Coveting: Norton Fall 2010

Although I missed out on getting a galley of the new Nicole Krauss novel, Great House, at both BEA and ALA, the good folks at Norton were kind enough to send me a copy. With it, I also received their beautiful, glossy, Fall 2010-Winter 2011 catalog. I couldn't resist highlighting a few of their other titles I am now eagerly anticipating this fall.

All Is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost is the newest novel by Lan Samantha Chang, who is the director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. It seems her experience there ties into the novel too: "At the renowned writing school in Bonneville, every student is simultaneously terrified of and attracted to the charismatic and mysterious poet and professor Miranda Sturgis, whose high standards for art are both intimidating and inspiring. As two students, Roman and Bernard, strive to win her admiration, the lines between mentorship, friendship, and love are blurred." It will be published in September.

Trespass is the newest novel by Orange Prize winner Rose Tremain. Here's the blurb from the catalog: "In a silent valley in southern France stands an isolated stone farmhouse, the Mas Lunel. Aramon, the owner, is so haunted by his violent past that he's become incapable of all meaningful action, letting, his hunting dogs starve and his land go to ruin. Meanwhile, his sister Audrun, alone in her modern bungalow within sight of the Mas Lunel, dreams of exacting retribution for the unspoken betrayals that have blighted her life. Into this closed world comes Anthony Verey, a wealthy but disillusioned antiques dealer from London. When he sets his sights on the Mas, a frightening and unstoppable series of consequences is set in motion." It will be published in October.

I'm not familiar with the work of Panos Karnezia, but one of his novels was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award. Here's a bit about Convent: "The crumbling convent of Our Lady of Mercy stands alone in an uninhabited part of the Spanish sierra, hidden on a hill among dense forest. Its inhabitants are devoted to God, to solitude and silence--six women cut off from a world they've chosen to leave behind. This all changes on the day that Mother Superior Maria Ines discovers a suitcase punctured with airholes at the entrance to the retreat: a baby, abandoned to its fate." The London Sunday Times is already raving: "In this beautifully told novel, 'we witness justice and injustice, theological controversy, the politics of a tiny enclosed society, despair, cruelty, generosity, scandal, suspicion and suicide, all told with immense verve and skill." It will be published in November.

Don't these novels look wonderful? Which one sounds the most intriguing to you?


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