Read an excerpt from Captives and learn more about the book at the publisher's website. Visit Todd Hasak-Lowy's faculty webpage.Captives, by Todd Hasak-Lowy. Spiegel & Grau, $24.95.
No novel we read this year quite caught the zeitgeist of liberal thinking in the mid-2000s like Hasak-Lowy’s debut. And few made us laugh as hard.
All About Lulu, by Jonathan Evison. Soft Skull, $14.95.
A strange and beautiful coming-of-age novel, with a pitch-perfect ear for the comic mundanity of everyday speech, All About Lulu earned its moments of painful, pure tenderness. And, it earned its way onto our list.
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The Page 69 Test: Captives.
Read an excerpt from All About Lulu, and learn more about the book and author at Jonathan Evison's website.
The Page 99 Test: All About Lulu.
Read about another book on Time Out Chicago's top ten books of 2008 list.
--Marshal Zeringue