the washington post book world sunday, december 12, 2010 l l
4 EZ
BEST OF 2010
Fiction&Poetry
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FIDEL CAS- TRO, byNorberto Fuentes (Norton, $27.95). The fake memoirs of the Cu- ban leader. Fidel couldn’t have written it better. —Tom Miller
BROKEN, by Karin Fossum (Houghton MifflinHarcourt, $25). The protago- nist of this haunting psychological sus- pense novel doesn’t just rattle around inside theNorwegian author’s head; he shows up at her doorstep and pleads with her to treat him sensitive- ly. —Richard Lipez
THE CONFESSION, by John Grisham (Doubleday, $28.95). This suspense story demands to be inhaled as quickly as possible, but it’s also a superb work of social criticism about the death pen- alty and its casualties. —Maureen Cor- rigan
DAY FOR NIGHT, by Frederick Reiken (Reagan Arthur, $24.99).Using a dif- ferent first-person point of viewin ev- ery section, Reiken creates an emo- tionally acute, complex story about a woman whose father may have died in theHolocaust. —Julie Orringer
DEEP CREEK, by DanaHand (Hough- tonMifflinHarcourt, $25). Chinese miners are brutally massacred on the Idaho border, and a disaffected law- man with more than enough troubles of his own finds himself hunting down the killers. —Carolyn See
DRIVING ON THE RIM, by Thomas McGuane (Knopf, $26.95). Berl Pick- ett, feckless doctor and accused mur- derer, is a splendid addition to the gal- lery of semi-cracked eccentrics who populate the literature of the Ameri- canWest. —Michael Lindgren
FATHER OF THE RAIN, by Lily King (AtlanticMonthly, $24). A devoted daughter struggles for years to save her emotionally controlling father from alcohol. —Ron Charles
A FIERCE RADIANCE, by Lauren Belfer (Harper, $25.99). Sex, spies, murder, big money, doomed romance and exot- ic travel are smoothly braided into this story about the wartime race to make large quantities of penicillin. —M.C.
A GEOGRAPHY OF SECRETS, by Fred- erick Reuss (Unbridled, $25.95). The interlocking stories of a defense ana- lyst and a mapmaker examine the col- lateral damage of a lifetime of keeping secrets, raising provocative questions aboutWashington’s culture of decep- tion. —Daniel Stashower
THE GIRLWHO FELL FROMTHE SKY, byHeidiW. Durrow (Algonquin, $22.95). When several family members fall off the roof of a Chicago apartment building, the sole survivor is biracial Rachel, who goes to live with her grandmother in an African American neighborhood. —Lisa Page
THE GIRLWHO KICKED THE HOR- NET’S NEST, by Stieg Larsson (Knopf,
THE LONG SONG, by Andrea Levy (Farrar Straus Giroux, $26). Set in Ja- maica during the 19th-century revolt, this is a book for those who under- stand that a slave woman’s history is History. —Tayari Jones
LORD OF MISRULE, by Jaimy Gordon (McPherson, $25). This novel abounds with observations about horses, mon- ey and luck. Gordon has completely mastered the language of the racetrack and formed it into an evocative and id- iosyncratic style. Winner of theNa- tional Book Award. —Jane Smiley
MAJOR PETTIGREW’S LAST STAND, byHelen Simonson (RandomHouse, $25). A smart romantic comedy about a refined British gentleman finding love and diversity late in life. —R.C.
MANIN THEWOODS, by Scott Spencer (Ecco, $24.99). An agonizing question hovers over this thriller: Will two de- cent people have their happiness de- stroyed because of a senseless encoun- ter with an unbalanced man? —P.A.
WILLIAM BERRYMAN / LIBRARY OF CONGRESS “The Long Song”
$27.95). The conclusion to theMillen- nium Trilogy is an ambitious panora- ma that encompasses the worlds of journalism, corporations, medicine, organized crime and government. —Patrick Anderson
THE GIRL WITH GLASS FEET, by Ali Shaw(HenryHolt, $24). Returning from a strange, shadow-haunted is- land, a young tourist finds herself turning into crystal. —Elizabeth Hand
GO, MUTANTS! by Larry Doyle (Ecco, $23.99).Not even interstellar inter- vention can change the cruel social dy- namics of high school, not when the resident fat boy is the Blob, your sex- ed teacher is the DeadlyMantis, and the star of the football team is an 800- pound gorilla. —E.H.
