Fiction Stars 2003

Titles are listed by approximate date of publication, then alphabetically by author. Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine - unless otherwise noted.

~ December ~ November ~ October ~ September ~ August ~ July

December

• Oracle Night
  Author: Auster, Paul
  Publisher: Holt $ 23 ISBN: 0805073205 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Several months into his recovery from a near-fatal illness, 34-year-old novelist Sidney Orr enters a stationery shop in Brooklyn and buys a blue notebook. For the next nine days Orr will live under the spell of this blank book, trapped inside a world of eerie premonitions and puzzling events that threaten to destroy his marriage and undermine his faith in reality.
  Suggested Reading: Books about Books | Author Author
  Updated 10.8.03
• Double Vision
  Author: Barker, Pat
  Publisher: FSG $ 23 ISBN: 0374209057 Date: 2003
  LJ
  From the author of Border Crossing comes a gripping novel about the effects of violence on the journalists and artists who have dedicated themselves to representing it.
  Updated 10.30.03
• By Night in Chile
  Author: Bolano, Roberto
  Publisher: New Directions $ 13.95 (paper) ISBN: 0811215474 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Updated 10.28.03
• Faith Fox
  Author: Gardam, Jane
  Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 25 ISBN: 078671221x Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  A novel of comedy and conversation, birth and death, and the differences between England's well-born and plain people. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 9.25.03
• Undone
  Author: Henley, Virginia
  Publisher: Signet $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0451210646 Date: 2003
  PW
  Known for her "passionate love scenes and steamy fantasies" (Booklist), the New York Times bestselling author follows up her sizzling Ravished with this seductive tale of an extraordinary beauty and the duke who knows her inside and out.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 11.17.03
• Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories
  Author: Hernandez, Gilbert
  Publisher: Fantographics $ 39.95 ISBN: 1560975393 Date: 2003
  PW
  Suggested Reading: Latino/Latina Stars | Graphic Novel Stars
  Updated 11.12.03
• The Charmer
  Author: Hunter, Madeline
  Publisher: Bantam $ 5.99 (paper) ISBN: 0553585916 Date: 2003
  PW
  In the third book in Hunter's Seducer series, the king of England sends a charismatic aristocrat to Paris to retrieve a duchess from her self-imposed exile and finds himself unable to resist her.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 11.12.03
• Rope Eater
  Author: Jones, Ben
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 24 ISBN: 0385509774 Date: 2003
  PWBooklistLJ
  A voyage of Arctic exploration during the American Civil War becomes an epic of madness and survival, in a stunning first novel animated by the spirits of Poe, Crane, Conrad, and Melville.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Historical Fiction Stars | Sea Stories
  Updated 12.29.03
• Call Me the Breeze
  Author: McCabe, Patrick
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060523883 Date: 2003
  PWBooklist
  From the two-time Booker Prize finalist, Patrick McCabe, comes a dark and hilarious novel about a man's fall from grace and journey to redemption, set against the political struggles of Northern Ireland during 1970s through the present day.
  Suggested Reading: Irish Stars
  Updated 12.15..03
• Key of Knowledge
  Author: Roberts, Nora
  Publisher: Jove $ 7.99 (paper) ISBN: 0515136379 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  In the second novel of her thrilling Key trilogy, Roberts introduces Dana, whose passion for books puts her on the quest for the Key of Knowledge. Will her search lead her to find the truth hidden among deception and lies--or succumb to her worst nightmare?
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 11.12.03
• The Solomon Sisters Wise Up
  Author: Senate, Melissa
  Publisher: Red Dress $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 037325041x Date: 2003
  Booklist
  The Solomon sisters are all totally different and are dealing with their own life issues, but have found themselves living under one roof after too many years. Thanks to a little help from each other--and some unexpected allies--the Solomon sisters are about to wise up.
  Suggested Reading: Chicklit Stars
  Updated 12.15.03
• There Are Jews in My House
  Author: Vapnyar, Lara
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 19.95 ISBN: 0375422501 Date: 2003
  PW
  From a writer who is herself a recent immigrant to the United States: an enchanting and moving collection of stories about Russians in Moscow and Russians in Brooklyn. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 10.7.03

November

• Yellow Dog
  Author: Amis, Martin
  Publisher: Miramax $ 24.95 ISBN: 1401352030 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  From the man the New York Times calls "the best American writer England has ever produced" comes a brilliant and unsettling novel of sex, royalty, and violence.
  Updated 8.11.03
• The Scarlet Letters
  Author: Auchincloss, Louis
  Publisher: Houghton Mifflin $ 24 ISBN: 0618341595 Date: 2003
  KirkusPW
  With classic works like The Rector of Justin and his more recent Manhattan Monologues, Auchincloss has established himself as "one of our most useful and intelligent writers" (New York Observer). Now, in his 59th work, he offers his cleverest novel yet: a suspenseful, mischievous twist on a legendary tale.
  Updated 10.2.03
• The Stories of Richard Bausch: New and Selected Stories
  Author: Bausch, Richard
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 29.95 ISBN: 0060196491 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  On the heels of his critically acclaimed novel Hello to the Cannibals, this definitive collection of the best of Bausch's marvelous short stories (which includes three novellas) celebrates the life's work of a great American artist.
  Updated 9.08.03
• Kill the Competition
  Author: Bond, Stephanie
  Publisher: Avon $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0060539836 Date: 2003
  PW
  Passion, wit, and thrilling suspense combine in this new novel from the RITA Award-winning author when the new girl in Atlanta learns that carpooling and climbing to the top can be murder.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 8.25.03
• A Clean Slate
  Author: Caldwell, Laura
  Publisher: Red Dress $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 037325038x Date: 2003
  Booklist
  A Chicago woman suddenly can''t remember the past five months of her life and begins to realize she has a clean slate. She can do anything she wants, but what, exactly, "does" she want?
  Suggested Reading: Chicklit Stars
  Updated 10.23.03
• Don Quixote
  Author: De Cervantes Miguel
  Publisher: Ecco $ 29.95 ISBN: 0060188707 Date: 2003
  LJPW
  Updated 11.12.03
• Tournament
  Author: Clark, John
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 19.95 ISBN: 1401300928 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Clarke presents a novel of the 20th century in which the greatest thinkers and personalities engage in a two-week tennis tournament.
  Updated 7.28.03
• The Meaning of Consuelo
  Author: Cofer, Judith Ortiz
  Publisher: FSG $ 20 ISBN: 0374205094 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  This affecting novel is a lively celebration of Puerto Rico as well as an archetypal story of loss, the loss each of us experiences on our journey from the island of childhood to the uncharted territory of adulthood. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Latino/Latina Stars | Adult Books for Young Adults
  Updated 10.8.03
• Genesis
  Author: Crace, Jim
  Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux $ 23 ISBN: 0374227306 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  The winner of the National Book Critics' Circle Award and the Whitbread Novel of the Year charts the sexual history of a loving, baffled man, the sexual emancipation of a city, and the sexual ambiguities of humankind.
  Updated 8.11.03
• I Sailed With Magellan
  Author: Dybek, Stuart
  Publisher: FSG $ 24 ISBN: 0374174075 Date: 2003
  KirkusBooklist
  From the prizewinning writer comes a superb new work: a novel-in-stories, 11 masterful tales set in Chicago's south side and told by a single voice with remarkable narrative power.
  Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 10.23.03
• Gloriana's Torch
  Author: Finney, Patricia
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN:0312312857 Date: 2003
  KirkusLJ
  Finney's brilliant reworking of Britain's Armada legend is an imaginative tour de force. Thrilling, intricate, and inspiring, this is a tale of courage, love, and, ultimately, redemption.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 9.25.03
• Lord of the Flies - 50th Anniversary
  Author: Golding William F.
  Publisher: Perigee $ 22.95 ISBN:0399529209 Date: 2003
  LJ
  Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies has established itself as a true classic--now in a beautifully designed hardcover edition worthy of its stature.
  Updated 11.18.03
• Pompeii
  Author: Harris, Robert
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0679428895 Date: 2003
  KirkusBooklist
  Ancient Rome is the setting for the superb new novel from Robert Harris, author of the number one bestsellers Fatherland, Enigma and Archangel. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 10.23.03
• The Salt Roads
  Author: Hopkinson, Nalo
  Publisher: Warner $ 22.95 ISBN: 0446533025 Date: 2003
  LJKirkus
  "Whirling with witchcraft and sensuality, this latest novel by Hopkinson (Skin Folk; Midnight Robber) is a globe-spanning, time-traveling spiritual odyssey."--Publishers Weekly.
  Suggested Reading: African American Stars
  Updated 10.8.03
• The Saint
  Author: Hunter, Madeline
  Publisher: Bantam $ 5.99 ISBN: 0553585908 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Continuing her Seducer series, Hunter introduces the Saint in this sizzling tale of a mysterious aristocrat, a high-spirited American beauty, and an innocent temptation that leads to the most dangerous of seductions.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 10.2.03
• The Garden of Departed Cats
  Author: Karaus, Bilge
  Publisher: New Directions $ 15.95 (paper) ISBN: 0811215512 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  A surreal, utterly unique Turkish novel about a human chess game.
  Updated 10.8.03
• The Silver Lion
  Author: Kerstan, Lynn
  Publisher: Onyx $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0451411161 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Kerstan wraps up her acclaimed trilogy that began with The Golden Leopard and continued in Heart of the Tiger with a novel of honor, sacrifice, and the redeeming power of love.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 10.23.03
• If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
  Author: McGregor, Jon
  Publisher: Mariner $ 13 (paper) ISBN: 0618344586 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  McGregor pens a haunting story of the events that transpire over a single day at the end of summer on a small urban street in England.
  Suggested Reading: Time Changes
  Updated 10.23.03
• War Torn
  Author: Marks, John
  Publisher: Riverhead $ 25.95 ISBN: 1573222542 Date: 2003
  PWLJ
  From the author of the New York Times Notable Book The Wall, this gripping thematic sequel tells the story of a love affair between an American journalist and a woman from the former Yugoslavia, during the aftermath of the Cold War.
  Suggested Reading: Former Yugoslavia
  Updated 10.30.03
• Women With Big Eyes
  Author: Mastretta, Angeles
  Publisher: Riverhead $ 19.95 ISBN: 1573223468 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  From the Mexican master, a collection of mystical, fable-like stories about the lives of extraordinary and eccentric women and the intuitive powers that all women share.
  Suggested Reading: Latino/Latina Stars
  Updated 9.08.03
• Foigleman
  Author: Megged, Aharon
  Publisher: Toby $ 19.95 ISBN: 159264032x Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Updated 12.15.03
• Siegfried
  Author: Mulisch, Harry
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670032530 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  From the bestselling author of The Discovery of Heaven comes a compelling new novel with the daring premise that Hitler and Eva Braun produced a son.
  Updated 9.08.03
• Key of Light
  Author: Roberts, Nora
  Publisher: Jove $ 7.99 (paper) ISBN: 051513628x Date: 2003
  Booklist
  An unforgettable new trilogy by the bestselling author begins. Three women. Three keys. Each has 28 days to find her way through a dangerous quest that will unlock her deepest desires. The first is Mallory, who must find the Key of Light.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 11.12.03
• The Shadow King
  Author: Stevenson, Jane
  Publisher: Houghton Mifflin $ 24 ISBN: 0618149139 Date: 2003
  LJ
  In the second volume of Stevenson's masterly trilogy, Balthasar--son of Elizabeth of Bohemia and Pelagius, an African prince--is driven out of Holland by the plague. Now a young doctor, he makes his way first to the raffish, cynical world of Restoration London and then to Barbados, a land of slavery and savage racism.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 10.7.03
• When a Texan Gambles
  Author: Thomas, Jodi
  Publisher: Jove $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0515136298 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Raffled off in a wife lottery, Sarah Andrews discovers her groom has a knife in his back. She agrees to help him, but never in her wildest dreams does she imagine that this dangerously attractive Texan would steal her heart.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 10.23.03
• Number 10
  Author: Townsend, Sue
  Publisher: Soho $ 24 ISBN: 1569473498 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  In Townsend's riotously funny new novel, Edward Clare, prime minister of England, has a problem. For five years, since his landslide election, he has been universally viewed as the perfect leader and representative of the working man. But then something happens that turns the public against him.
  Suggested Reading: Humorous Fiction | Political Fiction
  Updated 9.08.03
• The Way to Paradise
  Author: Vargas Llosa, Mario
  Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374228035 Date: 2003
  KirkusLJ
  The dramatic lives of two bold, independent adventurers--Paul Gauguin and his grandmother Flora Tristan, a trailblazing women's suffragist--are imagined by "one of the master storytellers of our time" (Chicago Tribune Book World).
  Suggested Reading: Latino/Latina Stars
  Updated 10.7.03
• Old School
  Author: Wolff, Tobias
  Publisher: Knopf $ 22 ISBN: 0375401466 Date: 2003
  BooklistPW
  The author of the genre-defining memoir This Boy's Life and The Barrack's Thief now presents his first novel about a young boy at New England prep school obsessed with visiting authors.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts | School Days Stars | Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 10.14.03
• Liberated Bride
  Author: Yehoshua, A.B.
  Publisher: Harvest $ 27 ISBN: 0151006539 Date: 2003
  KirkusPWLJ
  In this comedy of manners, at once deeply serious and highly entertaining, Yehoshua brilliantly portrays characters from disparate sectors of Israeli life, united above all by a very human desire for, and fear of, the truth in politics and life.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 10.30.03

