Making a “Best of” list is never an easy thing; even after all the personal deliberating, one opens themselves up to the “but what about…?” complaints of fellow book lovers and to the very real possibility of regretting one’s own choices (I once wrote that Chris Adrian’s Children’s Hospital was destined to be my favorite book of 2006, and regretted it within weeks).
However, the impulse is irresistible, if only for the conversation it promises to create. This year proved to be a great year for books, which only made the “best of” selections that much more difficult to make. In the end, my best of 2008 were as follows, in order from least to greatest (although they were all truly great):
Indignation by Philip Roth
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
America America by Ethan Canin
The Little Book by Selden Edwards
Home by Marilynne Robinson
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz
Surprised By Hope by N.T. Wright
But my absolute top spot was reserved for a book that I was sure wouldn’t make the list. Not because it’s author, Peter Matthiessen, isn’t an amazing talent, but because the book, Shadow Country, was a reworking of three separate, previously written books; Killing Mister Watson, Lost Man’s River, and Bone By Bone. Having read, and loved, Killing Mister Watson, I was skeptical as to how much better this “reworking” could be.
What I discovered was a story that felt completely new and marvelously complete. In Shadow Country, Matthiessen puts his fictional take on the historical figure of E.J. Watson. Told from a variety of angles that always seem just shy of the truth, it is a near perfect piece of post-modern fiction presented in a straightforward and engaging style. Rarely have I felt so connected to characters or so a part of a story. Matthiessen’s presentation of time and place, dialogue and dialect is flawless. Shadow Country was this year’s National Book Award Winner, and it was a prize well deserved and well earned. In Shadow Country, Matthiessen has written his best work and one of the true great American novels.
BookPeople 
Wow this book look great!