Library Journal

Brom. Krampus: The Yule Lord. Morrow. Nov. 2012. 368p. ISBN 9780062095657. $27.99. FANTASY
One Christmas Eve in Boone County, WV, a songwriter manqué named Jesse intervenes when he sees men in black attacking a white-bearded gent in a sleigh. Yes, it’s Santa, but he’s the bad guy here—and that’s Krampus’s bag left at the scene. According to Krampus, an age-old trickster demon who punishes wrongdoing, Santa locked him up and stole his magic 500 years ago. Now he’s free and wants his magic back—along with the holiday Santa so rudely usurped. Illustrator/author Brom’s big hit, The Child Thief, went through four printings; fans will be looking for this one. With a 40,000-copy first printing, plus 35 black-and-white illustrations and eight pages of color.

Carr, Caleb. The Legend of Broken. Random. Nov. 2012. 688p. ISBN 9781400062836. $27; eISBN 9780812994087. HISTORICAL
Back in 1994, Carr landed like a meteorite with The Alienist, which has sold over two million copies in all formats to date. Subsequent titles, also big sellers—though nowhere near as big as The Alienist—ricocheted from Victorian England to 2023. Here Carr goes way back in time to the medieval era, where a fortress may fall to the roiling invaders without or to undermining forces within. Evidently lots of juicy characters, e.g., a noble warrior and a scientist condemned for sorcery. Will this outsell The Alienist? We’ll see.

Chiaverini, Jennifer. The Giving Quilt: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel. Dutton. Nov. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9780525953609. $25.95. POP FICTION
Post-Thanksgiving at Elm Creek Manor, aspiring quilters are enjoying a special winter session of quilt camp. Their aim? To create warm, colorful quilts for Project Linus, a real-life charity Chiaverini supports that gives handmade quilts and blankets to needy children. Not a dry eye after finishing this book; with a reading group guide and eight-city tour.

Engelmann, Karen. The Stockholm Octave. Ecco: HarperCollins. Nov. 2012. 432p. ISBN 9780061995347. $26.99. LITERARY HISTORICAL
Engelmann sets her debut novel in 1790s Stockholm—the city’s Golden Age, though with our spare knowledge of Swedish history, as Francine du Plessix Gray points out, we wouldn’t know much about it—and invents a card game called Octave that drives the action. When the fortune-telling Mrs. Sophia Sparrow foresees a golden future for smug bureaucrat Emil Larsson, she lays an Octave for him so that he can find the eight people who will help him realize that vision. Soon, however, Larsson realizes that his search is tied up with the fate of his country, which is verging on chaos. Historical fiction with heft—and some hefty buzz; there’s a 50,000-copy first printing, and rights have been sold to ten countries.

McCall Smith, Alexander. The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds. Pantheon. Nov. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780307907332. $24.95; eISBN 9780307907349. MYSTERY
Boasting more than one million copies in print, the Isabel Dalhousie series is right up there in popularity with McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. In this ninth entry, a Scottish landowner robbed of a Nicolas Poussin painting slated for the Scottish National Gallery asks Isabel’s help in dealing with the thieves, who have approached him privately. Just who are they, and does the hapless victim actually know them? With a reading group guide and a tour that will include Atlanta, Boston, Mobile, and New York, plus locales in Vermont and Canada.

Mayle, Peter. The Marseille Caper. Knopf. Nov. 2012. 224p. ISBN 9780307594198. $24. CD/downloadable: Random House Audio. MYSTERY
Mayle introduced charming, roguish sleuth Sam Levitt in The Vintage Caper, which has sold nearly 100,000 copies in hardcover, paperback, and ebook. (And he didn’t go on tour to plump for it, as the publisher hastens to point out; his tour for this second in the series is expected to push up the numbers.) Sam is happily ensconced in Los Angeles with charming Elena Morales when rich Francis Reboul calls him back to Marseille. Alas, helping out Francis puts Sam in the midst of a major real estate hustle, with the danger escalating as the battle over Marseille’s valuable waterfront heats up. Mayle’s tour will hit Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC.

Munro, Alice. Dear Life: Stories. Knopf. Nov. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9780307596888. $26.95; eISBN 9780307961044. CD/downloadable: Random House Audio. SHORT STORIES
The highly admired Munro has won virtually every award imaginable (e.g., three Governor General’s Literary Awards and the Man Booker International Prize) and also sells books; her last title, Too Much Happiness, sold nearly 133,000 copies. The stories in her new collection, which revisits the towns and countryside around Lake Huron, highlight key moments when one’s life changes forever. Don’t miss.

Pullman, Philip. Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version. Viking. Nov. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9780670024971. $27.95. FAIRY TALES
Yes, it’s been 200 years since the publication of the first volume of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s Children’s and Household Tales, and we’ll be seeing celebrations. Norton is reissuing an update of Maria Tatar’s The Annotated Brothers Grimm, and now Pullman has jumped in with his own versions of 50 of the immortal tales, from perennials like “Cinderella” to less familiar gems like “Briar-Rose.” The dark edginess of Pullman’s own work (like the famed Dark Materials trilogy) seems a good match for the Grimm tone of these stories.

Schutt, Christine. Prosperous Friends. Grove. Nov. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780802120380. $24. LITERARY
National Book Award finalist, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and two-time O. Henry Prize winner, Schutt is a writer’s writer whose elegant prose seems chiseled out of diamonds. Here, golden boy Ned Bourne and his wife, Isabel, seek fulfillment of their artistic promise by traveling to London, New York, and Maine but are less successful in managing their emotional and sexual lives. Understanding comes when they meet older painter Clive Harris and his poet wife, Dinah. With a reading group guide; for discriminating folks.

Sussman, Paul. The Labyrinth of Osiris. Atlantic Monthly. Nov. 2012. 448p. ISBN 9780802120410. $25. THRILLER
With Sussman’s The Last Secret of the Temple and The Lost Army of Cambyses having each sold over a million copies worldwide, you can bet that readers will be interested in this next work. Det. Arieh Ben-Roi is stumped by the murder of crusading Israeli journalist Rivka Kleinberg, found dead in a Jerusalem cathedral (of all places). So for help he turns to long-time buddy Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor police. Kleinberg had been digging into the death of a British Egyptologist in the 1930s, which might provide some clues. Fun.