October

• Daughter: A Novel
  Author: Bandele, Asha
  Publisher: Scribner $ 23 ISBN: 0743211847 Date: 2003
  LJ
  The gifted and charismatic author of the acclaimed memoir The Prisoner's Wife delivers a bold and heartrending first novel that explores the silence of black women and illuminates the fragile complexity of the mother-daughter bond.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts | African American Stars
  Updated 8.14.03
• Dykes and Sundry Other Carbon-Based Life-Forms to Watch Out fo
  Author: Bechdel, Alison
  Publisher: Alyson $ 13.95 (paper) ISBN: 1555838286 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  The groundbreaking, nationally syndicated comic strip celebrates 20 years in print with a tenth collection of strips exploring the lives of its characters in a post millennium, post 9-11 America.
  Updated 10.2.03
• The Lives of the Circus Animals
  Author: Bram, Christopher
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95/13.95 ISBN: 0060542535/0060542543 Date: 2003
  KirkusLJ
  With this enchantingly comic novel, the acclaimed author of Father of Frankenstein and the Notorious Dr. August pens an artfully imagined comedy of life and love set against the New York theater scene.
  Updated 9.25.03
• Moloka'i
  Author: Brennert, Alan
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 031230434x Date: 2003
  PW
  Young Rachel Kalama, growing up in Honolulu in the 1890s, is part of a big, loving Hawaiian family but, at the age of seven, Rachel's dreams are shattered by the discovery that she has leprosy.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 9.08.03
• Morning Dark
  Author: Buckman, Daniel
  Publisher: St Martins $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312314620 Date: 2003
  LJ
  The story of three generations of men from rural Illinois, each consumed by the battles they fought and the wars they still dream of.
  Updated 9.08.03
• Mesmerized
  Author: Camp, Candace
  Publisher: Mira $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 1551667290 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Denying her clairvoyant abilities, Olivia Moreland works instead to expose fake mediums. But when Stephen, Lord St. Leger, requests her help, she can't ignore the connection she feels toward him.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars | Mediums
  Updated 10.2.03
• My Life As a Fake
  Author: Carey, Peter
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 0375414983 Date: 2003
  KirkusPWLJ
  Using as a springboard a real literary hoax that transfixed Australia in his boyhood, Peter Carey wickedly and ruefully explores how a phantom poet taunts, haunts and otherwise destroys his maker, pursuing him from Melbourne to a seedy, sweaty, bitter ending in the tropical chaos of Kuala Lumpur.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Poets
  Updated 10.30.03
• A Kind of Flying: Selected Stories
  Author: Carlson, Ron
  Publisher: Norton $ 15.95 (paper) ISBN: 0393324796 Date: 2003
  LJ
  In this generous gathering from collections no longer available, longtime fans and new readers alike can savor the development of a master of idiosyncrasy. Prepare to be amused, moved, and disturbed by stories that make a difference.
  Updated 9.25.03
• Elizabeth Costello
  Author: Coetzee, J.M.
  Publisher: Viking $ 21.95 ISBN: 0670031305 Date: 2003
  PWLJ
  Booker Prize winner Coetzee has crafted an unusual and deeply affecting tale of an Australian novelist whose life is revealed through a series of eight formal addresses.
  Updated 9.25.03
• Heretic
  Author: Cornwell, Bernard
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060530499 Date: 2003
  PW
  The newest installment--after The Archer's Tale and Vagabond--continues the bestselling saga about a young archer on a quest for the Holy Grail.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 8.11.03
• Sunday at the Pool in Kigali
  Author: Courtemanche, Gil
  Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 1400041074 Date: 2003
  KirkusLJ
  This landmark novel--penned by a journalist who spent several years in Africa--confronts the nightmare that ravaged Rwanda in April 1994, when the Hutu-led government orchestrated genocide against the Tutsi people.
  Suggested Readng List: Rwanda
  Updated 9.25.03
• Calligrapher
  Author: Docx, Edward
  Publisher: Houghton Mifflin $ 24 ISBN: 0618343970 Date: 2003
  KirkusLJ
  This fresh, original, altogether winning first novel is centered on a young London calligrapher named Jasper--an engaging, intelligent serial seducer and a breaker of hearts.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 9.08.03
• Angels on the Head of a Pin
  Author: Druzhnikov, Yuri
  Publisher: Peter Owen $ 34.95 ISBN: 0720611709 Date: 2003
  PW
  Updated 11.3.03
• Politically Inspired
  Author: Elliot, Stephen (ed)
  Publisher: Macadam Cage $ 21/13 ISBN: 1931561583/1931561451 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  An anthology of original short fiction inspired by the news and current events. Includes stories by twenty authors, including Stewart O'Nan, Charles Baxter, ZZ Packer and Anthony Swofford.
  Suggested Reading: Political Fiction
  Updated 8.25.03
• The Movies of My Life
  Author: Fuguet, Alberto
  Publisher: Rayo $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060534621 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  From one of the most brilliant minds of his generation to emerge from South America comes an epic novel about the power of American pop culture and a seismologist trying to make sense of the shifting world around him.
  Suggested Reading: Latino/Latina Stars
  Updated 8.11.03
• Sandman: Endless Nights
  Author: Gaiman, Neil and various illustrators
  Publisher: Vertigo/DC $ 24.95 ISBN: 1401200893 Date: 2003
  PW
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
  Updated 9.08.03
• Our Lady of the Forest
  Author: Guterson, David
  Publisher: Knopf $ 25.95 ISBN: 0375412115 Date: 2003
  LJKirkusPW
  In a suspenseful and emotionally charged story of faith at a contemporary crossroads, the bestselling author of Snow Falling on Cedars offers a provocative new novel about a teenage girl who claims to see the Virgin Mary.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Questions of Faith
  Updated 7.28.03
• Everything Will Be All Right
  Author: Hadley, Tessa
  Publisher: Holt $ 24 ISBN: 0805070656 Date: 2003
  LJ
  Spanning five decades of extraordinary changes in women's lives, Everything Will Be All Right explores the complicated relationships of a family. The young ones of each generation are sure that they can correct the mistakes of their parents; the truth, of course, is more opaque.
  Updated 9.25.03
• The Book of Hard Things
  Author: Halpern, Sue
  Publisher: FSG $ 22 ISBN: 0374115591 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  At 18, Cuzzy Gage has never been out of Poverty, the isolated mountain hamlet where he was born, raised, and--much to the annoyance of his dreamy girlfriend, the mother of his child--seems destined to stay.
  Updated 10.8.03
• Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona
  Author: Harty, Ryan
  Publisher: Univ of Iowa $ 15.95 ISBN: 0877458693 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Updated 8.13.03
• Great Fire
  Author: Hazzard, Shirley
  Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux $ 24 ISBN: 0374166447 Date: 2003
  KirkusPWBooklistLJ
  This is Hazzard's first novel since The Transit of Venus, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The conflagration of her title is the Second World War. In war-torn Asia and stricken Europe, men and women must reinvent their lives and expectations, and learn, from their past, to dream again.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Historical Fiction Stars | World Wars
  Updated 10.7.03
• Garbo Laughs
  Author: Hay, Elizabeth
  Publisher: Counterpoint $ 25 ISBN: 1582432910 Date: 2003
  KirkusBooklist
  From the award-winning author of A Student of Weather comes a funny, sad-eyed novel about a woman caught between real love and movie love--and real love doesn't stand a chance.
  Updated 9.22.03
• The Unprofessionals
  Author: Hecht, Julie
  Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 1400061741 Date: 2003
  PWBooklist
  Updated 9.22.03
• Charlie Johnson in the Flames
  Author: Ignatieff, Michael
  Publisher: Grove $ 22 ISBN: 0802117554 Date: 2003
  KirkusLJ
  By the author of The Needs of Strangers, this profound meditation explores war, guilt and one man's search for justice.
  Updated 9.08.03
• Me and Orson Welles
  Author: Kaplow, Robert
  Publisher: Macadam $ 18.50 ISBN: 1931561494 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Set in the 1930s, this is the story of 17-year-old Richard Samuels whose theatrical dreams are answered when Welles offers him a small role in his Broadway debut of Julius Caesar.
  Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Historical Fiction Stars | Shakespearean Stars
  Updated 5.9.05
• Iceland's Bell
  Author: Laxness, Halldor
  Publisher: Vintage $ 15 (paper) ISBN: 1400034256 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  In 18th century Iceland, a man becomes a fugitive after being wrongly accused of murder.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction
  Updated 10.8.03
• A Girl's Guide to Vampires
