Bellow's masterpiece, while all about mid-century America, was actually written mostly in Rome — and it shows.

Paris, Rome, Chicago; jet-setting or shooting the breeze, Abe Ravelstein is never at a loss for words.

Thomas Mann's presaging of cultural laziness and war to come is still stinging.

Olga Grushin controls reality, and Russia of the late 80s, in this remarkable first novel.

Lydia Davis' stories include Kafka cooking dinner for himself. Enough said.

Only Dan Rhodes could pull off Miyuki Woodward, a Japanese-Welsh lesbian with a secret.

The meeting between a proper Londoner and a refugees yields Paul Bailey's magic.

Jane Smiley's takes her novel-writing skills to crafting a story about the craft itself.

A man named David Kurweil sees a ghost. Or does he? Alan Lightman is mystified.

Michael Reed's life is falling apart (he's over 50, after all); cometh a younger woman. Johnson saves this from the maudlin.