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The Leftovers

The Leftovers

by Tom Perrotta

Paperback, 355 pages, St Martins Pr, $14.99, published May 22 2012 | purchase
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  • Tom Perrotta

When a bizarre phenomenon causes the cataclysmic disappearances of numerous people all over the world, Kevin Garvey, the new mayor of a once-comfortable suburban community, struggles to help his neighbors heal while enduring the fanatical religious conversions of his wife and son.NPR Bestseller

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Absolution

Absolution

by Patrick Flanery

Hardcover, 388 pages, Penguin Group USA, $26.95, published April 12 2012 | purchase
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  • Patrick Flanery

In modern-day South Africa, Clare Walde tells the story of her sister's death and the disappearance of her daughter during apartheid 20 years earlier.

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Mr G

Mr g

A Novel About the Creation

by Alan Lightman

Hardcover, 214 pages, Random House Inc, $24.95, published January 24 2012 | purchase
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  • Mr g
  • A Novel About the Creation
  • Alan Lightman

Bored with his existence in the shimmering Void with his bickering Uncle Deva and Aunt Penelope, Mr g wakes up from a nap one day and decides to create the universe, only to be challenged by intellectual rival Belhor.

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Boleto

Boleto

by Alyson Hagy

Hardcover, 251 pages, Farrar Straus & Giroux, $24, published May 8 2012 | purchase
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  • Alyson Hagy

Pursuing fame on the Texas show-horse circuit by training a beautiful quarter horse filly, Will Testerman spends all of his savings and taps informative stories from his youth during an effort that brings horse and man from his Wyoming home to an Absaroka Mountains ranch before their arrival in the treacherous polo fields of Southern California. By the author of Ghosts of Wyoming.

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Glaciers

Glaciers

by Alexis M. Smith

Paperback, 174 pages, Pgw, $10.95, published January 17 2012 | purchase
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  • Alexis M. Smith

Isabel, a collector of vintage items, looks over damaged books in a library basement and reminisces about her love for an ex-soldier, her need to collect old photographs and postcards, and her worry about the melting glaciers in Alaska, where she grew up.

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The Collective

The Collective

by Don Lee

Hardcover, 352 pages, W W Norton & Co Inc, $25.95, published July 16 2012 | purchase
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  • Don Lee

Three aspiring Asian artists, a painter and two writers, meet in college and form a strong friendship after banding together against an act of racism that has lasting repercussions into their adult lives in Cambridge, Mass.

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In One Person

In One Person

by John Irving

Hardcover, 425 pages, Simon & Schuster, $28, published May 8 2012 | purchase
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  • In One Person
  • John Irving

A tale inspired by the U.S. AIDS epidemic in the 1980s follows the experiences of individuals — including the bisexual narrator — who are torn by devastating losses and whose perspectives on tolerance and love are shaped by awareness of what might have been.NPR Bestseller

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The Sense of an Ending

The Sense Of An Ending

by Julian Barnes

Hardcover, 150 pages, Random House Inc, $23.95, published October 5 2011 | purchase
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  • Julian Barnes

Tony Webster is a retired divorced man in his mid-60s who, after receiving notice of an unexpected bequest, is pulled back into a "powerful recollection of strong emotions" from his past. This leads to a reassessment of the accuracy of his memories, a rueful realization of how much he'd gotten wrong, and a harsh re-evaluation of his passive approach to life.NPR Bestseller, Literary Award Winner

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The Beginner's Goodbye

The Beginner's Goodbye

by Anne Tyler

Hardcover, 208 pages, Random House Inc, $24.95, published April 3 2012 | purchase
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  • Anne Tyler

Aaron, a physically disabled man who spent his youth avoiding a controlling sister, is devastated by his wife's sudden death and moves through the grieving process with the help of her apparition. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Breathing Lessons.NPR Bestseller

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The Legend of Pradeep Mathew

The Legend Of Pradeep Mathew

by Shehan Karunatilaka

Paperback, 397 pages, Farrar Straus & Giroux, $16, published May 8 2012 | purchase
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  • Shehan Karunatilaka

Succumbing to poor health after years of drinking, aging sportswriter W. G. Karunasena and his friend embark on a madcap search for a legendary cricket bowler during which they encounter a mysterious six-fingered coach, a Tamil Tiger warlord and startling truths.

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The Red House

The Red House

by Mark Haddon

Hardcover, 272 pages, Random House Inc, $25.95, published June 12 2012 | purchase
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  • Mark Haddon

A tale told from rotating viewpoints traces seven days of bitterly comic family dynamics and confrontation when a wealthy doctor invites his estranged sister's family to join his newly blended one at a vacation home in the English countryside. By the Whitbread Book of the Year Award-winning author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

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The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln

The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln

by Stephen L. Carter

Hardcover, 400 pages, Random House Inc, $26.95, published July 10 2012 | purchase
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  • Stephen L. Carter

The best-selling author of The Emperor of Ocean Park imagines a world where the 16th President survives his 1865 assassination only to be charged with overstepping his Constitutional authority during the Civil War, a case that is aided by a black college graduate who is entangled in a violent political conspiracy.

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Our Lady of Alice Bhatti

Our Lady of Alice Bhatti

by Mohammed Hanif

Hardcover, 239 pages, Random House Inc, $25.95, published May 29 2012 | purchase
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  • Our Lady of Alice Bhatti
  • Mohammed Hanif

Following in her healer father's footsteps to become a junior nurse in a Karachi hospital, Alice taps inherent talents to bring relief to suffering patients but is hampered by a bureaucratic caste system, religious prejudice, and a dangerous police squad.