  Author: Macalister, Katie
  Publisher: Love Spell $6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0505525305 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Armed with only a bag of rune stones and her wicked sense of humor, an American woman untangles the threads connecting a serial killer, vampires, and the handsome man who may not be as he appears.
  Suggested Reading: Chicklit Stars
  Updated 10.23.03
• The Way the Crow Flies
  Author: MacDonald, Ann-Marie
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 26.95 ISBN: 0060578955 Date: 2003
  PWBooklist
  From the acclaimed author of Fall on Your Knees--a "New York Times" bestseller and Oprah pick--comes a mesmerizing look "at childhood, marriage, families, the 1960s, the Cold War, and the fear and isolation that are part of the human condition" (Patrick Anderson, "Washington Post Book World").
  Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
  Reading Group Guide
  Updated 9.22.03
• Mirror Mirror
  Author: Maguire, Gregory
  Publisher: Regan $ 24.95 ISBN: 006039384x Date: 2003
  KirkusPW
  From the bestselling author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (debuting on Broadway this fall), Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Lost comes a master retelling of the Snow White story set in Renaissance Italy.
  Updated 9.08.03
• In the Blind
  Author: Marten, Eugene
  Publisher: Turtle Point $ 16.95 (paper) ISBN: 1885586752 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Updated 11.12.03
• The Pleasure of My Company: A Novella
  Author: Martin, Steve
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 19.95 ISBN: 0786869216 Date: 2003
  KirkusLJBooklistPW
  From the bestselling author of Shopgirl comes a tender novella of a troubled man who finds love, and life in the most unexpected place.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 9.22.03
• A Light Comedy
  Author: Mendoza, Eduardo
  Publisher: Harvill $ 19.95 ISBN: 1860468411 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Updated 2.10.04
• Eyes at the Window
  Author: Miller, Evie Yoder
  Publisher: Good Books $ 22.95 ISBN: 1561484059 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Eyes at the Window is a historical novel set in a close-knit community of Amish pioneers from 1810-1861, beset by the unsolved murder of an Amish baby (based on a true incident). The interior lives of these restrained people are captured by the 8 voices of those most intimately involved, showing their anger, guilt, judgment, grace, and attempts at forgiveness.
  Updated 10.8.03
• One Last Look
  Author: Moore, Susanna
  Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0679450416 Date: 2003
  PW
  Updated 10.14.03
• Brave Enemies
  Author: Morgan, Robert
  Publisher: Algonquin $ 24.95 ISBN: 1565123565 Date: 2003
  PW
  After murdering her abusive stepfather, Josie Summers escapes into the Carolina wilderness disguised as a boy. She is befriended by John Trethman, a traveling minister, who is unaware that she's a girl.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 6.2.03
• Love
  Author: Morrison, Toni
  Publisher: Knopf $ 23.95 ISBN: 0375409440 Date: 2003
  KirkusBooklistPW
  From the internationally acclaimed Nobel laureate comes a richly conceived novel that illuminates the full spectrum of desire. More than the wealthy owner of the famous Cosey Hotel and Resort, Bill Cosey shapes the yearnings of six women for father, husband, lover, guardian, friend--yearnings that dominate their lives long after his death.
  Suggested Reading: African American Stars | All Stars
  Updated 9.08.03
• Walking into the Night
  Author: Olafsson, Olaf
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 23 ISBN: 0375422544 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Walking into the Night is a stunning portrait of a man wrestling with guilt and secret passions. Olaf Olafsson surpasses anything he has accomplished thus far in this wise and beautiful novel.
  Updated 8.25.03
• The Night Country: Or, the Darkness on the Edge of Town
  Author: O'Nan, Stewart
  Publisher: FSG $ 22 ISBN: 0374222150 Date: 2003
  LJ
  A strange and unsettling ghost story in the tradition of Ray Bradbury and Shirley Jackson, The Night Country creeps through the streets of one bedroom community, reaching into the connected yet isolated lives of three people changed forever by a car accident.
  Suggested Reading: Ghosts | Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 8.14.03
• A Distant Shore
  Author: Phillips, Caryl
  Publisher: Knopf $ 23.95 ISBN: 1400041090 Date: 2003
  BooklistPW
  From the acclaimed author of The Nature of Blood and The Atlantic Sound comes a masterful new novel set in contemporary England about an African man and an English woman whose hidden lives are revealed in their fragile, fateful connection.
  Suggested Reading: African American Stars
  Updated 10.2.03
• Money to Burn
  Author: Piglia, Ricardo
  Publisher: Granta $ 14.95 (paper) ISBN: 1862075921 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Love and betrayal complicate a robbery gone wrong in this edgy true-crime novel based on a 1965 Argentine bank robbery.
  Updated 10.8.03
• In the Cherry Tree
  Author: Pope, Dan
  Publisher: Picador $ 14 (trade paper) ISBN: 0312422369 Date: 2003
  LJ
  With a wholly original voice, this stunning debut novel captures the overwhelming transformation from childhood to adolescence.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Summertime Stars
  Updated 9.08.03
• The Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens
  Author: Rechy, John
  Publisher: Grove $ 24 ISBN: 0802117465 Date: 2003
  PW
  From the author of the classic City of Night comes a captivating, wickedly entertaining novel in which an irrepressible young hero is set loose in the religious-fundamentalist world of Texas, the gambling palaces of Las Vegas, and the enticing mythos of Los Angeles.
  Updated 9.22.03
• Signal Hill
  Author: Rifkin, Alan
  Publisher: City Lights $ 12.95 (trade paper) ISBN: 0872864243 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Updated 9.08.03
• Remember When
  Author: Roberts, Nora
  Publisher: Putnam $ 25.95 ISBN: 0399151060 Date: 2003
  LJPW
  A thrill-ride of a novel that blends present-day romance and futuristic suspense, Remember When is a tale of deceit and secrets, of strong women and fascinating men--a brilliant combination of the incomparable talents of the two sides of Nora Roberts.
  Updated 9.08.03
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
• The Girl Who Played Go
  Author: Sa, Shan
  Publisher: Knopf $ 22.95 ISBN: 1400040256 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  In this tale of love and war, set in Japanese-occupied Manchuria in the 1930s, the deceptive simplicity of the writing makes the cruelty and tragedy of its outcome all the more shocking.
  Updated 9.08.03
• Desire and Delusion: Three Novellas
  Author: Schnitzler, Arthur
  Publisher: Ivan Dee $ 26 ISBN: 156663542x Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Updated 9.25.03
• Quicksilver
  Author: Stephenson, Neal
  Publisher: Morrow $ 27.95 ISBN: 0380977427 Date: 2003
  LJ
  In this wonderfully inventive follow-up to his bestseller Cryptonomicon, Stephenson brings to life a cast of unforgettable characters in a time of breathtaking genius and discovery, men and women whose exploits defined an age known as the Baroque.
  Baroque Cycle web site
  Updated 9.25.03
• No Angel
  Author: Vincenzi, Penny
  Publisher: Overlook $ 26.95 ISBN: 185674818 Date: 2003
  LJ
  With the publication of No Angel, a novel introducing the engaging cast of characters in the Lytton family, Overlook opens a thrilling new dimension to this author's already illustrious career.
  Suggested Reading: Publishing
  Updated 9.08.03
• Fanny: A Fiction
  Author: White, Edmund
  Publisher: Ecco $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060004843 Date: 2003
  KirkusPWLJBooklist
  This highly anticipated work is a brilliant novel based on the life of Fanny Wright--Scottish gentlewoman, early abolitionist, plantation owner, and newspaper publisher.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | All Stars | Biographical Fiction
  Updated 10.2.03
• Winner of the National Book Award: A Novel of Fame, Honor, and Really Bad Weather
  Author: Willett, Jincy
  Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312311818 Date: 2003
  LJPW
  The long-awaited novel from the author of the acclaimed collection Jenny and the Jaws of Life. In her darkly comic and unsettling first novel, Willett explores the darker side of human nature with the lightest of touches. She is a writer of astonishing power and talent.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts | Poets
  Updated 9.08.03
• No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain't Never Coming Home Again: A Symphonic Novel
  Author: Yunque, Edgardo Vega
  Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374223114 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  This sweeping drama of intimately connected families conjures up the ever-shifting cultural mosaic that is America. At its heart is Vidamia Farrell, half Puerto Rican, half Irish, who sets out in search of the father she has never known.
  Suggested Reading: Latino/Latina Stars | Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 8.25.03

