The Elliott Bay Book Company

Unmoored and adrift after his movie star wife leaves him, the once promising poet Jamie Mangan travels to Ireland to find hi roots and, he hopes, himself. On the trail of a dead Irish poet who may be his great great grandfather (and also his doppelganger), he meets much more family than he bargained for. This is not your lovely picture postcard emerald isle vacation. Moore renders both the ugly and the beautiful with lyrical ease, and the narrative burns with pitch-perfect suspense—sublime and terrifying in its depths.

Shot to death outside her apartment in 2006, this collection can be seen as Politkovskaya's answer to this question. She reported on the atrocities in Chechnya and the murderous corruption within Putin's Russian government. She never let the frequent threats to her life stop her from her work, and she relentlessly spoke out against the abuse of ordinary people. Also included here are moving glimpses into Anna's personal life—her close relationships with her dogs, a discussion of Russian passion and the Argentine tango, and powerful recollections from those who loved her. What emerges is an exceptionally compassionate and deeply committed woman who lived and died for what she believed.

How can Curt Marder best be described? A hilarious, hapless cowboy who can’t catch a break? A dangerous, white idiot who can’t take two steps without causing some disaster? Manifest Destiny badly in need of a bath, deceitful and shallow, scouring the desert for another place to piss? He’s all of these things. Enlisting the help of an ex-slave tracker named Bubba, Marder sets out to find the men who kidnapped his wife and killed his dog. This western, set around the 1880’s, reads like a bizarre remake of True Grit where the thirst for vengeance is more half-hearted, the dark humor even sharper, and where is race is not pushed to the margins. Phenomenal.

"When she comes home the novel ends—the book continues until she comes home or until Julian is sure that she is not coming home again." Julian awaits his wife as he tucks in his step-daughter Daniela with his continuing stories about the relationships and conversations of friendly trees. This young Chilean writer has created a slim and deceptively straight forward novella that reaches the depths of a novel. Julian is a lovable and authentic character as he reflects on his past and formulates what the future may bring for him and Daniela, if, in fact, his wife does not return...

This "true tale" is the story of Cercas investigating a fascist's narrow escape from execution at the end of the Spanish Civil War...and the Republican soldier who may have spared his life. I was drawn to it because Roberto Bolano surfaces as an important character is Cercas' search. What I found was a unique, dynamic, and beautiful novel that brought me to tears by its end.

The art is amazing, the stories are gripping and weird, the zombies are disgusting, and nightmare investigator Dylan Dog is just so sexy and nonchalant about it all. There is plenty here to sink your teeth into... Seven tales from the best selling Italian comic. The quote from Umberto Eco on the cover is not overstated... this is truly high-brow zombie literature.

Jack Levitt is a white orphan teen scraping by on the streets of Portland where he meets Billy Lancing, a black teenager just off the bus from Seattle who is wise beyond his years when it comes to handling a pool cue. By the time they meet again in San Quentin over a decade later, a lot has happened, This book is about real pain and real desperation, but it is also about love that is honest, unexpected and heartbreaking. Its beauty and power lie in its refusal to dishonor these characters with easy redemption or simple solutions.

This is not the Pinocchio that we met in the pedestrian Disney adaptation. For example... Pinocchio awakes to find his legs burned off... later, in response to well intentioned advice from a wise cricket (the model for Jiminy Cricket!) the puppet cooly smashes him to death with a carpenter's mallet. Obstinate, thick-headed and inexhaustible, Pinocchio finds incredible ways to bite off more than he can chew. A perfect tale of mischief, consequences, love, evil, devotion, magic, redemption, all of it. Rich and lyrical, this story begs to be read aloud, young or old you will be pleading to hear just one more chapter.

Opening with a man shot to death as he boards a bus, this book paints a vivid picture of life under the mafia in Sicily. Sciascia's description of the ensuing murder investigation is spare and authentic, and his characters are rendered with such sensitivity and care, it is hard to put down until you're done.

As hilarious as it is horrifying, The Third Policeman defies categorization as it resides precariously between Irish humor, otherworldly hallucination, and the demonically divine. In O'Brien's disorienting world we are introduced to the troubling migration of molecules between humans and bicycles, the intense bond between one-legged Irishmen, and answers to some of the more puzzling questions regarding the nature of human existence. O'Brien has a command of the English language like no other writer I have read. This is a work of unique genius. Do yourself a favor though, and save the introduction until you've finished the book. Its a bit of a spoiler.