 

This March saw the debut of IDW’s Womanthology: Heroic, known already for having raised more than $100,000 through Kickstarter. The collection rated good words from Publishers Weekly, which noted the wide variety of talent on display in its pages: “The reader is left wanting a lot more from the contributors…and that was undoubtedly the goal.” Now IDW has announced an ongoing Womanthology: Space! comic book series. The first issue is coming out in September, and the series will presumably be collected into a companion volume. As with Heroic, submissions from female creators of all ages and experience levels are welcome.

Libraries that buy comic books or have girl-friendly comics clubs should take note. Speaking of space, for more sf graphic novels involving women creators, consider Laddertop, Girl Genius, and the forthcoming The Clockwork Sky, all from sf mainstay Tor. Thanks to Steve Raiteri for suggesting some of the titles below.

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Bluewater Productions (text) & James Boulton (illus.). Killing Geronimo: The Hunt for Osama Bin Laden. S. & S.: Gallery Bks. Aug. 2012. 96p. ISBN 9781451667462. pap. $15. HIST
Last year’s Code Word: Geronimo from IDW focused on the search-and-grab mission that ended the life of Osama bin Laden. This new chronicle depicts the same subject matter through a wider historical lens, starting with the 9/11 tragedy and covering the multimodal manhunt through several countries during the decade following. This could be a valuable addition to the relatively few nonfiction graphic novels documenting the War on Terror.

Hagio, Moto. The Heart of Thomas. Fantagraphics. Aug. 2012. 480p. tr. from Japanese & ed. by Matt Thorn. ISBN 9781606995518. $35. F
Hagio is a founding mother of shojo manga (girls’ manga), but her work had only rarely been made accessible to English speakers until Fantagraphics published the 2010 collection Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories. The forthcoming title is considered a pioneering work in the shonen ai (boys’ love) subgenre, which is often referred to as yaoi in the United States. In a German boys’ boarding school, young Thomas Werner kills himself because of his unrequited love for a schoolmate, who is in fact in love with Thomas, but secretly. Hagio traces the emotional threads among the boys and their fellows in this sophisticated and beautifully drawn melodrama. See an art sample and interview with Hagio here.

Geary, Rick. Lovers’ Lane: The Hall-Mills Mystery. NBM. (A Treasury of XXth Century Murder.) Aug. 2012. 80p. ISBN 9781561636280. $15.99. TRUE CRIME
With a track record for 19th-century crime drama, Geary started in on the 20th century in 2010 and is now releasing another installment. A juicy scandal erupted in 1922 when an ostensibly upstanding reverend and his supposed acquaintance were found dead in a park, love letters strewn around them. Double suicide? Murder? An affair certainly seemed likely, but there was insufficient evidence to accuse anyone of the killings—even the reverend’s wife, who steadfastly denied that her beloved husband had ever strayed. Black-and-white art in Geary’s trademark period style. 

Herriman, George. George Herriman’s Stumble Inn. Fantagraphics. Aug. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9781606995549. pap. $39.99. HUMOR
Renowned for his surrealistic masterpiece Krazy Kat, Herriman created other, lesser-known strips, including this one about the antics of a crew of misfits associated with a seedy hotel. In rather more of a Mutt and Jeff vein, the strip still exhibits Herriman’s characteristic charm and his slangy/poetic dialogue. The collection includes historical essays. See a character intro and a sample strip here.

Hickman, Jonathan (text) & Dustin Weaver (illus.). S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Human Machine. Marvel. Aug. 2012. 168p. ISBN 9780785152491. $19.99. F
S.H.I.E.L.D. is a secret espionage and law-enforcement organization that has surfaced in the Marvel Universe on and off since the 1960s. While the organization has appeared in a number of series, this plot arc from 2010 is the only one named simply S.H.I.E.L.D. The story tracks S.H.I.E.L.D.’s history back to the occult Brotherhood of the Shield, founded in Ancient Egypt by Imhotep. Intellectual heavy-hitters mixed up with the Brotherhood throughout its history are said to have included, ta-da: Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton, Michelangelo, Nostradamus, and Nikola Tesla.

Jeon, Hey-Jin (text) & Ki-ha Lee (illus.). Lizzie Newton: Victorian Mysteries. Vol. 1. Seven Seas. Aug. 2012. 192p. ISBN 9781935934806. pap. $11.99. F
Simply lovely manga Victoriana wraps this story about a sweet young marriageable thing making a go of it as a writer. Her papa wants her to marry a handsome lawyer, but Lizzie would rather write mysteries, at least for now. And since there’s been an unexpected death at the manor, she just may have a shot at solving one: her first real murder case. 

Johnson, Mat (text) & Andrea Mutti (illus.). Right State. Vertigo. Aug. 2012. 144p. ISBN 9781401229436. $24.99. F
The United States has its second African American president, and at least one extremist militia group is not happy. Fortunately, the Secret Service learns of their assassination plot and sends an undercover agent to infiltrate the group. But though the agent is an ex-Special Forces war hero, he’s turned conservative and become a hero to the right-wing fringe. Can he—and will he—keep the president alive? An all-too-timely graphic novel for the upcoming election. Johnson is known for the graphic novels Incognegro and Dark Rain; Mutti has done a good deal of work for Marvel and is the artist for the forthcoming graphic novel adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Keery, Paul (text) & Michael Wyatt (illus.). Canada at War: A Graphic History of World War Two. Douglas & McIntyre. Aug. 2012. 176p. bibliog. ISBN 9781553655961. pap. $24.95. HIST
Canada declared war against Germany in 1939, two years before the United States did, and became a major force for the Allies by contributing supplies and materiel as well as troops. By D-Day, over 1.1 million Canadian men and women had served in uniform. This account emphasizes the human dimension of the struggle and features clean, realistic color art with ample text blocks as well as dialog. Intended for both adults and young adults, this should be useful in history classes throughout North America in addition to appealing to WWII buffs and aficionados of war comics. 

