All opinions expressed in this department,
as throughout the magazine, are those of SALON.

F I C T I O N

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The Last Girl by Penelope Evans
She's a mousy college girl; he's a retired bathhouse attendant who lives in her London apartment building. This compelling first novel is about what happens when his crush spins out of control.
Death in the Andes
by Mario Vargas Llosa
This tangled political drama by the Peruvian writer/politician tells of a corporal sent to investigate the disappearance of several villagers in the wild Peruvian highlands.
The Manikin by Joanna Scott
A cerebral and fanciful meditation on love, death and taxidermy, from a writer who received a MacArthur "genius" grant at age 31.
Naming the Jungle by Antoine Volodine
In a fictional Latin American city set deep in the rainforest, a rebel feigns madness in order to avoid being tortured.
Dancing After Hours by Andre Dubus
One of America's most esteemed short story writers delivers a new collection that reveals the human soul with marvelous tact and delicacy.

N O N F I C T I O N

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Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes by John Pierson
The exhilarating and crushing reminiscences of independent cinema's most successsful "bag man."
Who Owns the West? by William Kittredge
From the author of the acclaimed memoir "A Hole in the Sky," a series of meditations on the taming -- and the trashing -- of the American West.
Journey to the Land of the Flies and Other Travels
by Aldo Buzzi
Not your typical travel essays, these dispatches -- from Jakarta, Moscow and other far-flung locations -- are marked by Buzzi's unexpected intellectual detours.
Moscow Days by Gallina Dutkina
Dutkina, a well-known Russian journalist, explores the economic and political realities -- including women's issues, class divisions, and crime -- of everyday life in the post-Soviet era.
Art Objects: Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery
by Jeanette Winterson
This collection of nonfiction from one of the U.K.'s most talented -- and notorious -- novelists covers such topics as Virginia Woolf, book collecting and the trouble with contemporary gay literature.