Editor’s Choice
I Curse the River of Time, by Per Petterson, $23. Like an emotional sucker punch, the latest novel from the much-acclaimed Petterson (“Out Stealing Horses”) examines lives half-lived, ending and perhaps beginning anew. Petterson blends enough hope with the gorgeously evoked melancholy to come up with a heartbreaking and cautiously optimistic work. Publishers Weekly FICTION
No Place for Heroes, by Laura Restrepo, $25.95. Like Argentina’s secret military prisons, the story’s tragic backdrop is hidden amid ordinariness. With its habits of reference and self-reference, it is ironic and postmodern, an appropriate response, perhaps, to Argentina’s silent war with itself. Publishers Weekly The Cobra, by Frederick Forsyth, $26.95. Veteran Forsyth (“The Day of the Jackal”) shows once again he’s a master of the political thriller by taking a simple but completely original idea and turning it into a compelling story. The unnamed, Obama-like U.S. president decides to bring the entire weight and resources of the federal government against the international cocaine trade. Publishers Weekly
NONFICTION
Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth, by James M. Tabor, $26. Tabor contrasts two sterling teams, one American and the other Russian, in their perilous search to locate the deepest supercave on Earth. Using a pulse-pounding narrative, this is tense, real-life adventure pitting two master cavers, mirroring the Cold War with uncommonly high stakes. Publishers Weekly Becoming Queen Victoria, by Kate Williams, $30. Victoria’s reign (1837-1901) transformed an England torn by war and internal strife and redeemed a monarchy previously enamored more with hedonism and revelry than with honesty and rule. This is a lively, juicy read, full of the sordid details of the debauched rule of kings and princes. Library Journal
Double Death: The True Story of Pryce Lewis, The Civil War’s Most Daring Spy, by Gavin Mortimer, $26. In this often sprightly picaresque, journalist Mortimer presents the exploits of a Welsh-born Pinkerton detective and Union spy as a kind of high-wire theatrical. The tale sags a bit after Lewis is caught in Richmond and thrown into prison, but parts of the book read like a spy thriller written by Mark Twain. Publishers Weekly
PAPERBACKS
Day After Night, by Anita Diamant, $15. Diamant (“The Red Tent”) tenderly portrays four women in transition, from the killing fields of Europe to the promised land of Eretz Yisrael. A warm, intensely human reckoning with unbearable sorrow and unquenchable hope. Kirkus The Good Soldiers, by David Finkel, $15. Like Michael Herr’s “Dispatches” and Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” this is a book that captures the surreal horror of war: the experience of blood and violence and occasional moments of humanity that soldiers witness firsthand, and the slide shows of terrible pictures that will continue to play through their heads long after they have left the battlefield. The New York Times
The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars, by Christopher Cokinos, $16.95. In his quest to understand the passions of the opportunists, innovators and romantics that populate the history of meteorites, the author traverses the globe, tracing their footsteps, absorbing their stories and understanding their obsession. Kirkus
COMING UP
The Killing of Crazy Horse, by Thomas Powers, $30. Crazy Horse was the most feared Indian of his time, mostly because of victories against the troops of Gens. Crook and Custer. But he has remained an enigma. Powers works to strip the mystery away. (November)
