SICILIAN HOLIDAY

In the marvelously twisty and absorbing Siracusa (Blue Rider), Delia Ephron tracks two married couples over the short course of an Italian vacation gone bad. The result is a tensely exciting, page-turning novel about betrayal secrecy, and the ways in which partners collude, consciously and unconsciously, as they head straight toward disaster. The many pleasures here include stark coastal scenery, lingering moments in cafes, sexual electricity between the wrong people, searing X-rays not only of marriage but also of friendship, and a spectacularly unnerving child character who will stay with readers even longer than the memory of their favorite Italian meal.

MEG WOLITZER