the evil witch known as the Shadow Monarch, Konowa has spent a year wandering around feeling sorry for himself. When the Shadow Monarch threatens the empire, Konowa reluctantly answers the call back to service, furious to find his former elite regiment filled with ordinary men and commanded by the incompetent heir to the throne. With anti-empire elfkynan witch Visyna Tekoy and cigar-chomping journalist Rallie Synjyn as his unlikely allies, Konowa must retrieve the prophesied Red Star and put down a rebellion. Evans hews closely to the high fantasy template, and slyly humorous details—an elf who hates forests, a dark lord who saves babies and saplings—never quite redeem the boilerplate story and its grouchy hero. (July)

In the thrilling fifth installment (the first in hardcover, following 2007's Empire of Ivory) of the bestselling Temeraire series, Novik returns to familiar themes of love, duty and liberty against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. When Napoleon's forces attack England, Temeraire, believing Laurence dead, decides to lead other uncaptained dragons to battle. When the two reunite, Temeraire uses his commander status to gain a voice in war counsels, demanding freedom and pay for dragons. Though the battles are impressive and the politics unsubtle but intriguing, the pièce de résistance is the quiet moment when Laurence faces the mad king he betrayed. This accessible vision of an English Regency with an air force raises the stakes without straining credibility. Followers of Temeraire's travels will be richly rewarded by the satisfying conclusion of his return to home ground, but may wonder where Novik can go from here. (July)

The insubstantial fourth Moonworlds title picks up the pastiche of Wells's Time Machine where 2007's Voidfarer leaves off. When Wayfarer Insp. Danolarian Scryverin is abducted by a woman from a future world, he sets out to learn how and why he has been transported, even as it becomes clear that his case interests powerful people who inhabit the world between life and death. After he returns to his own time, fulfilling his destiny by completing a circle of causality, he travels further back to a distant, idyllic past, finally learning a shocking truth about all the places and things he has seen. New readers may find themselves puzzled, despite plenty of exposition, and much of the humor falls flat, but nonstop action is mostly enough to keep readers turning the pages. (July)

God speaks through odd prophets in this schizophrenic tale, which won Ochse a 2005 first novel Stoker Award. Hideously disfigured Maxom Phinxs, known as the “Maggot Man” for his disgusting job at a chicken processing plant, learned a trick as a POW in Vietnam: he can astrally project, abandoning his ravaged body to soar and spy. He shares this ability with troubled young Danny, whose family was shattered when his sister ran away from home. The two join brilliant homeless man Billy Bones and a defrocked monk calling himself John the New Baptist to confront insanity and evil on an alternate plane called the “Land of Inside-Out.” Stereotype-heavy and prone to strange time shifts, endless dream sequences and awkwardly placed flashbacks, the tale is narratively untidy, but the underlying themes of faith, martyrdom, madness and loss are richly, sometimes achingly portrayed. (July)

In the sharp and powerful third Long Price novel (following 2007's A Betrayal in Winter), Abraham continues to explore the implications of his fantasy world, in which powerful elementals called andat are enslaved by poets to work for the city-states of the Khaiem. The ongoing struggles of familiar, aging characters—poet Maati, his ex-lover Liat, the mercenary Sinja, and Otah, now the reluctant ruler of his Khaiem city—occupy much of the story, but a new voice drives the plot. Gen. Balasar Gice, of the rival Galt Empire, is convinced that the andat are a threat to mankind and wants to eliminate them for good. As Gice's plan comes to fruition, everyone must confront changes in their world that go beyond anything they'd ever imagined. New readers will find Abraham's deft storytelling style accessible, but returning fans will most appreciate the growth of the world and the characters. (July)

Bostonian Rayna Martin takes daughter Teesha and Teesha's three best friends out on a boat for Teesha's birthday, an event that ends in tragedy when one girl, Christina Haynes, drowns. Christina, the daughter of influential senator Rudolph Haynes, is white; the other three girls are middle and working-class African-American. Senator Haynes is bent on revenge for his daughter's death, and he pressures the DA into charging Rayna with racially motivated murder. Defense attorney David Cavanaugh is determined that Rayna's innocence will win the day, as is tough, charismatic Sara Davis, a friend of Rayna's who holds her attraction to David in check for the sake of the case. While Senator Haynes is a caricature of a privileged ruthless conservative, his wife—who is born to privilege and has chosen the easy way her entire life—shines as she finds all of her assumptions and choices called into question. Bauer (the nom de plume of Australian TV exec Kimberly Scott) credibly navigates multiple segments of Boston society as she fashions a complex plot from simple elements. (July)