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The Enchanted April

The Enchanted April

by Elizabeth Von Arnim and Cathleen Schine

Paperback, 247 pages, Random House Inc, $14.95, published April 3 2007 | purchase
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  • Elizabeth Von Arnim and Cathleen Schine
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A Partial History of Lost Causes

A Partial History of Lost Causes

by Jennifer Dubois

Hardcover, 372 pages, Random House Inc, $26, published March 20 2012 | purchase
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  • A Partial History of Lost Causes
  • Jennifer Dubois

Abandoning her life when her father succumbs to Huntington's disease, Massachusetts native Irina discovers an unanswered letter from her father to an internationally renowned chess champion and political dissident, whom she decides to visit in Russia.

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State of Wonder

State of Wonder

by Ann Patchett

Paperback, 353 pages, HarperCollins, $15.99, published May 8 2012 | purchase
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  • State of Wonder
  • Ann Patchett

A researcher at a pharmaceutical company, Marina Singh must step out of her comfort zone when she is sent into the heart of the Amazonian delta to check on a field team that has been silent for two years — a dangerous assignment that forces Marina to confront the ghosts of her past.NPR Bestseller

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The Tiger's Wife

The Tiger's Wife

by Tea Obreht

Paperback, 337 pages, Random House Inc, $15, published November 1 2011 | purchase
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  • Tea Obreht

Tea Obreht's debut novel takes place in an unnamed Balkan country similar to the former Yugoslavia. Natalia, a young medical student, is on her way to an orphanage in enemy territory when she learns that her beloved grandfather has died. As his confidante, Natalia was not only aware of his cancer; she was also privy to his many incredible adventures, the two most fantastic being his stories of the Deathless Man and the Tiger's Wife.

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The Buddha in the Attic

The Buddha in the Attic

by Julie Otsuka

Paperback, 129 pages, Random House Inc, $13.95, published March 20 2012 | purchase
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  • Julie Otsuka

Presents the stories of six Japanese mail-order brides, whose new lives in early 20th century San Francisco are marked by backbreaking migrant work, cultural struggles, children who reject their heritage, and the prospect of wartime internment.NPR Bestseller

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The Weird Sisters

The Weird Sisters

by Eleanor Brown

Paperback, 320 pages, Penguin Group USA, $15, published February 7 2012 | purchase
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  • Eleanor Brown

Unwillingly brought together to care for their ailing mother, three sisters who were named after famous Shakespearean characters discover that everything they have been avoiding may prove more worthwhile than expected.NPR Bestseller

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The Chemistry of Tears

The Chemistry Of Tears

by Peter Carey

Hardcover, 229 pages, Random House Inc, $26, published May 15 2012 | purchase
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  • Peter Carey

Forced to hide her grief when her married lover dies unexpectedly, museum curator Catherine Gehrig works in solitude to restore a nineteenth-century automaton and finds comfort in the journals of its adventurous commissioner.

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The Hunger Angel

The Hunger Angel

by Herta Müller

Hardcover, 290 pages, Henry Holt & Co, $26, published April 24 2012 | purchase
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  • Herta Müller

Traces the experiences of Leo Auberg, who, after five torturous years in a post-war Soviet Union labor camp, succumbs to a hallucinatory existence where hunger and everyday objects take on anthropomorphic qualities. Translated by Philip Boehm.

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The Snapper

The Snapper

by Roddy Doyle

Paperback, 216 pages, Penguin Group USA, $16, published October 1 1993 | purchase
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  • Roddy Doyle

Sharon Rabitte is single, pregnant, and living in Dublin, and as her stomach grows, her situation elicits a wide range of responses from her family and community. By the author of The Commitments. Reprint.

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The Newlyweds

The Newlyweds

by Nell Freudenberger

Hardcover, 337 pages, Random House Inc, $25.95, published May 1 2012 | purchase
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  • Nell Freudenberger

Twenty-four-year-old Amina Mazid moves from Bangladesh to Rochester, N.Y., to marry a man she met online. But each is hiding something from his or her past that threatens to tear them apart. The Newlyweds is a continent-hopping novel about the exhilarations and real-life complications of getting and staying married in the modern age.NPR Bestseller

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The Dud Avocado

The Dud Avocado

by Elaine Dundy

Paperback, 260 pages, Random House Inc, $14.95, published June 5 2007 | purchase
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  • Elaine Dundy
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The Marriage Plot

The Marriage Plot

by Jeffrey Eugenides

Hardcover, 406 pages, Farrar Straus & Giroux, $28, published October 11 2011 | purchase
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  • Jeffrey Eugenides

Madeleine Hanna breaks out of her straight-and-narrow mold when she falls in love with charismatic loner Leonard Bankhead, while an old friend resurfaces, obsessed with the idea that Madeleine is his destiny.NPR Bestseller

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The Love of My Youth

The Love of My Youth

A Novel

by Mary Gordon

Paperback, 302 pages, Random House Inc, $15, published April 3 2012 | purchase
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  • A Novel
  • Mary Gordon

Having not seen each other for more than 40 years, Miranda and Adam unexpectedly reunite in Rome--where they once spent a summer deeply in love--and agree to spend the Italian afternoons taking walks together, experiencing the city, bringing each other up to date--and reviewing the betrayal that drove them. By the author of Final Payments.

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No Time Like the Present

No Time Like The Present

by Nadine Gordimer

Hardcover, 421 pages, Farrar Straus & Giroux, $27, published March 27 2012 | purchase
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  • No Time Like The Present
  • Nadine Gordimer

Interracial couple Steve and Jabulile are able to live happily together with their two children in a newly free South Africa, but their lives are defined by the constant struggle to marry their nation's past with its present.

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