Martha Woodroof

Sarah Waters' novel is told from 1947 backward, and it has much of what we expect of war-time Londoners: bravery, fear and sometimes heroism. But there's more: many of the characters are lesbians.

Novelist Louise Erdrich returns to the Ojibwe world in her latest work, but The Painted Drum also explores human relationships. The central character steals the title object in order to give it back to its rightful owners.

Daniel Alarcon was born in Peru and raised in Alabama. His fiction reflects the cross pollination of those two cultures which he says is just a small part of a larger global trend of mobility and intermixing. His first book of stories in called War by Candlelight. Martha Woodroof of NPR station WMRA reports.

The Da Vinci Code has been out for more that two years, and it still remains on bestseller lists. The popularity of Dan Brown's novel that combines science, religion, history and suspense has publishers jumping at the opportunity to spot the next literary sensation.