After a woman disappears on her fifth wedding anniversary, her diary reveals hidden turmoil in her marriage. Her husband is desperate to clear himself of suspicion and soon discovers that the truth about what happened is even more disturbing than murder.

Syracuse University professor and one-time geological engineer George Saunders delivers a collection of fantastical stories, including "Home," a wryly whimsical account of a soldier's return from war; "Victory Lap," a tale about an inventive abduction attempt; and the title story, in which a suicidal cancer patient saves the life of a young misfit.

Over dinner at an Amsterdam restaurant, two couples — brothers and their wives — discuss a terrible crime most likely committed by their sons. The crime is not yet public, but grainy video footage exists — and both sets of parents know it depicts their offspring. As the conversation deepens, one wrenching question gets clearer and more pressing by the moment: How far will each family go to protect those it loves?

A woman turns a coastal Ireland mansion into a holiday resort and receives an assortment of guests who share laughter and heartache throughout the course of a week.

A terminally ill cancer patient is attended through his final days by his wife and daughter, moving all three to contemplate their relationship with an estranged son.

Sage Singer is shocked when Josef Weber, an old man who's particularly loved in her community, asks her to kill him. But when he reveals why he deserves to die, she starts to question her beliefs, and wonder if fulfilling his request would be justice or murder.

Something suspicious is going on in Princeton, N.J., in the otherwise sleepy year of 1905. Children turn to stone; an underworld opens at the edge of town; snakes squirm up and down walls. What have the people of Princeton done to bring such curses on themselves? In Joyce Carol Oates' gothic novel, fictional characters mix with historical figures — including Woodrow Wilson and Upton Sinclair — as a man on a quest to save his sister confronts the repressed horrors of high society.

A new collection of stories by the author of Swamplandia! features a varied cast of characters, including a pair of centuries-old vampires whose relationship is tested by a sudden fear of flying, a dejected teen who communicates with the universe through objects from a sea gull nest, and a massage therapist who heals a tattooed veteran by manipulating the images on his body.

After a brutal attack on his mother, 13-year-old Joe Coutts pursues the truth — and a sense of justice, separate from law enforcement. In this National Book Award-winning novel, Louise Erdrich unspools a mystery that has upturned both a North Dakota reservation and the family that Coutts hopes to save.

Mohsin Hamid's novel takes its structure from the genre of self-help tutorials. Chapter 1: Move to the City. Chapter 2: Get an Education. Chapter 3: Don't Fall in Love. But the book's nameless protagonist, who transforms from rural peasant to corporate tycoon, fails to follow this last directive — after all, the dogged pursuit of success doesn't happen in a vacuum.

On the shores of British Columbia, a novelist discovers the diary of a 16-year-old girl named Nao. Nao spent her formative years in California, but her family has returned to Japan, and when the book begins, she's living in Tokyo. Nao tells readers right up front that her diary will be a log of her last few days on Earth: She plans to take her own life, and as the story goes on, readers learn why.

Joe Pickett investigates the disappearance of a local businessman who is suspected in the murder of two EPA employees after his intended retirement property is declared a wetland.

Bored housewife Dellarobia Turnbow is tired of living in poverty on a failing farm, and she's frustrated by her marriage to the boy who got her pregnant in high school. Then one day, as she's hiking through rural Tennessee on her way to meet a lover, she witnesses a miraculous event on an Appalachian mountainside. The beautiful, ominous vision ignites a media and religious firestorm that changes her life forever. Barbara Kingsolver addresses rural life, climate change and environmental stewardship in this story of personal awakening.

Bee Fox is a nice kid, a good musician and a great student. But her mother, Bernadette, is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect. Then Bernadette goes missing, and Bee begins a search that will take her to the ends of the earth.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh was often overshadowed by her famous husband, Charles. But Melanie Benjamin's historical novel brings Anne to the forefront, illuminating both her independent accomplishments as an aviator and the heartbreak and triumph of her personal life.