'The Sad Passions' paints haunting tale of loss and art

Veronica Gonzalez Peña follows the lives of a middle-class Mexican family that has been shaped by absence, loss, sickness and dead dreams.

Colum McCann on 'journeys by heroes'

The author of 'TransAtlantic,' which explores missions by Frederick Douglass, George Mitchell and two pioneering fliers, talks about his inspiration.

Khaled Hosseini sets 'And the Mountains Echoed' against Afghan history

A father's decision to give his 3-year-old daughter to a wealthy family in Kabul begins an almost 60-year Afghan history lesson as recounted by the characters in Khaled Hosseini's newest novel.

J.R.R. Tolkien's 'Fall of Arthur' and the path to Middle-Earth

The long unfinished poem edited by J.R.R. Tolkien's son, Christopher, provides fascinating insight into the author's work.

Mo Hayder's 'Poppet' takes nuanced, compelling look at evil

Detective Inspector Jack Caffery and Sgt. Flea Marley investigate strange occurrences at a psychiatric hospital and the disappearance of a footballer's wife.

John le Carre's 'A Delicate Truth' isn't gentle with war on terror

The novelist takes on the idea that sins committed in pursuing national goals will be forgiven and forgotten.

Revisiting Federico Garcia Lorca in a novel -- and in the writer's own voice

Carlos Rojas' inventive novel 'Ingenious Gentleman' and a new edition of the poet-playwright's 'Poet in New York' bring the writer back to life.

Michelle Tea turns a radical eye on YA in 'Mermaid in Chelsea Creek'

The writer and co-founder of Sister Spit talks about trading memoirs for a young adult fantasy trilogy.

Walter Mosley revisits Easy Rawlins' neighborhood

The seemingly dead detective is back in 'Little Green.' In an interview, Mosley discusses his legendary character as he wanders his old Mid-City neighborhood -- also Rawlins' home turf.

'The Mothers' follows one couple's attempt to adopt

Jennifer Gilmore's novel traces the ups and downs of one hopeful, frustrated pair.

A teen's quest for self-discovery in 'Maya's Notebook'

In Isabel Allende's latest novel, a troubled young Chilean-American woman flees for her life.

A Hollywood of the mind

The Writer's Life: Matthew Specktor drives past the boyhood landmarks he repurposed in his L.A.-set novel 'American Dream Machine.' Reality and fiction commingle.

Judy Juanita and her 'Virgin Soul'

The former radical's experiences during the 1960s in San Francisco inform her new novel. She talks hippies, Black Panthers and revolution.

'The Walking' continues the journey of Iranian immigrants

Laleh Khadivi's second novel featuring a Kurdish man who seeks refuge in L.A. covers key points in Iranian American history and is an important addition to the literature of California immigrants.

A book editor unleashes the beast within in Arnon Grunberg's 'Tirza'

Years of quiet sacrifice boil dry as a father in his late 50s fears he's losing everying, including his beloved daughter.

Kate Atkinson's 'Life After Life' is a clever creation

The Whitbread-winning author gets to tell one story after another in conjuring up a woman who lives and dies repeatedly, and it's a remarkable conceit.

'A Map of Tulsa' is rich terrain for Benjamin Lytal

The writer's debut novel is a memorable coming-of-age tale about hometown ambivalence and finding a place in the world.

'The Burgess Boys' lack compelling main characters

Elizabeth Strout's follow-up to the Pulitzer-winning 'Olive Kitteridge' is weakest where that was strong, although her gift for sketching rich profiles economically is evident in peripheral figures.

'Follow Her Home' to Marlowe territory

Steph Cha's debut novel begins as an homage to the famous gumshoe and Raymond Chandler before ending up exploring vastly different mean streets of L.A.

Inside 'The Magic Circle,' a fictional game blurs reality and ritual

Playing is both a central activity and a philosophical subject of Jenny Davidson's new novel centered on three intellectually accomplished women.

Fiction Shelf

Reviewed: 'Innocence' by Louis B. Jones; 'The Dinner' by Herman Koch; 'Life Form' by Amelie Nothomb

Joyce Carol Oates is at her gothic best in 'The Accursed'

The novelist haunts Princeton and gives otherworldly forces a palpable reality.

William H. Gass returns with music and lies in 'Middle C'

Gass' long-awaited new novel features an academic obsessed with history — because his own is a fabrication.

Ruth Ozeki's 'A Tale for the Time Being' is a diary, a puzzle, a novel

The author's novel takes a Zen approach, weaving together a Japanese girl's diary and the story of a novelist who finds it.

Moral quandaries, lost love and fairy tales mix it up in Jodi Picoult's 'The Storyteller'

A chance encounter leads a woman to discoveries about her family's fate in a Nazi camp. Readers tease out the moral quandaries that arise.

Love and heroics in the time of dystopia

"Reqiuem," the final novel in Lauren Oliver's "Delirium" trilogy, ends with plenty of heroics but not enough feeling.

Marisa Silver's 'Mary Coin' imagines 'Migrant Mother's' life

Dorothea Lange's defining photograph of the Great Depression has inspired the author's fifth work of fiction.

Small town, magic snake in Stephen Dobyns' 'The Burn Palace'

What starts off as a paranormal thriller turns into a dissection of small-town life when violence rears its head.

Rebecca Miller keeps her eye on the fly

An 18th century Frenchman's reincarnation into a modern-day New York insect might be a disastrous leap for a less gifted writer, but the new novel "Jacob's Folly" takes wing.

Eloise Klein Healy paints Los Angeles in poems

The city's poet laureate transmits the sights and sounds of the city in 'A Wild Surmise'

Ben Katchor's askew urban landscape in 'Hand-Drying in America'

Comics artist Ben Katchor's fascinating book is a bittersweet atlas of an imaginary city and a faded world.