Editor’s Choice
Testimony, by Anita Shreve, $25.95. Shreve’s novels (“Body Surfing”; “The Weight of Water”) benefit from propulsive plots, and her mixed latest, with its timely theme of debauchery among children of privilege, does not lack in this regard. The first paragraph foreshadows a tragedy in which three marriages are destroyed, the lives of three students at a private school in Vermont are ruined, and death claims an innocent victim. Publishers Weekly
FICTION
The Unpossessed City, by John Fasman, $25.95. Best seller Fasman, whose well-received debut, “The Geographer’s Library” (2005), was set in “Da Vinci Code” territory, takes a compassionate look at the hard truths of modern-day Russia in his absorbing second novel. Publishers Weekly
Arctic Drift, by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler, $27.95. Best seller Cussler and son Dirk imagine the U.S. and Canada on the brink of war in their third collaborative Dirk Pitt novel (after “Treasure of Khan” and “Black Wind”). The Cusslers won’t suspend many readers’ disbelief, but thriller fans in search of a quick, exciting read should be satisfied. Publishers Weekly
NONFICTION
Breathing the Fire: Fighting to Report – and Survive — The War in Iraq, by Kimberly Dozier, $24.95. The bomb blast that Kimberly Dozier survived in 2006 took her out of Iraq but she never stopped being a war correspondent. Here is a rare, personal view — with all the attention to detail a great reporter brings to bear — into an experience shared by thousands of wounded Iraq veterans. Dan Rather, HD Net
Chagall: A Biography, by Jackie Wullschlager, $40. A balanced, generously illustrated biography of the revolutionary artist (1887-1985). … A well-written, compassionate portrait of aparagon of human talent and ambition. Kirkus
Monty Python’s Tunisian Holiday, by Kim “Howard” Johnson, $25.95. Python confidant and author Johnson (“The Funniest One in the Room: The Lives and Legends of Del Close”) chronicles the five-week Tunisian shoot for the Monty Python classic film “Life of Brian,” with day-by-day reminiscences from September and October 1978. Publishers Weekly
PAPERBACKS
Someone Knows My Name, by Lawrence Hill, $14.95. Stunning, wrenching and inspiring, the fourth novel by Canadian novelist Hill (“Any Known Blood”) spans the life of Aminata Diallo, born in Bayo, West Africa, in 1745. In depicting a woman who survives history’s most trying conditions through force of intelligence and personality, Hill’s book is a harrowing, breathtaking tour de force. Publishers Weekly
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, by Alex Ross, $18. A work of immense scope and ambition. The idea is not simply to conduct a survey of 20th-century classical composition but to come up with a history of that century as refracted through its music. The New York Times
Last Night at the Lobster, by Stewart O’Nan, $13. Set on the last day of business of a Connecticut Red Lobster, this touching novel by the author of “Snow Angels” and “A Prayer for the Dying” tells the story of Manny DeLeon, a conscientious, committed restaurant manager any national chain would want to keep. Small but not slight, the novel is a concise, poignant portrait of a man on the verge of losing himself. Publishers Weekly
COMING UP
Judas: A Biography, by Susan Gubar, $27.95. Gubar explains how Judas came to stand for the Jewish people and how he personifies a composite Judeo-Christianity that illuminates the relationships betweens Christians and Jews. (March)
