Kafka in Latin garb lurks inside this examination of bureaucracy by Portuguese Nobel-winner Saramago.

Foer's "soccer-tells-all" premise may be strained at time (and his Italian section weak), but this is still smart reading.

Faber's debut story collection is a mesmerizing display of colliding miracles.

"Ass Class" in Milan can be a pain, but Lee's stories of upscale Italian boredom are anything but.

A man and his babies, or a man and his women — either way Crace's City of Kisses, while lovely, gathers moss.

When crazy academics rule the roost, when else can you expect but white noise and black rain?

Asne Seierstad straddles fact and fiction in her narration of life in Kabul.

Palahnuik's novel is a radioactive isotope that doesn't so much demand attention as slug you for it.

James Salter's first stories have so much twilight that the characters struggle for strands of light.

El is deal an unexpected blow by a gunman (or is he?) in Vida's interesting but unaccomplished first novel.

Arguably the greatest pitcher of all time, Koufax walked away in his prime. Leavy tells his story with literary flair.