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Based on The Count of Monte Cristo, Alfred Bester's saga The Stars My Destination will transport you off the couch and into a roiling world of futuristic teleportation. Author John Baxter says the book injects new life and energy into a classic tale.

Ever wonder why supermarket tomatoes taste like nothing? Food writer Barry Estabrook's new book traces the troubled history of the modern commercial tomato.

Salvadoran journalist Oscar Martinez has ridden the train known as "the Beast" eight times, interviewing Central American migrants on their way to the U.S. He shares his experiences in the book The Beast. Alt.Latino asked him about the books he read that inspired him — and what he'd take to read on a desert island.

Kamila Shamsie's tale of a young Englishwoman's entanglement with the people and mountains of Peshawar is an epic tale stretching from ancient Persia to the waning days of the British Empire.

Veteran cartoonist Jules Feiffer has just written his first graphic novel, the noirish Kill My Mother. Reviewer Alan Cheuse is discovering graphic novels equally late, but still finds it a good read.

Philip Short's new biography of French president Francois Mitterrand, A Taste for Intrigue, is a compelling, polished portrait of a slippery, contradictory figure who relished reinventing himself.

Does your idea of high fashion encompass everything from taxidermy to tutus? Then you'll probably enjoy The Worn Archive, which compiles issues of the quirky Toronto-based fashion magazine Worn.

NPR commentators favor Jennifer Close's look at women facing marriage and Amanda Hodgkinson's post-World War II family drama. There are also memoirs by actor Christopher Plummer and nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei, plus Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams re-evaluate universities for the digital age.

The Swedish Academy praised the Chinese writer's work, which "merges folk tales, history and the contemporary." The award is a cause of pride for a government that disowned the only previous Chinese winner of the award, an exiled critic.

Haruki Murakami's 2008 novella about a young student trapped in an eerie library has just been translated into English. Critic Alan Cheuse calls it awfully weird and utterly down to earth.