The Lotus Eaters
By Tatjana Soli
400 pages; St. Martin's
In this novel of war, an American photographer and her Vietnamese friend come to terms with their romantic past as Saigon falls.
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The First Thing and the Last
By Allan G. Johnson
408 pages; Plain View
A fictional tale of a wife who finally kills the man who abused her, and of the woman who helps her deal.

The House of Tomorrow
By Peter Bognanni
354 pages; Amy Einhorn
A young man lives with his grandmother in a geodesic dome in Iowa. No surprise: He's a total oddball. Yes, surprise: His life makes for a sweet novel.

Backing into Forward
By Jules Feiffer
464 pages; Nan A. Talese/Doubleday
The loopy, octogenarian cartoonist tells his own story, this time in words. Well, mostly.

The Solitude of Prime Numbers
By Paolo Giordano
288 pages; Pamela Dorman/Viking
Two misfits meet and miraculously connect in this debut novel, a prizewinning best-seller in the author's native Italy.
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