By Aravind Adiga

Free Press, 276 pp., $24

Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger is one of the most powerful books I've read in decades. No hyperbole. This debut novel from an Indian journalist living in Mumbai hit me like a kick to the head — the same effect Richard Wright's Native Son and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man had. But Tiger isn't about race or caste in India. It's about the vast economic inequality between the poor and the wealthy elite. The narrator is an Indian entrepreneur detailing his rise to power. His India is a merciless, corrupt Darwinian jungle where only the ruthless survive. Think young Vito Corleone in The Godfather refusing to be a puppet but subtract the sentimentality. This is an amazing and angry novel about injustice and power.

— Deirdre Donahue

The Story of Forgetting

By Stefan Merrill Block

Random House, 313 pp., $25

Magical and scientific, Stefan Block's surprisingly compelling novel explores the mysteries of Alzheimer's disease. Yet it is not depressing. It is woven around three narratives whose connections aren't readily apparent. An elderly man is haunted by memories of his youthful love and lust for his brother's wife. A nerdy teenager researches his mother's Alzheimer's. In doing so, he recalls and retells a fairy tale: His mom's stories of a land where no one remembers anything. She used to say, "Alongside this world there's another. There are places where you can cross." Which is what good novels let us do. Block, 25, is a talent to celebrate and remember.

— Bob Minzesheimer

Girls in Trucks

By Katie Crouch

Little, Brown, 241 pp., $21.99

You can take the debutante out of Charleston, but you can't take Southern sensibilities out of the debutante in this charming debut novel by cotillion-trained Katie Crouch. The childhood dramas of cautious Sarah Waters and her brilliant older sister might lead one to believe this novel is classic chick lit. But just wait until the girls, especially Sarah, graduate and head for life in the land of the Yankees. Crouch, with exuberant style and in-depth character development, hones in on the disastrous turns a woman's life can take when she's addicted to men, alcohol and illegal substances. She's created a fresh, effervescent story that takes run-of-the-mill despair and instability and churns them into a memorable tale of good girls and bad choices.

— Carol Memmott

Submarine

By Joe Dunthorne

Random House, 309 pp., $22

First-time novelist Joe Dunthorne, 25, and his 15-year-old protagonist, Oliver Tate, seem to have a lot in common. They're both from Swansea, South Wales, preternaturally wise, slightly devious and highly entertaining. Dunthorne is an extraordinary talent who imbues his young Oliver, who is twisted in the throes of his parents' marital woes, his emerging sexuality and penchant for social science, with enviable depth perception. Swirling in a world of cognitive dissonance, Oliver concludes, for instance: "Victims lack creativity" and "Depression comes in bouts. Like boxing. Dad is in the blue corner." While this adolescent journey hardly breaks new ground, it does offer a glimpse of greater things to come.

— James Endrst

Enlarge Aravind Adiga tackles class in India in The White Tiger.

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