A reading list for 2010

FICTION
NOAH’S COMPASS
by Anne Tyler
(Knopf Doubleday, 288 pp., $25.95)
In Anne Tyler’s 18th novel, the unexceptional Liam Pennywell, a widowed schoolteacher, loses his job one day and wakes up in a hospital the next, with no recollection of the experience. Post-injury, he struggles with memory loss and learns to love. (Scheduled to be published in January.)

THE UNNAMED
by Joshua Ferris
(Little, Brown, 313 pp., $24.99)
A mysterious sporadic disorder causes successful lawyer Tim Farnsworth to start walking – and he doesn’t stop until the disorder vanishes, as randomly as it appeared. Meanwhile, his beloved wife, Jane, combats alcoholism and illness while trying to keep Tim in one piece. (January)

POINT OMEGA
by Don DeLillo
(Simon & Schuster, 128 pp., $24)
Filmmaker Jim Finley tracks down Richard Elster, a former war adviser living alone in the desert, to make a single-take, single-character documentary on Elster’s experience. Elster’s daughter Jessie appears weeks later, and the three bond until something disastrous happens. (February)

THE LOST BOOKS OF THE ODYSSEY
by Zachary Mason
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 256 pp., $24)
A humorous reimagining of Homer’s epic poem, Mason’s debut novel is a satirical look at Odysseus’ life after he returns from the war, offering alternate endings and original takes on the classic story. For lovers of humor and Hellenism. (February)

RUBY’S SPOON
by Anna Lawrence Pietroni
(Random House, 336 pp., $26)
When fascinating, white-haired Isa Fly suddenly appears in the English town of Cradle Cross, 13-year-old Ruby is drawn to her. But Cradle Cross is facing financial peril, and the reasons for Isa’s abrupt arrival are called into question when town valuables begin to disappear. (February)

THE ASK
by Sam Lipsyte
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 304 pp., $25)
Lipsyte’s latest novel is a dark riff on contemporary America. Newly unemployed Milo Burke is solicited by a third-rate university to court funding from a potential donor, who turns out to be a former classmate with a shady assignment for Milo. (March)

THE SURRENDERED
by Chang-rae Lee
(Penguin Group, 480 pp., $26.95)
After the Korean War, war orphan June Han and GI Hector Brennan met in a missionary orphanage and vied for the attention of beautiful Sylvie Tanner. Thirty years after the war, the three reunite and must confront their histories, dark secrets, and the memory of what ties them together. (March)

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Next