Tanner's Virgin

As an example of its type, this Lawrence Block spy adventure featuring the recurring character Evan Tanner is good enough. It delivers a page-flipping plot and exotic locales.

Extinction

Thomas Bernhard's Extinction is, like his other novels, a cry of denunciation and renunciation. The plot can be summarized as follows: An Austrian living in Rome receives news of the death of his parents and brother in an automobile accident and returns for the funeral. Within that bare frame, Bernhard paints a dark and complex portrait of a family, stopping along the way to assess German literature, the destructive influence of photography, and other subjects. The ending stuns, but such is Bernhard's skill that on a moment's reflection it is revealed to be perfect.

The Storyteller

This novel by Mario Vargas Llosa is an exploration of the myths and legends man creates to make sense of the world and his place in it. The chapters alternate between ones narrated by a Peruvian in Florence who spots a friend from years before in a photograph of Machiguenga tribespeople, and accounts of the tribe's mythic tales. As he has done effectively in many of his novels, Vargas Llosa eventually brings the two strands together. Here, however, the mythic chapters never really ignite the reader's imagination.