Hot Type

AV.F. pick of the early fall books

A family is shattered by a crime of passion in Rosellen Brown's lyrical thriller, Before and After (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Christopher Benfey reassesses a writer's extravagant career in The Double Life of Stephen Crane (Knopf). A writer is faced with examining the life of the best friend he never really knew in Leviathan (Viking), the new novel from Pool Auster. The deadly pretensions of Joachim von Ribbentrop come to life in Hitler's Diplomat (Ticknor & Fields), by John Weitz. The regulars at a magical eatery tell their remarkable tales in Bailey's Cafe (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich), by Gloria Naylor. Sculptor Matthew Spender reflects on the Italian legacy and spirit in Within Tuscany (Viking). Suicide Blonde (Atlantic Monthly Press), by Darcey Steinke, takes a provocative tour through the dark side. Lawrence Norfolk'sLempriere's Dictionary (Harmony) is a classical dissection of eighteenth-century intrigues at the East India Company. Gay Paris and the British upper crust collide in actor Rupert Everett's hilariously razor-edged first novel, Hello Darling, Are You Working? (Morrow). A futuristic Alaska and an "environmental bandit" feature in Ken Kesey's latest romp, Sailor Song (Viking). Rudolfo Anaya confronts the challenges facing Chicano culture in his new novel, Alburquerque (University of New Mexico Press). A tycoon ponders the loss of past glories in Gregor von Rezzori's novel The Orient Express (Knopf). A young female Manhattanite launches on a blackly humorous odyssey in Tama Janowitz's novel The Male Cross-Dresser Support Group (Crown). Pawl West portrays a young love set against W.W. I England in Love's Mansion (Random House).