The Photograph by Penelope Lively

Glyn Peters finds an envelope labeled DO NOT OPEN – DESTROY on a shelf amidst some of his books and papers. In it is a photograph of a gathering of friends including his dead wife, Kath, who is holding hands with Nate, her sister’s husband. This discovery leads Glyn, an archaeologist of ancient gardens, to use some of his research skills to unearth facts about his wife’s past of which he might have been unaware. Glyn notifies Kath’s sister, Elaine, a successful landscape gardener, causing her to reexamine her life with her charming, but childish husband, Nate, and reflect on her relationship with her sister. The novel develops and unfolds from the viewpoints of all of the characters except Kath, the catalyst. An intriguing read. - JP

Cleaver by Tim Parks

Harold Cleaver, the charming, egotistic, successful British broadcast journalist, scores one of the highs of his career by conducting a scathing interview of the current U. S. president. This success is tempered by the release of a novel written by his son featuring him in an unflattering light as the protagonist of the story. These two events precipitate Cleaver’s leaving in a huff for a mountainous region of Germany near the Austrian border to be alone and unreachable for a while. Cleaver cannot escape himself, of course, and the novel unfolds with Cleaver’s reflections on all of the other highs and lows of his life as he settles into a cabin with the help of a nearby family and the companionship of the family’s dog. This is a well-written, unique story with an engaging character. - JP

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a powerful exploration of the lives of ordinary people in Nazi Germany. It tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a young German girl who loves the written word and makes it a point to steal books when and where she can. Life is hard, destruction and suffering are everywhere, and Death is a regular visitor to Liesel’s world – he is in fact the narrator of the story. But acts of enormous bravery and decency abound as well. A moving subplot involves Liesel’s foster family’s effort to save the life of a Jewish man, at great risk to their own safety. The Book Thief is generally considered a young adult novel, but had I not known this beforehand, it would never have occurred to me. It was first published as a book for adults in Zusak’s native Australia. - EB

The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud

The Emperor’s Children, by Claire Messud, is the story of three almost 30 year-old friends, alumni of Brown who are struggling to reconcile the gap between their current circumstances and the promise of their college days. One of the three, stunningly beautiful Marina Thwaite, is the daughter of celebrated liberal journalist and intellectual, Murray Thwaite, who has a powerful effect on all of the major characters, including his nephew, an initially idealistic, then bitter, college drop-out who arrives on his doorstep determined to horn his way into the New York intelligentsia. “Messud, in her fourth novel, remains wickedly observant of pretensions: intellectual, sexual, class and gender. Her writing is so fluid, and her plot so cleverly constructed, that events seem inevitable, yet the narrative is ultimately surprising and masterful as a contemporary comedy of manners,” Publishers Weekly, vol. 253, issue 19. - JEP

My Antonia by Willa Cather

For those in the mood for an American classic, My Antonia is an engrossing story of the pioneering period of European settlement on the midwestern prairie at the turn of the century. Cather depicts a rich mix of immigrant and native-born American characters, all struggling to make a new life with its attendant joys and tragedies. The story is told from the point of view of Jim Burden, the childhood friend of Antonia Shimerda, whose family came to settle on the harsh yet beautiful Nebraska plains in hopes of escaping poverty in their native Bohemia. While Jim moves away to college and a career in the east, Antonia stays on the plains enduring many hardships, including an illegitimate child, before ultimately acquiring land and building a farm and a large family. Although they go their separate ways, Jim’s admiration and love for the unschooled, passionate farm girl continues through the years. - JEP

Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

This graphic novel encompasses an array of fascinating, three-dimensional characters: a pregnant woman on the run from her abusive husband, a horse-headed knight looking for a place to rest in between quests, a bearded nun with a surprising past and others from fairy tales and medieval legends. What holds the stories (and stories within stories) together is Caste Waiting itself, the home Sleeping Beauty left behind when she ran off to live with the Prince. Also left behind are her three ladies-in-waiting, the cook and her “slow” son, the castle’s bird-headed steward and others. Although not as fine as in its glory-days, the castle and its inhabitants offer, without judgment, a most welcome refuge to weary frightened visitors. The wonderful artwork, great storytelling, humor and pathos are all reasons to pick up this book. - JEP