Philippe Claudel's novel impressively folds a murder mystery into the aftermath of World War I.

Walter Kirn's online novel is a consciously postmodern pastiche of techno-snippets and Big Brother bemoaning.

Ishiguro's delicate investigation of cloning and genetic interference is really a story about thwarted dreams.

A novel about the end of the world could use fewer mentions of multinational blunders. Still, Brockmeier is a great dreamer.

Israeli Keret is so clever that he swallows up what he has to say about contemporary Israel.

How we mate, writes David Buss, is driven by the demands of the gene pool, so cut the romance.

Luca Turin's examination of scent takes a plunge into science and the perfume industry.

Don't get Nora Ephron going about women and aging. Oh no, too late. And she's off...

At his best — and he's awfully close here — Australian David Malouf is almost untouchable as a storyteller.

Lydia Davis' drop-dead-gorgeous novel is about a romance that failed or never happened — you choose.