The Narrow Road to the Deep North

The Winner That Will Make You Weep

Part love story and part survival story, this novel, about an Australian doctor who endured Japanese POW camps but remained haunted by his affair with his uncle's wife, is the kind of sweeping epic classic we all long for. This year it won the England's Man Booker Prize and instantly swept on the best-sellers lists. Our advice: After page 70, be prepared to cancel the rest of your life—there is no stopping 'til the end.