Lust, Ulli. Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life. Fantagraphics. Aug. 2012. 460p. tr. from German by Kim Thompson. ISBN 9781606995570. $35. MEMOIR
Originally from Austria, Lust hitchhiked her way across Europe as a 1980s punker teen with devil-may-care sidekick Edi. Now, more than two decades later, the cartoonist views her summer of adventure through emotionally mature eyes. Sounds like a darkly funny rebel-without-a-clue memoir. See a sample of her playful, satiric black-and-white line art here.

Morrison, Grant (text) & Rags Morales (illus.). Superman: Action Comics. Vol. 1: Superman and the Men of Steel. DC. (The New 52). Aug. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9781401235468. $24.99. F
Superman debuted in Action Comics, and for the “New 52” reboot of all DC’s superhero series, Morrison reaches back for the authentic character while making him younger, edgier, and more into social justice. Oh, and his Clark Kent glasses look like Harry Potter’s. Morrison won several Eisner Awards for his earlier work on All-Star Superman. This collects issues 1–8 of the monthly comic books for the “New 52” Action Comics. 

Pauwels, Dave (text) & Nicolas Giacondo (illus.). Free Mars: Riot Girls Graphic Novel. Ape Entertainment. Aug. 2012. 112p. ISBN 9781401229436. pap. $14.99. F
As civil war clouds gather on the Red Planet in the year 2339, a rebel girl band decides to rock the revolution. Described by the publisher as a “gritty sci-fi rock opera,” this webcomic looks the way the music is supposed to sound, no doubt: wild, punk, unconventional, and simply smashing. Just the thing for libraries where the rocker CDs circulate like crazy. Looks adultish, so heads up.

Richter, Carl. The Crumb Compendium. Fantagraphics. Aug. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781606995013. pap. $29.99. GRAPHIC ARTS
Fantagraphics is billing this as “a comprehensive guide to everything Crumb has published during his 45-year career in cartooning.” The range of formats alone boggles the brain: comics, books, catalogs, posters, records and CDs, statues and shirts, and more. Also included are lists of articles, interviews, characters, comic strip titles, and published photographs. Richter compiled the earlier Crumb-Ology: The Works of R. Crumb 1981–1994, and Crumb himself served as consultant on this new reference work. 

Schulz, Charles M., Vicki Scott & Shane Houghton. Peanuts. Vol. 1. KaBOOM!: BOOM! Studios. Aug. 2012. 112p. ISBN 9781608862603. pap. $13.99. F
Under its kids’ imprint KaBOOM!, BOOM started putting out Peanuts comic books this January, featuring original, new stories alongside reprinted classic Sunday strips. Schulz decreed upon retiring that the newspaper strip would cease, but apparently his edict didn’t extend to comic books and graphic novels. Certainly, these new stories can be enjoyed by lovers of the original strip together with their children, who are meeting these quirky characters for the first time. Since BOOM announced the series, the web has been vibrating with praise for Schulz and how Peanuts inspired fans to want to draw comics themselves. Says poster Trevor Reece: “My wish for the new Peanuts comic books is that they can mean to someone what the Peanuts comic strip meant to me and millions others.” 

Smith, Jeff. RASL: The Lost Journals of Nikola Tesla. Vol. 4. Cartoon Bks. Aug. 2012. 144p. ISBN 9781888963328. pap. $16. F
RASL is an art thief who steals paintings across parallel universes. Comprising at least 14 comic books and several collections, the gritty, sf noir series combines corruption and cutting-edge physics. Smith is known for his all-ages Bone, but this decidedly adult series establishes his mastery of storytelling for mature audiences. This volume may be the last in the series, which has been reported to end with issue 15.

Sumerak, Marc (text) & Mike Hawthorne (illus.). Machine Teen: History 101001. Marvel. Aug. 2012. 120p. ISBN 9780785164869. pap. $14.99. F
Straight-A student, successful football jock, and the object of girls’ crushes, Adam Aaronson finds out to his shock that he’s a robot. And pretty quickly he’s got more problems than acing his next test or picking a prom date. This is a reprint of the first five issues of a 2005 series, previously collected that year. Perhaps Marvel is planning a new series or planning to drop Adam into an ongoing series.

Tezuka, Osamu. Message to Adolf. Vol. 1. Vertical. Aug. 2012. 592p. ISBN 9781935654438. $26.95. F
“God of Manga” Tezuka received a Kodansha Award in 1986 for this mature, provocative work, his last major manga before his death. A Japanese reporter assigned to cover the Berlin Olympics finds that his brother living there has been killed, somehow in connection with a secret message sent to Japan. The message, as it turns out, contains evidence that Hitler had Jewish blood, and so Nazi official Wolfgang Kaufman, living in Japan with his half-Japanese son Adolf, is charged with recovering the dangerous document. This Adolf’s best friend is a Jewish lad, Adolf Kamil, so he has no interest in Nazi anti-Semitism. As the reporter searches for clues about his brother and Kaufman searches for the document, the two young Adolfs become involved. For this seven-volume manga, Tezuka used a style more realistic than cartoony, with frighteningly good renditions of the third Adolf: Hitler. A real treat for lovers of historical fiction. 

Van Lente, Fred (text) & Tom Fowler (illus.). Hulk. Marvel. (Season One.) Aug. 2012. 136p. ISBN 9780785163886. $24.99. F
Marvel’s “Season One” titles are original graphic novels offering “modern retellings” of superhero origin stories for the 21st century. Van Lente told Comic Book Resources that the military/Gamma Bomb element will be retained for Bruce Banner’s transformation into the Hulk. But he stressed that women’s roles are getting a makeover: “We’ve given Betty [Ross] a new role. She’s still General Ross’ daughter…but we’ve made her an active member of the military, which sort of reflects how now the U.S. Military more actively recruits women and how they have a more active role in the military now then they did in the ’60s…. She’s very integral to the plot and is kind of a kick ass character in her own right. She’s not just the girl that Banner is pining after.” 

Yorifuji, Bunpei. Wonderful Life with the Elements: An Adventure Through the Periodic Table. No Starch Pr. Aug. 2012. 208p. ISBN 9781593274238. $16.95. CHEMISTRY
Who knew Scandium was a greedy industrialist or that Nitrogen wears a mohawk? Belly up to the periodic table and meet the elements, depicted as goofy cartoon humans. All the heavy elements are fat, of course, while the synthetic elements are robots. See the page for Potassium in this Japanese blog. As in Action Philosophers, serious intellectual material goes down more memorably when served with lighthearted irreverence. In Japan, Yorifuji is known for his “Do It at Home” ads on the Tokyo metro, reminding riders what not to do on the subway.

