The Best Books of 2011

Don DeLillo's first collection of short stories is composed of nine stories written between 1979 and 2011. The only failing in this collection is that more wasn't included. Reading The Angel Esmeralda, more than anything, will make you want to go back and read Don DeLillo's novels in order to delve deeper in the singular way that DeLillo has of imparting his unique perception of events and the precise language in which he accomplishes this.

Chad Harbach's debut novel The Art of Fielding, while ostensibly about baseball, is all about relationships. Specifically, it's about Mike Schwartz a Westish College catcher who takes Henry Skrimshander, a shortstop, under his wing; it's about Guert Affenlight, a college president, and Owen Dunne, Henry's gay roommate and teammate; and it's about life, character, and the human condition.

Anders Nilsen (interviewed here) published the first issue of Big Questions 12 years ago as a staple-bound comic book. Now 15 issues later, Drawn and Quarterly has given us this beautiful omnibus edition in which a flock of birds, a downed airplane pilot, an old woman and her mute grandson are collected in a single bound entity that, through Nilsen's luminous graphic storytelling, philosophically grapple with, well, big questions.

The natives of the planet Ariekei - the Ariekei - are very different from humans, so much so in fact that communication with them is difficult at best, nearly impossible. But for many generations, humans have kept a small outpost on the planet, Embassytown, where now resides a girl who will become the crux point in a story of political intrigue, colonialism, and most of all, language.

In Habibi, Craig Thompson has authored nothing short of an epic. The story is set in an unspecified Middle Eastern country and tracks the progress of two slave children - Dodola and Zam - whose stories intertwine and diverge throughout the book. At the same time, Habibi is the story of man and woman in the archetypal sense, and it also incorporates stories from the Bible and the Koran. Thompson's artwork in Habibi is masterful. The book is filled with Middle Eastern ornamentation that Thompson works throughout the panels and the margins. The richness of Thompson's work in Habibi guarantee that it will be a classic.

Jeffrey Eugenides' 2011 novel revolves around three students at Brown University - Madeleine Hanna, Leonard Bankhead, and Mitchell Grammaticus - whose lives intertwine while in college and don't let go. As their stories span across years and locales, Eugenides' narrative unearths the layers hidden beneath the surface of his characters.

On Conan Doyle is two books for the price of one. In the first book, Michael Dirda introduces his readers to the Doyle nobody knows - writings beyond the Sherlock Holmes canon that include both fiction and nonfiction such as Doyle's essays, lectures, and memoirist writings. The second half of this book turns an eye towards Dirda's own fascination with Doyle and his involvement with the Baker Street Irregulars, the most famous of Conan Doyle fan societies.

Interestingly enough, Steve Jobs actually pursued Walter Isaacson (Einstein: His Life and Universe, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life) for close to a decade before Isaacson agreed to be his biographer. In return, Jobs gave Isaacson carte blanche in speaking with whomever he wished to, resulting in a biography rooted in more than 40 interviews with Jobs, his family members, friends, colleagues, and adversaries. Steve Jobs is, hands down, the best biography of the year.

Tea Obreht's debut novel takes place in a Balkan country, young Natalia remembers the fables told to her by her grandfather - the story of rogue tiger and a village woman rumored to be his wife, and a deathless man. By deconstructing these stories, Natalia attempts to unravel the mystery of her grandfather's disappearance and death.

The author of The Garden of Last Days recalls his formative years in the depressed streets of a Massachusetts mill town in the 1970s. When his father, Andre Dubus II, left the family, the younger Dubus' life became one shot through with alcohol, drugs, and - most importantly - violence. Violence, its hold on Dubus, and his struggle to break free, becomes a pervasive theme in Townie.