The Gift of Rain by Eng, Tan Twan Permeated by the sounds and scents of Malaya, with its jumble of British, Chinese, and Malay cultures, this extraordinary novel is narrated by Philip Hutton, half English and half Chinese. Most of the story is set in the late thirties and told in flashback, as Japan invades China and casts its eye on other territory, including Malaya. Endo-san, an enigmatic Japanese teacher of aikido, comes to inhabit an island near Philip’s home, becoming Philip’s aikido master and revered friend. As war develops, Philip ‘s close relationship to a Japanese makes him and his prominent family vulnerable, causing painfully divided loyalties. Philip begins to play a dangerous double game to protect his family, unaware that he is himself the victim of another double game. This remarkable novel, nominated for the Man Booker prize, is suffused with a sensuous feel for Malaya: the sea is a constant presence, and Tan Twan Eng is especially deft at conveying the sense of multiple cultures-- each with its specific etiquette architecture, food, smells-—living in close proximity but never really mingling. The novel manages to combine this sensuous specificity with a calm clarity that may owe something to the spirit of aikido that is a central component in the story. And you’ll remember the friendship between Philip and the mysterious and highly attractive Endo-san long after you close the book.

House of Wits: An Intimate Portrait of the James Family by Fisher, Paul It's an intimidating task to take on the James family, especially since the path has been trodden by some other fine biographers. But Paul Fisher acquits himself well in this highly readable composite portrait, bringing out the darker side of these outsize intellects. The father's alcoholism, Henry's closeted sexuality, and the thwarted ambitions of the mordantly witty Alice (whom Fisher compares to Emily Dickinson). We follow them as they racket from continent to continent as children, against the backdrop of the intellectual and social tensions of the nineteenth century. An illuminating portrait of the most hyper-articulate American clan on record.

The Boat by Le, Nam A stunningly inventive, deeply moving fiction debut: stories that take us from the slums of Colombia to the streets of Tehran; from New York City to Iowa City; from a tiny fishing village in Australia to a foundering vessel in the South China Sea, in a masterly display of literary virtuosity and feeling. In the magnificent opening story, "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice," a young writer is urged by his friends to mine his father's experiences in Vietnam--and what seems at first a satire of turning one's life into literary commerce becomes a transcendent exploration of homeland, and the ties between father and son. "Cartagena" provides a visceral glimpse of life in Colombia as it enters the mind of a fourteen-year-old hit man facing the ultimate test. In "Meeting Elise," an aging New York painter mourns his body's decline as he prepares to meet his daughter on the eve of her Carnegie Hall debut. And with graceful symmetry, the final, title story returns to Vietnam, to a fishing trawler crowded with refugees, where a young woman's bond with a mother and her small son forces both women to a shattering decision. Brilliant, daring, and demonstrating a jaw-dropping versatility of voice and point of view, "The Boat" is an extraordinary work of fiction that takes us to the heart of what it means to be human, and announces a writer of astonishing gifts.