Though billed as the closer to a trilogy (following 2007's The Sea Change), this low-key climax to the chronicles of scholarly monk Josan and reluctant Ikarian Emperor Lucius stands surprisingly well on its own. Their souls trapped together in Lucius' failing body, they must risk a much-interrupted sea voyage in search of sorcery capable of freeing at least one of the pair. Meanwhile, plotters within and beyond Ikaria threaten both the succession and the empire. Bray's quasi-Mediterranean setting is ably if lightly sketched, and even the most ambitious of Lucius' onstage adversaries are genuinely likable. The novel's most fantastical element is its refreshingly sincere political climate; by contrast, there's little physical action or deeply rooted conflict, and at least one unseen enemy remains at book's end. At the same time, the diplomatic intrigues often sidetrack the plot rather than furthering character development, rendering the finale abrupt and intrusive. Flaws notwithstanding, amiable storytelling and brisk pacing make this an agreeable summer read. (July)

Nodens, He Who Must Not Be Named from the Labyrinth, has returned to York County, Pennsylvania to try to destroy this world. Standing against him is Adam Senft, the doomed writer who killed his satyr-bedding wife in Dark Hollow; Levi Stoltzfus, a magus excommunicated from the Amish faith; and Maria Nasr, a reporter who is in over her head. As Halloween grows ever nearer and the boundaries between worlds get thinner, a local haunted attraction at LeHorn's Hollow provides an easy supply of victims for the ever-hungry Nodens. Keene returns to creepy LeHorn's Hollow with enthusiasm and with a formidable chunk of evil in Nodens, but this sequel never feels as frightening as Dark Hollow, as the victims are less well integrated into the plot. Still, Keene demonstrates an authoritative grasp on primal fears and on a rural America cut off from the mainstream. (July)

Homicide detective Kate Farrer, having tentatively recovered from being held captive by a psychopath, returns to work and catches an arson case that has left a woman dead. Forensics reveal that the woman had recently given birth; no baby is found. Kate and new rookie partner Oliver Parke investigate until sidetracked by the disappearance of a wealthy teenage girl. In the meantime, the entire unit is under investigation for corruption, with Kate herself falling under suspicion while suspecting her new partner. Fox strews just enough clues to keep readers guessing, then twists the plot assuredly. Both Farrer and Parke are delightful turns on the standard “veteran and rookie” buddy pairing, as Oliver demonstrates fresh ideas and reasoning that make him an excellent counterpart for Kate's cynicism and experience. Fox ties several story lines together deftly, and the forensics (Fox is an Australian physician-turned-author) enrich the story. (June)

This early work from one of the greatest living manga artists, author of Ranma 1/2 and Maison Ikkoku, is now back in print. A talented boxer is defeated by his overeating and complete lack of self-control. His only inspiration is Sister Angela, a young nun who encourages him to overcome his sin of gluttony. The repetitive story formula has Kosaku doing something stupid, the nun inspiring him (often by yelling at him), then he unbelievably wins through. But he never learns his lesson, or there wouldn't be a series. (And a lengthy one, running for 20 years in Japan.) The appeal is Takahashi's art, especially her top-notch storytelling. Her Disney-style open faces capture the characters' innocence, especially in the nun, all face-framing wimple and huge eyes. The reader is yanked from comedy (“I will win,” vows Kosaku, as he orders noodles from a passing street vendor) to boxing action, devout faith (Angela prays sincerely for Kosaku's success) to heartbreak (loving a nun is a recipe for disaster). The mix here can be uneven, and a drunk nun is uncomfortable to watch. The simple conflicts make for a lightweight read, easy to pick up and put down. (June)

This wordless story of a love affair is touching and artful yet still offers a good, old-school jerk of a boyfriend for the reader to get angry about. It starts with a soulful composer sitting in his apartment, his only company a metronome and the photograph of a woman. The story is told through repeated images: the metronome, a lava lamp. The changes in our understanding of the story—realizing the man was cruel, realizing the woman wasn't—come about in conjunction with images that, illusionlike, switch from one thing to another: a picture of a tree with birds that is also an image of a woman's vagina; a tender image of two children that, seen from afar, is actually a skull. The stylization of the art becomes part of the alienation that grows between the woman and the man; it's as if anything warm or organic has leached away, leaving a strong chill that readers can feel. The way in which the two misunderstand each other feels a bit too much like a French movie in places, with “art” pushing out squishy things like love and character, but the story is effective, and the way the images build in sequence is stunning. (May)

