From Moscow and Paris to Cape Cod and Providence, readers are transported into a literary world rich in magic, intrigue, humor and pathos—and Stalin.

Set in Crimea, this books relates a story that is simple on its surface but deeply scrutinizes ethical judgments, even though the events transpire in only one day.

Chava is a golem, alone in the world after the man for whom she was created died on the journey to America. Ahmad is a

A Replacement Life: A Novel by Boris Fishman. (Harper, 336 pp. $25.99)   Few authors generate the hosannas that greeted Boris Fishman for his debut novel, A

Between Friends By Amos Oz. Translated by Sondra Silverston. (Mariner Books, 179 pp. $14.95 paper) The New York Times reported recently on a trend in literary fiction:

German sociologist and theoretician Theodor Adorno believed that “to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.” Brenda Webster, whose previous novels and translations give witness to both her narrative…

Love and Treasure: A Novel by Ayelet Waldman. (Knopf, 334 pp. $26.95) Salzberg, 1945. Salzberg, 1945. In the aftermath of World War II, American G.I.

The Museum of Extraordinary Things: A Novel by Alice Hoffman. (Scribner, 368 pp. $27.99) Two horrific disasters—the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of March 1911 that