Book World Raves

From "Figurative Art in Medieval Islam" (see review on p. 10) (Freer Gallery Of Art)

The Diviners , by Rick Moody (Little, Brown). A brilliant satire about a proposed television miniseries that starts with the Mongol hordes, works its way through the Mormons and ends up in Las Vegas. Like a Broadway musical filled with nothing but showstoppers. --James Hynes

Drive , by James Sallis (Poisoned Pen). Sallis's lean mystery and flat-voiced prose are refreshing, even startling. A lovely piece of work. --Paul Skenazy

Europe Central , by William T. Vollmann (Viking). If you've been following his extraordinary career, this may be his best novel yet. If you haven't, you might want to begin with Expelled From Eden , a well-organized collection. --Steven Moore

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close , by Jonathan Safran Foer (Houghton Mifflin). An odd young man accompanied by a very old man on a madcap search through New York for information about a loved one caught in 9/11. Hysterical, except when it's devastating. --RC

A Factory of Cunning , by Philippa Stockley (Harcourt). This deliciously wicked novel takes us back to London in the late 18th century, a dark, scurrilous time of strict public morality but ubiquitous sexual exploitation. --RC

Flashman on the March , by George MacDonald Fraser (Knopf). Many readers will find themselves turning the pages as if they were lost in the exciting adventures of a Victorian James Bond. --Michael Dirda

Freshwater Road , by Denise Nicholas (Agate). The best work of fiction about the civil rights movement since The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman .

--Samuel G. Freedman

The Good Wife , by Stewart O'Nan (Farrar Straus Giroux). The story of how life somehow gets lived even when another day of it seems impossible. Patty Dickerson is a wonderful character, and this novel is astonishing. --Meg Wolitzer

The Great Stink , by Clare Clark (Harcourt). A smart thriller about the construction of the sewer system in mid-19th century London. Reeks of talent. --RC

The Ha-Ha , by Dave King (LB). Howard communicates only through grunts and gestures, but a small boy requires him to break out of himself. A complex exploration of loss and loneliness that packs a bittersweet punch. --Dan Chaon

Half Broken Things , by Morag Joss (Delacorte). A mystery featuring cellist Sara Selkirk. Joss has one of the freshest, keenest mystery-writing voices to come out of the United Kingdom since Ruth Rendell.