At BEA, publishers will, as usual, push literary fiction in a big way. But when PW reviewed the offerings with chain and independent booksellers, there was little consensus on what 2006's great novel might be—or even how well the fiction market will perform, given that many of last year's big novels by writers like E.L. Doctorow and Rick Moody didn't really catch fire. This year, there's a mix of small books by big names, and big books by less-known authors—so it may be anyone's guess which will come out on top.

Edward P. Jones's All Aunt Hagar's Children (Sept.), set in contemporary Washington, D.C., could be one of the fall's choicest picks. That's unusual for a story collection, but while on tour for The Known World, his 2003 Pulitzer-winning novel about an African-American slave owner, the modest and sincere author successfully ignited sales of his previous D.C.—set story collection, Lost in the City. Look for ARCs in the Harper/Amistad booth (2538, 2539).

Julia Glass returns with The Whole World Over (Pantheon, June), featuring New York City bookstore owner Fenno McLeod, one of the central characters in her 2004 NBA-winner and runaway paperback bestseller, Three Junes. PW gave her second novel a starred review for its "assured narrative drive and engaging prose," though it was "less emotionally gripping" than her debut. Glass will sign at the Random House booth (1824) on Friday, May 19, 3-4 p.m.

Booksellers were rooting for Lee Smith years before The Last Girls, her 2002 tale of reunited college friends, became a Good Morning America book club pick and a New York Times bestseller. Now, they're clamoring for her latest novel, On Agate Hill (Oct.), which has a less sentimental premise: it's a Reconstruction-era epic that follows a woman's life from orphanhood to widowhood. Smith will sign at the Algonquin booth (1639) on Friday, May 19, 10-11 a.m.

Turning from fiction to memoir, Jonathan Franzen recounts his growth from "a small and fundamentally ridiculous person" into an adult with surprising, sometimes embarrassing passions in The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History (FSG, Oct., booth 2204, 2205). "From what I understand, [his last novel] The Corrections was largely nonfiction, so you could say this is a return to what he knows best," says Barnes & Noble fiction buyer Sessalee Hensley.

Under National Geographic's direction, adventurer and master stylist David Quammen set out with an African explorer and conservationist to document the impact of humans on the continent. The result, The Long Follow: J. Michael Fay's Epic Trek Across the Last Great Forests of Central Africa (National Geographic, Nov., booth 1950, 1951), captures sprawling AIDs cemeteries and scant remains of wild Africa. "It's a great subject, and adventure is a really active category," says Nancy Olsen, owner of Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Debuts to Watch

Washington Post Book Worldeditor Marie Arana proved a memorable storyteller with American Chica, her memoir of growing up in the U.S. and Peru. Now, she turns to fiction with Cellophane (Dial, June), the story of a Peruvian inventor afflicted by "a hilarious plague of truth." She'll sign books at the Random House booth (1824) on Saturday, May 20, 3—4 p.m., in addition to a formal signing TBA.

Refashioning the archetypical tale of two opposed brothers worked for Khaled Hosseini in The Kite Runner. Maybe it will work for Da Chen—author of the popular memoir Colors of the Mountain and the YA kung fu novel Wandering Warrior—whose first adult novel, Brothers (Crown/Shaye Areheart, Sept., booth 1824), follows two sons of a powerful general at the height of the Cultural Revolution. Chen will be in the autographing area on Friday, May 19.

Preempted for a reported $800,000 by Holt's John Sterling, and backed by an ambitious 10,000-copy pre-pub ARC campaign, The Interpretation of Murder (Sept., booth 2230, 2231) by Yale Law professor Jed Rubenfeld reimagines Sigmund Freud as a literary crime-solver in New York City, while on his 1909 visit to America with protégé and rival Carl Jung.

When it comes to thrillers, Da Vinci Codeknockoffs have been the spring's hardcover success stories. If the trend continues, Kathleen McGowan's tale of a descendent of Mary Magdalene based on 20 years of research, The Expected One (Touchstone, Aug., booth 2838, 2839), could do well. B&N's Hensley reports that the manuscript excerpt she read was "very gripping."

Second Books Worth a Look

Named by Granta as one of the 20 best young British novelists, Monica Ali became a book club favorite with Brick Lane, her debut novel about Islamic immigrants in London. Will readers follow her to Portugal, the setting of her June story collection, Alentejo Blue (Scribner, booth 2838, 2839), which explores similar themes of cultural conflict and resolution? Ali, a BEA breakfast speaker, will also do an autographing TBA.

Doug Marlette's first novel, The Bridge, won the 2002 SEBA fiction award and found a surprisingly strong following at chains and indies. Now he's back with Magic Time (FSG, Sept., booth 2204, 2205), the tale of a New York City newspaper columnist who returns to Mississippi to face his repressed past, just as an unsolved civil rights case opens.

Nell Freudenberger, author of the 2003 Pen/Malamud—winning story collection Lucky Girls, returns with the tale of a performance artist living in Los Angeles after a stint in Beijing, The Dissident (HarperCollins/Ecco, Sept., booth 2539). "Her stories were full of promise, and this novel is a chance to see if she's someone to keep reading over the years," observes Robert Sindelar of Seattle's Third Place Books.

Two Brits on the Verge

Following his near-breakout with Any Human Heart, a literary novel about a 20th-century Zelig, William Boyd has switched genres and houses (from Knopf to Bloomsbury) with the aptly titled thriller Restless (Sept.), about a woman who finally reveals her secret life as a WWII spy to her daughter. He will sign at the Bloomsbury booth (2221) on Friday, May 19, 4—5 p.m.

Marked by dark humor and plenty of sympathy for her characters, Kate Atkinson's literary mysteries are gaining fans: after a major hardcover and paperback push by Little, Brown(booth 2812, 2813), Case Histories (2004) has more than 100,000 copies in print. That following may create a ready market for One Good Turn (Oct.), starring the same single dad detective, Jason Brodie.

Literary Favorites

1998 NBA winner Alice McDermott plumbs the divided impulses of the '60s by focusing on the four children of a middle-class couple in After This (Sept). "If I had that one right now, I'd go home at lunch to read it," says B&N's Hensley. McDermott will sign at the FSG booth (2204), Sunday, May 21, 11 a.m.— noon.

Two-time Oprah pick Jane Hamilton returns to her classic subject—a family in crisis—with When Madeline Was Young (Doubleday, Sept., booth 1824), the story of a wife who suffers brain damage in a bike accident and remains with her husband after he remarries, as though she were one of his children.

Notable Nonfiction

In Thunderstruck (Crown, Oct.), Erik Larson returns to the historical true-crime formula that made his last book, Devil in the White City, an 87-week New York Times bestseller. This time, the killer is Hawley Crippen, a doctor and unlikely murderer whose life intersects with wireless radio inventor Guglielmo Marconi, during a high-stakes criminal chase. Larson will appear at the Crown booth (1824) on Friday, May 19, 9—10 a.m.

The innocence of the bumbling potheads in Cheech and Chong's 1979 cannabis comedy Up in Smoke seems almost quaint now. So perhaps the time is ripe for Tommy Chong to make a comeback with The I Chong: Meditations from the Joint (Simon Spotlight Entertainment, Aug., booth 2838, 2839), a diary that shows how his ability to laugh helped him survive a stint in prison. Autographing on Saturday, May 20, TBA.