Ball, Edward. The Tycoon and the Inventor: A Gilded Age and the Birth of Moving Pictures. Doubleday. Nov. 2012. 448p. ISBN 9780385525756. $29.95; eISBN 9780385535496. Downloadable: Random House Audio. BIOGRAPHY
Originally scheduled for April 2012 and featured as a Pick last October, this is the story of how photographer Eadweard Muybridge invented stop-motion photography—the first step on the road to motion pictures—when asked by railroad tycoon and former California governor Leland Stanford to show that at one point a galloping horse’s four hooves leave the ground simultaneously. The dramatic Muybridge later killed his wife’s lover, though he was acquitted after a lot of media coverage. National Book Award winner Ball (Slaves in the Family) here combines art, science, true crime, and history-in-the-making in rough-and-tumble Gilded Age San Francisco.

Bair, Deirdre. Saul Steinberg: A Biography. Nan A. Talese: Doubleday. Nov. 2012. 752p. ISBN 9780385524483. $40; eISBN 9780385534987. BIOGRAPHY
The creator of fabulously spiky, satirical drawings and cartoons—everyone knows the iconic New Yorker cover that makes the rest of the country look like a really little slice of the pie—Steinberg was born in Romania and educated in Italy, which he fled with the rise of fascism. He became a U.S. citizen, a commissioned navy officer, and a member of the OSS in a single day, then went on to become one of the artistic lights of the postwar era. National Book Award winner Bair (for Samuel Beckett) got to rummage through 177 boxes of never-before-seen materials to write this biography. Nothing else out there on Steinberg, and what a fascinating life.

Coyne, Tom. Bury Me at the Finish Line: One Plodder’s Quest To Understand Where We’re Running To. Gotham: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9781592406548. $26. SPORTS
Author of the best-selling A Course Called Ireland, Coyne does golf but otherwise has never been that big on exercise. So he surprised himself by opting to run in the 2010 Marathon de Paris (though, hey, I’d go to Paris for anything). To make sure he followed through, he drafted some friends—a breast cancer survivor, a beer-belly Brit, and a chain-smoking waitress—to train with him, enticing them with an all-expenses-paid trip to the City of Light. Here he examines the fun of the run while reflecting on how the sport has turned into a mega-industry.

de Margerie, Caroline. American Lady: The Life of Susan Mary Alsop. Viking. Nov. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780670025749. $26.95. BIOGRAPHY
A descendant of Founding Father John Jay, born in Rome and raised partly in Argentina, Susan Mary hit Paris in 1945 with first husband William Patten and met everyone, from FDR to Churchill to Garbo. After Patten’s death, she married renowned columnist Joseph Alsop and with him became a legendary powerbroker, dominating Georgetown society for four decades. A fascinating-sounding book about a fascinating-sounding American woman, written by a French author who is now a member of the Conseil d’État, the highest administrative court of France.

Glassie, John. A Man of Misconceptions: The Life of an Eccentric in an Age of Change. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9781594488719. $26.95. SCIENCE/HISTORY
A former contributing editor to the New York Times Magazine, Glassie tells the story of Anthanasius Kircher, a 17th-century scientist much admired in his day for discoveries that have since proven to be, politely put, half-cocked. Magnetism is not the force driving the universe, his translations of Egyptian hieroglyphics were all wrong, and what’s this about his proudly displaying a mermaid’s tailbone? An entertaining reminder that skepticism can be good.

Guerrieri, Matthew. The First Four Notes: Beethoven’s Fifth and the Human Imagination. Knopf. Nov. 2012. 368p. ISBN 9780307593283. $26.95; eISBN 9780307960924. MUSIC
Da-da-da-dum! Here’s what looks to be the only book available to lay readers offering an in-depth examination of Beethoven’s beloved and magisterial Fifth Symphony. Guerrieri, music critic for the Boston Globe, explores both the sources and the long-term impact of the symphony, which was, by the way, a source of inspiration during World War II to both the Nazis and the Allies. If this book seems specialized,  just remember that Beethoven has nearly a million followers on Facebook—take that, rock stars! And a similar title, Stuart Isacoff’s A Natural History of the Piano, turned out to be a sleeper hit for the publisher last fall.

Homans, John. What’s a Dog For? The Surprising History, Science, Philosophy, and Politics of Man’s Best Friend. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9781594205156. $25.95. PETS
Lots of books out there on the human-canine relationship. But Homans, executive editor of New York magazine, homes in on a particular aspect of our love affair with dogs—our treating them as if they were human beings. (Um, they aren’t?) Inspired by his Lab mix, Stella, who started out as his companion in neighborhood rambles and quickly became the centerpiece of the family, Homans considers scientific studies about evolutionary theory, cognitive behavior, and the consequences of dog ownership (great for our health). What a dog for? To learn from and love.

Keller, Timothy. Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Plan for the World. Dutton. Nov. 2012. 272p. ISBN 9780525952701. $25.95. Downloadable: Penguin Audio. RELIGION
Pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Keller is heard by thousands of congregants on Sunday morning—and his best-selling spirituality titles are read by millions. Here he considers how believers can find meaning and maintain their values in the jungle-out-there world of business today. No easy outs here; Keller helps folks practice what gets preached.

Lizard, Sal with Jonathan Lane. Being Santa Claus: What I Learned about the True Meaning of Christmas. Gotham: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9781592407569. $20. MEMOIR
After his hair and beard turned snowy white when he was only in his twenties, Lizard did what every guy should do in that predicament: he opted to play Santa, a job he’s been at year ’round for more than 20 years. More than a life account, this book offers inspiration drawn from the experiences he’s had in his custom-made red velvet suits, e.g., little children can make a big difference in this world, and they’re awe-struck about seeing Santa off-season. A national tour, though probably not by sleigh.

