Sherwood Anderson, Kim Townsend (Houghton Mifflin). Sherwood...

Sherwood Anderson, Kim Townsend (Houghton Mifflin). Sherwood Anderson, “now best known as the author of ‘Winesburg, Ohio,’ was brave as a writer and he did show America to itself . . . . His many insights still flash today” (Richard Reeves).

The Child in Time, Ian McEwan (Houghton Mifflin). From a single, horrible event--the theft of the main character’s child--the author creates a brilliant commentary on marriage, government, society, international relations, parents and children (Roberta Smoodin).

Imagining Argentina, Lawrence Thornton (Doubleday). The author “has imagined Argentina truly; his inspired fable troubles and feeds our own imagining (and) . . . confronts the (nation’s) Disappearers with a Finder” (Richard Eder).

Let the Band Play Dixie, Lawrence Wells (Doubleday). Lawrence Wells has become a master of the ‘What If?’ novel; what’s more, he tells a tale that’s funny, touching, pertinent and relentlessly rich with wacko, wild, weird and fundamentally decent characters” (Winston Groom).