Heavy Hitters

New novels from some fiction greats.

- MARLEY MARIUS

Asecessionist page-turner? Peter Heller's riveting and closely observed new novel, Burn (Knopf), tells the story of two old friends on a hunting trip who hike out of the woods of northern Maine and into a drastically altered America. A small town is burned to the ground. A nearby bridge has been blown up. And is that artillery fire in the distance? With no cell reception, Jess and Storey must piece together the disquieting truth: Bold talk among local militias has exploded into something far more dangerous, and they are in the middle of it. Heller, as he's shown in previous, celebrated novels like The Last Ranger and The River, is a literary novelist with a talent for suspense who writes about the natural world as well as anyone. In Burn a pot of campfire coffee is as vividly described as a surprise helicopter attack, and Jess and Storey's fight for survival exposes their all too human frailties and the hidden truths that define their friendship.

―TAYLOR ANTRIM