Bookworm

Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties (Ecco) Robert Stone has written novels that are said to be the best descriptions of the American 1960's. In this memoir, he travels back to revisit those troubled times...

Zoli (Random House)The Romani poet, Zoli, is the latest heroine in Colum McCann's ongoing quest to understand the function of art.

House of Meetings (Knopf) Martin Amis has written a Russian novel--not just a Russian novel but a novel about the Gulags.

Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name (Ecco) The possibility that there are those who choose to escape or evade their identities enters our exploration of Vendela Vida's quest-for-identity novel.

Point to Point Navigation (Doubleday) Using his recent memoir as springboard, Gore Vidal nimbly leaps from the history of prose narrative to the contemporary decline of culture in America.

Isabel Allende uncloaks Inés, a shrouded figure from the chronicles of Chilean history. She was a conquistadora, a conspirator--but also a healer.

Alice McDermott is a writer who believes in loading each facet of her work with resonance and significance, while composing an accessible, highly readable narrative.

The Open Curtain (Coffee House) The mystery at the heart of The Open Curtain derives from a violent, concealed episode in Morman history.

What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng (McSweeney's) Autobiography, epic, documentary, novel--Dave Eggers explores the many facets of his protean new work.

The Stories of Mary Gordon (Pantheon) Mary Gordon makes distinctions. She writes only about characters who interest her, people she would be willing to meet and spend time with.