Best Fiction of 2012

by Ron Rash

Even better than the bestselling Serena (2008), for here Rash has elevated melodrama to tragedy. Full review >

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by Alan Glynn

His prose spare but spirited, Glynn (Winterland, 2011, etc.) spins an all-too-likely tale of secrets, lies and power... Full review >

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by Stacia M. Brown

A romping good read that is character-driven yet intellectually provocative on issues of law, religion and... Full review >

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by Ayad Akhtar

Engaging and accessible, thoughtful without being daunting: This may be the novel that brings Muslim-American fiction into... Full review >

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by Lauren Groff

As a follow-up to Groff’s well-received debut (The Monsters of Templeton, 2008), this novel is a structural conundrum,... Full review >

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by Tania James

At every turn, James’ prose is crisp, observant and carefully controlled; unlike the narrator of “Escape Key,” who grows... Full review >

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by Stephen Blackmoore

A head-shakingly perfect blend of zombie schlock, deadpan wit, startling profanity, desperate improvisation and inventive... Full review >

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by Stephen Dau

A charity sends Jonas to live with the Martins, an evangelical family in Pennsylvania. There he attends high school, an... Full review >

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by Stephen Gallagher

Gallagher loves character development but respects plotting enough to give it full measure. The result is that rare beast, a... Full review >

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by Richard Ford

At the start of the novel’s coda, when Dell explains that he teaches his students “books that to me seem secretly about my... Full review >

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by Robert Olmstead

An exceptionally fine study of love, war and the double-edged role of memory, which can both sustain and destroy.... Full review >

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by Karen Thompson Walker

Riveting, heartbreaking, profoundly moving. Full review >

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by Patrick Flanery

Complex in theme, complex in narrative, this is a masterful literary exploration of the specter of conscience and the... Full review >

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by Ben Fountain

War is hell in this novel of inspired absurdity. Full review >

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by Kristín Ómarsdóttir & translated by Lytton Smith

This is the first of Icelandic author Ómarsdóttir’s novels to appear in English, and it shouldn’t be the last. Somewhere in... Full review >

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