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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AFTER DARK,by Haruki Murakami (Knopf, 191 pp., $22)

Through a series of chance encounters in the wee hours of a Tokyo night, Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami captures the loneliness of modern life. (5/15/07)

MAYTREES,by Annie Dillard (HarperCollins, 224 pp., $24.95)

Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Dillard's latest novel, set on Cape Cod, combines themes of marriage, forgiveness, and a life lived close to nature. (6/5/07)

THE SHADOW CATCHER,by Marianne Wiggins (Simon & Schuster, 336 pp., $25)

Marianne Wiggins uses the life of legendary Western photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis as the basis of this novel that turns into a meditation on family and memory and ranges from Leonardo da Vinci to Route 66. (7/3/07)

THE SEPTEMBERS OF SHIRAZ,by Dalia Sofer (Ecco Press, 336 pp., $24.95)

Iranian-born novelist Dalia Sofer uses 1981 as the backdrop to her story of a young Iranian woman whose father is arrested for the double crime of having lived well under the shah and for being Jewish. (7/17/07)

LOVING FRANK,by Nancy Horan (Ballantine, 368 pp., $23.95)

Frank Lloyd Wright's married, intellectual lover Mamah Borthwick Cheney steps out of the shadows to narrate this debut novel by journalist Nancy Horan. (8/7/07)

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO,by Junot Díaz (Riverhead Books, 339 pp., $24.95)

In this debut novel, Junot Díaz tells the story of a Dominican-American "ghetto nerd" teen trapped in his own fantasies. (9/11/07)

TREE OF SMOKE,by Denis Johnson (FSG, 624 pp., $27)

After nearly a 10-year wait, fans of Denis Johnson were rewarded this year by the release of his latest novel, the gripping tale of a CIA agent toiling in Asia during the Vietnam War. (9/14/07)

BRIDGE OF SIGHS,by Richard Russo (Yale University Press, 229 pp., $25)

Richard Russo revisits familiar territory with this story of the reunion of a couple stuck in their upstate hometown and their high school friend who long ago left for Italy. (10/2/07)

RUN,by Ann Patchett (HarperCollins, 304 pp., $25.95)

Two Boston families unexpectedly collide in Ann Patchett's latest novel, a tender examination of the nonbiological ties that truly create family. (10/9/07)

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