It's been almost ten years since Australian author, Julia Leigh, made a big splash with her first novel, The Hunter, a literary adventure featuring a deadly search for the legendary Tasmanian tiger. Disquiet, her most recent work, is a much, well, quieter release. Debuting in November to no fanfare at all, I would have missed it entirely had I not been drawn to its exquisite cover: a simple gothic image in midnight blue, a format the size of my hand. In this strange, beautiful novella, Leigh demonstrates the same powerful control of language and dark sensibility, but where The Hunter was big on plot, Disquiet is an echo of events that have happened off the page entirely.

The story begins with a woman and her two children arriving unannounced at her mother's chateau in France after a decade long absence in Australia that is never explained. It turns out that the woman's brother is also due to arrive that day, with his wife and their new born baby. The woman is on the run. The children seem to know things that young children should not know. And the baby is stillborn, but the parents bring her home anyway. These are the unsettling facts of a narrative that disquietly follows the characters movements in the house for the few days following everyone's arrival. Leigh's writing style is reminiscent of Ian McEwan's work, but her story is a haunting one, all her own.

Recommended by Allison

It's 2004. George W. Bush is about to be elected to a second term as president. The country is at war in Iraq, and the Casper family of Chicago, Illinois is falling apart. Jonathan Casper is obsessed with finding a living specimen of a prehistoric squid that may hold the key to proving the theory of evolution. Madeleine Casper wants to know why her pigeons keep murdering one another, and whether she should still be married to her husband. Amelia, the oldest Casper daughter, wants everyone to wake up and realize that capitalism is evil and that blow jobs, rather than sex, are the way for a young feminist to go. Thisbe, the younger Casper girl, is trying to sort out her complicated feelings about God and the new girl in the school chorus. And the family patriarch, Henry, is trying his hardest to disappear, one word at a time.

The Great Perhaps is a family drama unlike any you've read before. Each chapter focuses on one character's story and uses a different narrative technique in each. For instance, each of Madeleine's chapters takes the form of scientific field notes, as she's conducting an experiment observing the social tendencies of pigeons.

Meno is obsessed with control, or our lack thereof, and each of the characters struggles with a world they feel is out of control. I found the plight of the children to be particularly moving, as they're not only facing their own challenges as high school kids in 21st Century America, but also dealing with their parents' issues, to boot. This is a big novel (a portion of it takes place in a German/Japanese American internment camp during World War II) that feels intimate, a serious book that's also fun to read. It's inventive without being alienating or too clever (it's just the right amount of clever). The result is a daring new novel, bubbling with originality, tenderness and charm.

Recommended by Patrick

Let me be perfectly clear about something up front: I read lots of fiction, and I like taking chances. I'll try new things (just ask my local gelato shop). So it means something when I say Emily St. John Mandel's Last Night in Montreal is the most ambitious and beguiling debut novel of the year. With an intricate structure that jumps forward and backward in time and place with ease, the book follows four people as they search for their place in the world, both literally and figuratively.

Lilia has been traveling her whole life. Abducted by her father at the age of four, she grew up in a series of anonymous roadside motels, changing her hair color and her name with each new town. As an adult, she simply can't stop traveling. She's left everyone who's ever cared about her, packing up and taking off with little or no notice, onto the next life, the next person. That next person is Eli, a floundering grad student studying dying languages and untranslatable phrases.

For a time, it seems that Lilia may settle down with Eli in Brooklyn, translating books from French and Russian and living a domestic life. But then one morning she leaves to get the paper and some coffee, and never returns. When a mysterious letter arrives hinting that Lilia is in Montreal, Eli decides to go after her.

Last Night in Montreal is a rare book – a book with a secret at its heart, the dark center around which the whole story revolves – and the pleasure is unraveling that center, watching as the story spins toward the end. Mandel has a talent for conjuring robust, complex characters, bringing to life a wounded private investigator and his tightrope-walking, go-go dancing daughter, among others. Rendered in Mandel's confident, spare prose the bleak Quebec winter is almost a villain itself. Last Night in Montreal will stay with you long after the final page is turned.

Recommended by Patrick 

When Miss Alice Green from Georgetown marries the dashing Angel de Iturbide and moves with him back to his family's home in Mexico City, she is hardly prepared for the events that unfold. Alicia (as she now calls herself), learns the culture and language of her adopted home, and the couple is blessed with a child, little Augustin.

Despite the unstable circumstances in Mexico and the United States at the time, Louis Napoleon invaded Mexico in 1862 and installed a French monarchy; he put Archduke of Austria, Maximilian von Hapsburg, in charge as Emperor. Maximilian and his wife, Carlotta were unable to have children of their own, and in an odd exchange of titles and money, adopted the two year-old son of Alicia and Angel, Augustin de Iturbide y Green. The Iturbides were then expelled from Mexico, eventually settling in France, and thus begin their efforts to regain custody of their son.

The desire of the entire Iturbide family to reclaim their status as Mexican royalty, and Maximilian's lack of leadership and control of Mexico lead both parties to make disastrous decisions regarding family and country. History has told us what the outcome of the Hapsburg's rule over Mexico results in, but the story of the Iturbide's involvement with them is seldom recounted, making The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire a fascinating read.

The cast of historical characters ranging from royalty to household servants is extensive, giving the reader a complete sense of understanding the time and circumstances of the actual participants of this intriguing real life drama. This short but tumultuous period of Mexico's history is fantastically told by first-time novelist, C.M. Mayo; fans of Mexican history will devour it.

Recommended by Sherri