FICTION LOOKING BACK

In Homer & Langley (Random House, $26) E. L. Doctorow uses the true story of Manhattan’s eccentric Collyer brothers and re-imagines it to take the reader on a tour of 20th-century America. From World War I through the Summer of Love, Doctorow brilliantly and poignantly writes in the voice of Homer, the blind younger brother, discussing the changes in the larger world while he and Langley continue to erode inside their smaller one, searching for love and companionship in a society they understand less and less with each passing year. Bill Leggett

In her debut novel The Calligrapher’s Daughter (Holt, $26), Eugenia Kim focuses on the story of Korean resistance to the indignities of the Japanese occupation of their country from 1905 to 1945. Her characters navigate early 20th-century Korean history as the society changed from a static and highly structured culture to one of increasing modernity. Najin, based on Kim’s mother, is a young woman who wants to be recognized for her own contributions rather than merely facilitating the achievements of her father, husband, and brother. Najin’s story is unique, but it is also a common story of women who want to choose their own lives. Najin and the rest of her family, her mother, father, and brother, emerge from the pages of Kim’s book as people you might know. Kim joins the ranks of other excellent Korean-American authors, among them, Chang Rae Lee (Native Speaker) and Min Jin Lee (Free Food for Millionaires). Carla Cohen

The Lacuna (HarperCollins, $26.99) is an engrossing historical fiction, told as the journals of Harrison Shepherd, a fictional author who reflects on the crowds, caprices, and injustices of 20th-century North America. This is the first novel in nine years by Barbara Kingsolver, and it boasts her courageous—but always literary—concern for injustice and cultural difference. Born into a confused heritage—his father absent, his mother Mexican—Harrison’s experience encapsulates that of both countries: through his eyes we witness the Bonus Army riots, the murals of Diego Rivera, Trotsky’s assassination, World War II metal drives, and the McCarthy trials. Lively renderings of Frida Kahlo, Trotsky, and even Richard Nixon combine with documentary support from Times articles (authentic and fabricated) and a heartbreaking concern for the fate of truth in the infancy of the media age to create the rare sort of novel that is both totally absorbing in its fiction and yet profoundly engages the reader with the world of fact beyond its pages. Lila Stiff