Books

Jami Attenberg's new novel is based on a real woman, Mazie Phillips Gordon, who took tickets at a grimy New York City movie house and cared for decades' worth of the down-and-outs who came her way.

Mike's Place is a real-life beach bar in Tel Aviv that could be Israel's answer to Cheers. But it's no sitcom. A graphic novel recounts the 2003 suicide bombing that left owners and patrons in shock.

Already California's poet laureate, the prolific Chicano writer bears an enduring fascination for his native state — and a passion for teaching that's likely to shape his time in the new role.

In The Stranger, Albert Camus' antihero Meursault famously killed a nameless Arab; Algerian writer Kamel Daoud's new novel reworks Camus from the point of view of the murdered man's brother.

In the mid-1800s, Britain was a global superpower with a big weakness for tea, all of which came from China. But a botanist with a talent for espionage helped Britain swipe the secrets of tea.

Lisa Gornick's new novel-slash-story-collection turns around the long and stormy relationship between the title characters. Critic Michael Schaub says the book "may not be comforting, but it's true."