My Absolute Darling is the #1 Indie Next pick for September and, as this review shows, Tallent's writing is a big part of the appeal: "I believe in great American novels, but not  the  Great American Novel. This is a Great American Novel: exquisitely lush language of the natural world; startlingly vivid characters; a global understanding of social context, in a particular place; and, in this case, steel-wire narrative tension stringing through the beautiful prose like piano wire. It is the book this year that I feel every American should read, because of its greatness and also because of its deep wrestling with issues of class, complacency, climate change, culture, and especially gender."  

- John Evans, DIESEL, A Bookstore, Oakland, CA 

 

 

A Legacy of Spies by John le Carre. At age 85, le Carre remains a master o f the spy novel, and he continues to deliver the goods in the latest, which is closely tied to his first book, written 50 years ago - The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. In that novel, a mission undertaken by a British double agent was responsible for the death of three people. Decades later, the children of those deceased have decided to sue British Intelligence and try to collect some money. The only spy they can find to go after is long-retired Peter Guillam,a George Smiley disciple who was a minor figure in the tragic mission. This inventive plot device brings Guillam back to London to review the case and allows le Carre to revisit his original Cold War creation through flashbacks. A Legacy of Spies is great fun for old fans as well as those discovering an old pro for the first time.