The Catalog of Crooked Thoughts, by Robert McKean

For a novel that deals with the aftermath of a sudden death, The Catalog of Crooked Thoughts is wonderfully full of life. Robert McKean writes with such fierce intelligence, such lyrical wit and psychological acuity, that I found myself thinking that Franz and Ellen Stahrenberger were living just down the road–that I might meet Franz in the halls of the local college, or Ellen taking down a For Sale sign. I was ready to follow these characters , and their author, anywhere. -Margot Livesey