New & Recommended Hardback Fiction

Ann Patchett’s new novel is so solely its own. Patchett (best-selling author of Bel Canto) has written a moral adventure story whose beauty lies in the description and well, oddity of its setting. In a narrative abound with deadly snakes, harrowing river rides, and malaria-induced nightmares; State of Wonder describes a world where breathtaking beauty stands side by side with wrenching loss. The story begins with Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist working at a pharmaceutical company who is sent to Brazil to track down another elusive doctor who is using research with a tribe in the Amazon to create a valuable new drug. What happens upon Singh’s arrival is a tribute to Ann Patchett’s gift of storytelling. There are images in this book that you will never be able to forget; this is a complex tale of adventure, moral tug-of-wars, and incredible, distinctive beauty. —S.M.C.

Makkai has written a debut novel good enough to put you in a stupor of awe and appreciation. Lucy Hull, a young children’s librarian, finds herself both a kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, 10-year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. Ian is addicted to reading, but needs Lucy’s help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes with celebrity Pastor Bob. Lucy stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds Ian camped out in the library with an escape plan and needing her help to carry it out. What follows is a page-turning adventure with heart and depth, questioning how far we should go to rescue someone from their own story, and when we should step back and hope they can survive it and learn for themselves. This book is beautiful, engaging, funny, and heartbreaking (but in a way that works). —S.M.C.

Our poet of the hyper-distracted age, David Foster Wallace, died way too young, but he left the world with the brilliant beginnings of a final novel, The Pale King. First excerpted in the New Yorker, this is a story about a man with perhaps the least interesting job known to humanity—an IRS tax-return agent—who struggles to live in bliss and contentment within the dark void of excruciating boredom. —V.L.