Sunday Books: coverage for June 5, 2011

The writer targets liberalism but misfires.

In this meticulously constructed second novel, the author of ‘Goodnight, Nebraska’ looks at a midlife that took a wrong turn 27 years earlier.

In her new novel, Ann Patchett’s gives readers almost a feminized version of ‘Heart of Darkness,’ but without the savagery.

‘The Man’s’ statistics while a St. Louis Cardinal overshadow a rather tame off-the-field life.

The life of a daughter of an A-list celebrity is turned upside down by the arrival of her half sister.

George Smiley gives a master class on gentle spycraft in a reissue of ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.’

Also Robert Gottlieb’s ‘Lives and Letters’ and Banana Yoshimoto’s ‘The Lake.’