The Sea
by John Banville
Published 2005 by Alfred A. Knopf

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 0307263118

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The author of "The Untouchable" ("contemporary fiction gets no better than this"--Patrick McGrath, "The New York Times Book Review") now gives readers a luminous novel about love, loss, and the unpredictable power of memory.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 11/07/2005

Banville's magnificent new novel, which won this year's Man Booker Prize and is being rushed into print by Knopf, presents a man mourning his wife's recent death - and his blighted life. "The past beats inside me like a second heart," observes Max Morden early on, and his return to the seaside resort where he lost his innocence gradually yields the objects of his nostalgia. Max's thoughts glide swiftly between the events of his wife's final illness and the formative summer, 50 years past, when the Grace family - father, mother and twins Chloe and Myles - lived in a villa in the seaside town where Max and his quarreling parents rented a dismal "chalet." Banville seamlessly juxtaposes Max's youth and age, and each scene is rendered with the intense visual acuity of a photograph ("the mud shone blue as a new bruise"). As in all Banville novels, things are not what they seem. Max's cruelly capricious complicity in the sad history that unfolds, and the facts kept hidden from the reader until the shocking denouement, brilliantly dramatize the unpredictability of life and the incomprehensibility of death. Like the strange high tide that figures into Max's visions and remembrances, this novel sweeps the reader into the inexorable waxing and waning of life. (Nov. 8)

Mammoth
by John Varley
Published 2005 by Ace Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 0441012817

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Jacket Notes:

From the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of "Red Thunder." A mammoth hunter has made the discovery of a lifetime: an intact frozen woolly mammoth. But what he finds during the painstaking process of excavating the creature boggles the mind.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 05/09/2005

When eccentric megabillionaire Howard Christian commissions a hunt for a frozen mammoth in northern Manitoba to clone a new model in Varley's rollicking, bittersweet tale of time travel and ecology, he gets more than he bargained for: next to the 12,000-year-old beast his team unearths lies the body of a human being, wearing a wristwatch, with a metal box--a time machine?--nearby. Christian hires Matt Wright, Canada's top scientist on the physics of time, to fix the machine, and employs elephant vet Susan Morgan to oversee the cloning of a new mammoth. The machine hurls Matt and Susan back to the mammoth age, then forward again, along with a baby Columbian woolly mammoth, Fuzzy, whose engaging story cleverly alternates with Christian's indefatigable quest for personal fame. Varley's sparkling wit pulls one surprise after another out of this unconventional blend of science and social commentary with real people convincingly doing unreal things. Fuzzy, though, is the true hero, an irresistible 15-foot-tall reminder of the wonders of nature and imagination. The winner of numerous Hugo and Nebula awards, Varley (Millennium) should garner new laurels with this outstanding effort. Agent, Kirby McCauley at the Pimlico Agency. (June 7)

The Old Wine Shades
by Martha Grimes
Published 2006 by Viking Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 0670034797

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REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 01/30/2006

At the start of bestseller Grimes's compelling 20th Richard Jury mystery, the Scotland Yard detective is on suspension because he decided to save lives rather than wait for a warrant in his previous outing,The Winds of Change (2004). With time on his hands, Jury is ensnared by the intriguing tale spun by Harry Johnson, a man who, apparently, just happens upon him in a London pub, the Old Wine Shades. Despite himself, Jury is drawn in by Johnson's account of the baffling disappearance of a mother, her autistic son and their dog-and the more baffling reappearance of the pet nine months later. The detective diligently follows every lead to determine the fate of the missing people, even as Johnson's digressions into the paradoxes of quantum physics lead Jury to question the truth of the man's narrative. The scheme Jury ultimately detects is ingeniously clever and sufficiently consistent with the personalities Grimes has created to overcome disbelief. The author's gift at melding suspense, logical twists and wry humor makes this one of the stronger entries in this deservedly popular series.8-city author tour.Mystery Guild main selection. (On sale Feb. 21)

Magic Hour
by Kristin Hannah
Published 2006 by Ballantine Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 0345467523

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Forced to give up her California practice, Julia Cates, fears she will never again do the work that truly makes her happy: healing hearts of troubled young children. But then a young mute girl is found abandoned and scaredin Rain Valley. If Julia's prestigious skills were ever desperately needed, this was the time. She calls the enchanting young girl, Alice. Through their work together, they establish a tender trusting bond. When Dr. Max Cerasin bcomes involved in Alice's case, Julia is drawn to the handsome, talented physician yet wary of his mysterious past. When Alice's hopeful future is threatened, they must fight for the young girl who taught them to tr

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 11/28/2005

Hannah's melodramatic 15th novel (after The Things We Do for Love ) tells the addictive soap opera story of a feral child and the adults who rally to help her. The cast of stock characters is led by child psychiatrist Dr. Julia Cates, whose reputation was ruined when she failed to prevent a teen patient from staging a Columbine-style massacre. Her sister, Ellie Barton, a smalltown former homecoming queen-turned-chief of police, summons Julia from Los Angeles to their Pacific Northwest hometown of Rain Valley to take on the case of a mysterious lost child, who appeared one day on the edge of town, presumably raised by wolves. With the dashing doctor Dr. Max Cerrasin at her side, Julia works diligently to tame the mute girl, whom she names Alice. Max, like Julia, is running from demons of his own. Though she initially rebuffs his overtures ("When I love, I risk my heart. All or nothing," Julia declares), their romance inevitably blossoms while they work to solve the mystery of Alice's parentage. The novel's real love story, though, is the passion between Alice and Julia, and it's hard not to root for the vulnerable little Wolf Girl. (Mar.)