The 2007 books we liked best: fiction
Of the fiction books reviewed in the Monitor this year, these received the top marks.
from the December 4, 2007 edition
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PAULA SPENCER,
by Roddy Doyle (Viking, 279 pp., $24.95)In this warm and wryly humorous sequel to "The Woman Who Walked Into Doors," Man Booker Prize-winner Roddy Doyle tells the story of Paula Spencer's sobriety. (Reviewed 1/2/07)
ZOLI,by Colum McCann (Random House, 352 pp., $24.95)This drama-laced tale, based loosely on the true story of Romany poet Bronislawa "Papusza" Wajs, spans the Holocaust, the coming of the Communists, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. (1/9/07)
IN THE COUNTRY OF MEN,by Hisham Matar (Dial Press, 246 pp., $22)This emotionally wrenching and gorgeously written novel about a young Libyan boy left alone with his mother when his dissident father disappears was shortlisted for last year's Man Booker prize. (2/6/07)
LOST CITY RADIO,by Daniel Alarcón (HarperCollins, 272 pp., $24.95)Twenty-something Peruvian-born novelist Alarcón's first novel is a haunting, beautifully written tale of lonely lives and broken hearts set in an unnamed Latin American dictatorship. (2/13/07)
FINN,by Jon Clinch (Random House, 287 pp., $23.95)Novelist Jon Clinch offers a cruel but compelling back story for the life of Huck Finn's Pap. (2/27/07)
THEN WE CAME TO THE END,by Joshua Ferris (Little, Brown, 387 pp., $23.99)In this pitch-perfect office comedy, Joshua Ferris captures the angst of the pointlessly employed. (3/6/07)
HEYDAY,by Kurt Andersen (Random House, 640 pp., $26.95)Kurt Andersen serves up a sprawling, messy, enthusiastic romp of a novel that takes readers on a wild ride through 1848 New York. (3/27/07)
BOOMSDAY,by Christopher Buckley (Twelve, 318 pp., $24.99)"Generation Whatever" turns on the boomers in Christopher Buckley's sharp, satiric gibe at political folly. (4/3/07)
PETROPOLIS,by Anya Ulinich (Viking, 336 pp., $24.95)Chubby Sasha Goldberg faces life as a biracial Jewish teenager in Asbestos 2, a town in Siberia, in this funny, fiery debut novel. (4/6/07)
THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION,by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins, 432 pp., $26.95)Michael Chabon packs big ideas and an entertaining story into a noir detective tale that imagines a Jewish homeland in Alaska. (5/1/07)
