Kristina DiMatteo and Rex Bonomelli This week in The New York Times Book Review, the editors select the 10 Best Books of 2012. The five works of fiction include Zadie Smith's “NW,†about which the editors write:
Smith's piercing new novel, her first in seven years, traces the friendship of two women who grew up in a housing project in northwest London, their lives disrupted by fa teful choices and the brutal efficiency of chance. The narrative edges forward in fragments, uncovering truths about identity and money and sex with incandescent language that, for all of its formal experimentation, is intimate and searingly direct.
The five nonfiction choices include Katherine Boo's “Behind the Beautiful Forevers.†The editors write:
This National Book Award-winning study of life in Annawadi, a Mumbai slum, is marked by reporting so rigorous it recalls the muckrakers, and characters so rich they evoke Dickens. The slum dwellers have a skillful and empathetic chronicler in Boo, who depicts them in all their humanity and ruthless, resourceful glory.
This week, a discussion of the year's best books with two editors at the Book Review, Parul Sehgal and Gregory Cowles; Caroline Weber talks about Duran Duran; Leslie Kaufman has notes from the field; Steven Heller on his latest Visuals column; and Mr. Cow les has best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus is the host.
