Books as holiday gifts: the fiction department

FICTION

Americanah

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Knopf, $26.95

While carving her path as a writer in the U.S., an outspoken Nigerian immigrant grapples with culture clash and long-distance love.

At Night We Walk in Circles

Daniel Alarcón
Riverhead, $27.95

In an unnamed Latin American country, an idealistic young actor joins a radical theater troupe for a touring production of an incendiary political play.

The Luminaries

Eleanor Catton
Little, Brown, $27

Twelve townsmen gather in secret to unravel a series of strange events involving a missing notable, a suicidal prostitute and a dead drunk in this Man Booker Prize winner.

Duplex

Kathryn Davis
Graywolf Press, $24

A young couple meet and come of age in a seemingly ordinary suburb inhabited by sorcerers, robots, aquanauts and other fantastical beings.

The Circle

Dave Eggers
McSweeneys/Knopf, $27.95

A 24-year-old woman gets a dream job with a popular Internet company that collects and parses individuals’ data and may have more troubling ambitions.

Bridget Jones
Mad About the Boy

Helen Fielding
Knopf, $26.95

Now 50, widowed and raising two children, Fielding’s titular heroine finds herself battling insecurity and looking for love in the digital age.

Havisham

Ronald Frame
Picador, $26

This prequel imagines the origin of Miss Havisham, the jilted, embittered bride of Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations.”

Local Souls

Allan Gurganus
Liveright, $25.95

A trio of linked novellas set in Falls, N.C., about the familial dramas of a teenage girl, a begrudging mother and a local doctor.

The Residue Years

Mitchell Jackson
Bloomsbury, $26

Fresh out of rehab, a mother in Portland, Ore., tries to stay straight while her eldest son begins selling crack to support his family.

Dissident Gardens

Jonathan Lethem
Doubleday, $27.95

This multigenerational saga tells the story of a fractured family of American leftists, from the Communist Party of the 1930s to the Occupy movement.

Who Asked You?

Terry McMillan
Viking, $ 27.95

Already in dire straits, a middle-aged Los Angeles woman finds herself raising her wayward daughter’s two sons.

A Tale for the Time Being

Ruth Ozeki
Viking, $28.95

A transplanted American novelist in British Columbia puzzles over how and why a Japanese schoolgirl’s diary washed up on her shore.

Half the Kingdom

Lore Segal
Melville House, $23.95

In this black comedy, the retired director of an apocalyptic think tank is drawn into the case of a mysterious Alzheimer’s epidemic.

The Woman Who Lost her Soul

Bob Shacochis
Atlantic Monthly, $28

After serving on the Haitian truth commission, a humanitarian lawyer is tapped to investigate the murder of a troubled woman from his past.

The Rosie Project

Graeme Simsion
Simon & Schuster, $24

Unlucky in love and unaware he has Asperger’s syndrome, a genetics professor develops a scientific survey to find a suitable mate.

Death of the Black-Haired Girl

Robert Stone
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25

The sudden death of a beautiful, brilliant student romantically entangled with her married professor reverberates through an elite Connecticut college.

The Valley of Amazement

Amy Tan
Ecco, $29.99

A courtesan in Shanghai, born to an American madam, grapples with family secrets, broken promises and her own identity.

The Goldfinch

Donna Tartt
Little, Brown, $30

When a boy’s mother is killed in an explosion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, his life becomes inextricably linked to a Dutch painting.

The Interestings

Meg Wolitzer
Riverhead, $27.95

The lives of a group of friends who met as teens at a summer art camp in 1974 crisscross, diverge and reconnect over the years.

MYSTERY/THRILLER

The Gods of Guilt

Michael Connelly
Little, Brown, $28

Defense attorney Mickey Haller investigates the murder of a former client, a prostitute he thought he’d rescued from the streets.

Binary / Scratch One / Easy Go / Grave Descend / Odds On / The Venom Business / Zero Cool / Drug of Choice

Michael Crichton as John Lange
Hard Case Crime, $9.95 paper each

A series of eight suspense novels written by Crichton under a pen name while studying at Harvard Medical School between 1966 and 1972.

The October List

Jeffrey Deaver
Grand Central, $26

An office manager must fork over a mysterious document to get back her kidnapped daughter in this tale told in reverse chronological order.

Sycamore Row

John Grisham
Doubleday, $28.95

Mississippi attorney Jake Brigance takes on the case of a wealthy white man who changed his will before hanging himself, leaving millions of dollars to his black caretaker.