Nasaw, David. The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2012. 832p. ISBN 9781594203763. $40. Downloadable: Penguin Audio. BIOGRAPHY
Celebrated for his biographies of Andrew Carnegie and William Randolph Hearst, Nasaw takes on another larger-than-life figure: Joseph P. Kennedy, businessman, Hollywood mogul, founding chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. ambassador to Britain as World War II commenced, and, of course, father to our 35th president. Nasaw evidently secured unrestricted and exclusive access to all of his subject’s papers and will address the big questions still hanging around, e.g., was Kennedy an isolationist, a Nazi sympathizer, a bootlegger? And did he really buy JFK’s elections?

Perelman, Deb. The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. Knopf. Nov. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9780307595652. $35; eISBN 9780307961068. COOKBOOKS
Just ask the Smitten Kitchen’s 63,000 Facebook fans or its four million unique visitors per month: Perelman’s supremely helpful, visually stunning, wittily worded food blog really did deserve to be named one of 2011’s best blogs by Time magazine. (I know because I just checked it out and have already cribbed the recipe for Pasta with Garlicky Broccoli Rabe.) Perelman’s recipes are accessible but not Betty Crocker plain; this is fun, energized eating. Get it! With a six-city tour to Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC.

Phillips, Kevin. 1775: A Good Year for Revolution. Viking. Nov. 2012. 640p. ISBN 9780670025121. $36. HISTORY
Every American schoolchild will tell you that 1776 was a very good year for the American Revolution. But contrarian Phillips, Pulitzer finalist for The Cousins’ Wars, makes a case for 1775 as the revolution’s make-or-break year. That’s when Congress delivered a bunch of sharp ultimatums to Britain, British troops and royal governors were sent packing, and local Patriots grabbed the reins of government. Britain never recovered. Great for argumentative nonfiction book groups.

Sacks, Oliver. Hallucinations. Knopf. Nov. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9780307957245. $26.95. CD/downloadable: Random House Audio. MEDICINE
Hallucinations: they don’t belong wholly to the insane. Illness or injury, intoxication or sensory deprivation, or simply falling asleep can cause any one of us to see (or hear, or smell, or sense) swirly, twirly things that aren’t there. Everyone’s favorite neurologist is back to explain types of hallucinations, what they tell us about the brain’s workings, and how they have influenced art and culture. Who knew medicine could be so much fun.

Schwartz, John. Oddly Normal: One Family’s Struggle To Help Their Teenage Son Come to Terms with His Sexuality. Gotham: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9781592407286. $26. MEMOIR
A national correspondent with the New York Times, Schwartz faced a terrible tragedy two years ago when his 13-year-old son attempted suicide after coming out to his classmates. Frustrated by the school’s inability to help a student who didn’t fit the mold, he and his wife sought out organizations that could help Joe realize that he wasn’t alone or freakish. Here’s an account of their experiences, clearly as much a parental guide as a memoir.

Talbot, Margaret. The Entertainer: Movies, Magic, and My Father’s Twentieth Century. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2012. 416p. ISBN 9781594487064. $28.95. MEMOIR
A New Yorker staff writer, Talbot takes a personal approach to telling the story of popular culture in early 20th century America. She tells the story of her father, Lyle Talbot, born in Nebraska in 1902, who became a magician’s assistant, actor with a traveling theater troupe, romantic lead in early talkies, character actor in big Warner films, and, finally, Ozzie and Harriet and Leave It to Beaver regular. From small-town life to the big screen; sounds enticing, and lots of in-house excitement. 
 
Updike, John. Always Looking: Essays on Art. Knopf. Nov. 2012. 224p. ISBN 9780307957306. $45. ART CRITICISM
After Just Looking (1989) and Still Looking (2005), here’s a final, posthumous volume of essays from a writer whose art criticism was as good as his fiction. The 15 pieces are taken mostly from the New York Review of Books, though readers will also find—and revel in—“The Clarity of Things,” the 2008 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities and as definitive a statement as we’ll get of Updike’s approach to criticism. With more than 200 color illustrations to go with commentary ranging from Degas to Serra. Bravo!

wa Thiong’o, Ngugi. In the House of the Interpreter: A Memoir. Pantheon. Nov. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780307907691. $25.95; eISBN 9780307907707. MEMOIR
A 2009 Man Booker International Literary Prize nominee and an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience in his native Kenya in the late 1970s after his arrest for writing a controversial play, wa Thiong’o here follows up a first volume of memoirs called Dreams in a Time of War—which, by the way, was a Samuel Johnson Prize nominee. This new work covers wa Thiong’o’s high school years in 1955–59, which places it smack in the middle of the Mau Mau uprising that eventually led to the end of British colonial rule.  Nobel-worthy reading, I’ll bet; wa Thiong’o is often mentioned for the prize.

When I arrived at Library Journal in 1986, most works of historical fiction, with high-end exceptions like E.L. Doctorow’s oeuvre, were passed to the review editor handling popular rather than literary fiction (that’s my bailiwick). Such works were seen as strictly genre fiction, either adventure-filled saga or rosy romance. That wasn’t always true—Tolstoy’s War and Peace, which I’d definitely toss in the literary pile despite all its adventure and romance, was the historical fiction of its day, chronicling events that had happened 60 years before its publication. But for a time historical fiction came mostly wrapped in bodice-ripper covers.

In recent years, with the appearance of books like Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring (a “brainy novel whose passion is ideas,” said the New York Times) and awards winners like Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower, Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain, and Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, our understanding of historical fiction has broadened considerably. In fact, today’s historical novels vary so widely in tone, depth, and audience (fans of Wolf Hall aren’t likely to pick up Philippa Gregory’s Tudor romps) that bunching them together can seem a little odd. Should these titles even be called historical fiction?

It’s a question I got to debate last Thursday while serving on the panel “Historical Fiction: An Enduring Genre in a Changing Landscape,” sponsored by the Women’s National Book Association’s New York City Chapter. My fellow panelists included Kathryn Harrison, whose most recent historical novel is the vivid Enchantments, which imagines a friendship between Rasputin’s daughter and the Tsarevitch Alyosha.

Also on hand: Carole DeSanti, Viking Penguin Vice President and editor at large (her authors have included Chevalier), whose first novel, The Unruly Passions of Eugénie R., is set during France’s Second Empire; Writers House agent Daniel Lazar, who’s given us Anne Fortier, Michelle Moran, and, most recently, Regina O’Melveney’s The Book of Madness and Cures; and Heather Lazare, currently at the Simon & Schuster imprint Touchstone, whose interests as an editor include historical fiction.

