This Week's Acquisitions
- Emma Leslie, Daybreak in Italy (S. W. Partridge, 1870). Historical novel about the Reformation in Italy.
- Mrs. Alexander S. Orr, Uline's Escape; Or, Hid with the Nuns (S. W. Partridge, [1877]). Historical novel about the Reformation in Switzerland.
- Amelia E. Barr, The Lion's Whelp: A Story of Cromwell's Time (William Briggs, 1901). Historical novel set during the English Civil War and Interregnum. Like Frances Trollope, Amelia Barr (1831-1919) began writing professionally rather late in life; see a brief biography here.
- Paul Auster, The Book of Illusions (Picador, 2003). Despairing professor finds new lease on life via silent-film comedian.
- Christine Balint, The Salt Letters: A Novel (Norton, 2001). In 1854, a woman travels from England to Australia.
- Ronan Bennett, The Catastrophist (Simon & Schuster, 2000). In 1959, an Irishman navigates through the thorny paths of politics in the Congo.
- J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace (Penguin, 2000). A professor seeking escape on his daughter's farm finds something very different.
- James Lasdun, Seven Lies (Norton, 2005). Man escapes from East Germany, or thinks he does.
- ---, The Horned Man: A Novel (Norton, 2003). Gender studies professor wonders about a number of horrific murders...
- Richard Powers, Plowing the Dark: A Novel (Picador, 2001). Virtual realities in the 70s and 80s, plus a hostage in Beirut.
- Carol Shields, Swann (Penguin, 1990). The difficulties of writing a literary biography when all evidence of the subject keeps disappearing.