September

• Love and Country
  Author: Adam, Christina
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0613765000 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  The author of Any Small Thing Can Save You, a collection of stories, now pens a moving and lyrically written debut novel of love and rodeo in the American West.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts | Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 7.8.03
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven
  Author: Albom, Mitch
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 19.95 ISBN: 0786868716 Date: 2003
  PW
  From the author of the New York Times bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie comes a novel that explores the unexpected connections of readers' lives and the idea that heaven is more than a place--it's an answer.
  Suggested Reading: Amusement & Theme Parks
  Updated 8.18.03
• Brick Lane
  Author: Ali, Monica
  Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743243307 Date: 2003
  KirkusLJPW
  A stunningly accomplished debut and already an international sensation--the story of one outsider's quest to find her voice. What could not be changed must be borne. And since nothing could be changed, everything had to be borne. This principle ruled her life.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 6.25.03
• The Pirate Next Door
  Author: Ashley, Jennifer
  Publisher: Leisure $ 5.99 (paper) ISBN: 0843952776 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  What is a proper English lady to do when a pirate, now a newly titled viscount, moves in next door? Alexandra Alastair follows her instincts--and no challenge is too great and no pleasure too wicked.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 10.2.03
• Saul and Patsy
  Author: Baxter, Charles
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 24 ISBN: 0375410295 Date: 2003
  KirkusBooklist
  From the acclaimed author of The Feast of Love--nominated for a National Book Award--comes a new novel about the arcs and pitches of event and emotion that shape the lives of a young married couple.
  Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 8.13.03
• Shipwreck
  Author: Begley, Louis
  Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 1400040981 Date: 2003
  PW
  From the acclaimed author of Wartime Lies and About Schmidt comes a mesmerizing novel of success, dalliance, and self-destruction.
  Updated 8.11.03
• You Look Nice Today
  Author: Bing, Stanley
  Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 24.95 ISBN: 1582342806 Date: 2003
  KirkusPW
  With daily doses of bad news coming from the corporate world, Bing provides some much needed comic relief on business life.
  Updated 8.4.03
• Fahrenheit 451
  Author: Bradbury, Ray
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 23 ISBN: 0743247221 Date: 2003
  LJ
  Nowadays firemen start fires. Fireman Guy Montag loves to rush to a fire and watch books burn up. Then he met a seventeen-year old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid, and a professor who told him of a future where people could think. And Guy Montag knew what he had to do....
  Suggested Reading: Books About Books | On Fire
  Updated 11.18.03
• I Was Howard Hughes
  Author: Carter, Steven
  Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 14.95 (paper) ISBN: 1582343756 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Part The Great Gatsby, part This Is Spinal Tap, Carter's hilarious debut paints a fictional portrait of a biographer, his notorious subject, and the illusions held about fame and fortune.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts | Biographical Fiction
  Updated 7.8.03
• Mirage
  Author: Chandraratna, Bandula
  Publisher: Black Sparrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 1574231960 Date: 2003
  LJ
  Updated 9.25.03
• Train
  Author: Dexter, Pete
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 26 ISBN: 0385505914 Date: 2003
  PW
  National Book Award-winner Dexter crafts a stunning novel of crime, race, and unlikely liaisons in this tautly written Los Angeles noir set in the 1950s that brings to mind Chinatown and L.A. Confidential.
  Updated 7.8.03
• One Pill Makes You Smaller
  Author: Dierbeck, Lisa
  Publisher: FSG $ 24 ISBN: 0374226490 Date: 2003
  PW
  Inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, One Pill Makes You Smaller is the story of a child forced to navigate a bewildering adult world where morality is turned upside down. The novel portrays a young girl's unwilling tumble toward adulthood and exposes the darker corners of America's past.
  Updated 6.19.03
• Fox's Walk
  Author: Davis-Goff, Annabel
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 015101020x Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  During the First World War, ten-year-old Alice Moore is left in the care of her autocratic grandmother at Ballydavid, a lovely country house in County Waterford. After the Easter Rising, when blood is spilled close to home, the girl is forced to choose between her heritage of privilege and her growing moral and political conscience.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 6.30.03
• Echo Tree: The Collected Short Fiction of Henry Dumas
  Author: Dumas, Henry
  Publisher: Coffee House $ 15.95 ISBN: 1566891493 Date: 2003
  LJ
  Updated 9.08.03
• The Furies
  Author: Eberstadt, Fernanda
  Publisher: Knopf $ 26 ISBN: 0375412565 Date: 2003
  KirkusBooklistPW
  In a tale of sexual obsession gone wrong, Gwen Lewis finds herself unable to be a mother without driving away Gideon, the father of her child, while he--determined to save their daughter from Gwen's moneyed values--is driven to spectacular self-destruction.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 9.22.03
• Daimons
  Author: Fitzpatrick, Nina
  Publisher: Justin Charles $ 24.95 ISBN: 1932112146 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  "Daimons are not demons." So begins this magical, utterly beguiling new novel that weaves a lushly patterned tapestry that combines the mythic Irish tropes of triumph and sorrow with the magical realism of a Borges or Marquez.
  Updated 9.22.03
• The Student Conductor
  Author: Ford, Robert
  Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399150374 Date: 2003
  BooklistLJ
  Cooper Barrow has returned to the competitive fray of the orchestral world after eight years of exile--bringing his talent and insecurity into Frankfurt when the Berlin Wall falls. With remarkable intensity and physicality, Ford delivers a pitch-perfect debut, brimming with intrigue and revelation.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Music & Fiction
  Updated 11.18.03
• Unexpected
  Author: Foster, Lori
  Publisher: Brava $ 14 (paper) ISBN: 0758205481 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  In this deliciously erotic novel, New York Times bestselling author Lori Foster creates an unforgettable heroine in Ray Vereker, a female Rambo with quick reflexes, sharp instincts, a hot body, and a bad case of morning sickness.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 10.2.03
• Boo
  Author: Gutteridge, Rene
  Publisher: Waterbrook $ 11.99 (paper) ISBN: 1578565731 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  The biggest thing to happen to Skary, Indiana, is renowned horror novelist Wolfe Boone-or, "Boo," as the locals fondly call him. For the past sixteen years, the reclusive writer has been the town's greatest attraction, having unintentionally turned the once-struggling Skary into a thriving tourist-trap for the dark side: from the Haunted Mansion restaurant, famous for its "bloody fingers" (fries splattered with ketchup) to Spooky's Bookstore (where employees dress like the walking dead).
  
