The Best Novels You've Never Read

BookExpo America kicks off in New York City this week, and to mark the event, New York magazine has a special section on matter literary. This piece, for example, showcases the opinions of critics on the best novels they've read that haven't received their due (for Dale Peck, it's Calvin Baker's Dominion; for Sven Birkerts, it's Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai; for Benjamin Kunkel, it's Norman Rush's Mortals). There's also, inevitably, a preview of summer's debut novels (including Nikita Lalwani's Gifted) as well as a piece on a writers' support group comprising John Wray, Suketu Mehta, Akhil Sharma, Gary Shteyngart and Ray Isle. (Apropos aapro Suketu: he's just joined the faculty of New York University; here's a mini-interview.)