Jonathan's Picks

This truly stunning literary dance puts a human face on the mind-bogglingly weird dystopia that is contemporary North Korea. It follows a young man's Dickensian adventures through covert military ops, star-crossed love, state intrigue, and with the Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il himself. Masterpiece.

This devilishly inventive and quite disturbing "what if?" novel places an average family man into a world where language has become poisonous. It brings to mind Jose Saramago's "Blindness" and Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" but with a more satirical, absurdist edge a la "Catch-22".

Thompson's long-awaited third graphic novel is a stunning achievement: a heartrending epic of the triumph of love over suffering in a mythical Middle East. His brush and ink work wonders as lyrical and moving as any prose by Marquez, Saramago, or Rushdie.

Gibson has perfected his own genre: cutting edge technology and social trends, downbeat, paranoid atmosphere, complex intrigue, and dryly humorous satire layered together with minimalist precision.

A first rate novel of Southern adolescence painted in shades of deep purple and blood red-- a weeping willow with razors for leaves. Graham Greene's Brighton Rock collides with To Kill A Mockingbird in spectacular fashion!

Fans of the literary fantastic take note! This wondrous novel takes the bare bones of Shakespeare's Tempest and brilliantly spins them into a retro-futuristic, romantic tragedy crafted in beautifully poetic language. It's as if Salman Rushdie had novelized Terry Gilliam's movie, Brazil.

A stellar story collection featuring psychic helmets, bizarre art, confusing emotions, narrative hijinks, dumb aliens, possible apocalypse, pain, sadness, hilarity, and love. Fans of the stories of George Saunders, Haruki Murakami, Steven Millhauser, or Jim Shephard shouldn't be disappointed.

Fantastic collection of literary futurism! A wild ride through strange and entertaining "what if" scenarios guided by great writers like Yann Martel, Douglas Coupland, William Gibson, Sheila Heti and Pasha Malla. Freaky, fun, and thought provoking...

Wow. This deserves praise just for being unique. One of those books that will live or die for the reader depending on how interesting you find the central conceit of the story: a city where every square inch of real estate is divided up into two separate, yet intermingled, nations. It's hard to explain, but just imagine two countries, somewhat hostile to each other, sharing the same space, yet forbidden to interact, or even acknowledge each other's existence in any way, lest they bring the wrath of the mysterious enforcers of this strange system: Breach. It's a brilliant set-up for a neo-noir police/murder mystery. Reminded me of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union (another high concept detective story). It also bears traces of Kafka's paranoid existential dread and the mind-bending concepts of Phillip K. Dick's Sci-fi novels. I'd recommend this book to anyone who thinks they'd like a dark, moody mystery with a thought-provoking twist to it.

A rambunctious comic adventure tale that brims with life as it tells of two longtime buddies in a world gone mad. Inventive, clever, funny and exciting. . ., imagine Mad Max as envisioned by John Irving, or a British Hunter S. Thompson doing a post-apocalyptic romp!

A cracking good old-timey thriller! This Victorian comedy/fantasy/murder-mystery is like Arthur Conan-Doyle collaborating with Michael Chabon on the script for a Tim Burton movie. Dark and quirky!

This innovative, visually dazzling book is a true graphic novel. It presents a dense, fantastical world of the future where weird science and the perils of youth collide in a stunning satire of love, sex, freedom and control. Fearless, funny and thought provoking.