June’s Best Reviewed Fiction

Maggie O’Farrell’s Land, Ann Patchett’s Whistler, and Andrew Sean Greer’s Villa Coco all feature among the best reviewed fiction titles of the month.

Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s home for book reviews.

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1. Land by Maggie O’Farrell
(Knopf)

14 Rave • 1 Positive • 3 Mixed • 1 Pan

“A soaring, visionary narrative that connects the known world to the misty realms of Celtic legend … As the struggling men and women in Land endure defeat and distrust victory, it is their frailty as much as their strength that wins our sympathy and holds our attention … Her lyrical descriptions bring fresh poignancy to well-worn scenes of exile.”

–Anna Mundow (The Wall Street Journal)

2. Whistler by Ann Patchett
(Harper)

11 Rave • 5 Positive • 2 Pan
Read an excerpt from Whistler here

“Is there a place in serious literature for kind, happy characters and kind, happy stories? This intimate and entertaining novel makes the strong case that there is; as demonstrated across her work, such sturdiness of spirit is part of Patchett’s generous worldview.”

–Helen Schulman (The New York Times Book Review)

3. My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein: A Fiction by Deborah Levy
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

7 Rave • 5 Positive

“A lighthearted, free-associative novel about female friendship and literary inspiration … If the combination of Levy’s light tone and the bookish details on Stein doesn’t always come together, all the parts of this novel are delightful in themselves: funny, wide-ranging, and worthy of their comma-challenged muse.”

–Julie Phillips (4Columns)

4. Drayton and Mackenzie by Alexander Starritt
(Atlantic Monthly Press)

9 Rave • 2 Mixed
Read an essay by Alexander Starritt here

“It’s a mark of Starritt’s confidence that the quest to harness tidal power—the book’s main business—gets going only 200 pages in. We feel in safe hands from the start, reassured that he knows the story’s every last turn … With a joyful knack for pithy analogy, the writing holds our attention as much as the events … while there’s no shortage of chat about electrolysers and optimal blade rotation, Starritt keeps his focus on the human story of invention: dangling quietly over the action is the fact that James, lauded as a visionary, relies mostly for his ideas on other people. In the end, though, critique of disruptor-era genius is less important here than feeling and friendship.”

–Anthony Cummins (The Guardian)

5. Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer
(Doubleday)

6 Rave • 5 Positive • 1 Mixed • 2 Pan
Read an excerpt from Villa Coco here

“If you’re looking for a work of fiction that’s charming from start to finish, Villa Coco is the book for you. It’s seductively entertaining from the get-go … Greer’s novel is a Tuscan romp that overflows with sunshine and surprises while providing a deep meditation on growing up, growing old and navigating the many crossroads in between.”

–Alice Cary (BookPage)