After reading the first several pages of this novel, I couldn't put it down.  Elsa is seven-years-old and her best, and only friend, is her perky 77-year-old grandmother.  Granny fires paintball guns from her balcony at men who talk Jesus-crazy, and throws dog turds at policemen, but Elsa loves to spend evenings with Granny listening to the magical tales Granny's imagination conjures up that takes them into the Land-of-Almost-Awake where everybody is different and no one needs to be normal.  For Elsa, this makes Granny a bit of a dysfunctional superhero.  But when Granny dies leaving behind letters of apology to everybody she has wronged, Elsa's adventures begin.  If you enjoy characters with spunk, Elsa finds them and they will work themselves into your heart in this tender tale of the relationship between a granddaughter and her grandmother that will comfort and heal.  This is a story about life and death that will have you believing in the right to be different.  Granny used to say, "Only different people change the world".  I also recommend Backman's debut novel The Man Called Ove, now in paperback, and of course another of my favorites that left me with many laughable reading moments, The 100-Year-Old Man by Jonas Jonnason. 

(Atria Books, $25.00).  Reviewed by Carol.  Coming June 16 

     The author describes this novel's setting as "the narrow neck of the world" in his second book in the Lewis Trilogy which takes place on the Outer Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland.  May proves himself to be a master storyteller as the plot moves between past and present, passions and jealousies, suspicions and regrets, holding the emotional secrets of a black island that is buried even deeper than its peat bogs.  Fin Macleod, an Edinburgh detective first introduced in The Blackhouse, returns intent on mending past relationships and restoring his parents' derelict small farmhouse on Lewis Island.  But Fin again finds himself chasing the past when a corpse is discovered and there is a familial match to a childhood sweetheart.  Looking for a new suspense author?  Introduce yourself to Peter May.  His novels are gripping, full of twists and turns, and his depiction of the island and its history is as impressive as the suspense action he weaves into his plot.  (Quercus, $14.99).  Reviewed by Carol  

I found this author's debut novel to be a compelling page-turner; it's haunting, and full of magic and surprises.  The city glitters with wealth, but oppresses religion when 18-year-old Nella Oorton arrives in Amsterdam in 1686 as the wife of 39-year-old Johannes Brandt, a rich merchant trader with the West India Company.  She finds a beautiful new home, but a distant husband committed to his work who leaves her alone with his sharp-tongued sister in a house holding dark secrets.  But when Johannes gives Nella a "shrunken image" -- a perfect replica of their home -- as a wedding present, Nella's world changes when she employs a miniaturist to furnish the cabinet-sized piece whose creations bring about eerie and unexpected events.  An enchanting tale, both beautiful and suspenseful in which Burton's fictional creation is based on the real life of Petronella (Nella) Oortman and her husband Johannes Brandt amid the surroundings of Amsterdam during the late 17th century.  (Ecco Press, $16.99).  Reviewed by Carol.

     A romantic tale of World War II mystery in three linked novellas:  The Sea Garden, The Lavender Field and A Shadow Life.  The Sea Garden is set on a Mediterranean island off the coast of the French Riviera.  Ellie Brooke is a British garden designer hired to restore a war memorial landscape.  Upon her arrival to start her commission she is drawn into unexpected circumstances:  a family struggling with the power of the past.  The second novella, The Lavender Field, turns back the pages of time to 1944 near the end of the war.  Marthe Lincel is a blind young woman working in a perfume factory during the Nazi occupation in France.  The wife of the distillery owner becomes Marthe's protector; but the blind girl senses changes occurring as the occupation comes closer to the farmhouse and the quiet lavender fields surrounding the small family-owned factory.  Marthe's curiosity draws her into an active but dangerous role with a Resistance cell, but her "rebirth" comes at the hands of her loyalty.  The final novella, A Shadow Life, brings full circle the three narratives that weave into a tale of war, love, and mystery.  Iris, a young British intelligence officer in London during the war, falls in love with a French agent who vanishes during covert activities.  Was he the man Iris believed him to be?  Lawrenson's novel is a chronicle of love and loss in the darkness of war.  This and the author's debut novel, The Lantern, are both highly recommended by me.  (Harper, $15.99),  Reviewed by Carol.  Coming June 16