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In the pages of Marisha Pessl's Night Film, you'll uncover the death of a beautiful woman; her terrifying, filmmaker-father; even a seemingly haunted mansion. But reviewer Meg Wolitzer says that while the book dips into the unsavory and the scary, it stays surprisingly PG.

Spanish novelist Javier Marías is well-known in Europe, but not as popular in the United States. Critic John Powers says Marías' latest work — an unsettling, slightly sinister twist on the mystery novel — ought to raise the author's profile here in America.

A dead body and a hotel bombing trigger the plot of Black Star Nairobi, the latest crime novel from Kenyan-American author Mukoma Wa Ngugi. Detectives Ishmael Fofona and David Odhiambo search for the perps during the upheaval around the Kenyan elections in December 2007.

Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai is known for his dense, challenging fiction. But reviewer Jason Farago says Krasznahorkai's latest book to appear in English, Seiobo There Below, is a "brighter and more open" work, involving a goddess's search for perfection, and the glorious and overwhelming effect art can have on us.

The supercheap and palatable noodles help low-wage workers around the world get by, anthropologists argue in a new book. And rather than lament the ascendance of this highly processed food, they argue we should try to make it more nutritious.

Stephane Michaka's novel Scissors fictionalizes the last 10 years in the life of short story master Raymond Carver and Carver's difficult relationship with his legendary editor Gordon Lish. Reviewer Jane Ciabattari says Scissors is an "empathetic exploration of an author's soul."

Hugh Howey is the author of the dystopian WOOL series, about a future in which the remains of humanity are living underground in giant self-sustaining silos. The first volume of WOOL was a self-publishing sensation; the latest volume, Dust, has just been released.

Bohumil Hrabal's novel, I Served The King Of England, about a Czech waiter who barely survives World War II, may sound dire but author Anthony Marra says that if you allow yourself to be sucked in, you'll enter a story so ethereal you'll practically float.

Author David Ewalt loved roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons as a kid. In his new book, Of Dice and Men, Ewalt returns to his childhood pastime — once the province of nerds in the basement, it's now become an enormously influential worldwide phenomenon.

Susan Choi's new novel, My Education, is a study of relationships and how they end. Reviewer Meg Wolitzer says the book is a triumph for academic novels, portraying youth, love and naivete with exceptional style.