Claiming to be “complete and boundless,” Fenwik's Hall of Best Knowledge contains a fountain of information on subjects from babies to God and even fencing. The problem that dooms the book from the get-go is the lack of clarity on how this information is supposed to be taken and the identity of the mysterious author, who both examines the musculature of ancient man and addresses Santa. Toward the end of this largely tiring collection of talk is a letter that seems to solve the mystery of the this seeming diary and its origins. The individual pages are beautifully designed, each with an eccentric and sometimes agitated typeface that appears to be custom designed, leading to the birth of “typographical comics.” The end result is like being stuck at a dinner party with a know-it-all blowhard armed with a croquille pen and a bottle of india ink. While an attractive object for lettering fans, the end result is more clever in its concept than the execution: Fenwik is a talented designer, but his writing is much less sparkling. (May)

PW's deputy reviews editor, Jonathan Segura, delivers a distinctive first novel that one can only hope isn't too autobiographical.

Bernard Cockburn, a beat reporter in his early 30s for the Omaha Weekly News-Telegraph, pounds the fearsome streets of Omaha, Neb., in Segura's crisp, raunchily amusing debut. Cockburn (pronounced Co-burn, as he often has to explain) exudes enough jaded cynicism for a reporter twice his age, but he reacts like an irresponsible adolescent to the news that his live-in girlfriend, Allison, is pregnant. Despite the boozing and drugging, Cockburn's got a nose for a story and the one he's been researching about a bogus LLC group buying up dilapidated properties downtown takes a sinister turn after two of the group's principal members end up dead. The trail leads to neighborhood militants who have taken to exacting vigilante justice on Omaha's pushers, pimps and addicts. A dark truth in Cockburn's past that he'd prefer to keep secret complicates his investigation. With an emphasis on the protagonist's angst, Cockburn is the sort of dysfunctional dude—immature, posturing, hapless—that will keep readers intrigued and should appeal especially to fans of Chuck Palahniuk and Arthur Nersesian. (July)

These four small-press poetry titles, available from the nonprofit Small Press Distribution, are published by fellow poets or poet collectives. And except for the Albon, all were designed by the poet Jeff Clark, who works under the name Quemadura.

The author of Juice and The Activist, two enigmatic prose works that investigate the ways people move in and out of cities, identities and collectivities, returns with a set of seven linked, cinematic, mostly prose works that push her researches into new territory: “From the street, into an uncom-/ mon space, then through it, and/ to the threshold of the room,/ every possible way of asking 'Is this me?' ” Gladman, who publishes Leon Works Books (see below), is here published by a Berkeley collective cofounded by poets Rena Rosenwasser and Patricia Dienstfrey. (May)

Tipton takes the colloquial directness of Robert Fagles and the blunt eroticism of Anne Carson to the breaking point in this experimental translation of one the stranger and more unyielding works by one of Western civilization's founding dramatists. Tipton's opening dialogue between Athena and Odysseus astonishes, and his treatment of the chorus ventures into the territory of the Ontological-Hysteric Theatre: “where will it end/ the count of years wandering/ the toll the statistics of missiles/ in flight that fall/ back to the ground/ where a crater accuses.” Flood Editions are published by Chicago poet Devin Johnston and poet Michael O'Leary. (May)

Albon (Brief Capital of Disturbances) collects four serial works, with the opening title sequence being by far the longest, leading readers to the “stockpile of human events” and back home again: “Pulse in temple/ taps message/ on pillow,// an holy other/ lighting on bare sill,// and so simple/ the morning comes up// eye-lash-still,/ casual,/ actual.” Krupskaya Books are published by poet Jocelyn Saidenberg, with help from a collective that includes poet Kevin Killian. (May)

For this brilliant debut, Bryant narrates the movements of peripheral African-American characters in film and other media—characters who seem to be there innocuously, as in Stephen Frears's Sammy & Rosie Get Laid or François Ozon's 8 Femmes—but end up loaded with multiple, conflicting meanings: “Caty's eyes shut in grief, or its double, ecstasy; her eyes shut within the shot. This is the moment, the clichéd ending. Le samouraï is dying. But she does not run to him, calling his name through a veil of tears. Her hand does not reach for eyes, her mouth, or her heart, as she watches, as we watch, him die.” (May)