HOUSE RULES, by Jodi Picoult (Atria, $28). Jacob has Asperger’s syndrome, and when his tutor is found dead, the police suspect that his obsession with crime scenes may have led him to stage one of his own. —M.C.
HUMAN CHAIN, by SeamusHeaney (Farrar Straus Giroux, $24). TheNobel laureate’s newcollection of poetry is pervaded by an awareness of mortality and encroaching darkness, and yet it is a joy on every level. —Troy Jollimore
I’D KNOWYOU ANYWHERE, by Laura Lippman (Morrow, $25.99). Thismys- tery transcends the thriller genre, thanks to Lippman’s ability to take us into the lives and hearts of women who have been wronged and of the families that suffer with them. —P.A.
I HOTEL, by Karen Tei Yamashita (Cof- feeHouse; paperback, $19.95). Ten linked novellas about Asian American activists and workers living in the
same hotel in San
Francisco.National Book Award finalist. —Marcela Valdes
THE IMPERFECTIONISTS, by Tom Ra- chman (Dial, $25). Every individual, from the cuckolded news editor to the frozen-in-amber baroness, is treated with discretion and humanity in this witty portrait of a dying Italian news- paper. —Louis Bayard
THE INFINITIES, by John Banville (Knopf, $25.95). The real subject of this unforgettable, beautifully written book is nothing less than the enigma of mortal existence. And who better than a cast of lusty, bemused and mis- chievous immortals to cast a newlight on that? —Troy Jollimore
THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE, by Julie Or- ringer (Knopf, $26.95). This account of the wayHungary’s Jewish population was decimated by theHolocaust makes brilliant use of deliberately old- fashioned realism to define individual fates engulfed by history’s deadly on- rush. —Donna Rifkind
KINGS OF THE EARTH, by Jon Clinch (RandomHouse, $26). Based on the true tale of the death of one of four re- clusive brothers, this novel explores the complex and yearning American character. —Robert Goolrick
THE LAKE SHORE LIMITED, by Sue Miller (Knopf, 25.95). In this emotion- ally intricate novel, a playwright strug- gles to express her grief—or relief— after losing a lover in the 9/11 attacks. —R.C.
THE LONELY POLYGAMIST, by Brady Udall (Norton, $26.95). In this auda- cious novel, the polygamousMormon patriarch is just a poor, henpecked schmo. —Wendy Smith
MATTERHORN, by KarlMarlantes (At- lanticMonthly, $24.95). This Vietnam War novel reads like adventure, and yet it makes even the toughest war sto- ries seem a little pale by comparison. —David Masiel
THE OTHER FAMILY, by Joanna Trol- lope (Touchstone; paperback, $15). The story of two families firmly divid- ed yet irrevocably connected by the man who was the biological father in both households. —Reeve Lindbergh
OUR KIND OF TRAITOR, by John le Carré (Viking, $27.95). A Russian mon- eylender presses a young British cou- ple to help him retire from his danger- ous profession. If a better thriller has been published this year, I’d like to see it. —Dennis Drabelle
THE PASSAGE, by Justin Cronin (Bal- lantine, $27). This spectacular vam- pire saga— first in a planned trilogy —stitches together scraps of classic horror and science fiction, techno thrillers and apocalyptic terror. —R.C.
PHANTOM NOISE, by Brian Turner (Al- ice James, $16.95). Turner’s poetry shows us soldiers who are invincible and wounded, a nation noble and cul- pable, and a war by turns necessary and abominable. —Courtney Cook
PRIVATE LIFE, by Jane Smiley (Knopf, $26.95). In the course of this brilliant- ly imagined, carefully chiseled story, Smiley introduces a rich cast of char- acters, a virtual rush of Californian di- versity. A quantum leap for this au- thor. —Marie Arana
SAVAGE LANDS, by Clare Clark (HoughtonMifflinHarcourt, $25). The struggling French colony of Louisiana provides a richly atmospheric back- drop for the intertwined lives of three settlers who are newcomers to this un- welcoming terrain. —Sybil Steinberg
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