  But when a newly reformed Wolfe suddenly quits the genre and subsequently starts to pursue Skary's favorite girl-next-door, Ainsley Parker, the little town made famous by his writings becomes truly horrified. Soon, a scheme is plotted to put the fright back into Skary-and get their most famous resident out of love and back into the thrill business.
  Filled with humor, small town charm, and a gentle message of enduring faith, Boo shows how even the most colorful group of busybodies and hypocrites can become a community changed forever by God. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
  Updated 10.8.03
• Dream Jungle
  Author: Hagedorn, Jessica
  Publisher: Viking $ 23.95 ISBN: 0670884588 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Hagedorn has received enormous critical acclaim for her edgy, high-energy novels chronicling the clash and embrace of American and Filipino cultures. With Dream Jungle she breaks through to a new level of narrative daring and has written her most complex and accomplished novel to date.
  Updated 10.2.03
• Ghost Eater
  Author: Highland, Frederick
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312306717 Date: 2003
  LJ
  A tale of courage, command, and self-discovery vividly re-creates the tapestry of the 19th-century East Indies, even as it immerses readers in a harrowing, suspenseful river journey.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | Action & Adventure
  Updated 8.14.03
• Jamesland
  Author: Huneven, Michelle
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 0375413820 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Gathering at Helen Harland's new church, several dissatisfied people encounter one another--and some significant others besides--as their particular desires dovetail in a quest not just for romance but deeper meaning in the "variety show of religious experience."
  Suggested Reading: Questions of Faith
  Updated 8.13.03
• Deafening
  Author: Itani, Frances
  Publisher: Atlantic $ 24 ISBN: 0871139022 Date: 2003
  PWLJKirkus
  Elegantly written and profoundly moving, Deafening is a tale of remarkable virtuosity and power, set on the eve of the Great War and spanning two continents and the life and loves of a young deaf woman in Canada named Grania O'Neill.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 6.19.03
• L'Affaire
  Author: Johnson, Diane
  Publisher: Dutton $ 24.95 ISBN: 052594740x Date: 2003
  PW
  A story of Americans abroad and the melange of Europeans they encounter, in affairs of both the heart and of business, L'Affaire firmly upholds the true comic-literary talent of a writer of whom the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "If one were to cross Jane Austen and Henry James, the result would be Diane Johnson."
  Updated 8.18.03
• The Known World
  Author: Jones, Edward P.
  Publisher: Amistad $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060557540 Date: 2003
  KirkusLJBooklist
  Henry Townsend, a black bootmaker and former slave in antebellum Virginia, becomes a proprietor of his own plantation--as well as his own slaves. This modern masterpiece explores what happens when he dies and "the known world" unravels.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | African American Stars | All Stars | Virginia Stars
  Updated 10.2.03
• Infiltration
  Author: Kenaz, Yehoshua
  Publisher: Steerforth $ 19.95 (paper) ISBN: 1589152058 Date: 2003
  PW
  Updated 9.22.03
• Waking the Princess
  Author: King, Susan
  Publisher: Signet $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0451208838 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  In the second title of King's historical romance trilogy set in Victorian Scotland, Sir Aedan MacInnes has little time for the local legend that claims he is cursed, and Christina Blackburn hides a smoldering past. So how will fate bring them together?
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 9.22.03
• How to Meet Cute Boys
  Author: Kizis, Deanna
  Publisher: Warner $ 21.95 ISBN: 0446530727 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  This hilarious work of women's fiction is about a young woman writing for a women's magazine who's experiencing the L.A. dating scene. This book depicts itself as a "novelzine," where the protagonist's magazine articles are relevantly interspersed throughout the novel.
  Suggested Reading: Chicklit Stars | Dating Stars
  Updated 9.22.03
• To Catch a Wolf
  Author: Krinard, Susan
  Publisher: Berkley $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0425192083 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  When crippled Denver socialite Athena Munroe sees werewolf Morgan Holt in a traveling circus, she will have to fight tooth and nail to keep her passion for him at bay--or discover her own extraordinary destiny.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 10.2.03
• A Garden in the Rain
  Author: Kurland, Lynn
  Publisher: Berkley $ 7.99 (paper) ISBN: 0425192024 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  The novel Kurland's fans have been waiting for--the untold story of Highland lord Patrick MacLeod, the first in his Scottish clan to travel through time for love.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 9.22.03
• Far
  Author: Lancelotta, Victoria
  Publisher: Counterpoint $ 24 ISBN: 1582431140 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  A dark, unsetting novel about a woman whose reluctance to adopt traditional female roles of marriage and motherhood results in a painful alienation from her Italian-American family and community.
  Updated 7.8.03
• Mailman
  Author: Lennon, J. Robert
  Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0393057313 Date: 2003
  LJBooklist
  This extraordinary novel is a blackly comic epic, a twisted voyage through small-town America which tells the story of a brilliant, neurotic man desperately in search of love.
  Suggested Reading: Black Humor
  Updated 9.22.03
• The Fortress of Solitude
  Author: Lethem, Jonathan
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 26 ISBN: 0385500696 Date: 2003
  PW
  From the National Book Critics Award winner comes a daring, riotous, sweeping novel that spins the tale of two friends from a Brooklyn neighborhood, one black and one white, and their adventures in late 20th-century America.
  Updated 6.19.03
• Swagbelly: A Pornographer's Tale
  Author: Levien, D.J.
  Publisher: Plume $ 13 ISBN: 0452284546 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  From acclaimed screenwriter and film director D.J. Levien, Swagbelly is a wry, erotic, and hilariously satirical tale of a pornographer in search of a decent life.
  Suggested Reading: Satirical Stars
  Updated 7.28.03
• Broken Ground
  Author: Maristed, Kai
  Publisher: Shoemaker & Hoard $ 24 ISBN: 1593760051 Date: 2003
  LJ
  A novel of family, betrayal, and Berlin past and present is penned by the author of Out After Dark and Fall.
  Updated 10.7.03
• Scion: The Far Kingdom
  Author: Marz, Ron, Jim Cheung, Don Hillsman II & Jason Keith
  Publisher: CrossGen $ 15.95 (paper) ISBN: 1931484813 Date: 2003
  PW
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
  Updated 10.2.03
• Epicurus the Sage
  Author: Messner-Loebs, Willam & Keith, Sam
  Publisher: DC/Cliffhanger $ 19.95 (paper) ISBN: 1401200281 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
  Updated 12.15.03
• One Last Look
  Author: Moore, Susanna
  Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0679450416 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Updated 8.11.03
• A Window Across the River
  Author: Morton, Brian
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 0151007578 Date: 2003
  PW
  Fueled by her rediscovered love for Isaac, a photographer, Nora realizes that the story she's working on has turned into a fictionalized portrait of him, exposing his frailties and compromises and sure to be viewed as a betrayal.
  Updated 8.04.03
• Four Spirits
  Author: Naslund, Sena Jeter
  Publisher: Morrow $ 26.95 ISBN: 0066212383 Date: 2003
  PWLJ
  From the acclaimed author of the bestseller Ahab's Wife comes this eagerly anticipated new bestseller--an inspiring, brilliantly rendered novel set in the Deep South of the 1960s.
  Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 8.14.03
• The Time Traveler's Wife
  Author: Niffenegger, Audrey
  Publisher: MacAdam/Cage $ 25 ISBN: 193156146x Date: 2003
  PWLJ
  The love story of Henry and Claire whose lives are punctuated by Henry's disappearance to different points in time--sometimes even back to visit Claire as a young woman. When Henry meets Claire, he is twenty-eight, and she is twenty. He's a hip, handsome librarian; she is an art student with Botticelli hair. Henry has never met Claire before; Claire has known Henry since she was six...
  Suggested Reading: Time Travel Stars | Immortalism Stars | Reading Group Stars | Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 8.14.03
• Inch by Inch: A Novel of Breast Cancer and Healing
  Author: Norman, Geoffrey
  Publisher: Lyons $ 22.95 ISBN: 1592281974 Date: 2003
  LJ
  Based on true events, this novel tells the story of Jake and Leslie, a couple who have been married for 25 years, have two children in college, and a life they had expected. Then abruptly, on the way home from a business trip, Leslie tells Jake that she has breast cancer. Suddenly their world is turned upside down. Norman presents a scenario all too real for the quarter million women who are diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States each year-and their families. There are books that map what is to be expected, but none present the husband's journey that parallels his partner's. And none are able to depict the searing emotional landscape of grief, fear, and healing, that Norman does with such grace. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 10.11.05
• How to Breathe Underwater: Stories
  Author: Orringer, Julie
  Publisher: Knopf $ 21 ISBN: 1400041112 Date: 2003
  LJBooklist
  This guide to life in a hostile world is an astonishing debut story collection from a young writer who has already received immediate worldwide attention.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 9.22.03
• Swan's Way: A New Translation
  Author: Proust, Marcel (translated by Lydia Davis)
  Publisher: Viking $ 27.95 ISBN: 067003245x Date: 2003
  PW
  The transmutation of sensation into sentiment, the ebb tide of memory, waves of emotion such as desire, jealousy, and artistic euphoria--this is the material of this enormous and yet singularly light and translucent work.
  Updated 7.8.03
• Waxwings
  Author: Raban, Jonathan
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 24 ISBN: 0375410082 Date: 2003
  KirkusPW
  From the bestselling author of Passage to Juneau comes an unsettling, funny, and tender novel set in Seattle at the turn of the millennium, when the high-tech Gold Rush threatens to overwhelm the actual world with myriad virtual alternatives.
  Updated 9.08.03
• The Perfect Summer
  Author: Rice, Luanne
  Publisher: Bantam $ 7.50 (paper) ISBN: 0553584049 Date: 2003
  PW
  The "New York Times" bestselling author of Firefly Beach delivers this dazzling original paperback novel that explores the mysteries hidden within a marriage and the enduring powers of heart and home.
  Suggested Reading: Summertime Stars
  Updated 7.8.03
• When the Finch Rises
  Author: Riggs, Jack
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 23.95 ISBN: 0345467949 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Two twelve-year-old boys in 1960s North Carolina are caught between the exhilaration of boyhood and the harsh realities of their unstable families.
  Updated 9.22.03
• Remember When
  Author: Roberts, Nora & J.D. Robb
  Publisher: Putnam $ 25.95 ISBN: 0399151060 Date: 2003
  PW
  A thrill-ride of a novel that blends present-day romance and futuristic suspense, Remember When is a tale of deceit and secrets, of strong women and fascinating men--a brilliant combination of the incomparable talents of the two sides of Nora Roberts.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 8.25.03
• Miracle Girl
  Author: Scribner, Keith
  Publisher: Riverhead $ 24.95 ISBN: 157322250x Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  A wry, gritty, absorbing follow-up to The Good Life, Miracle Girl is a book about the visions of a beautiful, young Vietnamese-American girl as they bring chaos, controversy, and hope to one man and his city.
  Updated 7.8.03
• My Paris
  Author: Scott,Gail
  Publisher: Dalkey $ 12.95 ISBN: 1564782972 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Updated 8.13.03
• Heartsnatcher
  Author: Vian, Boris
  Publisher: Dalkey $13.95 (paper) ISBN: 1564782999 Date: 2003
  KirkusBooklist
  Vian's final and most serious novel begins with an elegant psychiatrist arriving in a remote town, where he helps deliver the triplets of a woman whose husband is locked up in a bedroom because she abhors him for causing the pain and discomfort of her pregnancy. A mix of disturbing incidents and verbal wit, Heartsnatcher is as funny and strange as the best of Raymond Queneau and Eugene lonesco. - Publisher Marketing
  Updated 10.8.03
• Black Box: A Novel in 840 Chapters
  Author: Walker, Nick
  Publisher: Perennial $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 0060532246 Date: 2003
  PW
  A dark, complex, and stunning debut novel in the tradition of Palahniuk and Ballard, this is a highly original and wildly morbid story about a disparate group of people connected by an airplane accident.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 9.22.03
• Dislocation: Stories from a New Ireland
  Author: Walsh, Caroline (ed)
  Publisher: Carroll & Graf $14 (paper) ISBN: 0786712066 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Eleven stories from 11 up-and-coming Irish writers are handpicked by the literary editor of The Irish Times.
  Suggested Reading: Irish Stars
  Updated 10.2.03
• Present Value
  Author: Willett, Sabin
  Publisher: Villard $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400060869 Date: 2003
  KirkusLJ
  The story of a power couple whose lives go astray, this clever, funny, energetic novel is a postmillennial snapshot of America by the author of The Deal and The Betrayal.
  Updated 8.14.03
• What Ever: A Living Novel
  Author: Woodbury, Heather
  Publisher: Farber $ 15 (trade paper) ISBN: 0571211720 Date: 2003
  LJ
  Taking off from her one-woman show of the same title, Woodbury focuses on the lives of more than a dozen characters in this unique fiction that combines the immediacy of performance art with the narrative structure and subtle characterization of a traditional novel.
  Updated 8.14.03
• Eagles and Angels
  Author: Zeh, Juli
  Publisher: Granta $ 14.95 (paper) ISBN: 1862075662 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Updated 10.23.03