The Case of the Love Commandos
From the Files of Vish Puri, India’s Most Private Investigator

Tarquin Hall
Simon & Schuster, $24.99

The private investigator Vish Puri seeks to help a Delhi couple whose marriage plans are stymied by India’s rigid caste system.

Death of a Nightingale

Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis, translated by Elisabeth Dyssegaard
Soho Crime, $26.95

In her third outing, the Danish Red Cross nurse Nina Borg seeks to help an escaped Ukrainian woman accused of murdering her abusive fiancé.

Doctor Sleep

Stephen King
Scribner, $30

Having survived the events of “The Shining” 36 years ago, hospice worker Danny Torrance must protect a young girl with psychic powers like his own.

Bitter River

Julia Keller
Minotaur, $25.99

West Virginia prosecutor Bell Elkins probes the murder of a popular high school student, which is only the beginning of a wave of bloodshed.

Little Green
An Easy Rawlins Mystery

Walter Mosley
Doubleday, $25.95

After surviving a near-fatal car crash, private detective Easy Rawlins is tasked with finding a teenager who disappeared on the Sunset Strip.

Game
A Thriller

Anders de la Motte, translated by Neil Smith
Atria/Emily Bestler, $16 paper

Finding a cellphone on a train, a slacker is invited to play a game that begins with harmless pranks and escalates to criminal activity.

Critical Mass

Sara Paretsky
Putnam, $26.95

Private investigator V.I. Warshawski’s search for a drug-addicted woman embroils her in a web of secrets anchored by the race to build the atomic bomb.

The Double

George Pelecanos
Little, Brown, $26

Investigator and Iraq war veteran Spero Lucas works a murder case and also endeavors to recover a stolen painting.

Tatiana
An Arkady Renko Novel

Martin Cruz Smith
Simon & Schuster, $25.99

Moscow detective Arkady Renko delves into the apparent suicide of a fearless journalist and a possible link to the Russian mafia.

Identical

Scott Turow
Grand Central, $28

A state senator’s bid to become mayor is threatened by a decades-old tragedy involving his identical twin brother.

Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives
Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense

Edited by Sarah Weinman
Penguin, $16 paper

A collection of 14 tales by women writers who developed the domestic-suspense genre, from the 1940s to the mid-’70s.

SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY

MaddAddam

Margaret Atwood
Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, $27.95

In this final volume in a trilogy, a small group of survivors of a man-made plague navigate a post-apocalyptic world.

The Creeps
A Samuel Johnson Tale

John Connolly
Emily Bestler/Atria, $22

In the English town of Biddlecombe, a young boy gathers a ragtag band of dwarfs, policemen and monsters to save the world from evil.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Neil Gaiman
William Morrow, $25.99

A bookish 7-year-old English boy goes on an otherworldly adventure when he discovers a neighbor’s supernatural secret.

Parasite

Mira Grant
Orbit, $20

In 2027, bioengineered tapeworms protect people from illness and injury, but they may not be as benign as they appear.

The Cusanus Game

Wolfgang Jeschke, translated by Ross Benjamin
Tor, $25.99

In a future where large swaths of Europe have been irradiated by nuclear disaster, a botanist is sent back in time to help save mankind.

Dying Is my Business

Nicholas Kaufmann
St. Martin’s Griffin, $15.99

An amnesiac who repeatedly returns from the dead is sent to recover a mysterious box and gets caught up in an ancient supernatural war.

The Republic of Thieves

Scott Lynch
Del Rey, $28

Slowly succumbing to a deadly poison, the con artist Locke Lamora has a chance to save himself by rigging an election for a group of sorcerers.

Dangerous Women

Edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
Tor, $32.50

A collection of 21 original stories about dangerous women — both heroines and villains — by such authors as Diana Gabaldon, Megan Abbott and Jim Butcher.

The Returned

Jason Mott
Harlequin MIRA, $24.95

An elderly couple, their Southern town and the world at large are confounded when people who have died inexplicably reappear alive and well.

Shaman
A Novel of the Ice Age

Kim Stanley Robinson
Orbit, $27

This prehistoric bildungsroman follows a shaman’s apprentice as he grows into manhood and falls for a girl from another pack.

The Bone Season
A Novel

Samantha Shannon
Bloomsbury, $24

In the year 2059, a clairvoyant working for a crime syndicate in London is captured and trained as a weapon by extra-dimensional beings.