Perhaps you would like to look forward to the 2009 crop of novels.
The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith
Sequel to Smith's breakout debut novel, Child 44, this novel moves the KGB detective into the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. I hope it is as good as the first! Pub date May 2009.
Haters by David Moody
Debut novel creates a nightmare world. A middle class family in an unnamed, possibly British city, notices odd incidents of random violence, which escalate to a condition that threatens human survival. The afflicted are called Haters by the unafflicted. Think of Stephen King's ability to make us imagine the ways that normality can morph into unimaginable. Pub date February 2009.
Darling Jim by Christian Moerk
Danish- American film writer Moerk has crafted a modern gothic novel of suspense set in Ireland. Two sisters and their Aunt are found dead in their Dublin home. But when a young postal worker, Niall, finds the diary of one of the sisters in a dead letter file, he must follow the search for truth that it started- in a desperate effort to save the vanished third sister. Pub date April 2009.
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
It's yet another debut novel, an odd mix of magic realism, tragic hardship, and unrelenting hopefulness. Truly Plaice, the unconventional heroine, is a girl afflicted with giantism, an untreated pituitary condition. Despite her mother's death in giving birth to her, and a rocky road as a poor orphan, there is a special destiny for her. I can't truly explain the Buzz about this book, but suffice it to say that you will hear more about it. Pub date is January 2009- short wait.
The Weight of Heaven by Thrity Umrigar
Frank and Ellie Benton lost their 7 year old son to a sudden illness. Their marriage hangs by a thread, until a new job opportunity leads them to India, and a chance to start again. There will be new friends, but also a dangerous path to cultural conflict. Starred reviews from the critics, pub date is April 2009.
Isn't it great? So long as there are people who want to tell a story, there will be new novels. It's comforting at a time when you can't look at a newspaper without your stomach hurting.
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Comments: 11
"THE LITTLE GIANT OF ABERDEEN COUNTY grabs you from its astonishing beginning to its riveting conclusion. Its charms are multitude-- a wholly unique love story, a devastating friendship, a bewitching multi-generational history, all brought to an apex in the larger-than-life personage of Truly, a heroine simultaneously infused with a quiet and dignified grace and peculiar sense of purpose. This dark-yet-rolicking debut is a must-read."
and the pub date is January 8
When what I read in my daily newspaper is far more horrifying than anything Stephen King could conceive of I need a novel that soothes and nurtures. Something with bunnies, perhaps.
(Bunnies with fangs need not apply.)