Warren Spooner's life does not begin auspiciously, and his childhood (marked by some rather disgusting behavior) continues in the same vein. With a mother who will never be satisfied (by anyone) and surrounded by step-siblings who outperform him in pretty much every arena except baseball (his brief success there is brought to an end by an injury), Spooner is saved from an almost entirely dysfunctional life by his relationship with his stepfather, a decent man who's had some rotten luck. Though a bit rambling and somewhat plotless, Spooner's story (said to resemble the author's own) is also "calamitously funny and riotously tragic" (Publishers Weekly).

Young, brilliant, pretty history professor Patsy MacLemoore wakes up in jail--not for the first time--after an alcoholic blackout, remembering nothing of the evening before. But this time it turns out that she has hit and killed a mother and daughter, and is sent to prison. Wracked with guilt and determined to atone, this formerly free spirit returns to the outside world a completely different person and spends decades trying to make things right before learning something that changes her perspective on life once more. If you enjoy contemplating complicated moral issues--or authors such as Anne Tyler or Gail Godwin--you won't want to miss this insightful exploration of grief and guilt.

A year after her older sister Helene's death, 13-year-old Mathilda Savitch is still trying to make sense of it while also navigating through adolescence and around her stricken, withdrawn parents. She's also broken into her sister's email account in an attempt to find whoever pushed Helene in front of the train that killed her. But precocious though she is, she's also very young, and she isn't getting the attention and support she needs. Described by several reviewers as a modern-day Holden Caulfield (with, as Kirkus Reviews points out, "the ethereal sadness of Susie Salmon in The Lovely Bones"), Mathilda is a difficult but sympathetic character, and her story is a "stunning portrait of grief and youthful imagination" (Publishers Weekly).

Making it onto bestseller lists only a short while after its publication date, A Gate at the Stairs is author Lorrie Moore's first novel in 15 years. It puts us inside the head of 20-year-old college student Tassie Keltjin, a sweetly naive Midwestern farmer's daughter who spends a year as a nanny to a biracial girl adopted by two white parents. That year is a turning point in her life, one that coincides with the tragedies of September 11th. Facing first love, racism, and some heart-breaking revelations, Tassie is observant, intelligent, and an excellent guide through her own coming of age.

This debut novel features a loner of an Irish boy named John Devine, who grows up obsessed with the bizarre and plagued by terrible dreams. He's 16 when impossibly cool Jamey Corboy moves to town and introduces him to all manner of debauched behavior, but his friendship with Jamey is unbalanced by his mother's illness and problems with a domineering neighbor. Ripe with drama, this melancholy coming-of-age tale offers tantalizing descriptions of small-town Ireland and will appeal to readers who enjoy stories that tend toward the gothic.

Raised by Catholic nuns in the small Irish town of Rathmoye, Ellie Dillahan settles into a quiet, satisfactory life as a farmer's wife...until Florian Kilderry rides into town and the guileless young woman falls in love for the first time. Switching points of view throughout his story, author William Trevor allows readers to relate to all the many characters that populate 1950s Rathmoye, and to understand the relationship that forms between Ellie and Florian. Love and Summer is Trevor's fifth novel to be nominated for the Booker Prize; The New York Times calls it a "work of art."

In the wake of a terrible argument, liberal, urban doctor Katie Carr's famously bitter husband David (he writes a column called "The Angriest Man in Holloway" for their local paper) undergoes a spiritual transformation and returns home a changed man. All of a sudden, this angry man is finding homes for homeless kids (including in their own spare bedroom) and asking his kids to befriend the outcasts at school. To tell the truth, he's taking his quest to "be good" a little too far, in Katie's opinion (perhaps a little biased as she's always been the "good" one in the relationship). If you've ever wondered what it really means to "be good," you'll want to pick up this observant, witty, and insightful novel by the bestselling author of High Fidelity and About a Boy.

Sixteen years old in 1987, Bobby Clark is expelled from his Canadian high school thanks to his sticky fingers. But he's soon off to Texas to live with his older brother Jim, a salesman of high-end jewelry, who indoctrinates him into both his industry (a shady, sleazy business where not everything that glitters is really gold) and his equally corrupt way of life outside of work. Lying to customers, cheating their bosses, and getting high on coke and meth are all in a day's work, but it's not too long before real trouble looms. The author's experience in the jewelry trade is plainly evident in this bleak, gritty tale.

A year after his wife's death in a plane crash, 29-year-old Doug Parker is still grieving heavily, fueled by anti-depressants and Jack Daniels and refusing to engage in life. While his bossy twin sister (who has marital problems of her own) wants him to start dating again and his 16-year-old stepson alternates between hostility and sullenness--and wants Doug to adopt him--Doug just can't be bothered to deal with anything. But eventually, and with as much humor as pathos, Doug returns to the land of the living because, as he says, "Pity is like a fart. You can tolerate your own, but you simply can't stand anyone else's."

Thirty-eight-year-old Julie Jenson is fed up with New York City's dating scene and depressed by the romantic failures of her friends. So she does what any self-respecting publicist in the book business would do--she takes a leave of absence from her job to write a book. Not just any book, however--Julie's going to travel the world to learn how women from other cultures cope with being single. Meanwhile, her four single friends back home are dealing with their own dating disasters and getting to know each other in the process. Written by a former Sex & the City story editor and the co-author of the bestselling He's Just Not That Into You, this refreshing, funny novel may have daters rolling their eyes in solidarity.

From the outside, the Winters live a seemingly charmed life--beautiful, rich, with three perfect daughters--until five-year-old Ellie mysteriously vanishes, and the troubles that plague them (alcoholism, self-obsession) are suddenly magnified. The family eventually falls apart, and even the two remaining sisters, once close, have grown apart. So when Ellie's older sister Caroline discovers a photo in People magazine that she is convinced is of a 20-year-old Ellie, she is determined to salvage what's left of her family. The Charlotte Observer calls this "one of those sink-your-teeth-into-it novels that remind you why you love to read"; try it to see if hope can triumph over loss.