The Turmoil
by Booth Tarkington | 
The Eyes of the World
by Harold Bell Wright | 
Samedi the Deafness
by Jesse Ball | 
The Half-life of Happiness
by John Casey | 
Wolf In White Van
by John Darnielle | 
The Subject Steve
by Sam Lipsyte | 
Trumpet
by Jackie Kay | 
Ordinary Love and Good Will
by Jane Smiley | 
Lost in the Forest
by Sue Miller | 
The Pursuit of Alice Thrift
by Elinor Lipman | 
The Invisible Circus
by Jennifer Egan | 
An Inconvenient Woman
by Dominick Dunne | 
The Wilder Sisters
by Jo-Ann Mapson | 
Walking on Water
by Richard Paul Evans | 
Marazan
by Nevil Shute | 
Take Me With You
by Catherine Ryan Hyde | 
Empire Falls
by Richard Russo | 
Anne of Windy Poplars
by Lucy Maud Montgomery | 
The Sense of an Ending
by Julian Barnes | 
Out Stealing Horses
by Per Petterson |
In 1965, on a small island in the South Pacific, a group of astronomers gather to witness the passing of a comet, but when a young boy dies during a meteor shower, the lives of the scientists and their loved ones change in subtle yet profound ways. Denise struggles for respect in her professional life, married Eli becomes increasingly attracted to Denise and her quixotic mind, and young Lydia attempts to escape the scientists' long-casting shadows. Andrew Sean Greer's remarkable and sweeping first novel is an exploration of chances taken and lost, of love found and broken, and of time's subtle gravitational pull on the lives of everyday and extraordinary people.