August

• Calpurnia
  Author: Beller, Anne Scott
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 0375413804 Date: 2003
  LJ
  An elegant debut novel about a once grand Philadelphia mansion called Calpurnia; about its owner, who has died under mysterious circumstances; and about the woman who unravels the secrets and intrigues hidden away in the 100-year-old house.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 6.5.03
• Pretty Boy
  Author: Brooks, Bill
  Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765304732 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  From the author of the Western classic, The Stone Garden: The Epic Life of Billy the Kid, comes the life of one of the Depression's most dangerous outlaw, Pretty Boy Floyd.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | Biographical Fiction
  Updated 5.29.03
• Secret Father
  Author: Carroll, James
  Publisher: Houghton $ 25 ISBN: 0618152849 Date: 2003
  LJPW
  Secret Father is a suspenseful drama of family and politics set in Cold War Berlin. Missed signals, cloaked motives, false postures, and panicked responses echo tragically across borders and generations when, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a father and son recount the tense events of nearly thirty years before. - Publisher Marketing
  Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 7.1.03
• American Woman
  Author: Choi, Susan
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060542217 Date: 2003
  LJ
  American Woman, this gifted writer's second book, is a novel of even greater scope and dramatic complexity, about a young Japanese-American radical caught in the militant underground of the mid-1970s. - Publisher Marketing
  Suggested Reading: Asian American Stars
  Updated 7.1.03
• Moon's Crossing
  Author: Croft, Barbara
  Publisher: Mariner $ 12 ISBN: 0618341536 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  "In August of 1914, on the eve of World War I, Jim Moon, then sixty-eight years old, stepped off the stern of a ferry in New York Harbor just as the boat passed under the Brooklyn Bridge." So begins this spare, cinematic novel that explores a unique time in American history.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 6.19.03
• Just the Way You Want Me
  Author: Eisenberg, Nora
  Publisher: Leapfrog $ 14.95 (trade paper) ISBN: 0967952085 Date: 2003
  LJ
  A year after her stunning debut The War at Home, Eisenberg returns with a gripping and humorous novel about a daughter's search for the truth about her father.
  Updated 8.14.03
• Ascension
  Author: Galloway, Steven
  Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 23 ISBN: 0786712082
  LJ
  A gripping novel that details the perils of Gypsy life, the enchantment of the circus, and the death-defying feats of a high-wire artist.
  Suggested Reading: Circus Fiction
  Updated 9.08.03
• A Treasury of Victorian Murder: The Beast of Chicago
  Author: Geary, Rick
  Publisher: NMB/Comics Lit $ 15.95 ISBN: 1561633623 Date: 2003
  PW
  He was the world's first serial killer and he existed in the late 19th century, operating around the Chicago World's Fair, building a literal house of horrors, replete with chutes for dead bodies, gas chambers, surgical rooms. He methodically murdered up to 200 people, mostly young women. The infamous H.H. Holmes is the next subject of Geary's award-winning and increasingly popular series. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
  Updated 10.14.03
• Eggshell Days
  Author: Gregson, Rebecca
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312310412 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Three friends given a second chance at life move to the country to "simplify, " but as emotions intensify and secrets threaten to be revealed, the friendships are put to the test .
  Updated 6.25.03
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
  Author: Haddon, Mark
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 22.95 ISBN: 0385509456 Date: 2004
  KirkusPW
  Narrated by a 15-year-old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of processing emotions.
  Suggested Reading: Reading Group Stars | Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 7.26.04
• What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal
  Author: Heller, Zoe
  Publisher: Holt $ 23 ISBN: 0805073337 Date: 2003
  LJBooklist
  A lonely schoolteacher reveals more than she intends when she records the story of her best friend's affair with a pupil in this sly, insightful novel. "Heller writes with a precision that stirs the blood and an uncommon insight into the darker sides of love."--Nuala O'Faolain.
  Suggested Reading: Chicklit Stars
  Updated 8.13.03
• Krazy & Ignatz: 1929-1930
  Author: Herriman, George
  Publisher: Fantagraphics $ 14.95 (paper) ISBN: 1560975296 Date: 2003
  PW
  Designed by bestsellers Jimmy Corrigan and author Chris Ware, this love triangle of the brick throwing mice Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse has major historical appeal, and is widely considered to be the greatest example of the comic strip artform.
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
  Updated 11.17.03
• The Mammoth Cheese
  Author: Holman, Sheri
  Publisher: Atlantic $ 24 ISBN: 0871139006 Date: 2003
  LJPWKirkus
  On publication of her last novel, The Dress Lodger, The New York Times declared Holman an author with "an outstanding, generous, and fertile imagination." Now Holman delivers a sharp, contemporary story steeped in history that will captivate a new audience while gratifying readers of her earlier work.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Virginia Stars
  Updated 6.19.03
• What Are You Looking At: the First Fat Fiction Anthology
  Author: Jarrell, Donna (ed)
  Publisher: Harvest $ 14 (trade paper) ISBN: 0156029073 Date: 2003
  LJ
  This bountiful feast of fiction and poetry by top contemporary American writers looks at the perennial American obsession: fat. Includes works by Andre Dubus, Tobias Wolff, George Saunders, and others.
  Updated 8.14.03
• Love Me
  Author: Keillor, Garrison
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670034268 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  From one of America's most beloved writers comes a hilarious and heartfelt novel about ambition, success, and failure as well as the virtues of real love and a steady writing job.
  Updated 8.13.03
• Some Men's Dreams
  Author: Korbel, Katherine
  Publisher: Silhouette $ 4.75 ISBN: 037327307x Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 8.13.03
• Postcards from Berlin
  Author: Leroy, Margaret
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 22.95 ISBN: 0316738131 Date: 2003
  LJ
  Catriona Lydgate is a housewife with two children and an adoring husband. Butbeneath the surface of her seemingly perfect life are the dark secrets of thepast she's tried to forget. This is a haunting, heartbreaking novel--domesticfiction at its very finest.
  Updated 6.19.03
• Batman: Hush
  Author: Loeb, Jeph, Jim Lee & Scott Williams
  Publisher: DC Comics $ 19.95 ISBN: 1401200613 Date: 2003
  PW
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
  Updated 7.21.03
• Tiger in a Trance
  Author: Ludington, Max
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 21.95 ISBN: 0385507046 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  The Grateful Dead's unique partnership with Dead Heads generated not only devotion but artistic inspiration--and Tiger In A Trance is the finest literary sample of that creativity. It is a brilliant novel of life in the world of one subgroup of Dead Heads.--Dennis McNally, author of A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead.
  Suggested Reading: Music & Fiction
  Updated 6.30.03
• Well
  Author: McIntosh, Matthew
  Publisher: Grove $24 ISBN: 0802117511 Date: 2003
  PW
  Well marks the astonishing debut of an author with a singular and unflinching voice and vision. Set among the working class of a Seattle suburb called Federal Way, this original novel extols the lives of a large cast of characters lost in various modes of darkness and despair.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 5.19.03
• The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
  Author: Murphy, Louise
  Publisher: Penguin $ 13 (paper) ISBN: 0142003077 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  A powerful retelling of the famous fairy tale is set in Nazi-occupied Poland as two children are left by their father and stepmother to find safety in a dense forest.
  Updated 5.29.03
• Diary
  Author: Palahniuk, Chuck
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385509472 Date: 2003
  KirkusPW
  The bestselling author of Fight Club, Choke and Lullaby continues his 21st-century reinvention of the horror novel in this alarming and profound look at the quest for fame and immortality.
  Updated 7.7.03
• Last Citadel: A Novel of the Battle of Kursk
  Author: Robbins, David L.
  Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell $ 24.95 ISBN: 0553801775 Date: 2003
  LJ
  A remarkable, passionate tale of espionage, deceit, and unprecedented valor, the tension builds to an unbearable degree as each soldier waits for the sun to rise on July 5, 1943, the day that will change history--and their lives--forever.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | World Wars
  Updated 8.14.03
• Kartography
  Author: Shamsie, Kamila
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 24 ISBN: 0151010102 Date: 2003
  PW
  Crib mates, raised together from birth, narrator Raheen and her best friend Karim dream each other's dreams. But as distance and adolescence split them apart, Karim takes refuge in the rationality of maps while Raheen searches for the secret behind her parents' exchange.
  Updated 7.8.03
• A Dictionary of Maqiao
  Author: Shaogong, Han
  Publisher: Columbia Univ. $ 27.95 ISBN: 0231127448 Date: 2003
  PW
  Updated 6.19.03
• Bloody Mary
  Author: Solwitz, Sharon
  Publisher: Sarabande $ 13.95 (paper) ISBN: 1889330930 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  After her debut with the widely praised stories in Blood and Milk, Solwitz offers her first, darkly radiant, full-length novel which takes its title from the childhood game, and tells the story of socially adept, 12-year-old Hadley and her protective mother.
  Updated 7.17.03
• Stella Descending
  Author: Ullman, Linn
  Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0375414991 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  On a warm summer night in Oslo, Martin draws Stella into a risky games that ends with her plummeting to her death. With a quiet power, Stella Descending gives the backlit dailiness--and the dark metaphysical underworld--of life in a fabled metropolis.
  Updated 6.19.03
• And Now You Can Go
  Author: Vida, Vendela
  Publisher: Knopf $ 19.95 ISBN: 1400040272 Date: 2003
  LJPW
  A sharply humorous and fast-paced debut novel about the effects--some predictable, some wildly unexpected--that an encounter at gunpoint have on a (previously) assured young woman.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 5.19.03
• Quimby the Mouse
  Author: Ware, Chris
  Publisher: Fantagraphics $ 24.95 ISBN: 1560974850 Date: 2003
  PW
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
  Updated 11.17.03
• Orchard
  Author: Watson, Larry
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 037550723x Date: 2003
  PW
  The bestselling author of Montana 1948, Watson spins an unforgettable story of obsession and betrayal, set against the stark backdrop of rural Wisconsin.
  Updated 5.6.03
• A Summer Affair
  Author: Wiggs, Susan
  Publisher: Mira $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 155166710x Date: 2003
  PWBooklist
  Isabel Fish-Wooten arrives at Blue Calhoun's surgery with a gunshot wound suffered in a shootout. He treats her wounds and thinks that he's seen the last of the troublesome woman until he finds her unconscious in his barn. Will he save her from the police and herself?
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars | Summertime Stars
  Updated 8.13.03
• To Live
  Author: Yu, Hua
  Publisher: Anchor $ 13 (trade paper) ISBN: 1400031869 Date: 2003
  LJ
  Bestselling Chinese novel tells story of a man's transformation from spoiled son of a rich landlord to simple peasant.
  Updated 8.14.03

