The Top 20 books of 2008 as rated by BookBrowse subscribers

Savvy

by Ingrid Law

Hardcover: May 2008 | Paperback: Mar 2010

For generations, the Beaumont family has harbored a magical secret. They each possess a “savvy” – a special supernatural power that strikes when they turn thirteen. Grandpa Bomba moves mountains, her older brothers create hurricanes ...

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

A Novel

by David Wroblewski

Hardcover: Jun 2008 | Paperback: Oct 2009

Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. But his life is plunged into chaos as his uncle returns, his father suddenly dies, and he is forced to flee into the ...

The Black Tower

by Louis Bayard

Hardcover: Sep 2008 | Paperback: Oct 2009

Vidocq. The name strikes terror in the Parisian underworld of 1818. As founder and chief of a newly created plainclothes police force, Vidocq has used his mastery of disguise and surveillance to capture some of France’s most notorious and ...

The Irregulars

Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington

by Jennet Conant

Hardcover: Sep 2008 | Paperback: Sep 2009

An extraordinary tale of deceit, double-dealing, and moral ambiguity - an insider's view of the counterintelligence game played by the British in Washington during the early days of World War II.

The Given Day

A Novel

by Dennis Lehane

Hardcover: Sep 2008 | Paperback: Sep 2009

Set in Boston at the end of the First World War, New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane's long-awaited eighth novel unflinchingly captures the political and social unrest of a nation caught at the crossroads between past and future.

Home

A Novel

by Marilynne Robinson

Hardcover: Sep 2008 | Paperback: Sep 2009

Home parallels the story told in Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead. It is a moving and healing book about families, family secrets, and the passing of the generations, about love and death and faith.

Tethered

A Novel

by Amy Mackinnon

Hardcover: Aug 2008 | Paperback: Aug 2009

Clara Marsh is an undertaker who doesn’t believe in God. Suddenly, her carefully structured life shifts when she discovers a neglected girl desperate for a friend. And when Detective Sullivan starts questioning her again about a body she ...

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

by Stieg Larsson

Hardcover: Sep 2008 | Paperback: Jun 2009

A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story and financial intrigue.

Beijing Coma

A Novel

by Ma Jian

Hardcover: May 2008 | Paperback: Jun 2009

At once a powerful allegory of a rising China, racked by contradictions, and a seminal examination of the Tiananmen Square protests, Beijing Coma is Ma Jian’s masterpiece. Spiked with dark wit, poetic beauty, and deep rage, this extraordinary ...

The Lazarus Project

by Aleksandar Hemon

Hardcover: May 2008 | Paperback: May 2009

In 1908, 19-year-old Lazarus went to the home of George Shippy, the Chicago chief of police to deliver a letter - but Shippy shot Lazarus twice, killing him. Now, in the 21st century, a young writer, Brik, becomes obsessed with Lazarus' story - what ...

Atmospheric Disturbances

A Novel

by Rivka Galchen

Hardcover: May 2008 | Paperback: Apr 2009

Atmospheric Disturbances is at once a moving love story, a dark comedy, a psychological thriller, and a deeply disturbing portrait of a fracturing mind.

The Cellist of Sarajevo

by Steven Galloway

Hardcover: May 2008 | Paperback: Apr 2009

This brilliant novel with universal resonance, set during the 1990s Siege of Sarajevo, tells the story of three people trying to survive in a city rife with the extreme fear of desperate times, and of the sorrowing cellist who plays undaunted in ...