Such is the protean nature of literature in general that we couldn’t exactly define the parameters of historical fiction—not even the time frame, though World War II came up as a dividing line. I did like DeSanti’s wonderful term hybridity to describe the current climate, one in which historical fiction has gotten richer and deeper and might best be summed up through compound terms, e.g., literary historical, historical romance, historical thriller, time-travel historical, and more.

In the end, it seems best to think big, keeping books like Francine du Plessix Gray’s austere and magisterial The Queen’s Lover (see interview) in the historical fiction fold, along with more obvious choices like Madeline Miller’s current Mary Renault readalike, The Song of Achilles. Publishers must simply market them wisely (Lazare’s point), and reviewers must stress the nuances (my point). For despite those nuances, works of historical fiction  have one thing in common: through them, we enter a world different from our own, almost as in a fantasy. But it’s a real world, and with the best books we leave with some real understanding.

Not that historical novels are encapsulated history lessons. That would be a bore, and in any case novelists take an entirely different tack. “Don’t go to historical fiction to learn history,” warned Harrison. “We use history, we don’t remain faithful to it.”

What historical fiction instead delivers is an era’s sensibility. For her novel, DeSanti relentlessly examined Second Empire artifacts, from clothing to cookbooks, visiting Paris’s Musée Carnavalet to study its coins, signs, ceramics, and even a bit of bread preserved from the time of the Paris Commune. Her purpose? “I wanted to feel myself into the time, to live there.” She so immersed herself in the Second Empire that she feels she’s still living there, which makes The Unruly Passions of Eugénie R. seem less historical to her than contemporary.

When you read DeSanti’s novel, you’ll feel that you are living in that world, too. Gray’s The Queen’s Lover will take you back to the French Revolution and O’Melveney’s The Book of Madness and Cures even further back, to late 1500s Venice and beyond. And just as the novelist’s continuing research can change the arc of a story—having discovered efforts to raise silkworms in 17th-century Spain, Harrison made the narrator of Poison a Spanish silk grower’s daughter—we’re changed by our reading of these novels. It’s an easy way to make our fantasies come true.

 

Alexie, Sherman. Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories. Grove. Oct. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780802120397. $25. SHORT STORIES
Winner of the PEN/Faulkner and PEN/Malamud awards—not to mention a National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian—Alexie writes sculpted prose that lands like a punch. His stories, especially, are knockouts. So this juicy collection of 15 of his best-known stories (e.g., “The Toughest Indian in the World”) and 15 new stories (which range in topic from donkey basketball leagues to dangerous wind turbines) should be a winner. With a first serial sold to Harper’s and a 13-city tour to Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Nashville, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Albuquerque, Phoenix, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Bellingham (WA), and Spokane.

Leon, Donna. The Jewels of Paradise. Atlantic Monthly. Oct. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780802120649. $25.95. POP FICTION
No, not another of Leon’s engaging mysteries starring Commissario Guido Brunetti but a stand-alone novel—though it’s still set in Venice. An expert on baroque opera, Caterina Pellegrini has returned home to oversee the opening of two just-discovered trunks containing the effects of a baroque composer who once reigned supreme and is now pretty much history. She’s to check the papers and see if there’s a will (already two descendants are fighting), but the trunks could contain much, much more. Lovely to see Leon spread her wings, and she writes persuasively about music; a related CD recorded by a world-famous singer is said to be in the works.

Morton, Kate. The Secret Keeper. Atria: S. & S. Oct. 2012. 480p. ISBN 9781439152805. $29.99. HISTORICAL FICTION
Sounds like classic Morton: escaping from a noisy summer party, 16-year-old Laurel Nicolson sits dreaming away in her childhood tree house when she spies her mother speaking to a man she doesn’t now. Later, she witnesses a terrible crime. But not until 50 years have passed, when she’s attending her mother’s 90th birthday party, she can ask the pertinent questions—which leads to a story involving three strangers in wartime London. Morton’s best-selling work is always classy and nuanced; I loved The Distant Hours. Great for reading groups.

Mozingo, Joe. The Fiddler on Pantico Run. Free Pr: S. & S. Oct. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9781451627480. $24.99. MEMOIR
Blue-eyed, fair-skinned Mozingo didn’t know the origin of his family name until a colleague told him that it came from the Congo. Doing some digging (not a hard job for a Pulitzer Prize finalist at the Los Angeles Times), Mozingo discovered that Edward Mozingo, probably a prince from the Kingdom of Kon, landed in Jamestown in 1644 as a slave. He eventually won his freedom, then set up a tobacco farm on a Virginia road called Pantico Run and married a white woman, thus launching one of the country’s first mixed-race families. Mozingo continues through the family’s split as some members sought to pass for white, the presence of relatives on both sides during the Civil War, and his grandfather’s move to Hollywood to pursue his own dreams. If this works out right, it will capture the complexities of American history.

Butler, Robert Olen. The Hot Country: A Christopher Marlowe Cobb Thriller. Mysterious Pr: Grove Atlantic. Oct. 2012. ISBN 9780802120465. $25. THRILLER
Having ranged from fine-tuned accounts of the Vietnamese immigrant experience in the Pulitzer Prize–winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain to the wicked fun of Hell, Butler now tries something completely different: a thriller. Christopher Marlowe (“Kit”) Cobb, an early 20th-century American war correspondent reporting on Mexico’s civil war. He witnesses the attempted assassination of a priest and the arrival of strange ships bearing German officials—and that’s just the beginning of his troubles. Especially promising for your smart thriller readers; with a 12-city tour to Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Birmingham, Miami, Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis, Houston, and Phoenix.

Dekker, Ted. The Sanctuary. Center Street: Hachette. Oct. 2012. 416p. ISBN 9781599953359. $24.99. CHRISTIAN FICTION/THRILLER
Serving time for the murder of two abusive men, vigilante priest Danny Hansen is determined to abide by the rules. But when the woman he loves receives threats (and a couple of bloody fingers), he needs to break out of jail. Unless I miss my guess, suspenseful but not ugly-bloody.

