25 Books You Can't Put Down

One D.O.A., One on the Way by Mary Robison

176 pages; Counterpoint

Eve is a movie location scout in post-Katrina New Orleans. The city is in ruins, and so is her marriage to the invalid Adam, whose alcoholic twin brother and his unbalanced wife mirror the chaos, desperation, violence, and inchoate need of this blighted paradise. A lighthearted summer romance? Hardly. But Mary Robison's telegraphic sentences and blunt-cut dialogue make her latest novel, One D.O.A., One on the Way (Counterpoint), a riveting read.