David Mitchell is a master and so is Rishi Reddi

"Black Swan Green" is perhaps the best novel I've read in the past year. Mitchell's promise as a writer-partially displayed in fine, yet gimmicky books like "Cloud Atlas" ("It flows backwards then forwards again! Each chapter has a different character in a different era with some connection to the previous chapter's protagonist!") or "Ghostwritten"-is met here. There are far too many novels of adolescent angst, and almost as many that resolve the same through wise yet wacky elders or exotics. But Mitchell steers through these shoals and paints a convincing and compelling potrait of a bright, perceptive teenage boy growing up in rural England during the Falklands war. And hey, you just want to see how it all ends. Buy today.
While you're there, pick up a paperback original of my friend Rishi Reddi's new collection of short stories, Karma. One of them was included in the Best American Short Stories of 2005. The four that I had the pleasure of reading belonged there as well. Reddi focuses on the Indian emigre community in the Boston area, and captures the confusion, sadness and longing of those trying to bridge two worlds masterfully.