Doctorow, Cory. Pirate Cinema. Tor Teen. Oct. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9780765329080. $19.99. THRILLER/YA
Boing Boing coeditor and New York Times best-selling Doctorow again offers cutting-edge fiction that helps us rethink our brave new cyberworld. In trouble for using pirated movie clips to craft his own film, Trent McCauley stumbles upon an underworld of activist artists battling a bill in Parliament that would expand restrictions on Internet creativity. The setting is a dystopian near future Britain, but it could be now. And though the book is meant for a YA audience (note the publisher), it’s too relevant—and Doctorow’s writing generally too good—for adult readers to pass up. With a seven-city tour.

Evans, Richard Paul. A Winter Dream. S. & S. Oct. 2012. 369p. ISBN 9781451628036. $19.99. POP FICTION
Shoved out of the family business by his green-with-envy siblings, Joe soon triumphs as chief adviser to the CEO of another company. Then the siblings need his help. Sound familiar? In fact, it’s based on the Old Testament story of Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors. More sparkly holiday hope from the author of the outrageously best-selling The Christmas Box, set for reissue this year in special 20th anniversary edition (ISBN 9781451696431. $14.99).

Flynn, Vince. Untitled. Emily Bestler: Atria: S. & S. Oct. 2012. 448p. ISBN 9781416595212. $27.99. THRILLER
Joe Rickman’s bodyguards are dead, and Rickman himself is missing. Bad news, because Rickman ran clandestine operations in Afghanistan for eight years, spending a quarter billion dollars in cash on who knows what. Mitch Rapp is told to find Rick or else, and here’s the snag: he doesn’t think the guy was kidnapped. Another No. 1 New York Times best seller from Flynn?

Kostigen, Thomas M. Golden Dawn. Forge. Oct. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780765329332. $24.99. THRILLER
I hear there’s big in-house excitement for this debut thriller from a guy who’s been around the block, as ethics columnist for Dow Jones MarketWatch, a former editor of Bloomberg News, and coauthor of the New York Times best-selling The Green Book. And the premise is certainly eye-catching. The Golden Dawn is an ancient sect of Zoroastrians said to keep a secret regarding the leader who will arise before the End Times. Now the president of Iraq is exploiting this knowledge for his own unpleasant purposes, and he’ll soon have nuclear weapons to back up his efforts.

Wouk, Herman. The Lawgiver. S. & S. Oct. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9781451699388. $25.99. CD: S. & S. Audio. POP FICTION
The author of The Caine Mutiny has always wanted to write a book about Moses, and now, at age 96, he’s finally done it. It’s not a sword-and-sand spectacle, though, interestingly, it’s about a sword-and-sand spectacle. The conceit here is that when a very, very rich Australian proclaims that he’ll finance a film about Moses as long as the script looks good, ambitious young writer-director Margo Solovei throws herself into the fray. Meanwhile, a certain author named Herman Wouk is called in by the rich guy to approve the script. This should be fun.

Barofsky, Neil.  Bailout: How I Watched Washington Rescue Wall Street While Abandoning Main Street. Free Pr: S. & S. Oct. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9781451684933. $26.  CURRENT EVENTS
In 2008, Barofsky was appointed Special United States Treasury Department Inspector General to oversee the Troubled Assets Relief Program. But he resigned his post in 2011, citing family reasons. Not a lot of word on the contents of this book, but the title says it all.

Criss, Peter. Makeup to Breakup. Scribner. Oct. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781451620825. $26. MEMOIR
Wow, the musicians are really talking. Last week I featured memoirs from Billy Ray Cyrus, Kenny Rogers, John Taylor, Pete Townshend, and Neil Young, and note the Cyndi Lauper tell-all below. Here, founding KISS drummer Criss spills all about his painted band and his own version of sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll.

Crothers, Tim. The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl’s Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster. Scribner. Oct. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9781451657814. $26. BIOGRAPHY/GAMES
At age 11, Phiona Mutesi had a lot of strikes against her; barely literate, she lived in the worst slums of Kampala, Uganda. Then a slum dweller who had become a missionary taught her to play chess, and three years later she was an international champion. Basing this book on his National Magazine Award–nominated story, Sports Illustrated senior writer Crothers tells a story that isn’t just inspirational but a corrective to our most damning assumptions.

Denby, David. Do the Movies Have a Future? S. & S. Oct. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9781416599470. $27. FILM
These collected essays from the noted New Yorker critic don’t just talk about movies; they talk more broadly about where the movie business is going. As art is squeezed out by the car-crash mentality and digitization takes over, perhaps the whole business—which has long furnished America’s most popular form of entertainment—will end up dead. Here, too, are discussions of Denby’s favorite directors and the great critics James Agee and Pauline Kael. Essential for film fans.

Feinstein, Michael. The Gershwins and Me: A Personal History in Twelve Songs. S. & S. Oct. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781451645309. $45 with CD. BIOGRAPHY/MUSIC
Ambassador of the Great American Songbook, as he’s called, Feinstein lucked out at age 20 when he got a job with Ira Gershwin. Here he shares both reminiscences of their six-year partnership and his unique insights into the glory that is George Gershwin’s music. When it comes to the great Gershwins, I’m not the only person to proclaim “Love Is Here To Stay,” and Feinstein’s structuring of his narrative in terms of 12 key songs is intriguing. Can’t wait to hear the accompanying CD.

Han Han. This Generation: Dispatches from China’s Most Popular Literary Star (and Race Car Driver). S. & S. Oct. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9781451660005. $23. MEMOIR/CURRENT EVENTS
After Han dropped out of high school, he wrote a novel titled Triple Door that has sold more than 20 million copies, then went on to become a singer, a sharp-tongued blogger of the moment, and a star on the rally racing circuit. Now he’s an international celebrity who’s changed our view of China, and his observations here range from racing to patriotism. Seriously, this sounds cool.

Lauper, Cyndi with Jancee Dunn. Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir. Atria: S. & S. Oct. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9781439147856. $28.99. MEMOIR/MUSIC
For girls (and others) who want to have fun: a memoir from Lauper, who’s sold more than 30 million albums globally and has been nominated for a stack of awards, including 14 Grammys. She starts here with her tough early years, when she abandoned home at age 17 and survived by her wits—and doing things like cleaning a Hare Krishna temple for free food. Then come the glories and (inevitable) hardships of fame.

