There is September 11 and then there are the days after, and finally the years. Falling Man is a magnificent, essential novel about the event that defines turn-of-the-century America. It begins in the smoke and ash of the burning towers and tracks the aftermath of this global tremor in the intimate lives of a few people. First, there is Keith, walking out of the rubble into a life that he'd always imagined belonged to everyone but him. Then Lianne,...

"The Lake Shore Limited" is the story of how Wilhelmina "Billy" Gertz has come to create the title's play out of emotions surrounding an imagined terrorist bombing of a Chicago train, how the play is then created anew on the stage, and how the play's performance touches and changes the lives that intersect and interweave with Billy's.

For generations, the Fabers have lived near Eden Mine. Jo and her brother, Samuel, will be the last. Their property has been seized by eminent domain -- something Samuel deems a government theft. As Jo packs, she hears news of a bombing. Samuel went off to find work in Wyoming that morning, but soon enough, it's clear that he's not gone but missing, last seen by a security camera near the crime scene. Can the person Jo loves and trusts most have done...