Salon asked a selection of their favorite writers to tell them about their favorite books of the year. Contributors included Booker-prize winner John Banville, best-selling New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell, "In Her Shoes" author Jennifer Weiner and feminist icon Erica Jong.
One that really stood out in terms of rave reviews, was The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo
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I reviewed a lot of books this past year and the best (by far) was Peter Orner's "The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo." The novel documents the restless daily routines of the staff at a primary school in a forgotten corner of Namibia, but it is properly understood as a series of meditations -- brief, lyric chapters that celebrate the small moments in which life resides.
It is a book unlike any I have ever read, a miraculous feat of empathy that manages to unearth -- in the unlikeliest of locales -- the infinite possibilities of the human heart. If it were up to me, Orner would have won both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award. The novel is that astonishing. At the very least, he has joined the first rank of American writers.
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