Top Five Fiction Books of 2008

Discussion Policy

Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Cost, by Roxana Robinson (FSG). In this startlingly perceptive novel, a divorced woman struggles to save her heroin- addicted son while trying to care for her aged parents. -- Ron Charles

The Elegance of the Hedgehog,

by Muriel Barbery, translated from the French by Alison Anderson (Europa).

Told by the dumpy, nondescript,

54-year-old concierge of a small and exclusive Paris apartment building.

Gently satirical, exceptionally winning and inevitably bittersweet. -- Michael Dirda

A Mercy, by Toni Morrison (Knopf).

A poetic, mysterious tale about slavery in colonial America that stands alongside Beloved as another triumph in Morrison's body of work. -- RC

The Outlander, by Gil Adamson (Ecco).

A 19-year-old woman has murdered her husband and now, still wearing a black mourning dress, she's running from her brothers-in-law through the mountains of Alberta, Canada, in 1903. A thrilling, romantic adventure. -- RC

2666, by Roberto Bolaño, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer (FSG). This epic masterpiece follows a handful of characters to the Mexican city of Santa Teresa where more than 400 girls and women have been murdered.

-- Steven Moore

Find More Reviews and Features in Books

War stripped of all its glory

In "The Good Soldiers," Pulitzer Prize winning reporter David Finkel faced an unenviable task in writing his on-the-ground account of war in Iraq.

Ahoy! Thar's lost booty here

Hoist the Jolly Roger above the bestseller list, ye mateys, 'cause Michael Crichton has just published a swashbuckling thriller, "Pirate Latitudes."