McMurtry, Larry. Custer. S. & S. Oct. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9781451626209. $40. BIOGRAPHY
McMurtry on George Armstrong Custer; now that should be larger than life. With no cavalry survivors and only scattered Indian accounts after Custer and his 7th Cavalry attacked a large Lakota Cheyenne village on the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory, it’s hard to say what really happened on that hot June day in 1876. But McMurtry’s chronicle of the man should be colorful—for one thing, there are 150 four-color illustrations.

Nepo, Mark. Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What Is Sacred. Free Pr: S. & S. Oct. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9781451674668. $25. INSPIRATION
You’ll know cancer survivor Nepo from his No. 1 New York Times best seller, The Book of Awakening—not to mention his appearances on Good Morning America and Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Sunday program (OWN TV). Emphasizing our relationships to wisdom, experience, and one another, he here uses his own hearing loss to explain how we can return daily to what really matters in life.

Pantsov, Alexander V. & Steven I. Levine. Mao: The Real Story. S. & S. Oct. 2012. 736p. ISBN 9781451654479. $35. BIOGRAPHY
Moscow-born Pantsov, now a history professor at Capital University and author of books like The Bolsheviks and the Chinese Revolution 1919-1927, joins with China politics and foreign affairs expert Levine to craft a biography of one of the towering leaders/monsters of the 20th century. Key here is access to Russian documents not available to previous researchers. Interesting to see where this goes, since as China rises and rises, a new Mao biography seems important.

Schwarzenegger, Arnold. Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story. S. & S. Oct. 2012. 448p. ISBN 9781451662436. $32.50. CD: S. & S. Audio. MEMOIR
Body-building champion. Movie star. Governor of California. And immigrant. Schwarzenegger presents his life story as the realization of the American dream. Long on his achievements, then (note the subtitle), but he’s also said to be honest about his regrets—and that would pique reader interest. With a national tour.

If you have never heard of Count Axel von Fersen, you are perhaps in the majority. While everyone can picture the tragic Marie Antoinette, who lost her head to the guillotine in the midst of the French Revolution, only the more thoroughgoing students of history know much about her lover—an influential Swedish nobleman in his own right. Now the redoubtable Francine du Plessix Gray, author of studies like At Home with the Marquis de Sade and the National Book Critics Circle Award–winning Them: A Memoir of My Parents, has brought the count fully to life. Yet her method is not biography but fiction.

In The Queen’s Lover, out from Penguin Press this June, Gray offers a rich and exacting portrait of Fersen and his world. Reading it is like stepping through one of Versailles’s famed looking glasses into the roistering turmoil of late 1700s France and seeing it afresh, freed from the endless shellacking of time and myth. Given her command of the history, why did Gray choose to tell her story in fiction—an area, one hastens to add, in which she also excels?

“It wasn’t a set decision,” explained Gray in an interview at her publisher’s office in lower Manhattan, as she clarified the emblematic experience of having the writing speaks to the writer. “I began with the scene where [Fersen and Marie Antoinette] first meet, and instead of saying he, I said I.” The count mostly tells his own story, but occasionally we hear the voice of his sister, Sophie, who speaks up boldly to describe and defend him. The tenderness between them—indeed, this is as much a story of sibling affection as of Fersen’s great love for the queen—might not have been conveyed so convincingly in a sheer historical account.

Fiction also has the advantage of allowing the writer to move beyond bare fact and create a more immediate and sensuous environment. Of her favorite chapter, which portrays a Versailles littered with food scraps and beset by unwashed courtiers who relieve themselves in the corners, Gray observed that readers can “smell and feel, as well as see, how Versailles reeked! You can’t do that in nonfiction. You could quote a letter, but the voice itself carries so much more sensory weight.” Coming from clean and tidy Sweden, the count is so overcome by the awful stench on his first visit to the palace that he requires smelling salts, which readers might want to resort to as well.

In her account, Gray vivifies not only France but Fersen’s homeland, which should please the historically astute while giving new and interesting information to those less familiar with Sweden’s illustrious past. “Sweden is off the map in our historical study,” remarked Gray, “but at the time it was the major naval power in Europe”—a fact highlighted by Fersen’s relentless diplomatic missions and easy access to the elevated French court. Intriguing, too, is Gray’s portrait of the little-known Swedish king Gustavus III. Said the author of this fascinating character, “He was a gay intellectual who really founded modern Swedish culture.”

Other great characters abound in this novel, not least of which are Marie Antoinette and her husband, Louis XVI. They are typically seen as shallow, frivolous sorts, pitied for a fate that the unkind often think they deserved. But Gray offers solidly grounded revisionism. Her Marie Antoinette is no simpering flirt but a sensitive young woman trying her best to reckon with the forces arrayed against her. And Louis is not only pious—the night before his execution, he was ready to meet his maker, downing a feast and then sleeping soundly—but “a great intellectual,” as Gray observes. “He knew Milton by heart.”

Of course, the most persuasive character is Fersen himself, a man of grave demeanor and firm convictions devoted to queen, class, and country. Yet he’s nuanced, too. Though a determined aristocrat, refusing to adjust as republican fervor swept his homeland after the Revolution, Fersen fought for American independence. (What Swede at the time didn’t hate the British?) And though firmly committed to Marie Antoinette, even unto her memory after her death, he’s called a notorious seducer by his own sister. “He was a man with a big libido, and he admitted it,” observed Gray. “But he did not go to prostitutes; he liked only classy ladies. He felt a bit guilty, but, after all, it was hard to get to the queen.”

Committed lover, confessed seducer, and unyielding aristocrat: what does Count Axel von Fersen have to say to us today? “That integrity and loyalty are the most important things in life,” averred Gray. “He doesn’t cater to the crowd; he wants to be himself.” Just as history has lessons for us, so does historical fiction. And few novelists could so effectively show us how to hold firm in roiling times (like our own) as Gray.

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    The New Icons  The Ten New Landmark Libraries  Poplar Creek Public Library  Palo Verde Library/Maryvale Community Center  Cesar Chavez Branch Library  Hamilton Mill Branch Library  Durango Public Library  Sammamish Library  Appaloosa Branch Libra...