2666 by Bolano, Roberto, Wimmer, Natasha Here is an edgy baggy monster of a novel from the author of The Savage Detectives. And if that seems like a contradiction, welcome to Bolano’s universe. Few other writers are so steeped in the romance of the literary life , putting writers and writing at the very center of their plots, while marrying the literary to criminality, gangsterism, and general street-seediness-—a fusion that Bolano himself lived. Few American authors would have the courage to depict the writer’s life as driven by such corrosive passion, beyond good and evil, but this theme runs throughout Bolano’s work. The book, on his instructions, has been released in two formats: an 898-page hardcover, and a boxed 3-volume set of paperbacks. It’s not beyond possibility that each format will result in a slightly different experience of the work--or that Bolano would have foreseen just that.

The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 by Krugman, Paul Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman’s prescient analysis was first published in 1999. Alerted then by early-warning signs in the form of economic crises that affected Latin America and Asia, Krugman predicted that conditions were ripe for a return of Great-Depression-era economic disaster. Though subsequent prosperity, and the booming economy at home, blunted the force of his book at the time, Krugman’s assessment has become all too accurate. This re-issue has been thoroughly updated to include extensive background on the current financial crisis, as well as some paths toward a solution. Certainly one of the most lucid and informative guides to the current economic meltdown.

The Boat by Le, Nam A stunningly inventive, deeply moving fiction debut: stories that take us from the slums of Colombia to the streets of Tehran; from New York City to Iowa City; from a tiny fishing village in Australia to a foundering vessel in the South China Sea, in a masterly display of literary virtuosity and feeling. In the magnificent opening story, "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice," a young writer is urged by his friends to mine his father's experiences in Vietnam--and what seems at first a satire of turning one's life into literary commerce becomes a transcendent exploration of homeland, and the ties between father and son. "Cartagena" provides a visceral glimpse of life in Colombia as it enters the mind of a fourteen-year-old hit man facing the ultimate test. In "Meeting Elise," an aging New York painter mourns his body's decline as he prepares to meet his daughter on the eve of her Carnegie Hall debut. And with graceful symmetry, the final, title story returns to Vietnam, to a fishing trawler crowded with refugees, where a young woman's bond with a mother and her small son forces both women to a shattering decision. Brilliant, daring, and demonstrating a jaw-dropping versatility of voice and point of view, "The Boat" is an extraordinary work of fiction that takes us to the heart of what it means to be human, and announces a writer of astonishing gifts.