Few others besides Canada's Munro so breathtakingly navigate the ever-changing underside of every day life.

If Jews are to survive, writes Ruth Wisse, they'd better take things into their own hands.

Martin Goodman's account of the Roman-Jewish war gives Tacitus and Pliny their just due.

Justin Cartwright puts his own spin on existentialism in a novel about disenchantment and redemption.

Hans Eric Nossack's haunting remembrance of the Hamburg firestorm is to die for.

What on earth possessed Jim Crace to write an inferior allegory about Amerika?

Palahnuik moves ambitiously from fight club to crash club to time travel to metaphor city, with mixed results.

David Markham has a way of ensuring he's never confused with any other living novelist.

Kenzaburo Oe's writing depends on the trials and tribulations of his damaged son.

A trauma makes World War II come back strong to an aging Norwegian in Per Petterson's quiet triumph.