July

• Thin Pink Line
  Author: Baratz-Logsted, Lauren
  Publisher: Mira $ 21.95 ISBN: 0373250304 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Jane Taylor gets so blissfully caught up in the fact she's pregnant that she can't live up to the truth when, mere days later, she finds out that there's no proverbial bun in the oven. But she is only human, and what woman doesn't want the kind of attention that comes with pregnancy?
  Suggested Reading: Chicklit Stars
  Updated 5.9.03
• The Passion of Reverend Nash
  Author: Basch, Rachel
  Publisher: Norton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0393057682 Date: 2003
  Library JournalKirkus
  In the vein of Gail Godwin's Evensong, Basch presents a novel about the role of faith in contemporary life that tells the story of a wounded healer who must make sense of her own grief if she is to continue caring for her flock.
  Suggested Reading: Questions of Faith
  Updated 5.9.03
• Birth of an Age: The Christ Clone Trilogy, Book Two
  Author: BeauSeigneur, James
  Publisher: Warner $ 18.95 ISBN: 044653126x Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  In book two of the Christ Clone Trilogy, Christopher Goodman--cloned from the ancient cells of Jesus Christ--is forced to sit back and watch the seeming destruction of Earth in order to fulfill his destiny.
  Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
  Updated 5.9.03
• Isle of Palms
  Author: Frank, Dorothea Benton
  Publisher: Berkley $ 22.95 ISBN: 0425191362 Date: 2003
  PW
  A hot summer turns into a steaming one in this long-awaited hardcover debut featuring characters from Dorothea Benton Frank's previous bestsellers, Sullivan's Island and Plantation.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars | Summertime Stars
  Updated 7.1.03
• Time Between Trains
  Author: Bukoski, Anthony
  Publisher: Southern Methodist $ 22.50 ISBN: 0870744798 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Welcome to Superior, Wisconsin, home to a declining population, often-dismal weather, and dying ethnic communities. Despite the ore dust blanketing the city, miracles occur here. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 7.17.03
• A Son of War
  Author: Bragg, Melvyn
  Publisher: Arcade $ 25.95 ISBN: 1559706864 Date: 2003
  KirkusLJBooklist
  This novel takes up where The Soldier's Return left off, following the lives of the Richardson family from 1947 to the mid-1950s. If the earlier novel focused on the father, Sam, the sequel gives equal emphasis to the son, Joe, who is eight as the story opens and an adolescent as it closes.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | All Stars
  Updated 8.13.03
• The Truth About Celia
  Author: Brockmeier, Kevin
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 22 ISBN: 0375421351 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Celia is seven years old on the day she goes missing. She throws a rubber ball against the roof. She disappears. The Truth About Celia is a novel of remarkable understanding--an extraordinary exploration of profound loss and inconsolable grief.
  Updated 4.24.03
• Love in Idleness
  Author: Craig, Amanda
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 23.95 ISBN: 0385507763 Date: 2003
  LJKirkus
  Craig spins the ever-resonant themes of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream into a modern-day tale of love and lies, set against the magical landscape of Tuscany. It will appeal to readers of The Nanny Diaries and other pitch-perfect social satires.
  Suggested Reading: Shakespearean Stars
  Updated 6.19.03
• Fabulous Small Jews
  Author: Epstein, Joseph
  Publisher: Houghton $ 23 ISBN: 0395944023 Date: 2003
  LJ
  The New York Times recently called Epstein "a writer who can make you laugh out loud on every third page." Fans of his bestselling Snobbery: The American Version will recognize the wit, insight, and incisive social examination in Epstein's new collection of stories.
  Updated 6.19.03
• The First Thing Smoking: Stories
  Author: Eubanks, Nelson
  Publisher: One World $ 19.95 ISBN: 0345451783 Date: 2003
  LJ
  A provocative new voice in fiction that blends the urban and exotic locales of New York City and Brazil--for readers of Junot Diaz, Aleksandar Hemon, and Dan Chaon. This collection of 17 interconnected stories traces the evolution of Maceo, from impressionable adolescent to an adult black man.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts | African American Fiction Stars
  Updated 5.19.03
• Beemer
  Author: Gaslin, Glenn
  Publisher: Soho $ 23 ISBN: 1569473293 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  What Lewis Carroll did for rabbits and Kurt Vonnegut did for war, Gaslin does for ambition in this zany send-up of all that's holy in America. His pixelated dreamscapes titillate and unsettle, as his video gamer's mind pulls the rug out from under everyone at the most unexpected moments.
  Updated 5.29.03
• Breaking Her Fall
  Author: Goodwin, Stephen
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 24 ISBN: 015100806x Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Just before 11 o'clock on a summer night in Washington, D.C., Tucker Jones hears a devastating allegation about his daughter, a party, and some boys. From that heart-stopping moment, Breaking Her Fall moves with irresistible force to its wrenching and redemptive conclusion.
  Updated 7.17.03
• Bibliophilia: A Novella and Stories
  Author: Griffith, Michael
  Publisher: Seaver $ 24.95 ISBN: 1559706767 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  If Spikes was a breathless ride, Bibliophilia is a veritable roller coaster. The stories are zany and wide-ranging, in settings as diverse as southern Louisiana and North Africa. What the fictions have in common is an astute mixture of comedy and pathos.
  Updated 5.9.03
• Lucca
  Author: Grondahl, Jens Christian
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 26 ISBN: 015100594x Date: 2003
  Booklist
  On an evening in April, Lucca Montale is rushed to the hospital after a car accident. Robert, her doctor, has to break the news that she may never see again. The result is a love story of emotional reach that will enhance Grondahl's reputation as one of the most readable novelists writing today.
  Updated 5.14.03
• The Light of Eidon
  Author: Hancock, Karen
  Publisher: Bethany $ 12.99 (paper) ISBN: 0764227947 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  The first novel in a new dynamic series follows the life of Abramm Kalladorne in his turbulent search for truth and self--a search that will transform him from a sickly, head-in-the-clouds youth to a legendary hero of strength and courage.
  Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
  Updated 10.8.03
• The King's Evil
  Author: Heinrich, Will
  Publisher: The King's Evil $ 23 ISBN: 0743235045 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  In the tradition of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and, more recently, Bernhard Schlink's The Reader, comes a provocative and unsettling modern morality tale of subtly evolving horror--a mesmerizing debut from a brilliant young writer.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 4.24.03
• Due Preparations for the Plague
  Author: Hospital, Janette Turner
  Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 039305764x Date: 2003
  KirkusBooklistPW
  Hospital's electrifying new novel is a tightly woven web of familial and national histories, of sexual and political passions, and of individual and national complicities in the age of terrorism. She probes with astonishing acuity the murky worlds of espionage and intelligence gathering and the painful meaning of survival.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 6.2.03
• Platform
  Author: Houllebecq, Michel
  Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 0373414622 Date: 2003
  PW
  Updated 6.19.03
• Theater of Stars: A Novel of Physics and Memory
  Author: Kelby, N. M.
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 23.95 ISBN: 086868589 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  From the critically acclaimed author of In the Company of Angels comes a novel of physics, memory, and the mystery of a mother's forgotten past.
  Updated 7.17.03
• Taming the Heiress
  Author: King, Susan
  Publisher: Signet $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0451209559 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  The USA Today bestselling author presents the first title in a brand-new trilogy, set in Victorian Scotland. Take one spoiled heiress, add one unimpressed suitor, and let the sparks fly.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 7.17.03
• A Sad Affair
  Author: Koeppen, Wolfgang
  Publisher: Norton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0393057186 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  A romantic roman a clef that tells the story of Sibylle one of the greatest literary femmes fatales since Salome. Banned by the Nazis in 1936 for its frank sexual themes, Wolfgang Koeppen's first novel is at last appearing in English. - Publishers Marketing
  Suggested Reading: Roman - Livre a clef Stars
  Updated 5.29.03
• The King is Dead
  Author: Lewis, Jim
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 0375414177 Date: 2003
  LJ
  A powerful novel of love, murder, and redemption, of politics and justice, The King Is Dead combines the resonance of a 19th-century epic with the surprise and intimacy of 21st-century storytelling.
  Updated 6.5.03
• Reunion
  Author: Lightman, Alan P. Date: 2003
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 22 ISBN: 037542167x
  Booklist
  At 52, Charles is a professor at a little college, a once-promising poet, divorced, admiring of passion but without passion himself. Written with crystalline prose, at once precise and mysterious, Reunion explores the pain of self-examination, the nature of memory, and the impossible hopefulness of youth.
  Updated 6.25.03
• Blessed Are the Cheesemakers
  Author: Lynch, Sarah-Kate
  Publisher: Warner $22.95 ISBN: 0446531286 Date: 2003
  LJ
  Set on a small Irish dairy farm, this tender and funny debut novel follows two lost souls as they try to carve out new lives amid a colorful cast of characters reminiscent of those in the hit film Waking Ned Divine.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 6.5.03
• The Rice Mother
  Author: Manicka, Rani
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670031925 Date: 2003
  Library JournalKirkus
  A multigenerational narrative that spans the nightmare of World War II and the Japanese occupation, The Rice Mother gorgeously evokes a world of exotic beauty and vivid characters, where small pleasures offset unimaginable horrors.
  Updated 5.9.03
• Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again
  Author: Miller, Frank and Lynn Varley
  Publisher: DC Comics $ 29.95 ISBN: 1563898446 Date: 2003
  PW
  The long awaited sequel to Batman: the Dark Knight Returns is in hardcover, with a cover designed by Chip Kidd.
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
  Updated 4.28.03
• Skyward
  Author: Monroe, Mary Alice
  Publisher: Mira $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 1551667002 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Monroe delivers this story of healing and new beginnings, set in the mystical South Carolina Lowcountry. Single father Harris Henderson finds himself torn between the troubled wife who left him and their young daughter and the woman who has awakened his feelings.
  Updated 7.17.03
• Center of Everything
  Author: Moriarty, Laura
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 22.95 ISBN: 1401300316 Date: 2003
  LJ
  In Moriarty's extraordinary first novel, a young girl tries to make sense of an unruly world spinning around her. Growing up with a single mother who is chronically out of work and dating a married man, ten-year old Evelyn Bucknow learns early how to fend for herself.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts | Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 5.19.03
• Downhill Chance
  Author: Morrissey, Donna
  Publisher: Mariner $ 14 (paper) ISBN: 0618189270 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  With Kit's Law, Morrissey established herself as a gifted storyteller. Downhill Chance is a captivating successor, set in a pair of fishing communities in Newfoundland during and after the Second World War. This is the story of two families joined by friendship but torn apart by fear and sorrows.
  Updated 6.25.03
• Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima
  Author: Nakazawa, Keiji
  Publisher: Last Gasp $ 14.95 ISBN: 0867194502 Date: 2003
  PW
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
  Updated 7.8.03
• Land that Moves, Land That Stands Still
  Author: Nelson, Kent
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670032263 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Set on the bleak pains east of the Black Hills of South Dakota, this remarkable novel about three women explores the nuances of place, character, grief and renewal.
  Updated 7.17.03
• Chinese Takeout
  Author: Neresian, Arthur
  Publisher: Perennial $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 0060548827 Date: 2003
  LJ
  Updated 7.1.03
• New Stories From the South
  Author: Ravenel, Shannon (ed)
  Publisher: Algonquin $ 14.95 (paper) ISBN: 1565123956 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  New Stories from the South has become sine qua non in creative-writing classes, in Southern-literature classes, for any serious writer following the competition, and above all, for any lover of Southern literature. The stories in the 18th volume carry on that tradition.
  Updated 4.24.03
• Mrs. Roberto: Or the Widowy Worries of the Moosepath League
  Author: Reid, Van
  Publisher: Viking $ 25.95 ISBN: 0670032255 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Van Reid's Moosepath League rides again in their latest "charming, old-fashioned romp through Victorian New England" (Boston Herald).
  Updated 5.29.03
• Jonah Sees Ghosts
  Author: Sullivan, Mark
  Publisher: Akashic $ 13.95 ISBN: 1888451041 Date: 2003
  Library Journal
  Jonah Sees Ghosts is a shocking, touching, and humorous first novel that blends magical realism with a figurative study of how alcohol abuse shapes the personalities within a family. A stylish blend of S.E. Hinton, Stephen King and Tom McGuane, Jonah Sees Ghosts tells the story of fifteen-year-old Jonah Hart, a boy with a problem he's afraid to share. Not only does he see ghosts, but when he dreams at night, he can also leave his body and travel in the ether--a compellingly addictive form of retreat. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 4.7.03
• Blankets
  Author: Thompson, Craig
  Publisher: Top Shelf $ 29.99 (paper) ISBN: 1891830430 Date: 2003
  PW
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars | Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 8.18.03
• The Frank Book
  Author: Woodring, Jim
  Publisher: Fantagraphics $ 39.95 ISBN: 1560975342 Date: 2003
  PW
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
  Updated 9.22.03
• Hunting Midnight
  Author: Zimler, Richard
  Publisher: Delacorte $ 23.95 ISBN: 0385336446 Date: 2003
  LJ
  In the tradition of An Instance of the Fingerpost comes a spellbinding mystery from the bestselling author of The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon. A freed African slave, a bereft child, and the rich history of the secret Jews in 19th-century Portugal collide memorably in this mesmerizing epic.
  Updated 6.5.03