Review

Charles Baxter, The Soul Thief, a novel: A graduate student is drawn into a tangle of relationships that cause him to question his own identity, in Baxter’s compelling new novel. (Pantheon)

Sherman Alexie, Flight, a novel: A troubled teenager is shot back in time, resurfacing as an FBI agent during the civil rights era and an Indian child during the battle of Little Big Horn. Alexie’s first novel in ten years is an irrepressible, groundbreaking romp. (Grove)

Amy Bloom, Away, a novel: Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic story of young Lillian Leyb, who comes to American alone after her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom. (Random House)

Frank Bidart, Watching the Spring Festival, poems: In these darkly radiant poems, mortality forces the self to question the relation between the life actually lived and what was once the promise of transformation. (FSG)

Jane Hirshfield, After, poems: A luminous investigation into incarnation, transience, and our intimate connection with all existence. (HarperCollins)

Ron Carlson, Five Skies, a novel: In Carlson’s first novel in thirty years, three men gather high in the Rocky Mountains for a construction project and end up revealing themselves in cautiously resonant, profound ways. A voice of striking intimacy and grace. (Viking)

Ron Carlson, Five Skies, a novel: A tour de force of grief, atonement, and the cost of loyalty, Carlson’s first novel in twenty-five years brings together two stoics and a teenage misanthrope in Idaho’s Rocky Mountains to build a ramp to nowhere. (Viking)

Mark Doty, Fire to Fire, new and selected poems: In this collection of the best from Doty’s seven books, alongside a generous selection of new work, Doty’s subjects echo and develop, his signature style encompassing both the plainspoken and the artfully wrought. (Harper)

Alice Hoffman, Skylight Confessions, a novel: An elegant new novel charting the history of one family whose lives are forever changed by the loss of their mother. (Little, Brown)